Mariwa: An Ivian Tale

Children of the Lake 2

As the one months anniversary of Holly's awakening approached, she was called for right as dusk arrived.

The day reminded her of that first time she walked these corridors. Her limbs shook with anxiety, Agare kept an even pace behind her for reasons he had never told, and she kept looking from side to side, as if she hadn't passed by these doors hundreds of times now. She nearly skipped right past Marquise's study, were not for her companion's warning.

The room was much the same as it ever was. Things had the tendency to move here in between visits, all sorts of clutter coming and going as needed outside of a few fixtures such as that beautiful map of the Ivian Archipelago, as well as her plushy chair, still too small for her body yet made comfortable by consideration alone.

Which is why the differences stood out all the more. Even if she hadn't noticed the shift from extravagance to function in Marquise's wardrobe, the tension in Agare's muscles, the barely restrained agitation in Swordlight and Aram's posture, she could still taste that wrongness in the air. Something was about to happen, she was sure of it.

"Holly! Been waiting for you! Have a seat!" Marquise said, tone roughly as usual.

"Marquise, good evening!" Holly said, sitting down, "S-strange hour for us to meet isn't it?"

"Is it? Haven't we talked the night away plenty times before?"

"I mean, yeah... b-but it feels like something's different today?"

"Gihihih! Soooorry, guess I have you a scare, didn't I?" Marquise leaned back, relaxing with her hands over her desk. "Not gonna lie, I did bring you here today to discuss something very important, but remember, I won't force you into anything you don't want."

"I-I would never refuse you, you know that! Tell me what it is, and I will get it done!"

"Oooh, much obliged for all that zest! If you only knew what that does for motivation... Today thought, things are a little different, so I want you to listen to me first. Remember what I told you about the Remnants of Eligor?"

"Of course!" Holly said. It was easy as, outside of King Eligor and the Eight Tales plus some other anecdotes, she tended to be very vague about the topic.

"Then you know a Faceless' life mission of hunting the divine and their creations. In that case, I'm sure you are aware mine was too."

"I am!"

"And I'm sure you noticed this, but," Marquise said, raising a hand and, as Holly expected her to do some sort of coy gesture, plunging her fingers into the wound of her neck. Holly gasped, alert to slow, soundless stirring of her Mark's oozing, muscular folds, "there are a few differences between me and the average faceless.

"Not just of the body, you know? I'm what we used to call a Headless. Not half of the Remnants members become faceless, and not a tenth of those are considered worth becoming like me, or even meet the requirements. No, no, you need to be the best of the best, from the resilience of your flesh to the sharpness of your mind, only fire forges us, the leaders of our people!

"T-that sounds really cool! You're really just the strongest, aren't you?!"

"Not just strong!" Marquise flexed a bicep, not bulky like the lads in Lesser Hollow but still very well defined, "Bah, I can gloat all I want later. I proved myself, I became one of the Headless, and eventually gained enough prestige the Council, the... ruling body of the Remnants, allowed me to become the leader of my own unit of Faceless."

"Here, right?"

The Marquise pulled her hand from her neck, not a drop or a stain to taint her pale fingertips, and tutted her. "Far, far away from here Holly. You told me you knew about Skawla, remember?"

Heartbeat faster, Holly nodded, "I-I've heard about it."

"It's a beautiful nation, and a beautiful city too. If there's one Ivian place outsiders know about its surely Skawla, the Gateway to Ivias. And it didn't earn that name from nothing either! If a new foreign product is booming across the island, if a new trend is making waves among our many aristocracies out of nowhere, if some new technology suddenly revolutionizes agriculture or war or whatever, chances are they arrived through Skawla.

"The Port of Progress! The Hellgates to the War Isles! The Lesan Capital of Piracy! The Great House of Sirens! I could go on! The city alone houses the biggest diversity of Dashi in the archipelago, carries more wealth in its pockets than all the Goban Territories combined, and sees more trade daily than some of the big continental seaside cities! And it has also hosted one of the Remnants peskiest enemies from inception."

The image of the fish woman with the spiral shield came to mind. "The Great House of Sirens... T-that would be the Azure, then?"

"Right on the mark, that's them."

