Children of the Lake 5
Holly, Agare, and a twitching Furfu waited motionless.
Around them a dozen armed men waited for their superior's words.
And these were no lads, wrapped in thin leathers or everyday clothes, wielding clubs or knives or maybe the rare spear. Sat above horses, actual horses, the first Holly had ever seen, donned in meshes of metallic rings with heavy gauntlets and heavier boots, faces hidden behind a brimmed helmet and wicked steel mask. Hands stood by sidearms, still, yet obviously ready for violence.
She had to admit they frightened her, but none of these staring men had anything on their captain. Shelled in polished plates like some silvery insect, larger than any single human she had ever met except Julius, head enveloping helmet shaped into the face of a growling beast with a smooth mane of gold and rich brown hairs. Behind him, a two headed polearm, one of the great axe blades in steel while the other that same dull black burning metal she could never forget. Drapped over his chest, a heraldry in blue, a roaring golden bear standing over a laying lion.
None of those, as mad as she felt thinking it, were the most intimidating part of this. No, it was the captain's steed, something that could almost be a horse if it didn't miss the details in such an obscene way. Rippling with muscles from a barrel torso to its trunk legs, a mouth of sharp teeth stretching up its snout nearly to the neck, slowly breathing through a symphony of deep gasps, each eye moving independetly: one scanned the Oke from back to front then again, while the other remained fixated on a nearby patch of bushes.
Agare's orders had been simple: stay still and don't use her Will under any circumstance. She kept repeating it in the privacy of her mind, if only to prevent her instincts from doing something they would both regret. One sudden move, and she might just bolt through the woods, if not right through that ugly beast's face.
"Here you go!" Rosen said, his arm sticking out of the Oke, a panel on the front having retracted like some sort of membrane, with an envelope. "Everything should be up to date."
The captain took the envelope and opened with a huff. Holly saw a couple young children watching from behind the rickety wall of some old shack. Seconds later, before a third lad could come and hush the little tikes away, throwing a fearful glance at the soldiers, the papers were thrown back at Rosen.
"More of your kind across my lands, then?" The captain said, giving Holly a none too subtle glare. She scooted over her knees, making sure to hide her feet under herself.
"You know how it is."
"Wish I didn't. Everything's up to date, but," the captain pointed a metallic finger right at her, "you know better than anyone that kind of witchcraft isn't allowed in the lands of the Lion. Either get them inside, or I will have to make you an example before my people start getting any ideas about illegal sorcery, you understand?"
"Aaah, my most sincere apologies officer!" Rosen waved. "It's just that the tall lady doesn't like cramped spaces, so I let her out to get some air! We didn't mean anything uncouth, swear on my name."
"Lady, you say?" The captain said in a tone that made her nails unfurl. With a small kick his beast lurched forward, snarling, the eye obsessing over the Oke snapping to her own. Despite having Furfu between them, Holly felt as small and vulnerable as a lone child. Why had he gone so quiet? Could he see through her veil? Did he know what she was?
One of the other soldiers chuckled. "Officer? Something wrong, or may we go?" Rosen spoke up.
"Madam, I don't know what use this lot gets out of you, but if your wiles can keep up, you better learn to do as the men around you do, understood? These are dangerous times, and a carefree attitude might just be what gets my land tainted with lady blood. We wouldn't want that, would we boys?"
The soldiers jeered, but she remained quiet, staring back. What could she possibly say to that?
"Officer," Rosen said. "May we leave?"
"As you will," the captain said, "I have better to deal with, anyway. A more fortuitous day to you, merchant, and to your lovely women too!"
With a gesture, as well as a salvo of cackles, the men were off. Only half a minute later did she dare exhale, as the tension left both Furfu and Agare. She heard a noise from the front of the Oke, as the transmission cube began to spew garbled noises.
"Apologies, Agare," Rosen's voice said. "I'm to blame for this incident, I thought this town remained abandoned and suggested as much to Almalilly."
"You did well, but do try to keep to date with your sources next time." Agare said, "Almalilly, are you at the cabin?"
