Chapter Index: Chapter 1: In the Name of the Light - 3642 words Chapter 2: The Fall - 5244 words Chapter 3: Alone in the Dark - 3671 words Chapter 4: Baby Steps - 3517 words Chapter 5: Doubts - 4758 words Chapter 6: Revelation - 6092 words Chapter 7: Resolution - 3587 words In the Name of the Light “And once more,” Vanhildr instructed and Arn nodded enthusiastically at his teacher. “By your will, holiness.” He took his stance, raising the practice blade and swung at the valkyrie. The wooden swords clacked against each other as he went through a series of well practised strokes. Vanhildr parried each of his blows with ease. She did not even need to watch his sword. Instead, she scrutinised every facet of his form to immediately rectify his flaws. He grunted as she caught the back of his knee. His leg buckled and he fell before her. “You must rectify this tendency to overextend,” she chastised him. Her tone was mild and yet he winced to himself. He hated when he did not live up to her expectations. “Yes, holiness, but…,” he caught himself before speaking out of turn. It would be impious to disagree with the holy warrior. “Speak your mind, Arn,” the valkyrie commanded and there was a hint of sternness in her voice. “I do not think that I overextended, holiness,” he said as humbly as he could manage and not daring to meet her eyes. “With your great speed and skill you could fell me no matter the position of my legs. I’m confident no human could have struck me as you did.” “Indeed, child. Most humans would not have been able to strike you as I did. But whom are you likely to meet in combat? Another human?” Arn’s face turned a light shade of red as he realised his foolishness. The monsters could not compare to the greatness of Rol’s angels, but surely they were said to surpass men in speed and strength both. “My apologies, holiness, it appears I am still lacking in more than just my martial prowess. I shall remember this lesson when my time comes to defend humanity against the vile foe.” A brief, sad sort of smile flitted across the valkyrie’s face that filled Arn’s heart with pious devotion and she graciously offered him a hand. “Do not be so eager for battle, Arn. You will be a leader of your people one day, not a fighter on the frontline.” Arn frowned. “I am not afraid to fight the enemy. Rol commands his children to fight the monsters and defend our lawful domain.” “You would lecture me on Rol’s will?” The valkyrie asked. Arn’s face turned red once more. Her voice had held no real reprimand, but it was still a major misstep on his part. He fell to his knees. “I beg your forgiveness, holiness.” “You need not beg forgiveness, you already have it,” the valkyrie assured him. She offered him her hand and helped him back to his feet once more. “And do not be so quick to grovel, it is unseemly for one who will one day lead.” “Yes, holiness, thank you.” Arn looked down to where his hand was still joined with that of the holy warrior. Was it improper that he wished to hold her hand for a bit longer? He looked up into her eyes and once more felt his heart swell with pious admiration. No human woman he’d ever seen could compare to the valkyrie. Was it perhaps true that the seraphim had crafted their forms to test the faith of men? He fortified his mind against his own heretical thoughts, lest they become lust. “Vanhildr,” came a sharp call from the roof of the monastery that enclosed the courtyard they were in. “The time for the service is almost upon us.” The valkyrie quickly released Arn’s hand. “I will join you presently, sister.” She called back in her firm, loud voice. To Arn, she added more quietly. “I will see you at the service. Until the time comes, I expect you to continue your practice.” Vanhildr turned away and Arn felt the soft plumage of her great wings brush his arm as she stepped past and took flight. The feeling was more enjoyable than the touch of the softest fabrics. Arn allowed his gaze to drift up to the angel who still stood perched atop the monastery roof. She had a repudiating look on her face and he quickly cast down his gaze. Did she sense his impious thoughts? He remained still, his eyes cast towards the ground until he heard the rustling of feathered wings that told him the angel had departed. Only then did he resume his swordwork practice. Some time later he wiped the sweat from his brow and stowed away the practice sword. He still had plenty of time to get washed up and put on more suitable attire for the service. He made his way towards his uncle’s longhouse to retrieve his good suit before heading towards the river for a quick bath. There were a few others of Skovfeld’s people who had the same thought before the service. Arn walked a bit further downriver, where the men bathed. They gave him respectful nods, as befit his position, but did not otherwise pay him much heed. Instead, they discussed the weather, their wives, their work or the coming service. Things that common, good men talked about. Arn did not linger long and by the time the horn blew to call the faithful, he already waited in front of the temple. The doors were unlocked with an audible clack. “Always the first, Arn. Your dedication pleases me as it does Rol and his seraphim,” the priest greeted him. “Thank you father, but I simply follow the teachings. I do not believe that to be worthy of particular praise,” Arn quickly deflected the priest's praise. “Modesty is a virtue, Arn, but should not be taken to the extreme. But perhaps you are here hoping to steal more glances at her holiness, Vanhildr?” “Will she take part in the service?” Arn asked hopefully, before realising his folly. “I mean that she inspires my faith, of course. That is why I wish to see her at service.” The priest chuckled lightly. “It is alright, my boy. The seraphim would not have crafted their forms to scold men for admiring them, but do be mindful you do not grow lustful, for that would be sin. Do not grow too attached either, her holiness will not stay with us forever.” He bristled at being called a boy for by rights he was a man, but swallowed his displeasure to give voice to a more important fear. “Have you heard anything?” Arn asked frightfully. “Will she depart for the battlefield once more?” “I have not heard anything, Arn. But she is a valkyrie. They were not created to sit around idly. But now head inside, I must greet the rest of the townsfolk and we must soon begin.” Arn nodded and stepped into the temple as other townsfolk began streaming into the large building behind him. He took his seat in the first row, where his family’s place was, and waited patiently. Slowly, the space became filled with the townsfolk’s bodies and murmurs. His mother and his uncle Rolf sat on the bench beside him. Finally, the priest stepped onto the raised dais and raised his arms. The congregation fell silent and kept quiet as the priest held the pose for about a minute before launching into his sermon. “[...] and it is known that the mamono is a perfidious beast. They take many forms, but can easily be recognized by the monstrousness of their nature. Unlike Rol’s civilised people, they carry paw and claw, scale and fur, horn and fang. But do not let their primitive weapons fool you. As is written in ‘The age of mythology’:“ Knowing she could not prevail against great Rol, the evil goddess created monsters to prey on his chosen and undo their great work. War was born as the savage hordes ravaged humanity. “They are primitive, but the evil goddess created them to prey on us. It is only through our faith, that we can find salvation and the strength to resist the evil tide. It was Rol’s benevolence that granted us our greatest protectors:” [i]In his benevolence, Rol poured much of his vast power to create the 13 seraphim. With purity of purpose they served his intent and maintained their vigil over humanity’s future. To better protect humanity, the seraphim created from their own essence the angels to keep a watchful eye on their flock.[i/] “We have been blessed. Not only do angels of the seraphim call the monastery their home, but a valkyrie, one of their holiest warriors, has graced us with her presence for this past year. Of course, you all know or have seen Vanhildr.” In the quiet of the priest’s pause, Arn heard a rustle of feathers behind and above him. Like the rest of the congregation, he turned and craned his neck as the valkyrie drifted down with powerful beats of her great wings from a half hidden canopy. Clad in her full battle-plate, she was truly a marvel to behold and his heart beat a rapid staccato as his breath caught in his throat. She landed with a heavy thud and took the word, her voice ringing out clearly and powerfully. “The perfidious enemy haunts us all. And though Skovfeld has long been spared the proximity of a great battle, the wares and soldiers you provide are instrumental to keeping the great realm of Ashheim secure.” A murmur rose among the congregation. Talk of soldiery and battle were rare during service. Such talk often heralded the arrival of recruiters. With a steady voice, Vanhildr broke through the murmurs and quickly the congregation fell silent once more. “For many centuries I have battled the vile foe and together with the brave human defenders, we are the bastion that maintains humanity on Arcadia. As the scripture tells:” Satisfied with the safety of their flock on the continent of Arcadia, the seraphim departed to other battlefields to combat the vile hordes where they were yet strong. Vanhildr continued her sermon. Arn could not take his eyes from her, resplendent as she was in her full battle attire, and often thought that her eyes were on him as his were on her. Her oratory skills were superb and Arn felt himself gripped alternatingly with terror at the monstrousness of their enemy, with fervour at the greatness of Rol, his seraphim and their angels, with serenity in the knowledge that humanity would ultimately claim their rightful place as the masters of this world and with pride at the stories of great triumphs. As such, he was quite saddened when the priest dismissed them. And it was because the sermon was over and not, as Arn told himself, because the valkyrie departed the temple when she finished speaking. He remained seated for a moment as the first of the townsfolk began to move out of the temple. Yet when Arn rose from his bench, his uncle grabbed his arm and bade him to stay a while longer. “I see your fervour, boy. You understand the meaning behind this sermon, don’t you?” He asked and scrutinised his face with a frown. Arn nodded but he seemed unsatisfied and added. “You know that your place is here and not out there?” “Do you really wish to have this argument here and now, Rolf?” Arn asked. “I will not have it tomorrow,” he declared resolutely. “Tomorrow?” Arn asked. “The recruiters come tomorrow?” “They are already near the city. Your name day celebration will raise spirits and the reminder of your father’s actions will grab them by the honour. We hope to avoid forceful conscription.” “By my honour, I wish I could join them,” Arn said coldly. “I know. But you are barely a man grown, boy.” “By rights, I am a man!” Arn insisted angrily. He hated it when people treated him as a child and not the man he had grown to be. “You are needed here. You’re the last of our family who can take over for me when the time has come.” Arn gnashed his jaw. His uncle was still holding on to his arm. Clearly he wanted his word before he let him go. “I understand uncle. I do not like it, I do not agree, but I understand.” “Good,” Rolf said and finally released his arm. By now, the temple was almost fully emptied. “Come now, Arn,” his mother told him. “There is much to prepare for tomorrow.” A part of him still wanted to resist, to negotiate, to disagree, perhaps even to rebel, but how could he in the presence of his mother? If anyone knew what it meant to subordinate one’s own needs to their responsibilities, it was surely her. No, instead he would do as she asked and perhaps later he would find some time to study the histories. They were so much more engrossing than the inane miserely bookkeeping that his uncle insisted he learned properly. --- Arn looked out over the assembled crowd and waited impatiently for the festivities to commence. The sooner this farce began, the sooner it would be over. Why was it that for most men their nameday was a fond occasion and for him it was this mummery? His uncle had brought out many casks of mead and of the crisp apple cider. Ostensibly a generous gesture to celebrate the eighteenth nameday of his nephew and adopted son, but in reality a blatant plot for the men of Skovfeld to strengthen their courage and sign up with the recruiters that had arrived early in the morning. Strange, how many of these people wished to stay far from the battlefield and had to be coaxed into it, while he wished nothing more, but they would not let him. “[...] and so, for this joyous occasion, break open the casks, it’s all on me,” Rolf finished his speech to raucous applause. Immediately, crowds of men and women went for the casks and tankard after tankard of booze was filled and drained. Arn himself wasn’t much for drinking, though he could surely appreciate the usefulness in a situation such as this. His uncle insisted he would eventually come to appreciate the taste, but not in a way that he should look forward to it. Many men were ruined by their fondness for the drink was the lesson he wished to impart. “Stay a while longer, boy,” Rolf called after him as he stepped to the side. “It’s your big day, the people need to see you.” Arn shot him a sour look. The big man had a forced smile on his face but it didn’t fool him. It wasn’t as if his uncle had a particular dislike for him. But since his father’s death, their relationship was arduous at best. “We both know this isn’t about my name day. There was no celebration of such magnitude even for my coming of age.” “You have to take advantage of opportunity where it arises, boy,” Rolf explained. “It may not be written in the scriptures, but real life requires more flexibility than your texts can provide.” “Are you done?” He demanded dismissively. He did not feel like listening to a lecture just then. Not one of Rolf’s anyway. “No, I’m not. As you so astutely observed, your coming of age has already come and gone, yet you remain unwed. I am happy to say that I am in the process of arranging a suitable match for you.” “A match?” Arn was taken aback. “With whom?” Rolf shot him a calculating look. “The fourth daughter of…” “A fourth daughter?” Arn demanded, incensed. “I know you do not think much of me uncle, but that is too much, even for you.” Rolf shook his head. “Her father is a rich man and carries a great deal of influence in the capital. It will be an advantageous match.” “For me or for you?” Arn spat venomously. What was his uncle thinking? The man had no right to barter him off, even if he had adopted him after his father’s death. “For Skovfeld, “ Rolf hissed. “And now control yourself. It does not behoove you to make a scene.” Arn stood rigid and with his jaw clenched tight, not in the mood to partake in the feast that had been set up, ostensibly for his benefit, and only reluctantly drank from the celebratory cup that was handed to him eventually. Rolf was clearly displeased, but since Arn made no further attempt to leave, he left him in peace at least. Sometime later, with large parts of the city already in a drunken stupor, he came face to face with Vanhildr. And even the sight of the valkyrie could only partially lift his abyssal mood. Even if her grace and beauty was probably the closest thing to being able to manage it. “All day I have seen you with a look on your face most unbefitting of the occasion,” she said by way of greeting. There was a stern note in her tone. Disapproval. “Are you so displeased with the festivities?” “My apologies, holiness. It is not the festivities. Merely the politicking of my uncle that sours my mood,” Arn endeavoured to explain his foul mood to his teacher. “Would you like to share with me what your uncle has done to so displease you?” The valkyrie asked. The sternness had left her voice and now she affected the tone of the teacher, as she did so often. “I… I’m not sure I should. Surely, your holiness has better things to do than listen to the foolish worries of someone like me.” “Am I not your mentor? Who better to listen to your worries?” He gave her an uncertain look, but then told her what irked him about the day’s events. When he got to the part where Rolf had announced the match, she narrowed her eyes. “And whom is it that you are to be promised to?” Arn shook his head. “I was incensed and interrupted his explanation. It’s the fourth daughter of some rich man from the capital.” “I see,” the valkyrie replied simply as she straightened her posture. Something changed about the look in her eyes as she continued. It seemed to become at the same time more distant and resolute, more like back when she had first arrived in Skovfeld. “Such arrangements are an unfortunate necessity, I fear. It pains me then to have to bring you more ill news. My sisters have called on me to return to action and so my peaceful respite here must come to an end.” Arn felt his jaw open and quickly pulled in shut once more, yet he struggled to produce the right sounds. How many pieces of bad news could a man endure in a day? Seeing that he struggled to mount a proper response, she continued. “I came here to repay a debt to your father. An oath sworn in the heat of the moment. There are more than a few among my sisters who believed it unnecessary. And yet I have found my time here rewarding and for that I wish to express my gratitude.” Arn was caught off guard. “I… no… holiness… I mean… It’s not my place to…” he tried to fall to his knees before her, but she gripped his shoulders and kept him upright. “I had hoped to continue your training for some more time before I gave you this.” She ungirded the longsword from her baldric and held it out to him. He received it with clammy hands, looking to her for final confirmation before wrapping his fingers around the artfully crafted sheath. “I do not know what to say. I will honour this gift, always, holiness,” he promised. “See to it that you do,” she said and turned away. “Wait, holiness. Please tell me, when will you depart?” “Within the hour,” she replied curtly. “It can’t wait for tomorrow? Is it so urgent? What has happened?” He demanded. “It’s the same reason the recruiters are here and in every other town in Ashheim with an appreciable population. The foul monsters of Corpsehaven continue their aggression with ever greater momentum. Though they are still being repelled, Ashheim’s armies have suffered many losses. They must be reinforced now before the enemy can prepare their next strike.” “Corpsehaven,” he said breathlessly. “Then I must also…” “No, Arn. On this I am in agreement with your uncle, your time has not yet come. The day will come for you to fight, but it is not this day.” “But Corpsehaven, they…” “I understand your desire for vengeance, but my answer is final, Arn. I bid you farewell. Know that I shall remember the time I spent instructing you. If we should chance upon one another again, I expect to hear that you have maintained your studies and your practice.” “Of course, holiness, I would not dishonour you so.” “See to it,” Vanhildr nodded and turned. He felt the soft touch of her plumage once more as she spread her wings and shot into the air. His heart bled at the thought that this was to be the last time he felt their wondrously soft touch. He looked after her until she disappeared behind a roof and gripped the sheathed blade in his hand. There was a tightness in his chest and a feeling he could not quite place. He pulled the blade from its sheath and marvelled at the glistening steel. No man-made weapon he had seen had ever looked so brilliant. Was it really acceptable for him to carry the blade of a valkyrie? Did this perhaps mean that the seraphim had greater plans for him? Perhaps it was sensible after all to sharpen his skills further before he finally departed Skovfeld to battle the undead scourge that always threatened his homeland? |
mugen91Nov 16, 2023 3:21 AM
venomwolf said: awesome work, its certainly an interesting story, its not common we see such monestaries in the world, even more so with the village of humans taught to fear monsters- if this is written within the collective world, I suspect the village is somewhere on asgard, within one of the human only settlements deeper into the isle- and its certainly an interesting take. Yeah, it is part of the shared world, but not in the same time frame as the current stories. Since I wrote the whole background stuff about ancient history, I wanted to also write a small story in that context :) venomwolf said: I enjoy the wording of things here, its clear that tradtions and names have been thought of, as well as the greater overall idea with the valkyrie coming back due to and oath, and leaving for the same reason. im definately going to keep posted with it, thanks for writing it :> Glad you're enjoying it, will probably post them once a week or so, though this story is definitely on the shorter end. |
Maku_The_Blue said: Oooo... I saw an opportunity for a bit of sexual tension in that sparring bout, if Arn has a tendency of overextending with his stance and compromising his balance, I'd say closing in with a tackle, grapple or throw could still drive home the point Vanhildr wanted to address... while potentially leaving her laying on top of him (or pinning him down) or leave him looking up her skirt with her sword at his throat (assuming she's wearing a skirt of course.) Oh, she probably would have enjoyed that a fair bit as well. But at that point in time it was still a big no no for angels to be openly lustful, though by that point in time they certainly already were :) Maku_The_Blue said: Anyway, this was a good read. I like the fancyspeak, it suits the time you're writing for. And I appreciate the exploration of the religious beliefs and customs that used to be widespread in the setting. Thanks :) |