A strange discomfort settled in the pit of Holly's stomach, "A-and we do need to talk about this here and now, you say?"

"Holly," Marquise said, low and neutral, severe, that same tone she had used to explain the Scorching Season "I don't fancy making you uncomfortable just for kicks. If you want to go, I'll let you go, just know that this here is life or death important."

Holly felt phantom goose flesh break across her body, "S-sorry, I'll listen."

"Don't be! I'm grateful for the chance. As I was about to say, the Azure is powerful in ways few Tales nowadays are. Their Tale Heirs, those who come to posses their Divinity and act for their cause, are numerous, they can be individually very strong and well trained, their members deeply enmeshed into the political climate of their nation, counting on its armed forces and unrivaled in Ivias navy to protect them.

"Something needed to be done to keep them in check, and I had just the method. I proposed the Council, and after some months of headbutting that particular brick wall, I managed to break through and convince them I was the right woman for the task!

"I became commander to what we called back in the Remnants a Forward Base. They serve many purposes, mostly acting as a center of command and safehouse where our agents can gather to fight in some front, you might run into a lot of them if you ever visit the Northern Light Region. Ours, however? We were a sabotage crew!

"And you better believe we did our job magnificently! We hit them right where it hurts, defeating very core people to their functions, planting false information to instill uncertainty within their ranks, turning some of their strongest allies against their cause! We were loved for it, praised for our results, lavished with resources! You excepted, of course, all of us in this room met there as comrades in arms!"

"A-amazing! And the other Faceless in the mansion too?" Holly asked.

"No, the others I met through, let's say, similar interests," Marquise said.

"W-what kind of—" Holly paused, "Wait, I don't know exactly where we are but from what you showed me we are pretty far from Skawla. What happened?"

For the first time Holly had ever seen, Marquise stilled. Being screamed at for her nosiness would have been infinitely preferable. It felt selfish to admit, but the Marquise of her mind was unflappable, impossible to be brought low, to be rendered speechless! Yet, she couldn't deny it, as the creaking of Marquise's gloved hands gripping together grew.

"It would be..." Marquise finally said, "Remiss of me to not admit my own fault in what happened. I overreached. I did things I explicitly wasn't supposed to, and I can't blame inexperience for that, I knew the consequences. Naivete, maybe, thinking that I knew better than everyone else."

"You did," Agare whispered from behind her.

"Please let me explain myself though. It's an open secret that the goal of the Azure, the Realization of their Tale as we called it, has always been within sight, and the only thing we could thank for holding back this cataclysm was their lack of proper means. 15 years ago, they discovered it.

"W-what? I-it had to be a lie, right?! T-they couldn't, I mean, w-we a-are—"

"Wow, slow down, slow down! You're right, we're still alive, aren't we? Makes me look like one huge idiot in hindsight, it does. Keep in mind though, at the time all I had in hands was that it was happening, maybe sooner maybe later, and the tone of finality in the news spreading across the knowing channels were getting worrying.

"At first only a few were allowed to know them. As the numbers grew, so did the scope of people brought in, from the first boot slobbering zealots to those of different, even opposite, spheres of influence to the current Lady of the Lake, their highest ranked member, and they all were convinced! Sadly, they made sure to never bring in anybody easy to approach and ask questions.

"So I acted, got discovered, and if you let me spare the details, they retaliated," Marquise said, neck bending forward, giving Holly a good view of the ever violent contractions of her void, "They massacred us. The four you see in this room are the only survivors of that incident."

Silence again. Even Aram and Swordlight, tall, mighty, shelled from head to toe in plates of steel, suddenly looked diminute and downcast. She didn't dare look at Agare fearing what she would see.

"I-I'm sorry to hear that, Marquise. That's awful," she said.

"Turns out, even the faceless can suffer, Holly."

"I-I know?"

"Yes, sorry, I just... it's touchy," Marquise said, "Either way, what's done is done. They're gone and we're not, so its our job to do the best we can for their sake, right? And that's were you come in. I told you before that your dream would be mine, but I never told you my actual dream, did I? I want to make good on my dead comrades, and for that I need your help."

Holly waited with bated breath.