"Yes." Almalilly said, voice faint and distant.
"Good job. Go to the back and take five, let Blades take your place. Rosen, you're on controls for now. And you two," Agare said, facing both Furfu and her, "we're going back inside."
Some hours later, they stopped by the side of the road, just besides a short, gentle slope into some thick woodland, at least by the standards of the region. A couple more hours and the sun would be setting.
Holly sat by the grass, knees hugged to her chest, feeling ashamed of herself. She had lasted three hours before Furfu had to physically pull her away from the Oke's walls, and if Holly still had any doubts the meek woman was one of the Marquise's agents, those had been put to rest. Aleh, who had to spend the last five minutes in deep meditation, also had to be physically pulled away from her.
Now they all stood apart. Agare her distant shadow; Aleh some paces away, not finishing his routine; Blades in the shade of the Oke, polishing a completely different blade from the one usually at her waist, idly whispering to Almalilly; Furfu perched like a bird above their transport, keeping an eye to their rear; Rosen some several paces down, doing... something.
Actually, she was getting curious. He had been at it for the past couple minutes, first digging a hole, then picking parts from a large burlap sack, assembling and disassembling according to some design she couldn't start to guess. She almost approached him, just to get a better look, when Aleh jumped to his feet and stormed downhill.
"Oh for fuck's sake you muscle-brained oaf, I was almost calm!" he said.
Rosen's eyes widened, "Young—"
"Shut it! Out of the way! And stop with that shit, I swear it almost looks like I—" And from there, his mumbling rant became too low for Holly to listen.
Whatever was wrong with the lad, Holly had to begrudgingly accept he had a way with his hands. The fumbling gave way to experienced work, the minutes of Rosen's craft tore down and rebuild to completion in one and mostly alone, the few times the now sheepishly smiling older man had to lend his labor with pieces too heavy for Aleh's frail little arms excepted.
Finished, they whispered to one another, serious tone to harsh rebukes, and then together stepped away to reveal the final product. They didn't need to call, as she was already half the way down.
It was nothing she had ever seen, nor heard from the Elder's stories. Roughly waist high, neck high for Aleh who was now giving an odd look to the tip of her hood, It was straight and cross shaped, made from interlocking pieces of wood and a polished metal she vaguely recalled as brass, the latter occupying the majority of its surface. Thin lines of a strange script covered it side to side in columns, each character shining, not subtly like the armor used by the Faceless but with a potency that obscured their embossing with platinum light.
"A job well done!" Rosen said, giving the flat top of the object a couple good slaps, each emanating a strange hollow echo.
"Of course it was." Aleh Scowled. "Call me if you need help."
"Wouldn't want to bother your rest, Y-Yaleh."
"Don't start! And this bothers me more. Now, if you excuse me, I will retire to my Oke, which I hope has suffered nothing but mild injuries!"
"S-sorry about that," Holly said.
"Don't mention it" Aleh said, smile like a razor. "Have fun with this fruit of your beloved 'magic', one meant in truth to withstand overwhelming violence!"
Teeth-clenching angry and berry red with embarrassment, Holly was forced to just watch in silence as Aleh sniffed and left towards the Oke, stopping for a second to invite the whispering duo of Blades and Almalilly who followed right after.
What a lousy day.
She turned back to the mysterious object, and froze. Gloved fingertips trailed bright scripts up and down, almost hypnotic in their caresses, Agare examined it with such intimate adoration her heart couldn't help but skip a beat as the scene was burned into her brain. Agare hadn't rebuked her, so it should be fine to look, right?
"I wasn't aware of this," Agare said.
Rosen gave Holly a brief glance. "Aleh designed it from memory! We had the materials to spare, and the Young Sir had a whim, so why not?"
"I underestimated him," Agare muttered. "His skills have clearly developed."
"Oh, sir, that's not half of it."
"Agare. And I will believe you." Agare stepped away. "Astounding work, but flawed. It won't withstand the kind of abuse the genuine article is built for, so be careful."
"Should be fine, right?" Rosen said, winking at Holly.