The Fall Arn calmly exhaled as he drew a bead, steadied himself one final time before letting fly. The arrow went wide and the deer scattered. With a curse on his lip, he pulled another arrow from his quiver and shot once more. The shot hadn’t been well aimed and strayed well from its target. He pulled another arrow, but all the deer were gone. He muttered some more silent curses. Justifying forgoing his duties and going out to hunt was a difficult feat if he did not bring back anything worthwhile. “An admirable effort,” a female voice called out from behind him. Arn spun around to see a dark haired woman with unusually pale skin behind him. “Who are you?” He demanded more forcefully than necessary in an attempt to downplay his own flustered state. “A simple traveller,” the woman said with a hint of a bow. “People call me Illindy.” She spoke in a funny accent, now that he heard her speak. “You’re not from here,” he stated as much as asked. “An astute observation,” the woman agreed. Arn waited for her to elaborate further, but nothing was forthcoming. “Where are you from then?” “Have you heard of Tarraco?” The woman asked. He scrutinised her. A very attractive face, long, dark hair, that pale skin. She wore loose fitting clothing that did not reveal much about her body, but she did carry a short, curved sword on her belt. She was a little shorter than he was. “Some great city in the southlands. You don’t look like someone from the southlands,” he stated. “Have you met many people from the southlands?” She asked in a teasing tone, but then nodded her head. “You’re right though, Arn. I came from there, but it is not my home. It is my work that brings me to these lands.” “What work? Wait, how do you know my name?” She chuckled, which he found strangely pleasant. “I suspect there are not many young men who carry the blade of a valkyrie, so you were easy enough to recognize.” His hand grasped the hilt of the blade. Did this woman want to steal this treasure from him? What fool would steal a holy weapon? Strange southlanders perhaps? “What are you doing here? And here, specifically, not just Ashheim.” She shrugged, seeming very at ease still, even though he still tightly gripped the hilt of his weapon. “I’ve heard of a young man trained by a valkyrie who was given her blade and wanted to have a look for myself. It’s not unheard of, but certainly a rarity.” Others had received similar gifts? Arn’s mind raced. Did that mean that he wasn’t special after all? Did he not have a special purpose waiting for him? That thought had tided him over this last month since Vanhildr’s departure. The woman had given him some things to think about. “I should be on my way.” “I’ve heard the valkyrie has trained you,” “So she has,” he agreed, straightening his back. “What of it?” The woman circled the hilt of her own blade with her index finger. “I’m curious,” she admitted. “Would you care to test your mettle against me?” “With sharpened blades?” He scoffed incredulously. “I promise not to hurt you,” she said solemnly and he felt his choler rising. He shook his head. “This is foolishness.” “Are you not confident in your skills?” she asked teasingly. Arn chewed on his lip. Why was this woman set on provoking him? “Of course I am confident in my skills,” he pulled the long blade from its sheath with a quiet hiss. Truthfully, he wasn’t fully confident in his skills with this blade just yet. It was a fair bit longer than anything he had handled during his years of training and a month had not been enough to really shake up his ingrained training. The woman smiled and bowed before pulling her own blade. It was much shorter, slimmer and lighter than his own. She stood in place with a faint smile on her face, daring him to come to her. He took a few tentative steps towards her and raised his blade. She dodged the half-hearted stroke with ease, giving him greater confidence in her abilities as he started pressing her harder. Still, every one of his strokes was dodged or deflected with ease. “Are you going to just keep running?” Arn demanded, starting to feel foolish at the ease with which this stranger brushed aside his efforts. A smile played across her face and she shot forward. He barely deflected a stab and she spun into a kick against his hands. The sword went flying and he found the sharp edge of her blade settle against his cheek. [So easy, I could just take you right here,] the woman said in a foreign language, a smirk playing across her face. “What was that?” he demanded and turned his face away, flinching as the sharp blade nicked his skin. “Sorry about that,” she said. “Sometimes I revert to my native tongue. I was just thinking about your performance. Quite impressive for someone your age and unfamiliar with his weapon.” Arn scowled. Was she mocking him? “What is it to you?” He asked defensively as he finally went to recover his sword. He quickly gave it a look over, but there was no damage to it. He wiped a bit of dirt from the big sapphire that adorned the pommel. “You can’t be that much older than me.” She smirked again. “Your fighting skills really don’t matter all that much to me. I was merely curious after I’d heard about you. The valkyrie has departed, yes?” “She has departed for the battlefield once more,” Arn replied curtly. “The cursed undead do not cease to threaten this land. Surely you have heard about our troubles?” “I certainly have. The aggressive disposition Corpsehaven has brandished recently is a headache even for those beyond the borders of Ashheim. And certainly I have heard much about the threat since my arrival in Ashfeld some weeks ago.” Arn nodded. The situation seemed dire indeed. “Is it just as bad where you hail from?” The woman bit her lip, seemingly carefully contemplating her answer. “Tarraco is not directly threatened, or so people say. My ancestral home does not suffer these issues. It is a hidden place.” “Hidden?” Arn demanded. “Hidden where? And how do you remain out of sight of the mamono?” “If I shared that information, it would not be a hidden place anymore, would it?” Arn scowled angrily. “Surely such knowledge would aid humanity in our struggle against the enemy? Is it not selfish to keep it to yourself?” She had that aggravating smirk on her face once more. “It is not my place to share such knowledge. And in any case, I promise that telling you would not help any of your settlements escape mamono notice.” Arn maintained his scowl, not satisfied with the answer. He briefly considered demanding an answer at the point of his blade. But the exchange just moments ago was enough indication that that would be foolishness. Seeing this, she added, somewhat thoughtfully. “I will return here in two days. If you meet me again, you may learn the answer to your question.” “What is that supposed to mean?” He asked as she turned to leave. “Hey, who said you could leave?” She stopped and turned to him once more. “Should the loser truly be making demands of the victor? I have a task to perform, but I will return in two days. If you are interested, come into the forest once more.” She turned and began walking once more. Arn considered challenging her once more and to demand she accompany him to Skovfeld, but she’d shown clearly enough that such a course of action wouldn’t be likely to succeed. No, the better course of action was to return to Skovfeld and tell his mother and uncle of this encounter. “The forest is big,” he called after her. “How will I know where to find you?” “I will find you, do not fret,” she called over her shoulder before disappearing into the foliage. --- “Foolish boy,” Rolf cursed when he finished retelling his encounter with the mysterious foreigner. “What would you have done if she’d taken the blade from you? Do you know its worth? I ought to take it from you and…” “Rolf!” his mother called harshly. “The blade was not gifted to you. I recommend you watch your tongue.” “No, Solfrid, I am your husband, so you better watch yours,” he spat back venomously. “You dare threaten my mother?” Arn demanded angrily and stood up with fists clenched tight. “Arn!” His mother called sharply. “I have no need of your protection. And you, Rolf, never forget the terms of our arrangement lest I’ll have to remind you!” Rolf looked angrily from Arn to his mother, his thick jaw working furiously and his fists clenched. “Fine,” he finally spat. “But the boy is not leaving the town for the time being. Three weeks until the wedding! I do not know if that was a mamono or not, but I will not be taking that risk!” “Mamono?” Arn demanded. “She had no claws or fangs or fur or scale. Nothing of the sort. And I’d be dead in any case if she had been a mamono, right?” Rolf and his mother exchanged a look and his mother spoke up. “Some of them can masquerade very convincingly, and you said that she had unusually pale skin, especially considering she claimed to have spent time in the southlands. Though I agree it would be unusual for you to return after she had you at her mercy. I am also… curious about this knowledge she promised you. I propose we send some men out the day after tomorrow and see what we can learn from this Illindy woman.” “And if she turns out to be a mamono?” Rolf demanded. “Then I’ll be curious to hear what motivated her to seek out my son and invite him for another meeting,” his mother said coolly. “We should send enough men to catch her alive in any case.” “And how are you going to find her?” Arn demanded. “She didn’t give me a specific meeting place.” Rolf scoffed. “These are our forests, boy. Some foreigner, mamono or not, won’t be making a fool out of us in these parts.” Arn was not happy with this, but with his mother and his uncle in agreement on the issue, arguing was likely to simply result in him being restricted to the town for even longer. “Fine,” he conceded. “I’ll be in the study if you need anything.” He stomped out of the house and made his way towards the monastery and its modest library. Perhaps they had some books on the southlands that would give him some insight into the story Illindy had told him. --- Arn stood on the parapet of the town’s walls and watched the men depart. His mother and uncle had remained steadfast in their decision to not let him go himself and had instead sent out this force of nearly three hundred. He was still dubious about their chances of actually finding or apprehending Illindy. Even if they began combing only the forest to the south where he had met her two days earlier, how long would it take them? No matter which angle he viewed it from, and even with the dogs they had brought along, he had a hard time seeing them succeed. The forest was too big, there were just too many places to hide and the dogs didn’t even know the scent they were supposed to track. Illindy, if indeed she was there, surely was watching the town and knew to make herself sparse with such numbers offered up to bring her in. Nor did he truly understand why his mother would propose to send out so many of the town’s men in the first place. He sighed and thoughtfully scratched his chin. Maybe they were not supposed to succeed at all? He wouldn’t put it behind Rolf to stage this spectacle for some gain, but Arn could not fathom what gain that could be. What added to his puzzlement was that his mother seemed to fully support Rolf’s nonsensical decisions. No, she had actually been the one to propose it. He didn’t know her to be a fool, nor an overly gain oriented person, nor someone that would expend such effort meaninglessly. In the end, that only left him to speculate that there was some information he was missing. Unfortunately, his readings at the monastery hadn’t revealed much of anything and the two angels remaining in the city hadn’t been very forthcoming with helping his research. Ever since Vanhildr’s arrival and especially since her departure, they had not shown him much favour. Surely an ill omen. He sighed again. What was there to do other than wait and hope that the men marching towards the forest’s edge would succeed and they’d be able to get some answers from the strange woman? Part of him was wondering about the eagerness with which he awaited seeing her once more. In retrospect, he had been awfully quick to drop his guard around her, especially considering her martial prowess and less than forthcoming attitude in answering his questions. But all of this musing wasn’t any help, he had to concede. He remained on the parapet a good while longer, watching the force fan out and moving into the forest. The sun slowly moved across the horizon, yet as the sun crawled across the sky, nothing of note happened. Or nothing of note that he could see, in any case. With another look at the sun, he resolved to go grab his sword and keep up his practice. Nothing helped clear his mind more than physical exertion and his mind was in desperate need of clearing. A few hours later, when the sky had already begun to darken, Arn wiped the sweat from his brow as his mother called out to him. “Join me for supper tonight,” she told him and he nodded his agreement. He followed her to their longhouse, where he assisted her in preparing their food. He inquired about the search party in the forest, but his mother didn’t know more than he did, only that they were supposed to head back after dark if they were not successful in their task. Meanwhile, she was asking him all manner of questions about his encounter with Illindy. Questions that he hadn’t expected, like what he thought of her, what had gone through his mind when she beat him, what he wanted to do if he met her again. Arn wasn’t certain how to answer these questions. Most men he knew would probably be shamed or angry at having been beaten by a woman, but what was the point? Vanhildr, his teacher for the past year, was the most proficient warrior he’d ever seen. Of course, Vanhildr was a valkyrie, literally created for war by the seraphim. And besides, even his own mother could likely still overpower him if she so chose. After all, she had shared the role of instructing him with his father for so long. Was she wondering if he had come to share the common sentiment that it was a man’s place to fight and a woman’s place to tend the hearth? He told her honestly that he’d been annoyed, but mostly at himself, when the woman had so easily brushed away his efforts. But part of him had also wondered how he could get her to teach him, though he supposed that was mostly coming from him losing Vanhildr as his instructor, who was so unfathomably more skilled and wise and foreign to him. He had to admit that he wanted to see Illindy again, she seemed so much more interesting than most of the young women of the town, or the fourth daughter of a rich man from the capital. A skilled warrior like her might even accompany him when he went on campaign one day, just like his mother had done for his father before he was born. Arn blushed as he saw his mother’s knowing smirk and realised that he had elaborated much further than she had originally asked. They were in the middle of eating when the horn was blown. Arn fell silent and listened carefully. The first blow was followed by a second, indicating that the force was returning from the forest. He wanted to return to his conversation with his mother, when the horn blew out a third time. Now Arn froze. Three? Didn’t that mean an attack? He shared a look with his mother and saw the nervous anxiety in her eyes. He jerked to his feet and retrieved his sword. “What do you think you’re doing?” His mother demanded sharply. “Defending the town of course,” he said as he belted on his sword. As he made for the door, his mother called for him to stop. “You’re not going anywhere, Arn.” “The town is under attack,” he called back furiously. “Three hundred of our men are out in the forest. Of course I am going. Who would respect me as the future Jarl if I did nothing now?” That made her chew her lip in silence for a moment. “Fine, but I suggest wearing something heavier than linen,” she said as she rose from the table and pulled her own sheathed sword from where it hung on the wall. “What are you doing?” It was Arn’s turn now to demand, but the narrow eyed look she shot back in reply made him shut right up. Following her suggestion, he hurriedly put on a light leather jerkin. It wasn’t much, but certainly better than the simple linen shirt. There was no time for more elaborate preparation in any case. His mother had followed his example and together they headed out the door. Arn took a second to get his bearings. Up on the hill, close to the monastery, a few men were busy readying the constructs, overseen by the two angels. If only there were more of them. Just ten years ago, the city had been home to a full score of them, but over the years most had left. And why not? Skovfeld had been quiet for so long, while the perils at Ashheim’s borders grew ever more severe. Armed men were streaming towards the walls and towards the gate. He ran for the gate as well as his cursing mother followed closely behind. Near the town gate, they found Rolf shouting orders trying to get their disorganised forces into order. “Rotten timing, eh boy?” He called when the two of them came into shouting distance. “Three hundred supplied to the royal forces and another three hundred lost in the forest.” Arn gulped, he hadn’t even begun to consider the men that had departed a month earlier. How many capable men were left in the town? He shifted his eyes along the parapets and suddenly they looked very sparsely populated. “What forces are arrayed against us?” His mother asked calmly. Rolf snorted. “If only I knew the answer to that… It’s mamono for damn sure though. Don’t you worry, if we stand together, we can overcome this!” The last part he shouted more to the assembled crowd than to Arn or his mother. “Now, I want everyone…” He was silenced by a mighty crack and a cacophony of shouts and cries. Men were flying off the gatehouse and the wall surrounding it. Shadowy figures flitted in and picked them out of the air before they could even strike the ground. In the burgeoning darkness of twilight, Arn saw the gate crumple, even saw the cracks in the stony walls until a globe of impervious darkness settled over the gatehouse, parts of the wall and extending a good 20 meters out from the wall. “How are they moving beyond the walls?” Someone shouted. “What happened to the wards?” Another shouted. Screams were ringing out from the walls as more dark shapes moved in and ripped men from their feet, carrying them off into the darkness of the settling night. Rolf stood stunned and another man called. “Form a shieldwall, archers to the back!” Arn did not carry a shield, but drew forth his blade and stood behind the shield bearers, ready to support them however he could. They numbered barely more than a hundred, but his mother stood beside him still, which reassured him somewhat. Then, from the darkness, came barrelling a group of at least forty huge figures. Most of them carried blunt weapons or nothing but shields. The archers let loose a volley and Arn watched in amazement as they were all deflected safely away from their target as though they had hit an invisible wall. The figures, looming tall over any of the men in the shieldwall, kept barreling towards them. Arn braced himself and with a chorus of pained grunts, groans and cries, the shieldwall disintegrated. Men were thrown to the side and Arn himself caught a shield to the torso that launched him painfully backwards. He shook his head to regain his focus when he hit the ground and looked around. The archers were in full flight and many of the men at arms were scattered about where the charge had flung them. Fifty or so men were still fighting. “Stand and fight cowards,” Rolf shouted angrily. “If we lose the wall, the town is lost! Stand and fight for all you’ve got!” Arn saw him charge one of the figures. He collected his blade and followed his uncle, charging against one of the intruders. She, and it was undoubtedly a woman, was a giant of more than two meters. She had dark skin covered by a myriad of tattoos, a long, ridged tail at her back and a single, jagged horn growing from the side of her head. If he’d been less fearful for his life, he might’ve paid more intention to her state of near undress or the challenging grin with which she met his charge. He started out by stabbing and swinging wildly at her. She blocked and swept aside his efforts with her shield until he began to remember his training. Vanhildr had taught him that against a physically far superior enemy, he had to rely on finesse and not on strength and fury. And an amazon, for what else could this be, was no doubt a physically superior enemy. He began to employ feints and some dirty tricks and though she swept him aside with a little less ease, he saw no chance to penetrate her defences. His arm was already aching after the tumble he had taken from the monsters’ initial charge and he quickly found himself getting slower. The mamono meanwhile barely retaliated, doing not much more than occasionally push him back with her shield or step on his toes. When he truly began to wonder about that, her foot went by his guard and caught him square in the ribs. He felt himself staggering back a few steps, a sharp pain in his ribs as he collided with the ground once more. He sat up, feeling groggy, and saw that the monstrous woman had not pursued him. The fighting up along the parapet had ceased and he saw no more men standing up there. He levelled his gaze towards the monsters who had begun carrying unconscious men out towards the darkness where the gatehouse was hidden. He could see neither his mother nor Rolf and terror gripped his heart. This was not what he had envisioned. His panicked gaze fell to the mamono he had fought just before. She was taking lazy steps towards him, a self satisfied grin on her face. [Ready to come home with me, boy?] It seemed to be a question, but he could not understand the words. Still, though he could not understand them, they sounded familiar. He scooted backwards, still sitting on his ass as she took one deliberate step after another. Suddenly her eyes went wide and she raised the heavy shield. Something