"Here is where I would like to admit that my reasons for teaching you so much about Ivias and its supposed main language, and helping you practice your Will while we're there, weren't all that pure. I was preparing you Holly, not only for a life outside these stuffy walls, but to aid us against one of the deadliest enemies I, we have ever faced.

"There are many reasons the Remnants never made a direct attempt against the Azure. Beyond everything I told, the distance, the resources required for such a long term operation, there is the fact their nucleus, the very center of their faith and where they still actively work to Realize their Tale is not only hidden, its entrances change often, and we never managed to figure out why. With you, we don't need to!"

"M-Marquise."

"I'm not planning to force your hand, nor make you work for free. Anything you want, I can bring you, as surely as the day becomes night! Want knowledge? I'll bring you to the most exuberant libraries in the world! Want freedom? I'll help you go anywhere your heart desires! Want revenge against the Crimson? Post Scorching Season methods of weakening and uprooting Ember Blossoms began to spread, but where we'll find—"

"Marquise!"

She froze. "Sorry, go ahead."

Holly sighed, "You don't need to go that far. A-anything you ask me to do, I'd do it, b-but this won't work."

"It won't?"

"Ask Agare! He was there the last time I was pitted against a god, h-he saw what happened to me, what was going to happen to me if he hadn't arrived on time! E-Elder Seneschal had the same idea, and look how we all paid for that..."

"Didn't you both win?"

"Win what?! M-Marquise, I have been in my fair share of scuffles, I know how to tell when I get washed! I'm just going to disappoint you, to get e-everyone killed again, and I c-can't do that anymore!"

Holly stared down at her feet, feeling empty. Here she had just reject her savior when she needed her most, but was she wrong? Humans couldn't stand up to gods, the Elders plot had proved as much. That thing that sat atop the Throne was no lad in growth, full of soft, sensitive bits she could kick and punch. That she had even caused them pain was more a fruit of their weakness than anything hers.

In the end she was just another person, another weak human.

"Holly, look at me," Marquise whispered.

She heard the soft sound of rustling. Looking up, she saw Marquise pulling one her gloves off, extending her bare hand across the large wooden desk. Wordlessly, Holly reached out with her own, engulfing her with just her fingers. She wished her hardskin had never healed, so she could feel more than a sliver of warmth through the gesture again.

"I hope you don't mind me being a bit rude both to you and your Elder Seneschal."

"R-rude?"

"Holly, we're all Dashi."

"I-I know."

"Except you don't! And I doubt this Elder could remember it either. There are some super strong Dashi out there, make no mistake, living fortresses and armies of one soldier, and let me tell you that not a single one of them could ever hold their own against some of the bad, not even the worst, things that crawl through our precious Starlit World, never could! So, how did we survive this far, how did the Dashi become the most dominant power in the world?

"Because they are Dashi, of course! Never together but never alone, each filling for the other's flaws, using and being used since before they ever learned to stack rocks! Still this Elder Seneschal, who as far as I'm told raised you in his own arms, who saw you at your bitterest and your sweetest, really thought you had transcended the limits of humanity sky-high and could take all his problems on your back?!"

"H-he had to know what he was doing, he—"

"Holly, I'll never get to know the guy, though the Hollows will live with the memory of his, and I mean his, failure for some many generations yet. And you will live with what he chose to sacrifice against your will, against your sister's will!"

Holly almost asked which sister she meant, that she couldn't answer either killed her from the inside. Instead, what left her mouth, meek and shaky, was, "W-we couldn't fight God. E-everyone was too weak, we—"

"There are more ways of fighting than taking a stabby stick to the closest thing your foe has to a gut. The Scorching Season wasn't beaten through face-to-face battles alone, there were tactical starvation of Blossoms, poisons administered to the earth over weeks, long range artillery to soften them before the killing blow, and some insane use of the Unholy Metals you had to see to believe! I barely believed it myself! And yet, your Elder Seneschal couldn't figure out a better way to help, or even prepare you a little?!"

"H-he did his best, h-he tried everything, I'm sure of it, G-God was just too..."

She didn't know how to defend him, yet silence felt treacherous. How much had he dedicated to her safety, to her well being? He was the reason she had lived for long enough to meet Marquise and Agare! If somebody else had happened upon her, or worse, upon... that thing she had left behind, getting purged at the pyre would have been a mercy! No, she couldn't let him get lambasted like that!