Finally, she couldn't contain herself anymore. Giddy and with bad case of the Will twitches, she said, "P-please just tell me already! What is this?!"
"Tell? I'll show you." Rosen scurried back, indicating the object with a hand. "Give it a good wack!"
"A-a good wack?" she asked, looking at Agare.
"Blunt strikes only," Agare explained. "Don't use your nails nor your Will, otherwise hold nothing back."
Looking at the object, it felt awkward hitting something so small with all her might, but she supposed she had permission. First, she balled up a fist, however the awkward length of her fingers meant they bent all the way to her wrist, her joints almost hugging her palm. No way she was going to be punching anything with a twisted hand like that.
Instead, she opted for a good punt. Taking a step back, she slide her right away some, then went for one her most infamous childhood attacks: the Joint Breaker! The bane of all knees! In an instant, her foot left the ground, a curving line bringing the flat of her foot right against one of its middle plates, as low as she could go.
She didn't know what to expect, and yet the sensation surprised her. She had felt it hit, heard the solid thump of her kick, the hollow metal echo, topped by a concerning underground rumble, but the sting that should follow just didn't. Like a child feigning toughness, the object simply stood there as if it hadn't been touched, not a dent or bend to mar its beauty.
"A-Agare!" She had to hold herself back, feeling like a ravenous predator seeing wounded prey, "Y-you said I can't attack it with Will, b-but can I touch it? Please?"
Agare pondered it for a second, gave Rosen an undecipherable look, then turned to her. "Go ahead, just be gentle."
Her Will broke free, enveloping the object like a parted jaw, a thousand teeth in its creeping fingers. She didn't miss the way Rosen fled further, wide eyes snapping in her direction, but ignored him for the sake of the wondrous delight now cradled in that nest of arms.
It was gorgeous, miraculous, maddening, infuriating. Like the shadows of her robe, something alive yet not, dense and emanating, static and painful. Powerful, though obvious, innards pulsing against thin skin, and yet an elusive what, an unfathomable how, screaming its own existence without a grain of shame or care how it all trickled in between clumsy fingers, letting her miss so much she didn't know she could crave.
The denial hurt, and in its own way, so did her meager catch, but who was to blame if not herself? Nonetheless, she wanted to break it.
No. She took a deep breath, then a couple, trying not to look desperate. She restrained her Will to the best of her ability, her nails unfurling in furious instinct. Push one back, another took its place, and if her toes couldn't clutch apart the ground, then her jaw parted to allow saliva to dribble out of the corner of her mouth and teeth to be bared, eager to shred the thing to pieces.
In that desperate struggle to keep the worst of herself in check, a passing whim finally won, as she pulled a hand back and gave the object a good slap, right where its face should have been were it human. It barely made a sound, except for Rosen's chuckles.
"D-don't laught at me!" she said.
"Oh Holly, ask me to lift a mountain next!"
As her focus shifted to the older man, so did part of her Will, and she found him incredible. Grand and surprisingly solid, a distinctive shape against the background torrent of her Will's world, holding a certain pattern to himself yet one unlike his surroundings. How? She gritted her teeth. Wouldn't she like to know! If she had to shape the unknowable into words, maybe she would say there was a chaos to him, an unpredictable network of currents dictating his form, the cloud of his being stuck into some unsure state where it could neither change nor return, or something like that.
Was this how human beings were supposed to feel? So completely unlike her. It lacked purpose, she supposed, it was Will and yet was not quite Will in ways she just had to know, answer buried deep into that river muck, the—
She was bitten. Suddenly, Rosen's body that was not a body pulsed with hostile intent, clamping down on her fingers with such casual ease she didn't notice what was happening until she felt the damage. She yelped, jumping back and pulling herself free, quickly realizing there was no lasting harm; it had just been a playful nip.
"Huh," Rosen said, brow raised. "Now that's a curious sensation."
"What happened?" Agare said, body tensing.
"Oh, no need for worry Sir! She just got a little handsy, that's all." He grinned from ear to ear. "Can't blame her, can we? with all this good meat being strutted under her nose, a girl is bound to get hungry."