impacted the shield and sent splinters flying. The monster was flung backwards. She sailed for a few meters before impacting the ground, shaking her head with a growl and nursing a twisted arm that still had bits of the shattered shield attached to it. Arn looked backwards and saw the three smaller constructs approaching, the ones that stood at about three times a grown man’s height. One of them carried an enormous bow and was just now drawing back another missile. The monsters that had been carrying away the men at arms formed ranks and charged, fully ignoring Arn and the other fallen men. He took this chance, his only chance most likely, and forced himself on his feet. His ribs stung painfully as he hurried towards the temple. Surely, this holy sanctuary had to offer some respite from this demonic foe? But would it? The warded walls had not stopped them as they should have. He passed by panicked townsfolk and stopped to watch in terror once more as a man was caught and carried off wailing by a flying horror covered all over in a black sheen. He began to run from cover to cover as he realised that there were more flying monsters circling overhead. Occasionally he saw one of them clash with the pure white shape of one of the angels, but how could just two of the holy entities hope to save them from an invasion of this size? Finally, he reached the main square, where the temple was located and he quickly hid as all his hope dried up. A few hundred, perhaps more than one thousand men, women and children stood in a tight ball in the center of the square, surrounded by hundreds of mamono. Though they varied in size and skin color and build, they all had wings on their backs and horns on their head. How could they have mounted a full blown invasion? There were no realms ruled by demons anywhere near Ashheim that Arn knew of. Where had this army come from? “We wish you no harm, people of Skovfeld,” Arn heard a tall, blue skinned demon call at the temple gate. She turned around her own axis and Arn could see her glowing red eyes as her gaze briefly passed by his general direction. “Your fellow men and women are unharmed and shall remain so,” the demon continued to call towards the temple. “We would prefer to not use unnecessary force, but we must insist that you accompany us.” Arn scoffed. How stupid did this creature think the townsfolk were? Sure, they may not be killed right away, but it was well known that mamono would sacrifice and devour their prisoners at their leisure. Evidently, the people that had sought refuge in the temple were of the same conviction, for no one came forth. “Very well then,” the same demon called out once more. “Those who wish to remain unharmed, step back from the entryway,” she commanded. “Breaching the wards of your temple will require some force.” She raised her right hand and pointed it towards the temple with the palm of her hand outstretched. Arn watched in horrified excitement as the air began to crackle with energy and red arcs snaked their way around the demon’s outstretched arm. Before she could unleash her magical barrage, the town’s single great construct, looming over the surrounding buildings, came charging onto the town square. Many of the mamono immediately took flight and began raining a barrage of magic down upon it. The construct was fully unphased by their efforts. Many of the spells seemed to flicker and disappear even before they hit it at all. In retaliation, it struck at them with its great, ornamented staff. Most of the mamono remained out of range, but occasionally one of them would be hit and strike the ground in a heap. The townsfolk seemed to take hope at this and some began charging out of the tight press of people, only to suddenly fall to the ground. In a circle around them, some manner of nearly transparent wall had appeared and when any of them stepped through, they fell down limpless. Arn meanwhile felt a painful pulling in his stomach as the demon who had been pointing her arm at the temple was now grimacing with apparent effort. Her arm and shoulder were hidden in the crackling arcs of power and her arm was pointing straight at the construct. In a wash of dark-red light, the built-up power was released. The construct’s torso was shattered into a million pieces, along with an entire house behind it. Arn watched in a sort of paralyzed and detached fascination as the townsfolk still huddled together began lamenting loudly, begging for their lives, cursing the evil goddess, even cursing Rol for abandoning his children. I need to get away from here, the thought finally came to him, even as he saw the demon fall to her knees in exhaustion. For reasons unknown to him, he had yet to be apprehended, but he had to make the most of this. He mustered all his resolve and came out from his hiding place, quickly disappearing between the buildings once more. He now moved with all haste towards the river. Perhaps he could cross it and escape? The king had to be told of what occurred here. He felt a sharp sting in his neck and momentarily lost his focus. His foot caught on the edge of the house he had just been rounding and he painfully crashed to the ground. His ribs stung even worse than before as he pushed himself to his feet once more. There was a taste, bitter as bile, in his mouth and he felt exhausted as he reached the river bank. He glanced nervously out over the quickly moving, cold waters. He felt his vision swimming before his eyes and suddenly realised that this was no mere tiredness. His hand gripped at his neck and produced the small dart that had been embedded there. “It would have been easier had you just come out to the forest,” Someone said behind him, their voice muffled. He spun around and saw the figure of a woman, slightly shorter than him, with a thin, curved blade in one hand. She wore a skull-faced mask and was clad in form fitting, black cloth. “You!” He said accusingly. “Me,” Illindy confirmed and removed her mask. “I’d have preferred to spare you these sights, but you wouldn’t come out.” Arn felt tears begin to sting at his eyes as he pulled out his sword. “I will kill you for this!” He vowed. He took a step forward and swung at the woman. This time she made no attempt at playing with him. She sidestepped him and struck him just beneath his chest. Air fled his lung and his legs crumpled beneath him. He couldn’t breathe as he lay there and his vision faded to blackness. Who’d have thought I’d die like this? Was the last thing he thought to himself before the darkness overtook him. |
mugen91Oct 4, 2023 3:30 AM
Maku_The_Blue said: Very quick turn for the worst... seemingly anyway. Let's see if Illindy has any chance of breaking Arn out of his doctrine, assuming her intentions are pure of course. Well... pure by Mamono standards anyway. And hopefully the villagers are alive and well when he wakes up. Who knows, who knows? I won't spoil, Hope the fake-out worked :D |
Alone in the Dark Arn’s eyes shot open as his senses abruptly returned to him. He surged upright and looked around him in a panic, but he was surrounded by near total darkness and could make out nothing but a faint, blue glow a few meters away. But that glow was not bright enough to reveal his surroundings. Was this damnation? Had that mamono devoured his soul? But then shouldn’t he be in pain, his soul wrecked by torture? His hands slid over his body and he came to the conclusion that there was nothing wrong with him. Even the pain in his ribs was gone. His hands stopped exploring his own bodies and began to roam around his surroundings. He seemed to be sitting on some kind of bedding, another unexpected oddity. Illindy had beaten him, of that there was no doubt. Had she kidnapped him while she prepared whatever horrid rite she would perform to kill him? “Finally awake?” A familiar voice asked. Arn felt anger, surprise and fear rise in his gut in equal measure. He jumped out of the bed he’d been lying in but misjudged the height, fumbled and nearly fell onto his face. A strong hand grasped his shoulder and held him upright. He punched out at where he suspected the monster to be, yet hit nothing but thin air. She jostled his chest and he stumbled backwards. His legs snagged on the bed and he fell backwards onto soft fabric. “Settle down,” the voice came again in her strange accent. “I’ll get the light.” There was a scraping sound as something was lifted and the room was suddenly bathed in a brighter, blue-ish light. Arn narrowed his eyes as it stung them and tried to make out the shape of the monster woman. He could barely make her out as she went about the room and lifted two more covers from arrays of blue crystals, which emitted the light. As his eyes finally focused, he could make her out a bit better. She wore a pair of very short pants and nothing more than that. He quickly averted his eyes from her naked breasts and saw the thin tail that ended in a sharp spade and the elfin ears, revealed by her hair now worn in a ponytail. “Where have you taken me, demon?” He demanded angrily. “What foul ritual do you practise?” “Foul ritual?” She asked with a smirk. “You are well rested, greeted by a beautiful woman upon waking. Is that not the kind of thing men desire?” “Your foul attempts at seduction will not aid you, demon. I have been trained by a valkyrie. I will resist your foul temptations!” He saw her gaze drift down his body and settle between his legs. Too late he realised his complete lack of clothing. His hands shot between his legs to protect his modesty. “Not the reaction I expected of a virgin, but not a complete lack of interest either, I see,” she said, still with that same smirk. “Should a holy warrior truly cover his penis in the presence of a foul demon and thus lower his guard?” That gave him a bit of pause. “I already know I am not your equal, but at least I shall not play your cruel games, monster!” He declared. She pursed her lips at that and then stepped closer to him. “I am not playing any games with you, Arn. I am simply here to welcome you to your new home.” That gave him pause. He clenched his jaw as he tried to decipher the monster’s game. “My home is Skovfeld,” he said very deliberately. He contemplated another attempt at punching the woman, but held off on it for the moment. “Skovfeld is no more,” the monster informed him, coming a bit closer to him still. “At least, the people are there no longer.” “What have you done to them?” He demanded. Had they all been killed? If so, why was he alive still? Did these foul creatures have some purpose more grim still in mind for him? “They received the same treatment you have. They are well and will be introduced to their new home.” “What is this? What sacrilegious rites require you to abduct an entire town? Answer me, demon!” He demanded angrily. She sighed. “You have a beautiful, half naked woman before you, and that is truly what you wish to discuss?” “I see no woman, only a foul beast.” “Hmmm,” she scoffed and suddenly surged forward. Arn had no time to retreat, could barely react at all and without delay, she was atop him. His head hit the soft bedding and his arms were pinned to the soft sheets by her hands and her naked breasts swayed just above his head. He turned his head to the side, refusing to look at them as she spoke once more. “Take a deep breath. Is this the smell of a foul beast? Take a good look. Is this what a vile monster looks like? Feel this…” he felt her settle down onto his, shamefully, half erect member. “Is this the heat of a dreadful demon?” He bit his lip and refused to look at her as she slowly grinded her backside into his pelvis. “Is that part of your ritual? You must rape me to devour my soul?” The grinding came to a sudden stop. “There is no peril facing your soul, nor your body. All that awaits is sensuous pleasure, if you will allow it.” “Knowing she could not prevail against great Rol, the evil goddess created monsters to prey on his chosen and undo their great work. War was born as the savage hordes ravaged humanity,” he cited from the first book. “Your kind were created to bring ruin to mine. I will not fall for your temptations!” He spat accusingly. The monster released his hand and unmounted him. She stood before the bed once more and looked thoughtful. He moved his hand back to cover his shame again. And shameful it was that the blood had surged there. There were a few moments of pregnant silence where neither of them produced a sound, but finally it was the demon who spoke up. “I am not opposed to a man being true to his principles and convictions, but he should also be capable of examining the evidence without colouring it in what preconceived notions he carries. Forget what the church and the angels have told you. In all our interactions, when have I acted like a bloodthirsty monster?” “You have lied to me! You have attacked my home and butchered my people!” He shouted and she flinched. “We have attacked you, true,” she admitted. “And with good reason. But we have butchered none of your people. They are safe and sound, all of them.” He narrowed his eyes. Clearly she had to be lying. “I’ve seen your fellow monsters rampage through our lines and lay low good strong men! I’ve seen that winged demon flatten a house like it was nothing. I’ve seen you… you killed my mother and my uncle.” He felt sick of a sudden. The demon meanwhile shook her head, but took a much more placatory tone. “Have you actually seen any of your people die? I admit, there were injuries, a few grievous ones, even. But I swear that they were healed, even before we brought them here. You will see soon enough, all 4193 inhabitants of Skovfeld are alive and well.” “Then where are they? Do they all have some monster telling them the same lies you are telling me?” “No, most of them are in the middle levels, together. Though they are no doubt also learning about their new situation. If they all have awoken, that is.” “Then what makes me so special, that you have to separate me from them? A particularly delectable morsel?” She pinched her nose and Arn felt like he had struck a chord of some sorts. “You are right and you are wrong,” the monster explained, then sighed. “This would all have been so much easier if you’d come out into the forest again like I told you. Maybe I shouldn’t have let you go back at all.” “Speak plainly, monster,” Arn demanded. She sighed heavily, opening and closing her mouth, pinching the bridge of her nose once more. “I know not how else to tell you,” she finally said. “I want you to be happy. I want you to look at me and cherish me as I wish to cherish you. I want your love and I want your body.” Her tone dripped earnesty and Arne narrowed his eyes in suspicion. When someone so desperately tried to convince you of their sincerity, clearly they were hiding something. Especially when that someone was a mamono. Her lip broke into a sad kind of frown. “I see. I thought this would be easier. I apologise.” She paused, giving him some time to answer to her shift in tone, but he remained quiet. All he did was continue to glare at her. She sighed once more and nodded. “I will give you some room. If you prefer to be dressed, I have prepared some clothing for you.” She pointed to a neatly stacked pile on a table in the center of the room. “Alanana told me of your fondness of history, so I have prepared something for you to read. If you would like to sleep more, cover the crystals to darken the room.” She turned and walked over to a door. She turned to regard him once more and he briefly wrangled his conflicting desire to be rid of the presence of this demon and not wanting to be alone. When he didn’t say anything, she pulled open the door and stepped through. He waited briefly in case she suddenly returned before walking up to the pile of neatly folded clothes. He inspected them, but no matter how hard he looked, he could not find anything wrong with them. In fact, the fabric was quite soft and skillfully woven. Much better than what he had had back home. It was very warm in this place, so he only dressed in a pair of short legged pants. Next he began investigating his prison in greater detail. Besides the bed and the table the clothes had been on, there was a chest containing women's clothing. Five masks decorated one of the walls, one of which had the same skull-motive as the one Illindy had worn during the attack on Skovfeld. Empty pegs on the wall might have held weapons at some point, but none were to be found now. A small channel was running adjacent to one wall, with faintly glowing water flowing through it coming from a narrow opening in the wall and into a small basin. Feeling around, he felt small openings in the bottom and sides of the basin, slowly draining the water flowing in to maintain an even water level. A few cups were standing next to the basin. He sniffed at the water before sighing and filling one of them. Was it a good idea to drink strange glowing water? He shrugged, the worst case scenario was that it would give him some measure of escape. And he was thirsty. The water seemed fine, if too warm for his tastes, so he quenched his thirst before finally, carefully trying the door Illindy had left through, but it wouldn’t budge. Of course it did not. He hadn’t expected it to. And yet it irked him. He frowned and turned back to the room. It seemed he was left with no other choice than to wait for the time being. Whatever was coming, he would need his strength to resist. His gaze wandered over to the books Illindy had indicated earlier. His jaw worked furiously as he considered them. On the one hand, it might be useful to know what these monsters considered as history. Or whatever they wanted him to believe. On the other hand, what vile lies might be written there? Or worse, what if it was no book at all, but some manner of demonic trap? He mulled it over for some time, for how long he could not be sure as the room had no windows, nor any other way to estimate the passage of time. Torn between ignoring them, destroying them and opening them, he finally decided to see for himself what was written in these books. Monsters were duplicitous, of that there was no doubt, but he also had to admit to himself that there was no way for him to know for certain what course of action was the right or wrong one here. He picked up a book titled The book of origins and carefully began to read. And as he did, he slowly grew angrier. The book was not some cursed tome like some part of him had feared. But he wasn’t sure if it wasn’t something more insidious than that still. It told a familiar story, one he had heard many times before. During lectures and reading at the church. But it told the story in a false way. It told the story of the origins of humans and mamono, of Rol and the evil goddess Lor, but not the way that he knew it. It described the great Rol as a foolish and jealous god and the evil goddess as benevolent. It described the great seraphim as abominations and the mamono as unwilling victims of Rol’s and humanity’s barbarity and greed. Worst of all, it claimed that it was the seraphim who slew both Rol and Lor, after the two gods had agreed to end the war and that the seraphim had long since faded out of existence as a consequence of their treasonous actions. Strangest, or perhaps worst, of all it implied that the gods had attempted a union of their chosen people, resulting in the mamono being all female and desiring fornication with humans, but due to the supposed betrayal of the seraphim, the enchantment that would have rendered human’s all male and compatible with mamono remained incomplete. Arn could not help but wonder what the monster intended by having him read such vile lies? Everyone knew that Lor was a goddess of evil and had created mamono to destroy Rol’s great creation out of jealousy. Perhaps he should destroy this heretical record? Or perhaps he should take it with him when he searched for a chance to escape? Surely, the church and the angels could benefit from learning about the filthy lies these monsters told people to ensnare them? But why would they need to ensnare him with lies at all? Did whatever foul plans they harboured for him require his willingness? If so, then perhaps there was hope for him still, if only he resisted their foul influence. Unsure of what to think and do, he set the book aside for the time being and picked up another one. It was the history of a city named Comaranzan, the city of demons. It dated back to the ‘centuries of woe’, when mamono were severely outmatched in the eternal war against humanity thanks to the creation of the seraphim. Members of various demonic species of mamono withdrew from the war under the leadership of two great generals named Vercininé and Verismathas to found a great city far beneath the earth, safe from the encroachment of their eternal foes. Why give him this book? Was that where he was now? A city of demons? And if so, what reason did the monster have to give him that information? Was she trying to extinguish all hope he had of escape? Make him more malleable to her foul designs? He shook his head and resumed reading line after line of neat script. Trepidation and irritation fought for supremacy as he finished. Once more he considered destroying the tomes, if only in defiance, but ultimately could not bring himself to do it. Instead he set them aside and once more considered the room. How long had he been out? How much time had passed since the attack on Skovfeld? Why was he kept separately from the others? Were the others even here? Were they even alive? Illindy’s words played in his mind. I want you to be happy. I want you to look at me and cherish me as I will cherish you. I want your love and I want your body. That last part had given him pause, but put into perspective with what he had just read… No, this was a trick, a trap. She meant to trap him, give him hope that he was not doomed after all. To what end, he did not know, but he would not fall for it. Not him. He would not dishonour Vanhildr’s teachings like that. --- Some time later, how long exactly was impossible to tell, he heard the door to his prison being unlatched and swing open. His eyes shot fully open and he leaped