Before she could get another word out, she feta strong pressure over her knuckles, Marquise's thumb massaging her in hypnotic motions.

"I'm not going to make that mistake." Marquise said. "We have planned this for years, gathered resources and allies and carefully considered our approach. And you know the most basic part of this endeavor? That none of you'll ever be sent out to die alone, to bear the role of savior alone! We are together, through thick and thin, until the very end."

Holly was speechless. She looked from the hands gently craddling her own, to Marquise, frozen in the moment, leaning over her desk, now so close Holly could touch her on the shoulder without stretching. When was the last time before she had been held like this? A strange bitterness overcame her. She wished she could still cry.

"And you'll care for Cassia too?"

"Of course!"

"...I told you. I'll do it, anything you ask, anything you want."

After a few seconds of silence, Holly felt Marquise's hands gently prying themselves from her fingers. She leaned back again, swipping imaginary sweat out of an imaginary forehead.

"Ooooof! Holly, you really scared me there!"

"W-why?! I already told I would do it! I just..."

"I get it, I get it, just making sure you didn't change your mind, with all the burden I'm dumping on your back. Which you can, by the way! The option is on the table."

"I-I'll have you know, when Elder Seneschal went fishing, this back carried half the fish home!"

"Strong girl! Gihihi!" Marquise voiced, hand covering where her mouth should be. Holly didn't miss the stillness of her shoulders "Well, let me officially welcome you into the group! There is much to do, but I promise you won't regret it!"

"T-thank you! I'm happy to be of use!"

"Because Holly is such and obedient girl, isn't she?"

The memory hit with the suddenness of a stinger. Holly shivered, trying to bury it back into the dirt, where it belonged.

"Something wrong?" Marquise said.

"N-n-nothing! S-sorry, keep going."

"With the praises?"

"I-if you want..."

"Hmmmm, honest girl! Maybe later. Now, let's get to everyone's favorite part of hiring: payment! I'll be clear, getting you to any of the most exuberant libraries in the world would take one monster of a walk, and I don't have the location of any Ember Blossoms on hand, other than one I really really think we shouldn't mess with..."

"It's fine! I don't need any of that. W-what you already do for me and Cassia is more than enough, but if it wouldn't be a bother, there are two things I had in mind?"

Marquise straightened her back, lacing her fingers together, "Cough Cough! Of course. Just name it."

"First, my condition." Holly cleaned her throat, "I-I already asked Agare if there was a cure, s-so I know there isn't, but maybe there's another option? Some treatment, or anything to make me more normal?"

"And I hope my dear Fordu didn't give it too straight?"

"I-I simply answered as I always do," he interjected, but didn't join the table.

"And some tact with that would rip your lungs clean off?" Marquise said, shaking her neck, "Well Holly, I'm sorry to say that either way he was right, it's not something that can be cured. Just tell me one thing, do you really want to be... more normal, as you put it? This body of yours, if you forgive me, looks so mighty..."

Holly blushed, not entirely too pleased this time "I-I'm hideous. Tears don't come to my eyes anymore, I can't sleep when I'm tired, I can't eat cooked meals without getting nauseous, and this Will thing, it's only good until... "

"Until you run into something else that uses it, right?" Marquise said, and Holly nodded, "There are some things we can do to help! All this training I'm having you go through helps with a whole lot more than finding bugs in the grass, you'll see for yourself. Also, if you're not comfortable with your appearance, and want to get closer to others without putting them off, there are a few maaaybe not very comfortable solutions we can try while I think of something more long term."

"I'm happy with anything!"

"You shouldn't be, but I'll do everything I can anyway. Now, the second thing?"

Holly wasn't sure how to say this, she wasn't sure if she should. Yet, if there was a time, that was now.

Swallowing dry, she told her.

One week later, they were ready for departure.

She was traveling light. Marquise had lent her a few books Holly had show interest in, specially a couple in Awinian she couldn't quite read yet. Marquise had also tried to shove a whole pile of peculiar goods on her, only backing down when she insisted she couldn't even guess how to use them.