"I-I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" she said, nearly prostrating herself, "I-I didn't want to, I mean, I just got a little curious, I didn't mean to a-actually touch you and—"
"Holly, relax, I don't mind!" Rosen dismissed her with a wave. "The only one who needs to apologize is whichever master taught you that shoddy form."
"... Excuse me?"
"Sorry to be the one to break it to you, but you punch like somebody who just learned how to use their arms."
"W-what?!" Holly bristled. "I-I'll have you know, I was the strongest kid in Lesser Hollow! I could beat all the young lads one-on-one! Two-on-one, three-on-one even!"
"Ha! Lads! Did these lads fight with canes and crutches? Did they toddle to their mommies? What a martial mentor you had..."
"E-Elder Seneschal taugh me all the best moves! He could take down a lad twice your size and not even blink!"
"Well, then he has some explaining to do!"
Another one? This she couldn't leave be. As she was about to shoot back, however, Rosen fell into a low stance, arms forwards with hands open, knees bent. He took a breath, eyes widening, and his right foot flew, entire body twisting with impressive speed as it struck the object square where its chest ought to be. The impact alone made Holly swallow her words.
Returning to his usual casual slump as if nothing happened, he gave the object a couple head pats. "Holly, let me introduce you the Lesan Dummy."
"It's a Hassias," Agare said.
"Y-yes, also known as a Hassias, as Agare so eloquently put, a much more dignified name indeed. As I was saying, have you ever seen our Lady's strength in action?"
Holly mulled over it. "K-kind of?"
"This baby here is what someone on her level would use to train! It can handle blows strong enough to pulverize stone and dig holes through steel, with just a few modified shield and deflection enchantments! Can't say I know the details of how it works beyond that, but the results more than speak for themselves." Rosen said, throwing a haymaker that almost spun his torso, Will flaring in its wake. A man would have been beheaded, she was sure, yet the Hassias echoed nothing but a pitiful thump.
"So to speak," Agare looked at her."Again, don't use your nails, as strong as it might be this is not a model made with slashing in mind, it will break."
"S-sure! B-but, why are you showing me this? Sorry, I thought we would be moving a little more today?"
"Because learning to fight is pretty essential in our craft, and I've been meaning to see how you handle yourself. Besides," Rosen said, giving the Hassias an uppercut that should send it flipping, "I think hitting things really hard is a good way to blow some steam, and we all had one shitty morning today!"
Holly nodded, carefully watching him beat the lights out of the helpless object with blows that would knock five lads cold each, yet never making it even shake. With every hit, she noticed a slight, nearly invisible ripple of the platinum light, and couldn't help wondering how they had been made. Aleh had done this? The little lording lad? Why? For whom?
Leaving it for another time, she asked, "w-what was that all about, earlier?"
Rosen stopped for a second, furrowing his brow. "Honestly, don't ask me. My guess is that—! The Empire is moving people around again."
"Why?"
"Reasons they don't lack!" He threw a frontal kick that looked positively deadly, "Maybe they thought here would be more productive than whichever other village they emptied. Maybe—! They found something where those people lived, and moved them while they investigated. Or maybe there have been skirmishes at the Bellfort borders, and some poor folk had to evacuate."
"S-sounds bad."
"Nah!" A straight punch, followed by the opposite fist, then a blow to the side, "Happens from time to time, but the current Emperor doesn't fancy taking back what's his, some say, not as much as the previous one anyway."
"Marquise said he was weak," plus a few choice things she wouldn't repeat.
Rosen stopped and chuckled, "Y-yeah, it's a fair perspective, but don't go saying that in public alright? Either way, I've learned not to try guessing what your betters think when you don't know half of what they do, so I can't say I have an opinion on the matter."
"Alrighty!" Not like she had any either. "Can I try again? I think I got it this time."
"Just from watching?" Rosen grinned. Beads of sweat descended his forehead, tracing his face and down his collar. "I Heard you were a great student! Go right ahead, and let me teach you how the warriors of Galehold fight!"
"Not the Remnants?"