from the bed, ready for anything that might be coming. “Are you hungry?” His captor questioned. She made no comment on his defensive posturing. She held two steaming plates in her hands. “Not hungry for your demonic slop,” he spat defiantly, but she did not react at all to his provocation. At least she was dressed now. That made it easier to look at her. To look for suspicious signs. She closed the door with her foot and strode over towards the table. He considered dashing for the now undoubtedly unlocked door, but before he could make up his mind, she had set down the two plates, no doubt more than able to stop any attempt on his part to abscond. “I said I have no need for your…” His words were interrupted by an intense growling coming from his stomach and he felt a hotness come to his cheeks despite himself. “Feel free to eat or not,” she said. “The choice is yours.” She sat at the table. She even putt it between herself and the door, almost like she was daring him to try it. Her eyes never left him as she began to spoon food into her mouth. As much as he hated to admit it, it did indeed look like she was simply eating. It looked like some kind of tuber he was unfamiliar with, along with some manner of mushrooms and sauce. He also had to admit that it smelled good, a fact that was underlined by his stomach’s continued growling. “Have you had a chance to look at the books?” He narrowed his eyes, wondering what purpose was behind the question. “Vile lies,” was all he had to say on the topic. “I doubt it is the full truth,” the monster unexpectedly agreed. “People have a tendency to write histories that show themselves in a favourable light. I expect the truth lies somewhere between the tales your people tell and the tales my people tell. Most of the details cannot be verified today.” “But some can be?” He asked and immediately felt the need for self-chastisement. He had to reign in his curiosity and shouldn’t put weight on any of her words. “The covenant the gods agreed on for once,” the monster explained. Arn felt the immediate need to disagree, but she continued before he had a chance. “Mamonos and humans are able to reproduce with one another, but the children will always be female and of the mother’s species. No male mamono has been born in more than two millennia.” “They probably never existed in the first place,” Arn insisted, but she shook her head. “There is at least one left,” she claimed. “Lord Verismathas, Councillor Vercininé’s husband, is a true born demon.” The names sounded familiar, but he was too eager to point out the flaw in her argument. “You’re contradicting yourself, monster,” Arn said triumphantly. “You said no male mamono had been born in millenia.” “And I meant it,” she replied, not seeming at all like he had just caught her in a lie. “Councillor Vercininé and lord Verismathas are both very old. The last surviving founders of Comaranzan. They are both very powerful and wise.” There was a wistful smile on her face. With one final look at the door, he finally decided to seat himself at the table. He took a wary sniff of the slowly cooling food. When he detected no obvious issues, he filled a spoon, but rather than try the food he continued. “That’s still no proof,” he insisted. “Even if this Verismathas does indeed exist, how do I know he’s as old as you claim? How do I know that there aren’t many more like him?” She knit her eyebrows at that. “You don’t,” she said simply. “All you can do is try to see things for yourself and make your own judgement.” When he remained quiet, she added. “If you like, I could take you to see him with your own eyes.” He narrowed his eyes and looked around his prison, which somehow seemed to cause her some amusement. “What? Did you think you were going to stay in here forever?” “The thought had occurred. At least until you do with me whatever it is you plan to do with me.” She heaved a heavy sigh at his renewed accusations. “The open council meeting occurs once every week. If you wish, I shall take you to the next session. Lord Verismathas almost always accompanies his wife.” He scrutinised her, trying to glean what angle she was coming from, but couldn’t find anything wrong with the offer as such. “Then I’ll be locked in here until then?” He finally said by way of defiance. “We could take a walk outside,” she said with a disarming smile that caused him to bite his lip. “But first you should eat your food.” |
mugen91Oct 13, 2023 11:16 AM
Maku_The_Blue said: Though I was kinda expecting Illindy to elaborate on the "good reason" they had to attack his village. The line of questions Arn went on made sense for him, putting the safety and wellbeing of the villagers he's meant to protect first. But Gotta say I'm surprised he didn't go back to harp on that to get her justification for attacking the village, even if it was only to call bullshit on whatever answer she gave. Don't worry that'll come. With how bad her first attempt at seduction went, she decided to take things a bit slower after all. Maku_The_Blue said: The history books from the Mamono's perspective and Arn's reaction to them were a good inclusion too. Good to hear. Maku_The_Blue said: Can't say how I feel about a genuine born monster-man though... that shakes up my conceptions of the setting as much as it would Arn's I think. It's not going to be a big thing and he's still the only one among thousands, so there's that. He's definitely not around in the current setting. |
Baby Steps [Today, we honour those who gave everything for the future of our great city.] Arn stared blankly down from where he sat in the stands. In the center of the grand hall he found himself in, a monster stood on a pedestal that shimmered with iridescent light. It was the very same monster that had shattered Skovfeld’s great guardian construct and it was holding some manner of speech. He couldn’t understand a word she was saying of course. Though, in all honesty, he wasn’t fully paying attention anyway. His eyes kept flitting from her to the vast assemblage of figures congregated in the stands surrounding the hall's circular perimeter. Thousands of mamono were surrounding him. Though he had seen his fair share of their evil kind these last few days, being in their midst like this was fraying his already ailing nerves. He barely registered the hundreds of humans who were likewise present in the stands. He startled as Illindy softly placed one of her hands atop his own. His soft shaking, which he had barely registered, ceased and he hated himself for feeling soothed by her presence. “She is extolling the virtues of the fallen,” Illindy answered the unasked question. “I thought you said that no one perished during your raid?” He managed to recover his hostile tone halfway through the question. He could feel the monster beside him deflate slightly, but her voice kept the same tone as she answered. “I said that no humans perished as a result of our operation. Not that there were no fatalities at all.” He pursed his lips. It was easy for her to say such things. How could he verify? He had yet to see any of his people. His gaze scanned through the crowd, paying more attention to the humans in attendance, but there were no faces that immediately stood out as familiar to him. But would he necessarily recognize every citizen of the city? Unlikely. Still, even without recognizing any citizens of Skovfeld, he found it difficult to reconcile his expectations of human mamono relations with the fact that these hundreds in attendance didn’t seem to share his discomfort, that they seemed to understand what was being said, that sympathy played across their faces. Had they been led astray somehow? And to what end? His gaze returned to the center of the room. Arranged around the iridescent pedestal were thirteen chairs, thrones even. Opulent affairs of gold with elaborate decorations that he could make out even from where he was sitting. Sat atop were mamono in a variety of forms and sizes. Ranging from no taller than a child to the tall grown form mirroring the warriors who had so easily bowled over their defensive line during the attack. Wings and horns, claws and tails, strange skin colours and markings adorned twelve of them. It was the thirteenth that gave Arn pause. A man, his hair and beard white with age, sat on the thirteenth throne. Illindy had introduced these as councillors. One each representing the interests of the different species inhabiting the city. Some of the mamono had men standing by their side, though two of them looked strange. Almost as though they were caught somewhere between human and inhuman. Arn might have considered one of them to be the vaunted male mamono that Illindy had talked about a few days prior. But there were two of them. And there were more like them in the crowd. It would be a chance to disregard her statement that there was but one of them left in the city, but that part undoubtedly fell to the regal figure standing besides the currently vacant throne. Seeing that man, that demon, he knew instinctively that he had to be the one. And truly, there were no others like him among these thousands, even if some small portion of the men in attendance were strange to behold. Finally, the old man had an equally aged woman by his side, only she was seated. A concession to her age perhaps? Arn became aware of Illindy staring at him as he moved his gaze about the room, gnashed his teeth, hemmed and hawed and frowned in his attempt to make sense of it all. --- It had been like that these last few days. She’d accompanied him out of his prison, onto a walkway lined with doors, a bannister securing the walkway from the steep drop of 15 meters or more. She had led him down a flight of stairs to the ground level and he had seen neat rows of walkways lining the walls, all with bannisters and doors of their own. Above him, there had been no sky, only a stone ceiling decorated with the same glowing crystals, only that the light had been much brighter than in his prison. Just like the crystals in his prison, they shifted through different colours as the hours crawled by. First blue, then red, then green and blue again. A rivulet of softly glowing water had flowed through a channel cut into the floor of the thoroughfare that stretched a hundreds of meters in both directions. Some distance from where they had stood, opposite and to the side of his prison room, had been a great gateway, though he hadn’t been able to glance at what was behind it. She had taken him in another direction and then through a maze of passages that left him unsure of his location relative to where they had started. They met a few mamono along the way, all but two of whom were of the same stock as Illindy herself, and a handful of humans unfamiliar to him. Illindy had him talk to some of these, but how could he trust their words? They lived with the enemy. Nothing good could come of it. Strangely though, most of them spoke his language, though they shared Illindy’s strange accent. As Illindy had continued to pull him through the endless convoluted passageways, he couldn’t help but be struck by the lack of people. Were they all hiding somewhere? Busy somewhere else? Where did all those doors lead to, if not dwellings? At least some of them had to, surely. Before long, they had entered a large hall of sorts. The emphasis being ‘large’. The ceiling was just as high as anywhere else he had seen and it was at least a hundred meters wide and only a little less long. They had stood at a vantage point standing high above a maze of houses, the architecture style unfamiliar to him. “What is this?” He had asked, unable to make sense of what he was looking at precisely. Something had told him that this was no regular collection of dwellings. “One of the training halls,” Illindy had said without elaborating further. “Training for what?” He had been forced to ask. “They will begin soon,” she had said, bidding him to be patient. He had let his gaze wander across the collection of buildings and from there along the edges of the room’s perimeter. More balconies, much like the one he had stood on were occupied by other figures, watching intently. “It’s starting,” Illindy had declared when a door on the left side of the room had opened and a procession of twenty armed and armoured women had entered, flanking a palanquin carried by another four women. “What is starting, exactly?” He had demanded. “A training milestone,” Illindy had declared, watching with rapt attention. As the procession entered into the maze of buildings, more figures, human and mamono both, began to filter out of those buildings and walk about the streets. “What kind of training?” He had asked, annoyed that she wouldn’t properly answer his questions. But she had only pursed her lips and told him to watch if he did not want to miss it. Reluctantly, he had gone quiet and watched as the procession slowly made their way through the buildings and towards the center of the fake town. The ambush was sprung halfway there. A camouflaged figure rose to her feet on one of the rooftops, drew back a short bow and let fly. The missile plinked harmlessly off of a pauldron and the attention of the guards was pulled towards the figure on the rooftop. It was just then that chaos broke out in their ranks. On the opposite side from the shooter, some blurry shapes had wormed their way into the formation of armoured figures, many of whom were quickly brought low. The palanquin toppled and with a wail, a figure was dragged from the wreckage and rapidly carried off. The quick moving figures scattered in all directions as thick plumes of smoke erupted all around the perimeter of the guards. From start to finish, the whole affair had lasted less than five seconds. Arn had barely been able to follow what was happening. “So, was that a good or a bad thing?” He had asked. Illindy had tilted her head to one side and then the other. “It was a passable effort, considering the stage of their training.” “And why exactly do you train your warriors to kidnap people?” He had demanded with narrowed eyes. “In case such things are ever required of them,” she had replied matter of factly. “So what, you often kidnap and assassinate people?” He had asked accusingly. “Rarely, if ever. All the more important to maintain a proper training regiment. And I thought this might be more interesting to you than watching the training for our more common activities.” “And what would that be?” She had given him an appraising look, then shrugged. “Camouflage, tracking, deception, infiltration, information gathering, disinformation.” He had frowned at that. There she was. A monster. This demon woman trying to convince him that he had nothing to fear from her or any of her ilk. And then she had extolled how superbly she and others like her kind were trained in the art of deception. Her look had suggested that, at that moment, she knew exactly what had been passing through his head. It had seemed to say ‘Why would I tell you this if I was planning to deceive you?’ But that was the issue, wasn’t it? --- “What are you thinking about?” Illindy asked after a moment of silence and Arn felt himself pulled from his introspection. The blue skinned demon woman had stepped off the pedestal, her speech finished, and had seated herself on her own throne. The wizened man was now standing there and speaking to the assembled crowd, holding a piece of parchment. “Just the last couple of days,” he admitted. “Our duel?” She asked with a smirk. “No,” he replied curtly and with a glare directed at her. “You will improve in time,” she tried to assure him, but he simply continued to glare. After the simulated assault in the fake town, she had taken him to yet another, albeit far smaller hall. Dozens of figures had been there, engaged variously in single combat and group fights, supervised by more of Illindy’s ilk. In fact, most of the figures had been of her kind, but there had also been a fair number of humans. She had handed him a long stick of sorts, though he had been unable to identify the material it was made of, and egged him on until he had lashed out at her. However, rather than take him down with ease as she had done before, she had given him pointers and instructions, whacking him in the side when he overextended and praising him when he did well. It had felt reminiscent of his training with Vanhildr and the fact he felt like that had only served to anger him. It had also made him wonder how much she knew about the valkyrie and if she wasn’t trying to make him reminisce about these times to make him see her in a similar light. Illindy was still regarding him closely and he felt increasingly uncomfortable under her close scrutiny. “What’s he blathering on about anyway?” He asked to redirect her attention away from him. She turned her face to regard the old man still addressing the crowd. “Councillor Byron is providing updates on our newest residents,” she said. “Meaning…” “Meaning your people,” she finished the sentence for him. He bit his lip, then swallowed his pride. “So what is he saying?” She turned her head once more to look down at the man. “There have been some issues. Rabble-rousing, attempts at violence. Unfortunate, but not unexpected. We have never invited so many of your people to join us at once.” “Invited?” He demanded frostily. She shrugged her shoulders. “You know what I mean. The integration efforts are mostly led by Comaranzan’s human residents, but it will be a long and rocky road, I expect.” “How do you expect to integrate anyone?” He demanded, conceding, for the sake of argument, the possibility that she was actually telling the truth. “Even if you do not lie and truly the church was wrong about your kind, you will not convince them.” “We likely won’t,” she agreed. “But you might.” He frowned at that. “What?” He demanded. “You. And others like you,” she explained. “You’re supposed to see and experience the city without the influence of those telling you what you should be thinking.” “You want me to convince my people that this is real? That they are not being deceived?” He asked, unable to banish the disbelief from his voice. “What makes you think that I would help you?” Unexpectedly, this made a smile appear on her face. “You wouldn’t,” she said. “Not yet anyway. You still believe I wish you harm. That we all wish you harm.” He glared at her, but her smile wouldn’t go away. “Who are the others then?” He wanted to know. “How well do you know all the people of Skovfeld?” She asked. “Do you know them all by name?” “You wouldn’t pick any random person,” he said confidently. “You’d pick well known, respected people. Those whose words would be listened to - if you can convince them, that is.” “And how would we know whom among your people is respected and listened to?” She asked teasingly. “I’ve seen you training humans. You obviously had infiltrators in the town. They sabotaged our defences. Our wards.” She bit her lips, but a smile played around her eyes nonetheless. “You think we couldn’t overcome the wards of your town?” He narrowed his eyes at her, but shrugged. “I don’t know. But you wouldn’t have broken the gate so easily or gone over the walls if the wards hadn’t been sabotaged,” he said confidently, watching closely for her reaction. “Have you ever seen your wards in action?” He frowned at that, but was confident in his reply nonetheless. “Of course not. But Vanhildr explained to me what should have happened when your people charged through our gates.” That caused her to narrow her eyes for once. “Your instructor. The valkyrie?” She looked sullen for a moment as she regarded him closely. “But you’re right. We had help from the inside. Your mother…,” his eyes widened with outrage at the insinuation, but before he could give voice to his anger, she continued. “... is among those who we hope will become our ambassadors. A few others I do not know much about. Lars, Olga, Manfred…” she continued rattling off a list of names, many of whom were familiar to Arn. He still had a hard time imagining how the townspeople as a whole could ever be swayed. “You didn’t mention my uncle,” he noted as she finished her list. “In the interest of maintaining order, we decided it would be better to leave some leadership figures to the people.” “My mother would have been a better choice if you were truly worried about rabble-rousing,” he said before he could catch himself. Why was he giving advice to this woman? “The thought had occurred. But who do you think would be the better ambassador? Who would be more likely to keep an open mind?” He glared at her and didn’t wish to agree with her. But quietly, he did agree with the rationale. Assuming that this wasn’t some big sham, his mother was certainly the more likely ambassador. He heaved a heavy sigh. All of this was troubling him greatly. Just a few days ago the world had made sense to him. And now this demon was trying to convince him that everything he knew was false. And what was worse, he remained unable to detect contradictions in what she said. She had to be lying, of course. He knew that. But why go through all the trouble? She wanted him to keep an open mind. Yet, didn’t the scriptures say that to be open minded towards a mamono was akin to keeping the gates to your city unbarred? As he pondered this conundrum, the assembled crowd grew louder and began to rise from their seating. It seemed the session had been concluded while he had discussed with the monster by his side. He watched the crowd attentively. All these humans in the mix, they did not look like prisoners. They were walking and talking amongst one another, but with the mamono as well. He thought he briefly caught a glimpse of Lars as he was led through one of the four bronze portals by a pink haired mamono that barely reached past his navel. The stony expression on his face mirrored well the uncertainty he himself felt. “If you wish, we could see if Lord Verismathas has a moment to spare for you.” “What?” He demanded, still lost in thought. “You expressed some interest in seeing for yourself how Lord Verismathas differs from a human man or incubus, as a trueborn mamono,” she reminded him. Incubus? He thought, but said. “Yes, I know.” They rose and made their way down to the wide ground floor of the council chamber. He stayed behind Illindy as she respectfully approached the tall demon. Arn’s gaze was momentarily drawn to the two men who looked like something caught between human and non-human. Weren’t they proof that there were other male mamono? “Ahh, the vaunted heir to the title of jarl.” Arn redirected his gaze to the demon who had approached him along with Illindy. His voice was deep, sonorous and sophisticated. In contrast to the pleasantness of his voice, there was something unsettling about his appearance. There was a predatory edge to his facial contours and his black in black eyes looking down at him. “How do you find the hospitality of our fair city?” Arn nervously licked his lip and his gaze flickered to Illindy, who looked on with a neutral expression. He wanted to tell him to go fuck himself. He wanted to say how he really felt about his kind and his city. Yet the mere thought made his heart nearly seize up and finally he settled on. “It has been an experience.” The demon’s lips curled into a knowing smile. “Reasonably polite, I see. Of course no one expected any of you to smile and play nice after only so brief a time. Illindy let me know that you had questions I might answer.” Emboldened by the joviality of his tone, Arn decided to go on the offensive just slightly. “Illindy has claimed that you are the last male mamono remaining in this city, yet I see those two standing here. And I’ve seen others like them in the audience today.” He tried to keep his tone neutral and matter of fact, not accusing. The demon tilted his head to the side just slightly and regarded him curiously. “You compare me with the incubi?” His questioning gaze drifted to Illindy. “We have not breached that topic yet,” Illindy answered unquestioned. “I see. It seems reasonable that one such as you would be ignorant to the distinction. Tell me, do they seem… do they feel the same as I do?” Arn furrowed his brow, trying to discern his meaning, but did not answer. He did not need to as the demon continued. “Of course they do not. They are human still. Changed, yes. Stronger. Longer-lived. Inspired by the way your god once empowered his own champions to stand on closer footing with the likes of dragons and demons. A far cry and achieved with mamono mana, rather than spirit energy, of course. Far from guaranteed to succeed. Your future path perhaps, if you so choose and dare.” His eyes were pointed at Illindy as he spoke these words. “But I must be going. I recommend you speak with an incubus or two. The distinction should become clear, even to one such as you.” He tipped his head, just barely, and turned. “Would you like to speak to an incubus next?” Illindy asked, but he didn’t answer her. He was too preoccupied digesting what he had just heard. That and feeling relieved to be out of the demon’s presence. |
