Children of the Lake 4
Free and aimless, Holly ran across the empty field, wishing she could feel the tickle of grass blades on her bare skin but cherishing the moment all the same. The world was so wide!
It was daunting, seeing the horizon for the first time, having an idea how big just an island could be, just a drop in the pond of the Starlit World and still too vast to grasp. Her conversations with Marquise echoed in her mind, of a southern tower so grand it touched the sky, of a great body of water wider and deeper than Ivias that separated them from the continent, of a northern crater so wide entire cities had lived and died inside, though their shining silver houses stood to this day. Where were they? shouldn't they all be within reach of her legs?
All her eyes grasped were rolling hills, covered in grass both golden and verdant, islets of shrubs and trees overburdened with flowering buds where glinting eyes peeked from, curious of all that racket she was making. Something like a wasp with barbed legs and an elongated head decided to brave the her, frantic beating of wings heralding its stilted motions.
"Can I eat it?" Holly said, not slobbering at all.
"Considering the places it probably has been, I wouldn't," Agare said.
"I-I try not think too hard about that kind of stuff."
"I know."
The distraction was unfortunately all the time it took for the creature to sate its interest, quickly flying out of reach. Before, Holly would be dismayed at the loss, now she knew one good jump was all it took to bridge the distance. She shook her head; not like she was any hungry.
They had settled down for the night on a nearby clearing, bordering a ghost village of some ten odd houses. Those dozen or so hours she had been told to wait inside that Oke thing from sunset to sunrise were perhaps the most boring of her life, beating years down in her room by her lonesome. How could she wait when there were so many new sights, tastes, smells, all one miserable wall away?
She made up for it. The moment she was set free, with Agare on vigil of course, she had become a living landslide, shameless over the chaos she left behind. She overturned every suspicious rock, poked every hiding creature, climbed trees to peer into every cavity and filled nest, dug holes after derelict burrows! And every time she she thought to stop, Cassia's words were there on her mind to propel her into levels of mischief never before seen.
How could she resist all this novelty? Her Will certainly hadn't. Outside the manor's boundaries, its intangible land had only grown more vibrant, more complex. Stuffed! Even the air felt so dense she could suffocate, blurring the line between what should be solid and what shouldn't. And the nuances of it all, dizzying amounts of information and unseen differences to everything within reach, if only she had the words to understand them!
She looked at Agare, curiosity creating temptation. If only Marquise hadn't forbidden her...
"Holly, this is enough," Agare said, staring back. "The others should be done. Let's go."
"Are you really not enjoying any of this?!" Holly said with a twist of her robes. "Everything's so gorgeous! I could play here for the rest of my life!"
"Here?" Agare said, glancing around, "It's the same as anywhere else, you just don't know that yet."
"And what could be better? So many places to run, so many tasty critters around!"
"You will see with your own eyes. This is nothing, " Agare paused, silent, "just a vestige."
"Vestige? Y-you talk like such a geezer, Agare! you—" Then Holly remembered, Agare had never told her his age. Marquise had implied she was ludicrously old, so could Agare be around that, or maybe older? The idea terrified her, so she buried the notion deep inside.
Looking back one last time, she hadn't got to half the shenanigans she wanted, but if she had this one opportunity, she would have more, right?
First glance, second glance, third glance; no matter how many times Holly looked, this Oke thing still mystified her.
For all intents and purposes, it was a carriage, except not. No draft animals, not a hint of wood outside a few tightly bound supply boxes stored below, built so practically its innards were segmented several times over, it felt absurd. Then, crawling inside, it felt like she had entered the bowels of some metallic beast, with metallic veins crossing inside the walls and ceiling, bulging and illuminated a faint blue by throbbing pulses. The plush, hairy seats and carpeted floor, which the others fought over every night, didn't help the image much.
Sadly, that wonder only lasted until it moved. Built for security, as Agare explained, there were few passages of air, so as the Oke roared to life its interior grew asphyxiating from sheer heat, the air stale and pungent, tinged with something she could neither describe nor ignore.