"We overlap some! Besides, variety is a powerful weapon for a fighter. Now, first things first, positioning! Can you remember my stance?"
"Y-yes, like this right?" she said.
Rosen examined her for a second, caressing his braided beard with slow movements. "Harder to see with that robe than I guessed."
"Oh, maybe I can take it off, if—"
"No." Agare said.
"N-no!" Rosen followed, "Keep them, it's safer this way, trust me, even the slightest armor help in case of an emergency! And yours are so elegant too, they surely only enhanced my lady's beauty! I simply misspoke, didn't mean to imply they got in the way that much, and a good stance should carry through any armor! Now, yours..."
She didn't really care for how they looked, and was pretty sure leather this soft wouldn't protect her against a child's pebble, but how could she fight such strong opposition? As a last resource she did give Agare her best pitiful glance, only to be met with complete disinterest. She gave up, the robes would stay.
"Raise your arms more, and lower your body a little." Rosen said.
"L-like this?"
"A little closer, just don't touch them together. They are there to help you block, but they need some freedom of movement and you need your field of view."
Her sleeves clung tightly to her hands, even gravity couldn't pull them down as her forearms pointed up. Some effect of the enchantment, she guessed. "Like this?"
"Better! Now, you probably intuited this by now, specially since you were the strongest kid of this Lesser Hollow of yours, but a blow isn't just the punch itself."
Holly nodded. "It needs the weight of the body too."
"And its power. Every muscle you put into a punch counts. Ready? Show me what you got!"
Laying all her complains about the shape of her hands aside, she balled the best fist she could, nothing but a line of knuckles, and punched.
For a split second, the surface of the Hassias felt eletric, deforming maybe the width of a human hair under her hardskin before pushing back. She wanted a sound that could shake the mountains and send all animals fleeing in great swarms! And for all the extreme discomfort that pose and motion brought her, all she got were tremors. A slight improvement over her kick, at least.
"Nice. I think you could do better thought."
"I-I knew how to do it all along, I just forgot."
"Sure? Let's make it so you never forget it again, I say!" Rosen smiled.
"Y-yeah, let's!" Holly looked deep into the platinum script, letters which neither her eyes nor Will could decypher. "Rosen, A-Agare, I'm sorry. This morning, that was actually my fault wasn't it?"
"Bah, don't worry about it!" Rosen saaid, arms crossed as he watched her punches. "Can't predict every hurdle, right Agare?"
"We didn't predict it, but we were prepared." Agare said, "That said, I wouldn't like to repeat it."
"I-I know!" She kicked, producing a breeze strong enough to blow the hems of her robe, "I'll go inside this time, I promise, I just... felt bad. I-I hope I didn't make anyone mad?"
"So long as you understand your actions will speak louder than words."
"Well said, Agare!" Rosen said. "That being said, apologizing never hurts. And honestly? that officer was completely out of order!"
"H-he was?" Holly said, striking where the Hassias' face should be, not imagining it crumbling that maned helmet at all.
"They've been getting younger every year, I swear! I mean, a warmare of all things, for a simple patrol?! Poor Almalilly! and a threat against the Faceless too, as if his empire didn't bend to the dirt when they think a Tale is going to knock at their doors! Calling him a try-hard would be an understatement, if he doesn't have at least some marshall blood on him I would be shocked! If I leaked what he did today around certain circles, he would be destitute by next month, if not—"
Holly tried her best to pay attention to Rosen's rant, but a lot of the finer details just completely missed her, focused as she was at keeping her stance. How did she beat so many lads again?
Still, as they spent the afternoon beating away at the dummy, wasting what little breath they could get with idle chat, she had admit she did feel a lot happier.
At sundown, it was Aleh who came retrieve the Hassias and ask them to move further that day.
"W-won't it be night soon?" she asked.
Aleh clicked his tongue. "As I have said, this is an Oke that would shake a Goban engineer out of his seat, and illumination is such a base trait that an exemplar cobbled out of scrap would have some rustic version thereof, let alone this! I refuse to use the words a certain mentor of mine did, but rest assured, so long as it has the time to rest there is no terrain or weather it cannot brave, and should we somehow run into such an impossible scenario during our travels it holds—"
To summarize, she had been overthinking stuff.