mugen91Oct 26, 2023 2:01 AM
Maku_The_Blue said: Oooo... Kidnapping simulations! I like that! Makes sense they'd practice doing that, taking someone alive is definitely harder than just killing them. Indeed, they practice for a very wide variety of situations. Maku_The_Blue said: Still haven't quite gotten to the 'why' they're going to all this trouble though, thought we'd have gotten that this chapter... eh maybe next one. I did note that Illindy never explicitly stated who their inside help was. Would be a real twist if it was Vanhildr but I doubt it. Although her wards did apparently fail to work as stated... and I'm not sure who would be able to sabotage them without being noticed. Perhaps things will be revealed, there's a few more chapters to come. (Three more to go...) Small correction though. Vanhildr is not the one who created the town's wards. She only spent a short time in the town, while the wards go back basically to the founding of the town. They will have been created by others. |
Doubts Arn stared down at the blank page with a frown. How often had he sat here like this and not managed to write down anything? He considered the writing instrument in his hand. A pen. These mamono didn’t use quills, but this strange, fragile contraption. The tip of the pen hovered over the page, but no words flowed onto the page. Should he write something? And if so, what should he write? That question had weighed on his mind every morning and every night for these last few days. Ever since Illindy had given him this blank book, pen and ink and suggested he write down his thoughts and experiences. Could it even be called mornings and nights in this place? Without the sun, how could he be sure of the passage of time? The light emitted by the crystals changed periodically, but how did this relate to the rising of the sun on the surface? And what if he did write down something? What purpose did the mamono have in mind? Did they wish to measure the degrees by which the doubts slowly grew in his mind? After all, it was difficult, as time passed, to maintain his resolve. He had gone to sleep and woken up 26 times since his arrival in this city and had not experienced any of the things he’d been expecting. At least not since the conquest of his home. He’d not been subjected to violence, nor been made to take part in some horrific ritual or sacrifice. He’d yet to be reunited with his fellow humans, but had been permitted a brief glimpse into their quarter on the third level of the great city. But what then? What did they want from him? You know what she wants from you, a small voice in the back of his head teased him. She told you what she wants from you. He shook his head and rejected the thought. The enemies of humanity wishing simply for procreation? Looking for love? The thought was preposterous. And yet. He remembered how Illindy had awaited his awakening on that first day. She had been half naked and had climbed on top of him. In his mind’s eye he could see the swell of her breasts, the way the hard nubs atop her breasts had poked into his chest. He felt himself grow hard at the memory and quickly shook the thought from his mind. No, it couldn’t be right, he told himself. He resumed staring at the blank page. Every morning and every night he sat here alone in this cell, this room, [b]her]/b] room. Every morning he sat here until she picked him up and every night he sat here after she dropped him off. At least until he finally brought himself to drop into bed. He didn’t react when the knocking on the door came, but furrowed his brow when it swung open without the sound of the latch being loosened. Had it not been locked at all? He tried to think back to when he’d been escorted back here the day before, but couldn’t recall if he heard the sound of the latch being fastened. Of course it scarcely mattered whether the latch was fastened or not. His ability to leave his cell was not what stopped him from returning home. A city like a maze, at least outside the primary passages, was what stopped him. The city being built deep underground, supposedly, stopped him. “Not going to say hello?” Illindy interrupted his thinking. “Morning,” he grumbled. She hadn’t produced another sound after entering, but was standing directly behind him now. The fine hairs on his neck stood up as he thought he could feel her standing right there. “What will we do today?” He asked without turning to her. “What you’ve been asking for,” the kunoichi answered, a faint cheer in her voice. That caused him to perk up. “We’re going to the surface?” “No,” she chided. “But outside the city.” His momentary elation quickly petered out. Still, if an opportunity ever presented itself, it was better that he had more information than less. “You could also stay here today,” she let him know. “No, that’s alright,” he said firmly, finally shooting a look backwards at her. She took a step backwards as he turned, giving him a good chance to have a look at her. She wore a dark shirt, perhaps dark green, though it was difficult to be sure in the red light phase of the crystals. More than half of her thighs were left bare. Up top the shirt showed a great deal of cleavage. He’d already noticed her clothing getting looser these last few days. Unwittingly he thought back to how she had climbed atop him that first day. He banished the thought and noticed a glittering necklace with a stylized pendant in the shape of a sceptre around her neck. “What’s that?” He demanded. “Hmmm?” She asked, then followed his eyes. Belatedly he realised she may have thought him to be staring at her breasts, but luckily she realised what he was talking about. “Oh that? Proof that I have permission to take you out of the city limits.” “Why would you need permission?” He bristled. “You claim humans are just regular citizens in your city, but you need permission to accompany me outside?” “Calm, please,” she asked. “It’s true that the regular human population is free to come and go, but you are hardly part of the regular population just yet, right?” She received no more than a tight-lipped frown in response, which in turn made her sigh. “Look, We probably won’t be stopped at all, but I wanted to make sure, so you wouldn’t think I was trying to trick you in some way. Shall we simply go?” He continued frowning for a little while longer, but then nodded. “Then let’s go.” He followed her out of the district belonging to what he now knew was one of Comaranzan’s guilds. The guild of the unseen eye, tasked with collecting information all over the continent and facilitating trade with selected proxies for important wares that could not be produced in Commarranzan itself. Of course that relied on him believing what he’d been told. They made their way into the central area of the city, where an enormous stairway spiralled down- and upwards. On the sides of the staircase, there were also wide, winding channels through which water from the top of the pyramid was distributed to the different floors. Where exactly the water came from, he wasn’t sure. He’d seen it every day these last few weeks and yet he could not help but marvel at the sight. The ceiling of each level of the city was about twenty meters high and the ground floor stood even higher. The central area around the stairwell served as a space of congregation for the city’s inhabitants and there were a variety of eateries and bars, different shops and often people came together here for some competition or other congregation. For now it was still morning, so there weren’t very many people around. From the central stairway, if one stood at the edge, one could look all the way to the bottom and all the way to the top. Illindy claimed the whole structure stood more than 200 metres tall, which was a number difficult to rationalise for him. No matter what Arn did or did not think about its inhabitants, there was no denying that their city was a marvel and its construction was well beyond his wildest imagination. On the stairs they passed by the various inhabitants of the city. There didn’t seem to be any particular order or separation based on species. The towering amazons lived alongside diminutive imps and mischievous devils and needlessly lascivious succubae. The rare demons lived alongside fiery pyrows, metal legged empusi and night gaunts which caused a shiver to run down his spine when they came close to him. There were also kunoichi, like Illindy, dark priests, cambions and melusine, which spent most of their time in the flooded sub-level of the city. Then there were the humans. And it was hard to deny, even though he put great effort into it, that they appeared as nothing more than regular citizens of the city. Of course, most of the time they were accompanied by some mamono or another, but they did not appear unhappy or resentful or anything of the sort. Each of these thirteen species was represented by a single councillor in the city’s council. Even the humans. “What are you thinking about?” Illindy inquired as they reached the bottom of the stairs. “Nothing,” he lied. “Nothing? Really?” She asked. “You can tell me, you know?” He chewed his lip for a moment. “Just thinking about all the different people living in this city.” “Ah,” she mused. “Yes. I suppose that would be strange to you. Even after a few weeks.” “Isn’t there ever any problems with so many different people living together? With so many different predispositions?” “Hmmm,” she thought about it. “It isn’t as if there are never any problems. But the city has stood for millenia now. When problems occur it’s usually between individuals, sometimes there’s some disagreements between the guilds. But those are always arbitrated. I don’t think I can remember any big issue where someone’s species was the inciting factor.” “Never?” He demanded. She thought about it some more. “Well, there are occasional issues when a mamono is being a bit too… forward with her intentions.” She shot him a sidelong glance as if to measure his reaction. “But there are rules for that sort of thing, of course. And other mamono will come to your defence if someone acts out of line.” “You mean a mamono’s affection towards a human?” “Well, yes and no. Of course it applies to humans, but also to mamono. Succubae have some notoriety for not taking no for an answer.” She shrugged. “But like I said, those are issues between individuals and don’t really affect the relations between the different species in the city.” “Hmm,” he hummed as he thought about what she’d said. They were walking along a wide thoroughfare, a channel of water running through the middle like with all the main thoroughfares on every level of the city he’d seen so far. Only this one was substantially wider. Bronze statues stood arrayed by the channel in intervals of five or so metres, facing away from the water. On the side where they walked all the statues depicted men, each one unique in shape, size and features. Some of them were human, while others depicted male variants of the different mamono living in the city. On the far side of the water the statues took the form of the various mamono species living in the city, along with much fewer human women. They too were all different from one another. Illindy had claimed that these were in fact golems that would come to the city’s defence. If it ever came under attack. But Arn had not seen any indication that these were anything less than inanimate statues. If what she said were true, it would be a frightful force. There had to be thousands of them just on the ground floor and there were more on the other city levels, though not nearly in the same density. Finally the end of the main thoroughfare came into sight. Illindy had explained that from the central area, where the council chamber was located, it was two and a half kilometres to the edge of the city structure in each of the cardinal directions. Another dimension that Arn had a hard time wrapping his head around, even more than the height of the structure. They came up to a great gate, at least ten metres in height and just as wide. The two enormous bronzed metal wings of the gate stood open and no one stopped them from stepping outside. Just like Illindy had claimed, they were undeniably beneath the earth. The city stood on a rocky island, surrounded by a great lake. The water’s surface was faintly luminous, just like the water that flowed all throughout the city, but not enough to truly illuminate the gigantic cavern the city had been built into. He looked up to the distant ceiling and saw the glimmering light similar to that of the luminous crystals in the city. But they were so high, so distant, that they barely illuminated the cavern at all. A few dark shapes flitted through the air, but it was too dark to make out anything more than that. Arn turned to the kunoichi by his side and saw a sort of satisfied smile on her face. It seemed to say: ‘Everything is just as I said it would be’. He bit his lip and turned away without saying anything and returned to observing the cavern. A few people were lounging and cavorting about along the shore of the lake in various states of undress and there were more along the shore where his eyesight quickly failed him. Some were even swimming in the faintly glowing water. Straight ahead there was a wide stone path that led straight across the lake. “I find it hard to believe that your people just found such a convenient place to build their city,” he admitted. Illindy hummed her agreement. “Our ancestors toiled for many years to make this place what it is today. Carving out the city, creating viable agriculture, building the bridges. They were few in number by comparison in those days.” “Carving the city?” He asked. “What? You thought they carried brick by brick down here to build it?” She asked with a smirk half hidden in the gloom. Now that he thought about it, that seemed unreasonable. But what manner of effort would it be to carve out the maze of a city from sheer rock? “What about the crystals? How’d you make them? And why make them cycle through those colours. Wouldn’t it have been easier to make their light the colour of the sun?” “Our people do not make the crystals. They occur naturally. We mine them, further down in the earth. We simply place them where we find them useful.” “Then what powers them?” She shrugged. “Of that, even our most learned scholars are not sure. It is not demonic energy, at least. I agree about the light though. Some parts of the city are illuminated through our magic, but using the crystals is so convenient that my people have simply gotten used to it. Most of us never go to the surface anyway, so they don’t have a comparison to the sun in any case.” “And why don’t they go to the surface?” She shrugged. “Our city is hidden and we intend for it to remain so. Other than the unseen eye, there’s very few occasions where citizens of Comaranzan come to the surface.” “Like raiding innocent human settlements?” He asked sourly. “Like offering humans a new home where they are safe from the ravages of war and the encroachment of Corpsehaven?” She shot back playfully, though all he granted her in return was a frown. When they were most of the way over the bridge, Illindy bade him to turn around. The whole city, half hidden in the low light of the great cavern, was in view. A stream of the glowing water could be seen falling from the ceiling on top of the giant ziggurat structure. Some of it flowed down channels carved into the structure's side, but most of it disappeared into the ziggurat itself. Taking in the whole view of the faintly luminous lake, the vast structure, the twinkling lights in the cavern's ceiling, the luminous waterfall crashing onto the top of the structure. There was a certain gloom to the barely broken darkness of the cavern, but also an eerie kind of beauty Arn couldn’t fully close his heart to. “It’s quite a sight, isn’t it,” Illindy said quietly. “Yes,” he agreed, feeling a bit overwhelmed. “Is this what you wanted to show me today?” He could practically feel her smiling and wondered why that was. “One of the things I wanted to show you. There is more.” “How did they build it?” He asked. He motioned towards the wide bridge, if you could call it a bridge. It seemed to be a solid, wide stone path, rather than something built atop the water. Then motioned towards the whole cavern, the city, the lake, everything. “Magic,” Illindy shrugged. “Councilor Vercininé and Lord Verismathas are the only ones still alive from those times, but there are extensive records.” “But why go through the effort?” He wanted to know. “Surely it would’ve been easier to build a city on the surface? Or is your kind unable to live on the surface permanently?” “Of course not,” she said and sounded sad. He turned and saw that her face looked serious and thoughtful. She threw him an appraising look, but then finally decided to answer. “The city was established long ago, when the war between your people and my people was waged in earnest still. When the seraphim yet existed and the gods still lived.” Arn rankled at the insinuation that the seraphim and even Rol were no more, but didn’t interrupt her explanation. “Our records call the time the centuries of woe, after your god created the seraphim, but Lor had not yet…” “Not yet?” He prompted. She shrugged. “Well, she did something and since then there have been the mamono Lords. I don’t know how they were chosen or how their powers are passed on.” She took a moment to clear her thoughts. “Before that, losing the war seemed inevitable. So my ancestors decided to create this refuge, far from where your kind would ever encroach.” “So they ran?” He asked lightly. So there had been a time his people were on the offensive against mamono. A strange thought. “They ensured the survival of my people,” she retorted sharply. “What do you know about the war?” Arn narrowed his eyes at that. “And what would you know?” He demanded. “You said that those two demons are the only ones alive from that time. My people have been defending themselves from mamono encroachment for as long as I can remember and last I checked I’m the one who had his home destroyed and was taken against his will into this… this… aargh,” he exclaimed angrily and took a few steps away from the monster. What was he doing? He’d almost been ensnared by this temptress. Whatever these monsters want from you, you have to resist, he told himself. Resist, resist, resist. Silence fell over the two of them. Arn continued berating himself in his thoughts and for once Illindy had nothing to say either. She was sulking as they continued to follow the path across the softly luminous lake. At the edge of the lake the path led straight into a wide tunnel and he was more than a little hesitant to enter. The light in the great cavern was dim. Very dim even, but at least he could still see where he placed his feet. The tunnel seemed like a yawning maw of darkness to him. A portal to damnation itself. “Do you see in the dark?” He asked of the monster. Still sulking, Illindy didn’t answer, but shook her head. Then she pulled a glowing crystal from a pouch hanging on her belt. “Why not embed them in the walls or ceiling of the tunnels?” He demanded. “You seem to have them in plentiful supply.” “We have our reasons,” she said without