She had lasted one hour the first day. By the second, she nearly tore her way out. She had been offered a small pebble wrapped in a written sheet, which was supposed to make her feel cooler, but she had refused, because what she wanted was out.
And so now she, Agare, and Furfu, reluctantly, rode above on its tarped ceiling, held by nothing but a flimsy rail and their own sense of balance. Honestly? It was lovely.
"S-so, Almalilly, right?" Holly said. Close to the front end of the Oke was a strange little square with ridges that carried sound in and out of the cabin, where the riders sat.
"Holly! Hi!" a somewhat distorted voice answered. "Needing something?"
"J-just wanted to ask if you could go over our plans again, please?"
"Hmmmm, you forgot already?"
"Rather, I think it went a bit over my head? S-sorry, I've been learning so much these past days, it's hard to keep track of things."
"Lilly is a sucky teacher," another voice, as twisted but clear enough she could tell it belong to Blades, said.
"Because you would explain much better, wouldn't you misses?" a sharp noise echoed, a scoff? "Anyway, it wouldn't do to let our precious new comrade hanging. Be a sweet and grab us that map, Blades."
"Ay-ay." Blades said, and the cube went silent.
Holly heard so many different sound from inside it was hard to keep track of who was where or doing what. Not that she hadn't tried to keep up, but there was a problem: touching, prodding, rubbing the big metal box with her own fingers was fine, but her Will? It was like shoving your hands into a bush just to realize too late it was a bramble. even the slightest provocation was fought back something fierce, the smooth metal more like a cloud of barbs beneath it all, soft yet agonizing.
So she let go, enjoying the crisp breeze and the rocking of the Oke over uneven terrain. Besides the cube, the trapdoor connecting cabin to top opened, revealing Blade's gloved hand holding a small scroll, which was gingerly picked by Furfu, before it disappeared back down with a thumbs up. She held it with as much care as a babe, slowly rolling besides her.
"Whoever got it, could you please open—"
"Already done." Furfu murmured, giving a Agare a small glance that was never returned. "B-boss."
"A-alright." Almalilly said. "So, Holly, can you find the Hollows?"
Unlike Marquise's lavish map, this one was half the size and ten times as old, yellowed and with ragged edges from use. It had little in way of pretty illustrations or embellishments of any sort, just Ivias as seen from above, cut into so many pieces and packed with so much text it was hard to keep track. How they knew what the island look from so up high she had no idea, but the sulky lad of their party had grumbled something about a lot of "Art" going into its making, whatever that meant.
"Sure!" Right there, crushed between two patches of very high elevation, a slug-shaped relief cutting from one Region to the other. A black dot, penned the very day they met, market the starting point. "F-found it!"
Across the map, five other spots existed, together forming a twice curved line heading North. The last point she still remembered: Skawla. Thinking she was heading there didn't even feel delusional anymore.
"Our first step, beginning with the Hollows, is a slooooow trip through Galehold and its Yine wonders!" Almalilly said, "We're going to mostly stay on the down low, but it should allow for some nice sightseeing. You remember your part?"
"Yup! Don't let them get a good look, and don't let them know! Couldn't forget it if I wanted to."
"Which is sure going to be so easy."
"None of that now." Blades said.
"None of what?" Holly said.
"T-the second step!" Almalilly said, "Will be to cross into Bellfort! Not usually that simple to smuggle things past them, but we've come prepared! Rosen here is going to make our passage through Fortress Aaltor smooth and sweet."
Holly tapped at the black spot, in the middle of a relatively narrow passage between the sea and the foot of the mountains. Ignoring the strange ensuing longing, her mind wandered elsewhere, "M-Marquise didn't talk much about this Bellford. If I hadn't seen it on her map and asked, I wouldn't even know it existed."