Unfortunately, a couple steps away from the Oke, she froze.
The discomfort, the memories, they lingered strong. No amount of punching and kicking would help her forget how it felt inside the boiling bowels of the starved monster, asphyxiating in smoke and slobber smelling miasma, body slowly digested by acrid tar from the outside in and picked apart by limbs of wood—
No. It was bad to go back on a promise, but holding on to the first step of the Oke, her limbs turned to stone. She retreated, ashamed, "S-sorry, I-I don't think I..."
"Holly? Something wrong?" Rosen, already inside, crouched by the Oke's rear entrance, looking on from her to it and back again. She could feel the stares of the others, pinning her to the spot, teeth eager to be bared "Oh, so there was more to it... Agare may I propose something?"
"Propose?" Agare said from behind.
"I don't think Holly here would be very comfortable inside still, so why don't we give her one more day on the ceiling while she gets used to the idea?" Rosen said.
"We already risked too much living her this conspicuous until this morning. If we are intercepted again, word might get out to undesirable parties, if it already hasn't."
"I told you I know my way around these parts," he winked, "mostly. I won't fail you twice! I'll give you a route so obscure nobody will know we passed by, not even Galehold!"
That's exactly what she needed! Would she be able to rest easy inside tomorrow? No way, but so long as she didn't have to suffocate in that heat she would do anything, anything at all! Except if Agare asked, she knew she couldn't say no. But he had to understand, right? He was there too! So she turned, ready to prostate herself if things came to that—
Her foot twisted into something cold and wet. Shocked, she didn't react until it sprung to life, a serpent waiting under the brush.
A thousand squirming bodies grasped their way up her being, intangible and invisible yet undeniably real, too late for her to escape. She almost convinced herself it was some sort of illusion before her Will struck on instinct, trying to pull the strange presence away, but it was impossible, they were too slick to grab, too cunning to be ambushed.
By the time panic set in, the foreign Will had neutralized her, and she knew it to be Will, that the Father's phantom had come. Except, it differed: for all it had subjugated her, she didn't feel that unending hunger, that cruel desire to crush her, if anything it was... humble? Gentle? firm, certainly, but not hostile.
"Our most beloved Mariwa, how long we hoped! Wait for your father, for the Blood's deliverance."
She shivered in revulsion. She didn't have the chance to fight back, the squirming things retracting with a final loving caress of her skin, moist and salty or some grotesque analogy of both, disappearing out of reach.
"That's not my name!"
Everything happened at once. Her Will lashed downwards, water bursting around her ankle from the previously unseen puddle now building under her sole. The ground shattered as Agare jumped away; Rosen scrambled back; somewhere nearby, a blade shrieked against its sheath, another screamed in warning. Her hand hit the ground, gouging a crater into the flattened earth of the road.
But it was already too late. Her fingers touched nothing but dirt and water, and her Will, pursuing the other through the narrowest of tunnels, reached far and farther away from the Oke, came upon a dead end where not a sign of life waited. She was left staring at the damage she caused, being squeezed smaller by the ensuing silence.
"... Holly?" Rosen said.
"I'm going inside," was all she could muster.
"Furfu, follow her." She heard Agare bark, but didn't dare look. "Rosen, Almalilly, get the Oke moving and don't stop until I return."
Furfu stepped into view, the wicked head of some shaking, blunt weapon pointing in her direction."B-but what e-even happpened?! She j-just—"
"Now!"
She crawled inside, not waiting for Furfu. The Oke's passenger compartment was cramped enough she couldn't stand higher then a crouch, but she didn't need to. Picking her spot, a pocket of empty space right past the seats and adjacent to the cabin, she didn't look up from the ground, even as she saw the others scurrying away from her path, giving her the widest berth possible.
When she heard the Oke roll awake, she shivered, knowing what came next. Still, she hugged her knees to her chest, and did as she had always done best: out of sight, better out of mind.