elaborating on those reasons. She began walking but he still hesitated. The dark tunnel made him supremely uncomfortable, but he was reluctant to let the monster know. And so, gritting his teeth, he followed after her. The crystal’s light was dim, but enough to show him that the tunnel was perfectly even and mostly straight, but he sensed a slight incline. Even without the light it would have been perfectly navigable, if even more unsettling. He stole the occasional glance at the monster walking beside him. Her face was set in a shadowy frown and she seemed to pay him no mind for the time being. Thoughts of escape flitted through his mind, but he dismissed them as quickly as they arose. Even supposing she were lost deep enough in thought for him to slip away, and that was a big if, where would he run to? Back to the city was no escape at all. And he had no idea where the tunnel straight ahead would lead him. He’d been out cold on the way down here and didn’t have the first idea how to return. They walked and walked. Arn knew not how far or how long. And as they continued to walk in sullen silence, his ire slowly ebbed away and he thought more rationally on the earlier argument. It was true he didn’t know much about the mamono’s records of the war in the past. Almost everything that Illindy and other denizens of the dark city had told him didn’t line up with what he had been taught. But what if they actually believed that their twisted version of history was the truth? Or worse yet, what if there was some truth to what they claimed? It was all too well known that humanity had ever stood valiantly against the overpowering encroachment of the monsters, supported by Rol, his seraphim and their angels. There was no good reason for why these mamono would flee underground, when it was they who were the aggressors. It troubled him how Illindy had referred to these ‘centuries of woe’ as a time when the conflict between humanity and mamono had been waged in earnest. Humanity was beset on all sides, how could that not be in earnest? His own home had been destroyed. And yet you are still alive. You’ve been here for weeks and nothing untoward has been done to you, a small but insistent voice in his head proclaimed. Then why? Why was Illindy so prickly about him suggesting that her people had simply run away? She’d not shown any such reaction to any other insult or insinuation he’d thrown her way. And she’d never sulked before, not like she was doing now. He turned to look at her and saw that she still wore a deep set frown on her face. “Say…,” he started. He couldn’t believe it himself. “Hmmm,” she made an unenthusiastic questioning sound. Am I really doing this? He cursed at himself. “Say…,” he cleared his throat. “What was it that was so different back then, then?” She furrowed her brows. “What do you mean?” He gave a frown himself. “My people have been defending themselves from mamono for as long as I can remember. And for as long as my parents and their parents can remember. You’re our enemies, that is all I have ever known.” “I know,” she said. “Then what was so different back then? Why’d your people flee? Why do you stay underground? Why…? Why did you take me, no, take my people?” She narrowed her eyes, then heaved a heavy sigh. “I’ve already told you the reason,” she said. “The reason we… took your people. So you can become part of our city. As mamono we need you because we have no men of our own.” “And you still expect me to believe that?” He asked. But in spite of his words, he found there wasn’t the same conviction behind them as when she had first made the claim those weeks back. “I cannot make you believe,” she said. “But it is the truth. I had hoped you would come to see it eventually, but perhaps it is not meant to be so.” She fell silent and brooding, then added, almost as an afterthought. “As for what is different? Today we wish to take your people as lovers and husbands. Yes, there is violence and yes, we cannot always take your desires into consideration, but rarely is there any malice behind it. We do not wish harm upon your people. In the old days? My people were trying to exterminate yours just as much as yours did to mine. As yours no doubt still would desire if they were able.” “So what? The mamono are the good people and humans are actually the bad ones?” He demanded. She turned to him and pushed him against the smooth wall of the tunnel, her face dangerously close to his. “For once. Just once. Can you stop thinking in terms of human this and mamono that? I’m not saying any people as a whole are good or bad. Your people defend themselves because they think they must. Because the angels think that is how it must be. My people encroach on your territory and take men because…” “Yeah, yeah, you said it already. You don’t have men of your own, so you have to make due with humans,” he said. “No!” She denied with a passion he hadn’t seen with her before. “We don’t make due. We yearn for it!” She got even closer, pressed her body close to his. “We mamono are made to love! We were remade to love! Have I not shown you affection? Have I not respected your needs? Is this the body of a repulsive monster?” Her face shot towards his and he felt her warm lips press against his. He’d seen it coming and yet it was so unexpected. Her prehensile tail wrapped itself around one of his wrists and pulled it round her lower back as her tongue pushed through his lips and past his teeth. It tangled with his own, performed a small dance. Finally, as his breath ran out, he overcame his paralysis and began struggling. “Was that the kiss of a vile monster?” She asked breathlessly as she pulled back. In the dim light he thought he saw moisture glistening in her eyes. “I…,” he began. “I don’t…,” he started once more. “You have to…,”he started yet again, but he didn’t know what to say. Didn’t know how to articulate the conflicting feelings he harboured. She took a slow step back from him and set her jaw, her lips pressing together in a tight line. “I know this is not what you wanted. It’s not what you expected out of life. But think about it. Try to think about it beyond the limitations of what you know and what you thought you knew. And then, if you still think I’m a monster out to devour your soul or your flesh or both, I will return you to your people. You can live among them. Those who do not wish to integrate will remain as a closed community. A town or village within the city, if you will. If that is what you truly want, I will not force you to endure my company any longer.” “I…,” he began, but she interrupted him. “Don’t say anything. Not now. Think about it. Really think about it. I know you are capable of critical thought. Use that to think about everything that’s happened, everything you’ve seen, everything you’ve been told. That’s when I want to hear your decision.” He spent a few long seconds looking into her eyes. The sensation of her soft lips against his, her tongue entangling with his own, her warm body pressed against his, still played on his mind. “Alright,” he finally mumbled. With a final nod Illindy turned away from him and began walking along the tunnel once more. He hurried to keep pace with her and they resumed walking in silence. A look at her face revealed a neutral expression. Not the smile she often wore when she showed him around, but the frown from earlier had disappeared. After a few minutes of silence, she began talking like she usually did, almost as if nothing had happened at all. She told him about their destination. A sizable cavern, not anywhere near so high as the one that Comaranzan was built into, but much more expansive. One that housed one of multiple agricultural complexes that kept the city fed. |
mugen91Nov 3, 2023 5:24 AM
| I really liked seeing the HMGs among the mamono described in the city. It stands to reason that some of those species would have been more common back then. But even better is the character development. Not just Arn slowly coming around (though in this case he's merely coming around to the idea that maybe not everything he believes is strictly true), but Illindy making it clear that the wait is hard on her. I've never experienced being in love with someone who actively resents me, but it has got to suck. |
| "When you have bought your own load of hooey, you know exactly what it is worth." -- Bruce Sterling |
tygertyger said: I really liked seeing the HMGs among the mamono described in the city. It stands to reason that some of those species would have been more common back then. But even better is the character development. Not just Arn slowly coming around (though in this case he's merely coming around to the idea that maybe not everything he believes is strictly true), but Illindy making it clear that the wait is hard on her. I've never experienced being in love with someone who actively resents me, but it has got to suck. I reckon the biggest reason those species aren't more common is that they didn't exit until recently, but yeah. Since there are a fair number of demon types among this year's batch, it seemed appropriate to include them 🙂 And indeed, glad that came across that it's not easy on her either 🙂 |
Maku_The_Blue said: Now that was the kind of conversation I was expecting, though I thought the explosion would've come from Arn's side, but instead it came from Illindy's side... subversion of expectations for the win I guess. Gotta subvert expectation every now and again :) Maku_The_Blue said: Kind of wondering why Illindy isn't using the opportunity of returning Arn to his people as a tool to help her cause though. Showing him that his people are at least well cared for (if not totally thrilled at being there) would probably help in proving to him that she's telling the truth. Might even help in swaying him to her side to boot. She did, actually :) "He’d yet to be reunited with his fellow humans, but had been permitted a brief glimpse into their quarter on the third level of the great city." So he knows at the very least that they appear unharmed. |
Maku_The_Blue said: Ohh... he never interacted with any of them, that's why I didn't remember it. Huh, kinda odd he was allowed to know where they were situated but wasn't allowed to speak with any of them. Now I'm wondering why he wasn't planning to try sneaking his way back to them. Well, the point about wanting him to form an opinion without influence from those who would most likely encourage him to blindly dismiss the mamono still stands. Whether that is a good strategy or not is a different question :) Also, that district is separated from the rest of the city, so you currently can't easily get in or out (To discourage mamono from introducing themselves a little too enthusiastically and to stop the humans from trying something "unproductive" |
mugen91 said: Also, that district is separated from the rest of the city, so you currently can't easily get in or out (To discourage mamono from introducing themselves a little too enthusiastically) Now, what are the odds that Arn would believe Illindy if she told him that his people are being kept secluded for their protection? I know I won't be holding my breath waiting for him to believe that. |
| "When you have bought your own load of hooey, you know exactly what it is worth." -- Bruce Sterling |
Revelation The next day, Arn was still in his, or rather, Illindy’s room, even if his sense of time told him that it was well past the time she would normally come to pick him up. That fit with what she had said the day before. About how she wanted him to make up his mind. Make up his mind… How could he? It was difficult to admit, even if only to himself, but he did not feel the same hostility towards the mamono as he had a month earlier. But he had to admit it to himself. How could he navigate this situation when he was engaging in self-deception? His pen hovered above a mostly blank page. He was collecting arguments. Arguments in favour of believing her and the mamono and arguments against. He’d been treated with hospitality, no one had forced him to do anything he did not wish. He’d been brought here against his will, all his teachings told him that this was false, Vanhildr would not forgive such an affront, he’d never see the sun again. No, that one he likely wouldn’t either way. If their words were true, Illindy would be a match so much better than some marriage arranged by his uncle. But that relied on them being truthful. He groaned with frustration. This was impossible. He stood and paced back and forth. He felt trapped like an animal in a cage. Like an animal in a cage… He remembered how he had heard no latch being unfastened the day before. With some hesitation he stepped for the door and laid a hand on the handle. He breathed out nervously as the door opened without resistance. Well, I’ll be…, he thought. What now? To go out or not to go out? He’d never left this room by himself. So often he had thought about what he might do with such a chance and now that it was before him, he hesitated. What would he do? What could he do? Leave the city? Go back to the surface? Not likely. But maybe a walk would help him clear his mind? Maybe walking around by himself would show him things Illindy had attempted to hide from him? Still not entirely convinced of his chosen path, he pushed the door open all the way and stepped through into the now familiar compound of the guild of the unseen eye. There was a fair bit of activity along the roughly circular thoroughfare, but no one paid him much attention. Did they know who he was? That he was not supposed to be out and about by himself? Or was he allowed to be out by himself now? Would Illindy forget to lock the door twice? Not likely. Perhaps this was all a test of sorts? But what could they be testing? Whether he was nice and obedient and stayed in his prison? He felt a pang of spite and his steps grew more confident as he followed the way towards the central area of the great ziggurat. He looked around to check for pursuit, but there was no one that caught his eye. He left the guild compound without issue and soon found himself in the central area of the ziggurat. There was another one of the frequent contests of sorts going on. A dozen or so mamono, most of them tall amazons, were racing around the perimeter around the great stairwell carrying heavy looking, round rocks in their arms. They were well outnumbered by spectators shouting the names of their favourites. As Arn watched, they ran another three and a half rounds around the perimeter before the amazon in the lead dropped her boulder and instead scooped up a man who had waited by the finish line with a cup filled with some drink. Arn looked away as the large woman slipped a hand into his pants, to the agreement of the crowd and seeming enjoyment of the man. Arn shook his head and made for the great staircase. Up or down? He thought. I haven’t been up there before. He looked up thoughtfully. Was there something to hide from him up there? He shrugged and made his way upward. The guild compound was on the fifth level of the great ziggurat and Illindy had told him there were eight in total. Eight above ground, if you could say ‘above ground’ about a city built in a vast underground cavern. Each of them hosted another of the city’s guilds, though from what he’d heard, most of them were more mundane in their duties compared to the unseen eye. Construction, maintaining and creating the city’s enchantments, the city’s militia and such. He looked around once more to gauge whether he was being followed, but there were too many men and especially women going up and down for him to be certain. He went past the sixth and seventh level, which in passing looked very similar to the others, and made straight for the eighth. There were many steps to take and though he had grown more used to them these last few weeks, he still had to catch his breath when he finally reached the top. The eighth level was different from the others. Not only was it small enough that he could clearly see the edges in every direction, but the whole space was much more open than any of the other levels. No walls, gates and nested tunnels, but one large open space with a number of small structures built onto the floor like more conventional houses he was used to. To his mild disappointment, he could not see where the waterfall poured water into the wide channels that provided the city with drinking water. The wide and winding channels came out from the ceiling and wound their way down to the stairs to follow them further down. The whole place was also green and not because of the crystal’s light. It was a garden overgrown with flowers and small tree-like growths, only that they lacked bark and were arranged in a strange double helical structure. He knew these strange tree-like structures from the day before, when Illindy had taken him to that cave they used for agriculture. The normal crystal light was still present and currently shining blue, but there was also another, yellow-ish light that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. It wasn’t sunlight, but it was much closer than anything he’d experienced these last few weeks and he basked in it. He only stopped as he became aware that he was catching a number of curious glances and quickly went on his way. He ignored the questioning and stares full of promise as best he could. There were members of all the city’s species gallivanting about in this place and many of them looked like couples. Men with women and women with women. Humans with mamonos and mamonos with mamonos. Humans with humans were the smallest group, but present as well. People were openly and shamelessly exchanging affection, sitting on benches, lying on blankets. Kissing, cuddling, fuc…, he quickly averted his eyes and sped up his step. He walked past a collection of flowers towering higher than he was tall with green petals and thick stems when a delicate hand reached out from behind him and grasped his own hand. He wrenched his hand free, took two quick steps forward and turned around. Two women stood there, chuckling indulgently as he took on a fighting posture. The horns on their head and wings on their backs, the tails swishing behind them and their… assets led him to identify them as succubi. “Ara-ara. All by yourself on such a beautiful day, young man?” The one to the left wondered sultrily. She had long, dark hair, pale skin and strangely coloured eyes. “Wouldn’t you much rather be in the company of two enchanting women?” The other cooed. She had shoulder length red hair, was even paler, but had very dark eyes. “You look lonely and sad.” “And we just couldn’t bear it.” “We thought that we could free you of your troubles.” “Surely we could show you such a good time.” They kept talking alternatingly, slowly moving forward as he took slow steps backwards. “No thank you,” he said firmly. “I’m just looking around.” “No thank you?” The one to the left wondered. “Just looking around?” the one to the right pondered. “Why would you do that?” “When we could do things so much more enjoyable together.” In perfect sync, the two closed the distance and grabbed one of his arms each. They pulled him close and pressed their breasts against his sides. “Leave me alone!” He demanded. “But you’re getting hot,” one cooed. “And you’re getting hard,” the other added. “Don’t deny yourself your own desires!” “Ladies!” A third voice called harshly. The two succubi looked past him, at a new arrival, but did not release him. He struggled, but they were unexpectedly strong. “Sorry, but you know how it is. Two is lonely, four is a crowd. Three is the sweet spot, sister,” the one with the dark eyes said. “That man is one of our new guests and not to be molested,” the new arrival said. After a moment’s consideration, during which they pouted theatrically, the two reluctantly released him and Arn turned to look at his unexpected saviour. He almost called her Illindy, but caught himself before the word slipped free. She looked similar, but not quite the same. “Molested?” The red-head complained.” We’re just flirting. No one said anything about not flirting.” “I believe he said ‘no’,” the woman who resembled Illindy replied. “They always say no and in the end they thank you,” the dark-haired one said. “It’s a game. Why else would he come up here all alone?” “Arn, do you want to fuck these two?” The woman asked him directly. “No,” he said immediately. “He has an erection!” The red-head complained and he felt the spade of her tail brush against his pants. “Enough,” the kunoichi called. “Look for another victim. I am tasked with looking after his welfare.” The dark-haired succubus scoffed. “We were acting only in the interest of his welfare. It’s not healthy to be so pent up. But very well, we shall look for another lucky one to spoil.” The two succubi stalked off while throwing the occasional glare over their shoulders. “Don’t be too cross with them. Even among mamono, succubi have particularly strong desires. And to smell a man like you. Well, it will be difficult to practise self-constraint.” “A man like me?” He asked with narrowed eyes. “Young and virile. Hasn’t had sex in weeks and smells like he needs it bad. I’m amazed at my sister’s self-restraint.” He took a step backwards from her and a faint smile flitted across her face. “I have a husband to look after my needs. No need to fret.” “So you are…?” “Illindy’s older sister. Mira.” She held out a hand and after a moment’s consideration, he took it. “Illindy asked me to keep an out for you today.” “Thanks for the…” “The help?” She interrupted him, smiled and winked. “Don’t mention it. I wouldn’t want to imagine the family drama if I let those two have your first time.” “It wouldn’t be my first time,” he muttered quietly. “You’ve been with a mamono before?” “Of course not,” he immediately denied the preposterous statement. “You can’t compare your first time with a mamono to a human woman, Arn. That I promise.” “If you say so. So I had a watchdog after all, I see.” “I resent that term,” Mira said lightly, clearly not offended. “I merely followed to help you in case you ran into trouble. That is all.” “So if I tried to leave the city, you