A low, rasping scratch came through the cube. "I bet she didn't. She has some... controversial opinions about that kingdom, considering its origins. There's not much to tell: it's small, it stands between Ivias' biggest boys, and survives on some hefty backing. Past them, we'll be dipping into sime murky waters, Holly."
"Still not funny," Blades said.
"Because it wasn't meant to be! Don't get in the way!" Almalilly said. "Where was I? Hmmmm, oh, I should explain: Bellford and beyond, we'll be traveling places that are openly hostile to us, so keeping conspicuous is going to be doubly important!"
"H-hostile? Why?"
"B-because of us." Furfu answered, not pointing so much as poking the veil of shadows under her hood.
"Shame. I really like Bellfort." Blades said.
"You've never been there!" Almalilly said.
"I hear they kept most of our good swords."
"Ignore her, Holly. So, step three, we cross the Floodlands of the Sacred Forest all the way to Treil, or Threehills as most people call it, which should be straightforward with some care on our part. Step four..."
"Awin."
The Saintdom of Awin. The name still gave Holly odd shivers. Marquise spoke often of them during her lessons, in a way that painted them in a not very flattering light. Myth and monster, somewhere of keen interest to the Remnants yet avoided at every opportunity, a thousand years' struggle summarized in one word.
"T-Tale."
"Sure is," Almalilly coughed. "But no matter. Keep an eye on the road and we should be fine. Now, if we could head northwest up the Eastern Cordon, then take a ferry across Bell Lake into Awin proper so we could take the safer path, like I originally planned, it would have been even better, but nooooo, Marquise wants us to go to Treil and take Heron Road to Skawla. Heron Road! Can you believe it?!"
"Y-yeah!" Holly said, "T-though, what is—"
"The Lady knows best."
Holly's back straightened, hairs lashing. Furfu, who until now had quietly listened while hugging her legs, stared straight at the trapdoor, hands balled into fists.
"The Lady knows best." Furfu repeated, "She knows things we don't. If something she says doesn't make sense, it will if we obey. If something she does looks incomprehensible, you will understand when she wins. It's what the Lady does best. A face shouldn't question it."
"O-of course!" Almalilly said, "That wasn't my intent! I just think, you know, that it would have been easier if we didn't have to travel by the heart of the enemy's territory, and wondered the why we were ordered this particular way, that's all!"
"The Lady—"
"Knows best." Agare's laid his hand on Furfu's shoulder, "Calm down."
"T-they—"
"Did nothing Marquise would disapprove of. Leave them be."
Furfu stared at him, hands relaxing as she slowly turned back to the horizon "M-my apologies, but the Lady knows best."
"She does. Almalilly, if it helps matters, I agreed with your previous assessment, however Marquise does have a good reason to send us to Heron Road."
"S-sure!"
"Well, everyone," a deep voice said. Rosen? "I think—"
"For masters and whores, Rosen, don't you fucking make this more awkward!" A shriek that made her shake. Had to be Aleh, she was sure.
Nervous and unwilling to speak with such a lad, Holly scooted away from the cube. Thankfully, distraction was just at hand: the Oke entered the shade of an overgrown orchard, thin long branches heavy with ripe black berries and no small amount of bugs delighting from them. She grabbed one, pulling it out with a loud crack, and watched Furfu fly as the entire tree leaned their way.
In giving the poor faceless an apologetic glance, enjoying the taste of ants, she noticed something strange. Through a gap between trunks, she spied an old, overgrown shack, roof and corner toppled aside to reveal a distended room. Painted in filth and disrepair, she still couldn't help but notice an object still standing at its far end, a statuette of sorts depicting what she could only imagine was a person from the shape, holding something above their head, something like—
She never figured out. They passed too quickly, and she didn't think it would be too polite to ask them to stop just so she could get a second look.
"Di' u 'shay 'shoming?" Holly said, spitting out splinter and fruit shells. She had already swallowed some pulp, which she knew wouldn't agree with her stomach very much, but it was tasty so who cared?
"Swallow before you speak," Agare said.