What Marquise hadn't done was tell who was coming with her, but Agare was a certainty the way he still brought her anywhere he needed to go. Part of her wanted Marquise herself to join, and she did her best to not feed that particular delusion.

"It's the best compromise I got, sorry," Marquise said, leading them through the hallways "I'm sure she'll get around to it eventually. Barring some kind of issue, we'll probably be able to communicate while you're on the road. Remember the conditions I gave you?"

"C-couldn't forget it if I tried." Holly said, scratching at her palms.

That the door to Cassia's room was the same as any other was exactly as expected. That it was so close to Marquise's study left her befuddled. Hadn't she passed by this spot a thousand times before? Sure felt like it! And her sister had always been a skip and a hop away. If she had known... she probably wouldn't have done anything, really, but she was still upset.

They paused in front of the room. Marquise waited until Holly gave her consent before giving the door a loud couple knocks, "Cassia! We're here! If you're listening, please speak out loud!"

At first, they were met with silence. Several seconds later, Holly heard a deep coughing as the door was pushed forward. For a heart stopping moment, she almost tricked herself into believing Cassia had changed her mind, and was about to open the door, to greet her with a smile.

"P-please, speak," said a voice, muffled and haggard, yet so familiar it was painful. "Is she there?"

Holly looked around, searching for the courage she had just lost. She saw Marquise giving her space, Agare watching from the opposite wall dead still, the other Faceless whose name she had never quite caught take so many steps back she was practically guarding the other corridor now.

She had practiced what to say, had scratched it on the walls, sharpened days worth of things to talk about into just a few minutes, all in vain. Her stomach was twisting into knots, her tongue refused to budge, and her brain had gone so dizzy she might as well have gotten a fever. In all that mess, a thousand words became a million again.

"C-Cassia, h-hey! I-I'm, uhm, I'm here! I-I mean, you probably know that, b-but I'm leaving now. I-I need to help Marquise with a thing, and..." She paused, unsure where to go next. "I-I'm sorry, I'm so stupid, I tried to memorize all this a-and— Doesn't matter, right? I've been wanting to see you for so long, b-but they told me you're still not doing very good. I-is there anything I can do to help? I guess it's too late for that. S-sorry for never noticing you were there.

"I was there with him, w-with Elder Seneschal that night. G-God is gone! I-I mean, you probably know by now. Sorry, w-what I meant to say is, h-he wanted to protect us, t-to save the village. He told me to take care of you, and I-I want to, I-I tried, just like he wanted me to but God... God ki—"

"Holly Seneschal!"

Holly Instinctually stopped. She hadn't expected Cassia to talk. Or rather, she had expected that if Cassia did talk, it would be the "look at this thing I found by the river!" Cassia which lingered in her fantasies. That, right there? Aged as it was, she would never mistake "what kind of moron tries to touch a bonfire?!" Cassia for anything else.

"Holly Seneschal, you will pay attention to me: If you must help the Lady Marquise with her affairs, you shall not sully our family name, you hear me?! You will eat all the tubers served to you, you will wear clothes in polite company no matter which kind of textile they need to be, and regardless of how peckish you feel, you will absolutely not just pick up and eat everything you find crawling in the undergrowth! Specially worms and larvae! No burrowleeches either!"

"C-Cassia!"

"Don't start fights with strangers, if they attack you run and ask for help! Don't pull the Lady's Marquise's servants into your wild adventures, you might get them hurt! And above everything else, t-try to—" Holly heard the sound of something softly hitting the door, "S-stop talking about my father! You know perfectly well why! It does not matter he pampered you to his e-end, things change, so make an effort to become the adult you are and learn to move on from at least one f-f-f-fuu— stuuupid thing in your life!"

Stunned, Holly forgot she could even speak. She heard feet quietly shuffling away on the other side, suddenly stopping, "O-oh, and when I say tubers, I also mean herbs and seeds! A-and not only those Ring Flowers you adore so much, those are treats not nutrition! And try to be a little more ladylike in front of others, the Father Celestial knows how humiliating it was to explain why you were always caked in mud and blood..."

And that was that, their meeting was over. She took two steps back and looked at Marquise.

"...W-what happened?"