wouldn’t have minded, eh?” She shrugged. “Leave the ziggurat? No problem. Go beyond? Well, that may have been a bit awkward.” “Right,” he said sourly. “You know, that has nothing to do with you being one of our new guests. Even the rest of us are not supposed to venture to the surface. The secrecy of our city relies on it.” “Except for if you’re part of the guild,” he ventured. “If you’re part of the guild and have an assignment,” Mira clarified. They continued walking around the garden-like floor and Arn couldn’t help but wonder. “Why’d you follow me without saying anything?” She shrugged. “Would you have preferred I reveal myself or would you have felt like a prisoner being escorted about?” “Hmmm,” he grumbled. They walked in silence for a few minutes. The place was undeniably beautiful. A wide variety of plants and flowers, familiar and foreign, coming in all shapes, sizes and colours. “Are you enjoying yourself?” Mira wondered. He frowned as he glanced at a couple intimately entangled in a bush. “Partly,” he admitted. Mira chuckled heartily. “I suppose it would be strange to one like you. Many of us mamono don’t feel the need for modesty when it comes to our bodies or showing affection. So long as it doesn’t inconvenience others, of course.” Doesn’t inconvenience others, eh? He wondered. Seeming to sense his thoughts, the kunoichi continued. “The eighth floor is popular among couples or those just looking for… how should I say? A good time? You should see the orgies that happen here from time to time. I’m not surprised my sister has not brought you up here yet.” A slight blush came unbidden to his cheeks. “Orgies?” He muttered. “Don’t worry,” Mira said and softly clapped him on the back. “Purely optional. But perhaps that informs your opinion of those two succubi. A man coming up here by himself, smelling all kinds of pent up, like you do. I’d have been tempted if I wasn’t married and my sister wasn’t courting you.” “Is that supposed to be a compliment?” He wondered. “It can be if you want it to be.” The two finished their round through the eighth floor and eventually headed for the stairs and further down once more. Mira suggested they get something to eat, which Arn took her up on. She led him to one of the eateries in the centre of the fifth level where they were given plates of vegetable stew. He knew from his visit to the agricultural complex the day before that meat was sparse for these people and it wasn’t as if the food didn’t taste good, but he really wished he could eat some meat. He let his gaze drift over the passing crowds and couldn’t help but wonder. “How many?” “Hmmm?” “How many are there? Living here? In the city.” Mira blew up her cheeks and released a long, thoughtful breath. “With your people? Something in the range of 60.000 and 70.000. That’s in the city proper. Maybe another thousand in the outlying caverns, supplying the food and other materials the city requires.” “A thousand people farm the food for more than 60.000?” He demanded. That was just preposterous. “Of course,” Mira said with a smirk. “You could say that we are a bit more productive than the average human farmer.” “Hmmm,” he grumbled. It was true that the cavern had been large and there had been very few people. “And humans? My people?” He finally asked. “How many?” Mira wondered and he nodded. “There were…,” she thought it over for a second. “Ah, damn. I forgot the exact split. There were 4.762 men, women and children in the city before your people were taken here.” “Not ‘invited’?” He asked snidely. She clicked her tongue. “That’s what we’re calling it, but I don’t see why we can’t call it what it is.” That surprised him. He thought that everyone here was on the same page that his people had been generously invited and them, or him, being ungrateful for that was a bad thing. “You have some concerns about what was done?” He asked carefully. She shrugged. “I know and agree with the reasoning, but it’s going to be a lot of trouble. Aside from taking you all down here by force, rather than the more… conventional approach.” “And what is that?” He wondered. She shrugged. “Well, one of the responsibilities of the guild is to… convince men and women to join us.” He narrowed his eyes and she quickly continued. “It’s nothing devious really. We often invite people who are downtrodden or poor or lonely. It’s not like we’re ripping apart or attacking settlements. Normally, that is.” “And yet you did,” he commented and she nodded. “We did.” Silence fell between them for a moment, before he spoke again. “So you ‘invite’ people often? That’s how you know how difficult it is?” He made sure to make the ‘invite’ sound as sarcastic as he could. “My own husband is from the surface. I recall well what a pain it was to get him to open up to me. And he didn’t have a few thousand other malcontents to assure him of his convictions.” “And how long did that take?” “A few weeks. That is until he admitted that he liked being with me. I’m quite certain he actually enjoyed my company long before then” she said with a wink. “Though I have to admit that I was not as coy as Illindy is with you.” “Meaning?” She gave him a careful glance, then brought her hands up before her face. She formed a ring from the thumb and index finger of one hand and quickly moved the index finger of the other in and out of the circle. She broke into hearty laughter as he frowned. “You should see your face,” she smiled. “No need to be so serious.” --- Tap, tap, tap; The pen tapped against the surface of the table and Arn stared at his list. No matter how many items he added, he was no closer to making a decision. No closer to making up his mind. No closer to knowing what he should believe. What was right and what was wrong. He flicked the pen onto the table and put his hand up to his head, rubbing at his temples to soothe a building headache. He thought back to everything that had happened these last few weeks. How everything had been fine just two months ago. Vanhildr’s departure, his uncle's plans to barter him off for a profitable match, his first meeting with Illindy and that terrible night. He replayed his first interaction with Illindy in Comaranzan, remembered how she’d been barely dressed and tried to convince him of her good intentions. Of her appeal. He thought of his talk with Mira and how she had ‘convinced’ her husband of the benefits of being with her. He recalled all the walks they had undertaken through the different levels of the city, the people he talked to. Nothing he’d seen contradicted her stories and yet all that he saw and all that he was told contradicted what he’d been taught all his life. Finally he thought back to the previous day once more. The succubi and Mira and a small part of him wondered if it weren’t better if Illindy just took from him what she wanted. At least it would give him the chance to claim his innocence, that he hadn’t agreed, hadn’t wanted it, hadn’t given in to temptation. Of course merely harbouring such thoughts was likely just as bad as openly desiring it. Arn began pacing back and forth in the small room as the green light phase, which roughly corresponded to night time, slowly morphed to blue. Of course day and night had less significance in this place, but Illindy at least had kept to this rhythm, always returning him to his room before red shifted to green. He was considering going out again to clear his head when a knock came from the door right before it was slowly pushed open. “Good morning,” Illindy said by way of greeting. “My apologies for not keeping you company yesterday. I had tasks to attend to.” “That’s alright,” he said. Would she ask him if he’d made a decision? Was that why she’d left him to his own devices the day before? What would he say if she did? He quickly turned the page to hide his collection of arguments against and in favour of believing what the denizens of Comaranzan told him. “What’s the plan for today?” He asked. Her eyes followed his hands as he turned the page, but then returned to focusing on him instead. “There is someone who would like to talk to you. Someone I imagine you would like to talk to as well.” “And that is?” “Solfrid. Your mother.” His breath caught momentarily. “I thought I wasn’t supposed to meet any of the others? Keep us from strengthening each other in our convictions to hold out?” A frown briefly came over her face, but was quickly replaced by a sad kind of smile. “That’s not quite it. Do you not wish to speak with her?” “I did not say that,” he replied and stepped towards the door and the kunoichi. “Let’s go.” He went past her, along the bannister rail and down the stairs. She followed him without delay and took the lead. He’d imagined that they would be walking for a while, but they did not even leave the guild compound. Instead, they passed through a series of side-passages and eventually came to a stop in what might either be called a dead end or an ante-chamber of sorts with a series of doors. Illindy knocked on one of them and then pushed it open without waiting for a reply. “Coming?” She asked as she stepped inside. Arn nervously licked his lips and took a moment to steel his nerves before following the kunoichi inside. “Arn!” He barely had a moment to look at the room he found himself in when his mother sprang forward and wrapped him in a tight hug. “Mother!” he called back and squeezed her. “You can’t believe how good it feels to see a familiar face.” “I can imagine,” she told him, then held him out at arm’s length. “You look good. Have you been well?” He shot a look to the side where Illindy stood with a look of feigned disinterest. He struggled for a moment with what to say. How to sum up his inner conflict, then settled on a simple. “I have been treated well enough.” His mother nodded, then made a gesture for him to enter properly into the room. There were a few comfortable looking chairs arranged around a table, a soft ottoman and a desk at the far end of the room. He followed her gesture and sat down on one of the chairs. His mother sat on the other side of the table, while Illindy sat down beside him. He had a good deal of questions. How had she been treated since the battle for Skovfeld? Was she well? Who had been put in charge of convincing her and why was she here by herself? Did she have her own doubts or was he alone in this? When he looked at her face, she herself seemed to struggle with what to say exactly. Nonetheless it was her who broke the uncomfortable silence first. “I’ve struggled for nearly a month to think of a good way to have this conversation and I haven’t found an answer.” He bit his lip. Then he was not alone in his doubts. Should he reassure her it was alright? Encourage her to hold strong to her faith? “That’s alright,” he said. “With everything these people say and claim, do and show us. It would be difficult for even the most faithful to not be conflicted.” His mother sighed and shook her head. “What do you remember of that day, Arn?” “What do you mean?” He demanded. He remembered it very vividly. “The mamono of Comaranzan breached our walls and our wards unchallenged.” That had been strange indeed. Disastrous. “There had to have been a traitor in our midst,” he said. He’d spent a good deal of time pondering that. And with everything he’d learned of the unseen eye, it seemed the most logical conclusion. “There is no easy way to say it, Arn. The one who sabotaged the wards was me.” He blinked. He opened his mouth and closed it again as he felt the blood drain from his face. “No,” he finally said. “No, that can’t… That’s… I can’t…” His mother rose from her seat and began walking up and down with her hands behind her back. “It is true. I am the one.” She ceased her steps and looked at him, a mix of relief and concern on her face. Struggling to close his mouth, he could only whisper. “Why?” Why would she do such a thing? Betray the city? Betray her people? Betray him? He felt moisture collecting in his eyes and quickly rubbed it away. “Why?” He demanded again and was shouting this time as he quickly let his ire rise in lieu of emotions that would leave him weak.. “Why would you betray us?” Illindy laid a hand on his, but he angrily shrugged her off as he rose to his feet. Was he going to attack the two? He couldn’t say. “I didn’t betray my people,” his mother said passionately. “I served my people!” “Helping these mamono take them all here is what you call serving your people?” Arne shouted. “How do you serve your people by betraying them?” “Because I am from here!” She shouted. “I was born here and raised here. I am an unseen eye!” “What?” He demanded. He felt the hot anger draining from his face as disbelief paralyzed him. “My true name. My real name is Alanana. I was born and trained here in this city and volunteered for service on the surface.” He blinked, still dumbfounded. He struggled to speak for a moment, until his ire bubbled to the surface once more. “What service?” He demanded angrily. “What service requires a woman to live a lie? To pretend to be a loving wife and mother? To help destroy a town of people who trusted her?” “Arn!” Came the harsh reply. “I know you are confused and angry, but I will not tolerate you saying I was a bad wife or a bad mother!” “What? Did my father know who he had married? A traitor to Rol and his Seraphim? Is that why he never returned? Ow.” Arn held his stinging cheek. His mother had leaned across the table and slapped his face with an open palm. “What?” He demanded, no less angry. “I’m not a child anymore that is cowed by a slap.” “I asked you here to tell you the truth. So that you might understand, even if I do not return.” Her angry visage slowly relaxed again as she took a deep breath. “What are you talking about?” “Will you listen to what I have to say?” She asked. “You don’t have to like what I say, but I want you to listen to it all before you make up your mind.” He continued glaring at her and at Illindy for good measure, who looked uncomfortable sitting there beside him. “Fine,” he finally spat and sat back down. “Tell your tale then.” He crossed his arms before his chest as his mother took a deep breath and returned to her own seat before collecting her thoughts and beginning her story. Born as Alanana in Comaranzan some 42 years ago as the third child of her family, she had decided on what she wanted as a young girl. She had never been satisfied with being born as human and had always aspired to be a mamono as soon as possible. It wasn’t unusual. Many women had similar desires. Mamono lived longer, were stronger, often seen as more beautiful and enjoyed other natural advantages, depending on their species. But the city was dependent on its human population and so being transformed was a reward given to those who did service to the city. To marry and have children was a common service and often those who wished it would be given a gift of monsterization at an advanced age. But that was not the path that Alanana had chosen. Even though Comaranzan was isolated, events in the outside world could still affect it. And so the guild of the unseen eye had vigilant watchers in many places above. Alanana had been trained to be one such watcher. An eye to watch the royal court of Ashheim. At barely seventeen, she had left Comaranzan and introductions had been made by another eye to plant her in the capital of Ashfeld. Thus, Alanana became Solfrid. Everything would have been well, had Solfrid not met a young Jarl named Jarsin. For all her vows and training, all her intentions to earn her transformation, the young woman had fallen in love. And as it so happened, so too did the young Jarl fall in love with this woman that had something different about her from most others he had known. As the wife of a Jarl, she was still able to provide the guild with reports, but questions were still posed as to why she did not return to Comaranzan with her husband, as was common for guild operatives. But Jarsin had been a devout believer and Solfrid had been loath to move the two of them immediately. She thought she could ease him into the idea, slowly work on his attitude so that the transition might be easier when the time came. Then Solfrid became pregnant and gave birth to a son and she became more conflicted. Over the years, she often discussed the possibility of moving the three of them to Comaranzan with her handlers, but the moment was never right. The town needed them. The kingdom needed them. They needed each other. Years passed and Solfrid made plans for the three of them to move to Comaranzan shortly after her son’s coming of age. But then Corpsehaven, the neighbour whose spectre had long loomed quietly over Ashheim, had become active. The undead legions probed Ashheim’s defences. The people believed that their fellow men and women were being slaughtered and carried away for carrion and though Solfrid knew better, she was powerless to actually pass on that knowledge without exposing herself. The angels would not tolerate it. Soon, Jarsin was called to war, a war from which he never returned. Solfrid wanted to send her son to Comaranzan, beg to be transformed into a mamono so that she might go in search of her husband, but a new hindrance had appeared. A valkyrie, fulfilling an oath to her husband who had taken a blow that might’ve felled her, took stewardship of her son. How could she have spirited him away with Vanhildr’s steady eye, sharp steel and powerful magic watching over her son? Unwilling to leave her son behind, Solfrid had been forced to be patient. A bit more than a year later, the valkyrie had finally departed, but now Rolf demanded her son for his own gain. She contacted Illindy, who had been her handler for almost two years at that point, to get herself and Arn to Comaranzan. But the council wanted more than that. With Corpsehaven’s aggression ever increasing, they feared that the easy source of men and women that had been, for centuries, the kingdom of Ashheim would be overrun before long. A plan was hatched. A plan to make Comaranzan independent of the humans on the surface. But to achieve that, a large increase in the native human population was needed. And so they had turned to Solfrid to assist in their designs. Though reluctant, Solfrid fulfilled their designs and finally, Solfrid became Alanana once more. But still she hadn’t been able to depart for Corpsehaven. The city needed her help still and the people of Skovfeld trusted her. A month she had spent setting the course, building bridges, preparing for her own monsterization, but she could not depart before talking to her son. Arn sat silent, trying to sort the story in his head. The hot anger had slowly faded and left him in a speechless sort of horror. It was easy to deny outright. To decry his mother’s story as lies, as delusions, but parts of it made sense. He remembered her reaction when the news came that his father had fallen. She had been maddened and horrified and angry, but a certain drive had overcome her not long after. He remembered how Vanhildr had arrived in the town and how everyone had bent over backwards and had been overjoyed, him most of all. But his mother’s reaction had been more guarded. He’d assumed it was because she blamed the angel for his father’s death, but perhaps there had been more to it? She had never been the most devout woman, certainly not as devout as his father had been. “Then you believe my father is alive?” He asked. She nodded. “The undead of Corpsehaven slay humans no more than the demons of Comaranzan do. It has not been that long. His trail won’t have gotten cold yet.” “I don’t understand,” he admitted. “If mamono don’t want to exterminate us, why is Corpsehaven attacking the kingdom?” “There have been rumours for a few years. A rumour that says the Lords are negotiating with the angels to form a peace agreement,” Illindy said. “To formally put the great war to rest and put rules in place for all to follow.” “Then why?” “We believe the wight queen seeks to consolidate territory before an official peace. Bring a large human population under her control. Tensions are high all over the continent.” “So she wants to destroy the kingdom before a peace can be formed?” “Destroy?” Illindy asked. “Unlikely. If she wished to overrun the kingdom, she could do so. She has not brought her full might to bear, nor is she able to, likely. The continent’s angels would come in force. She might come into conflict with other queens of the domain. The lord herself might censure her for threatening the peace talks. But slowly eat away a few towns and cities? Who knows how far she can take things before someone reacts?” Silence fell over the three of them. Arn’s mind couldn’t wrap around everything he’d been told today. All the stories he’d been told by Illindy and the other denizens of Comaranzan? That he could dismiss. Even if he had had his doubts. But his mother? How could his whole life with her have been a lie? “I know this is all a lot to take in,” his mother said. “But I will go through monsterization soon and depart soon after. I wished for you to hear the truth from me.” “So you’re just going to drop all this on me and then leave?” “Two days remain before I depart. But this is the last time you will see me in this form.” She smiled weakly as he frowned. “If you like, we will meet again here tomorrow, at the same time.” He frowned some more, chewed on his lip, but then nodded. “We will speak more tomorrow.” His mother rose to her feet, stepped around the table and laid a hand on his shoulder. He sensed she wanted to embrace him once more, but he didn’t have it in him at that moment. After a moment of silence, she squeezed his shoulder and turned to leave. Arn and Illindy remained in the room a few minutes longer. Minutes spent in dead silence until Illindy finally offered to bring him back to his room. Seeing no meaningful difference between brooding in this room or another, he took her up on the offer. A few hours later him and Illindy had just finished dinner and he was feeling lethargic. He went from the table to the bed and rolled up on it. “I will come see you tomorrow,” the kunoichi said. An intense inner struggle overcame him as he heard her pull open the door.. Stay here tonight. or Get lost! He couldn’t figure out which he wanted to say to her. |