"S-sorry," she said.
"... As I was about to say," Rosen said,"I remember hearing that there were a few subtler routes one can take if they want to keep a low profile while crossing Awin, if you're willing to deal with some rather underground personages. Nothing I can't handle, Holly, so don't worry your pretty little voice over it! If we get hit with a worst case scenario, it might be an option worth pursuing."
"I like the sound of that, actually," Almalilly said. "Agare?"
"We will keep to the route Marquise specified, but it's worth considering in case of an emergency."
"Good enough, I suppose! So, all that's left then is Skawla."
Holly stiffened, leaning back in with interest and trepidation.
"We have a couple options here, none which are very good. Walking right in would be a huge risk, and sneaking everyone inside is beyond me," Almalilly said. "There are methods to smuggle people in, I hear, but..."
"The Azure Tale directly controls all sea faring in Skawla, even pirates wouldn't cross them for less than a fortune. My sources also tend to laugh when I bring up smuggling anything without their knowledge." Rosen said, "Going right through the gate while pretending we aren't doing anything wrong could be the best worst option."
"Honestly, I think we're going to have to improvise. Unless somebody has a plan? Agare?"
"I have my methods," Agare answered, "None which are feasible for a face."
"Thanks for reminding me, dear," Almalilly said, followed by another tormented rasp.
"Blame your own birth."
Holly cleaned her throat, "T-those Azure guys scare me a little, T-they fought the Marquise, and actually won! D-do we know how we're going to deal with them?"
"The Lady did not lose." Furfu twisted with a full body twitch, "T-that was a tragedy and it happened because—"
" —Because she forgot to account for powerful assets such as myself, is it not dearest Furfu?"
The ladish boast did not fail to quease her tummy, though at least she wasn't alone this time. Furfu's clenched so hard she could her the leather squeal, and as it rose the only thing that prevented the small cube device from being smashed apart was Agare's reflex.
"Holly, Holly, Holly, don't forget me just yet!" Aleh continued, voice louder with every word. "Our benefactor did not chose me for the sake of embellishing the group, despite my good looks and fine tastes. Tell me, have you not wondered what in specific allows us to communicate from our respective positions?"
"I-is it—" She stopped herself on the nick of time. "Asha?"
"... Of course," he said, flat through the distortion. "No, I meant me! I designed the sound transmission system, proposed the idea of this Oke, paid with mine own wealth for its physical repairs, poured over and upgraded the most minute enchantments, and look at the results! A vehicle long forgotten, brought back and ascending past its former splendor! You have not seen a tenth of its capabilities, but I assure you, your mouth will hang!"
She looked around herself. The Oke was certainly an impressive box, she guessed.
"I did not name myself a witch out of some need for self aggrandizing, it's a title earned with hard work and cunning, acknowledge by academic peers, veteran professors, even by those faceless!"
"None of that now," Blades said. "Cut it short."
"O-of course." Aleh coughed. "I am that secret weapon Marquise lent you to fulfill our dreams. Want to transverse the Floodlands safe? Want to cross Heron Road without raising eyebrows? Want to frolick right into Skawla without raising alarm? Leave it all on these hands!"
"Ah. I see," Holly said.
"Enthusiasm much appreciated," Aleh replied.
"I'm glad to have you here. I really am."
She wasn't lying. Mostly. It was reassuring to have a magician, witch, whatever he was on their side. In the Elder's stories, when those types came from their reclusive lairs, the world burned where they threaded, and their enemies cried for mercy. Dangerous, unpredictable, but much better to have as an ally than an enemy.
She let the topic die down on its own, the conversation quickly returning to small talk with periods of silence. She was enjoying her first journey beyond the Hollows, a lot even!
But that sea of trees hadn't left her mind, and the further she got, the more it weighted. Cassia's words still echoed as if fresh.
Well, nevermind that. All she had to do was believe Furfu's wisdom: The Lady knew best, and when she pointed all Holly had to do was follow.