mugen91Nov 10, 2023 3:30 AM
| I freely admit I did not see that twist coming. I do kinda want a side story with those two succubae, though. |
| "When you have bought your own load of hooey, you know exactly what it is worth." -- Bruce Sterling |
tygertyger said: I do kinda want a side story with those two succubae, though. Haha, I might give it a go if / when I manage to finish all the HMG related stuff :D Maku_The_Blue said: I in fact did not see that twist coming... I did wonder why the wards didn't work, and honestly even suspected Vanhildr of being the saboteur. But I never considered the mother of all people. Good twist, I can certainly believe her motivations, what's a couple decades spent on a mission when the reward is a couple centuries being added onto your lifespan? Then it seems I did my job well. I didn't give many and no overt clues of who was the responsible either, to be fair :) |
Resolution Arn’s eyes stung as he stared up at the ceiling, barely visible in the darkness that was only broken by the faint glow of the luminous water in the basin. He hadn’t managed even a single moment of sleep since he laid down. There was simply too much on his mind. His mother’s betrayal and the justifications she had given for it. Dismissing the words of any random monster or even Illindy, who he felt he knew somewhat at this point was one thing. But to dismiss his mother out of hand? That did not align with Rol’s teachings or his personal convictions. But what to do when her words contradicted everything he knew to be true and right? His thoughts on the matter moved in endless circles and he struggled to come to a satisfying conclusion. Or any conclusion at all, for that matter. But his mother wasn’t the only thing keeping him from finding sleep. His thoughts were cast back to that instant the previous evening or night, whatever it was. He had said it and yet he had regretted it immediately. And yet he had asked her to stay. He had felt so forlorn and lost and hadn’t wanted to be alone with his thoughts. He had thought that he would eventually be revolted, as was proper, or that might finally show her true colours after he’d finally given in, yet nothing had happened. She hadn’t tried to touch him or even said much to him at all. She had just laid there, as she was doing still. He had spent an entire night’s rest in bed with a monster and yet Arn remained whole and unmolested. The basin was on his side of the bed and so he could not make out as much as a silhouette of her. All he could do was imagine that he felt the warmth of her body laying just beside him. That was nonsense of course. They were both clothes and weren’t touching at all. Not to mention that Comaranzan was very warm anyway. Was she awake like him? Or was she sleeping? Her breathing was so quiet that he could not tell. He recalled what her sister had said, about the way he smelled and how mamono struggled to control themselves. If that was true, what kept Illindy from simply jumping him? If his presence awoke such desires in her, how could she lie beside him and rest? He quietly cursed at himself. Why did he have to think about these things? These impure thoughts only made him even more conscious of her lying beside him. In spite of his best attempt to think of something else, he remembered the swell of her breasts, the nipples erect and barely grazing his chest. He remembered her body close to his as she pushed her sweet tongue into his mouth. Remembered how she had requested him to make a decision. He closed his eyes which, of course, didn’t do much in the nearly pitch dark room. His heart rate accelerated as his mind played through scenes of what they might do together. Would she take the lead or would he? Would…? No, no, no, he thought to himself as he felt himself grow hard. Stop this now or… “You are awake?” Illindy’s voice cut neatly through his inner monologue. It was less a question than it was a statement of fact. His breath caught and for a moment he contemplated miming asleep. But what was the point? She knew he was awake, didn’t she. “Yes,” he replied softly. “What are you thinking about?” His tongue snaked out of his mouth to nervously lick across his lips. “Just… just what I learned yesterday.” Yes, he had to deflect. And it had been on his mind a few minutes before, hadn’t it? He felt the bed shift just barely beside him. “You have been with a woman before?” She asked and he could hear that she was right beside him. He imagined that she had her head propped up on the palm of her hand as he feltl her warm breath against his cheek. “Yes,” he confirmed cautiously, unsure how that was relevant. How did she know anyway? Had her sister told her? “Then you know what this means, don’t you?” She asked, then took his hand and pulled it towards her. He resisted, but only for a moment. She was patient. She didn’t yank him further when he resisted and only kept a minimal amount of pull on his wrist until finally he ceased his resistance and let her move his hand where she wanted it. “Stretch out your fingers,” she demanded and after the barest hesitation, he did. She rotated his wrist and the tips of his index- and middle finger sensed the heat even before they felt her soft and wet flesh. His breath caught in his throat as he realised where she had made him touch her. “I asked you for your answer,” she breathed huskily into his ear. “And my loins are pining for you. My self-control is nearly at an end.” She pulled his wrist a bit further and his fingers softly stroked across what could only be her womanhood. When had she gotten undressed? “I…,” his voice broke and his heart raced. Was this how things would end? “I….” She released his wrist yet he could not bring himself to remove his hand. On the contrary, his index finger found an opening and slipped into her hot and wet canal. “I…,” he still couldn’t bring himself to say it. Illindy meanwhile moved closer. He could feel it from where he was touching her. She came closer and then she climbed atop him. She straddled him slowly, resting the heat of her loins against his, staining the fine, short pants she had given him in her lustful secretions. He moved his hand along with her, keeping his index finger buried inside her and softly moving it back and forth. His cock, he only now realised how painful erect it was, strained against the fabric to come in touch with her. He saw the glint of her eyes, reflecting the barely visible glow of the luminous water in the basin on the far side of the room. “Do you want this?” She asked softly, grinding herself against him and making his hips squirm beneath her. “I have wanted this for so long,” she continued whispering. “When your mother told me about you. When I first saw you from afar. Even then I wanted you.” “Even… When?” He asked breathlessly. The reflected glint in her eyes came closer and went dark when her face was just above his. He felt her hot breath on his lips. All you have to do is reach up, he thought. That’s all it will take. For damnation or salvation? I don’t know which. “Two years I have longed to call you mine,” she whispered and he could almost feel her lips on him. “And now you must tell me. Will you be mine and I yours?” “I…,” still he couldn’t speak. But there was something else he could do. He raised his head from the pillow and his lips met hers. He felt the breath briefly catch in her throat, then her lips pressed down on him, pushed his head back into the pillow. Her tongue forced its way past his lips and demanded he part his teeth to let her in. With bated breath he complied. Their tongues intertwined in a wet dance. He felt clumsy as hers circled his with dexterous ease and toyed with it. But it didn’t feel horrid. Not at all. No woman he had been with before had kissed him like Illindy did now. He didn’t exactly have a wealth of experience, but in his other experiences, the girls had tended to leave the reins solely to him. His free hand reached up to grasp at her, but he almost felt shy to touch her then. It was preposterous, wasn’t it? And yet, the fingers of his other hand were still playing with her womanhood. She grasped the wrist of his free hand and guided it to her hip. As soon as his palm made content with her firm curves, he grasped it, felt the oh-so-soft skin and softly stroked across it. Illindy’s lips parted from his and she panted sweet, hot breath into his face. Could breath be sweet? He didn’t know, but hers certainly seemed to be at this moment. He felt her breath approach his eyes and he closed them reflexively just before her lips pressed first against his left, then his right eyelid. Feeling slightly bolder, he slipped a second finger inside her and slid his hand from her hips to her backside. He squeezed her firm butt and she let out a soft moan before plunging her lips back against his. He pushed his own tongue forth, tried to get at hers before she could push past his lips once more but it was no use. She hungrily pushed forward and their tongues entwined in his own mouth once more. His pants were wet by then. His own precum flowed, but it was mostly Illindy who spread her lustful fluids all over him with her constant gyrations back and forth. He panted and gasped for air when her lips finally left his once more. Then her weight and warmth was suddenly gone from him. “Take off your clothes,” Illindy said breathlessly. An instant later, green-tinted light suffused the room, letting him see her in all her naked beauty. Second thoughts overcame him once more. Was this really right? But he had kissed her willingly. Had fondled her willingly. Had inserted his fingers into her willingly. Nothing bad had happened. And nothing will, he told himself. He pulled the soft fabric of his shirt over his head and threw it to the side. In the brief moment he couldn’t see her, Illindy had moved to the foot of the bed. He shimmied out of his pants and threw them to the side as well. Now, unrestrained, his cock slapped against his stomach. “So big,” Illindy said luridly and stepped onto the bed. He saw a trail of wetness from her slit glistening down the inside of her thighs and felt himself throb in response. Maybe this was wrong, but if it was, he was tired of being right. She went down onto her knees and leaned forward. His rod looked large in her hands and his thigh twitched as she gently stroked him up and down. She leaned further forward and slipped the tip past her lips. Arn moaned as the tip of her tongue softly played across his head. Her eyes sought his own as she slipped him deeper into her mouth, measuring his reaction as she slowly bobbed back and forth. His tip poked deeper and without hesitation or difficulty, she slipped him inside her throat. Arn groaned and inadvertently jerked his hips upwards at the sensation. She glugged, then her eyes were back on him. Her hands held his hip in place as her head moved upwards and plunged down again. His cock lurched as it repeatedly slipped in and out of her throat. His toes curled and he let out a groan. It had been so long and now he was teetering on the precipice after just a few moments. It felt like nothing he had enjoyed previously. “Illindy, slow down or else I’ll…,” he tried to rein her in but it was no use. Rather than take his warning as her cue to go slower, her bobbing became faster and he could have sworn the suction only increased. “Oh by the Se…,” he caught himself before he said it. His hands went to her head and pushed her down all the way as his balls pulled taut. In spite of his efforts in pushing her downwards, she pulled her head up just enough to pop him out of her throat as the floodgates broke and his vision narrowed. His muscles tensed and relaxed repeatedly as he felt himself being drained of rope after rope of his seed. He couldn’t remember a finish like that, not with the two girls he had slept with and not with himself. Finally, breathing hard and feeling boneless, his head fell back into the pillow. His cock left the hot confines of Illindy’s mouth and the kunoichi crawled up towards him. She opened her mouth to show him swirl her tongue around the viscous cum he’d just released. Still breathing hard, he watched her close first her mouth, then her eyes. She swallowed visibly and opened her mouth again to show him that none of his seed remained. “You taste perfect, my love,” she whispered in his ear after lying her body tight against his. “It was worth waiting all this time for you.” Her hand stroked the side of his face as she rested her forehead against his. He felt a warm tingling sensation in his stomach. Was it true then? Did she love him? Had she meant all she’d said? And what about him? Did he love her? He wasn’t sure. But he liked her. Was fond of her. That much it was hard to deny. He placed his hand on the back of her neck to gently pull her head down and place his lips against her once more. It felt right, oh so right. Why did it feel so right? “Do you want me to repay the favour?” He asked when their lips parted once more. “I thought you’d never ask,” she said breathlessly. He tried to move her off of him, but she removed his hands from her side, righted herself and scooted forward. She left a warm trail of her arousal across his stomach and chest to finally present him with her glistening slit. He wrapped his arm around her hip to pull her a little closer still and craned his neck forward. His lips brushed against the inside of her thigh, stained with her arousal and he let the taste and smell suffuse his senses. Nothing he had tasted had ever been so sweet as this. He kissed her other thighs and pulled her a little closer still, as though he was trying to pull their bodies into one another and just just against one another. She let out a happy coo when he kissed her lower lips, then slipped his tongue out to circle it around her clit. One of her hands softly stroked across his head and he looked up to her face. Her eyes looked down on him with a mixture of love and lust and he could not help but be motivated by it. His tongue darted past her labia to tease her vagina. Even as he enjoyed her intoxicating aroma and smell, he kept looking up at her occasionally to gauge her reaction and to see what she enjoyed and what she did not. He’d never done this for another woman, but Illindy was neither shy nor quiet about showing him exactly what she enjoyed and what she did not. It took him longer to make her finish than it had taken her to do the same for him, but eventually he had her heaving heavy breaths and kneading her own breasts even as his own rod was back to being painfully hard. “Yes! Yes! Yes!” She moaned loudly and he saw the soft outline of her abdominal muscles flex along with her thighs as she squeezed his head between them. He kept up his stimulation as she shimmied forward and rubbed herself against his face and smeared him with her sweet nectar. Then her hips slowed down their grinding and her breathing slowed. He retreated his tongue even as she pulled back to look down at his face again. “That’s a beautiful look for you, Arn,” she said lovingly. She bent forward once more to place her lips against his. Without letting his lips escape her, she reached backwards and her fingers wrapped around his cock once more. She squeezed and stroked him and he moaned into her mouth until she decided to break the kiss. “Perhaps we should quit here,” she suggested. “And give you some time to think it over.” “No,” he muttered. He reached around her hips and squeezed her ass. “No?” She asked coyly. “Then tell me what you want.” He bit his lip. “I… I want to… I want to love you.” “You…,” she chuckled warmly. “I would have accepted that you wanted to fuck, but that was even better.” She continued chuckling indulgently and he felt she was provoking him to take the next step and he was only happy to oblige. His arm under her butt, he sat up and shimmied towards the edge of the bed. He stood up, bringing her up with him. Holding her up was easy as he stumbled towards a piece of wall free of obstruction. He pressed her against the wall and manoeuvred his hips to line himself up with her pussy. Still holding her up, he eased himself forward and moaned happily as his tool was enveloped by her hot folds. “Uuurh,” he moaned as he pushed his forehead against her and slowly began thrusting into her. Somehow, this felt even better than her mouth and throat had. She was so tight, so warm, so inviting. And even beyond the purely physical sensation, there was an elation that he felt deep down in his chest that seemed to only keep growing with every movement. “Just like that,” Illindy moaned. “Give it all to me. Give me your all! Arn slowly sped up the back and forth movement of his hips and then placed his head next to hers, moving in close so that her body was flush with the wall and his was flush with hers. He felt her teeth softly scrape across the skin of his shoulders as the wet slapping of flesh against flesh echoed across the small room. He had never felt anything like what he felt now as he repeatedly slammed forward, desperate to sink every last bit of his tool into her hot, inviting womanhood. “I love you!” Illindy moaned loudly and he felt her squeeze tight around him. But he wasn’t quite there yet. Her speech grew impeded by her moans and he felt himself pushed to greater heights. In that moment, he felt like his body had been created for no purpose other than to copulate with Illindy. Just like Illindy’s body felt to him as though it had been crafted solely for him. Finally Illindy settled down and he felt her hungrily push her lips to his once more. “Give it all to me!” She demanded in a short break before pushing her tongue past his lips once more. Now it was his turn to feel his limit quickly approaching. The wet slapping sounds only intensified in accord with him activating what remained of his reserves of strength and endurance. Their sweat mingled together as he felt his knees go weak with his blissful release and he had to lean into her to stop from toppling over. He looked deep into her eyes and leaned his forehead against hers. “That was amazing,” he said breathlessly. “You take the words out of my mouth,” she returned. Illindy gave him another kiss. One that almost seemed coy compared to before and then returned to smiling at him warmly. He held her more tightly and disengaged from the wall. His thighs barely held up the two of them as he took a few shaky steps backwards and collapsed onto the bed. Though slowly wilting, he still hadn’t slipped out of the kunoichi who now sat astride him, almost as if she didn’t want to let him go. Almost as if she read his thought and to emphasise her agreement with it, Illindy began rolling her hips back and forth. --- A few hours later, the two had just bathed to wash up from their rigorous night-time activity. With the heat of the moment passed, Arn had spent a good amount of time thinking back on his actions during the night. Where the church was concerned, he had certainly damned himself. But so what? He had crossed every line, but his soul was intact, wasn’t it? She hadn’t sacrificed him in some horrid ritual either. “What are you thinking about?” Illindy asked him and reached out to hold his hand. He chuckled to himself. “Just reflecting.” “I see. Come now, your mother will be waiting.” Arn smiled and let Illindy pull him along. He didn’t know what the future had in store or whether he had made the right choice, but he was feeling hopeful. For the first time since that night. No, for the first time since Vanhildr had left. Why should he choose to believe a message that left him without hope for the future when there was a good chance that, though he would likely never see the sun again, he would have a full family once more, a loving wife and a home far from the ravages of rising tensions on the continent? For now he had to properly see off his mother so that she could depart on her mission with a mind at ease. |
mugen91Nov 16, 2023 3:22 AM
Maku_The_Blue said: Annnd Arn finally gives in to temptation, surely if he can be swayed the rest of his village can too. Good story overall, well written, cool twist (that makes sense) and happy ending. Glad you enjoyed it :) Maku_The_Blue said: I don't really have any criticisms to be honest, only a suggestion, might have been nice to see the conflict everyone references instead of just hearing about it. Not saying the story was lacking for a its exclusion, but it might have added a bit more weight to Arn's beliefs if we had something like a POV chapter of a soldier on a battlefield quote on quote 'fighting for his life' against a bunch of Mamono. Though I suppose the village being attacked might have served that purpose well enough, even if no-one died. I considered adding something along those lines, but didn't want to muddle things with multiple PoVs and figured it made more sense to keep the raid on the town as the only battle. Also, technically there were some fatalities during the battle, just not among the humans :) |
| I think I recall there being a couple things that hinted at who the insider might have been but I didn't really push that thought all the way through, so when the reveal happened, I was still pretty woah. What really got me though was that I somehow didn't catch that Illindy was a kunoichi until well into the story. Still nice history! |
Reply to YummyLunches
I think I recall there being a couple things that hinted at who the insider might have been but I didn't really push that thought all the way through, so when the reveal happened, I was still pretty woah. What really got me though was that I somehow didn't catch that Illindy was a kunoichi until well into the story. Still nice history!
| @YummyLunches Haha, maybe I did not make things clear enough then :P To be fair, the first explicit mention of Illindy's species is in chapter 5, so before you would only be guessing based off of general description. The intent behind that being that Arn himself was not at all familiar with different species of mamono, so he wouldn't have known what exactly she was. |
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