Children of the Lake 6
The next time they were accosted went much smoother.
Fewer men surrounded the Oke, approaching peacefully, their captain an older soft-spoken man, his steed a stout yet completely average horse. Spotted in the middle of a settlement, the others had time to ready themselves as Almalilly sounded the alarm, exchanging places with practiced grace.
Rosen and Agare took to the cabin, Blades fled back pulling her cowl in place, while Furfu turned into a statue; Holly and Aleh watched in silence, but as their eyes met, he smiled. Beckoning with a hand while resting the other against the Oke's wall, he chanted under his breath.
Slowly, it vanished as if melting away. She saw one of the guards on the other side, armored like those men from four days ago, holding the same type of polearm with a loose grip. More important, however, was what stood behind him.
People. Regular people in such numbers it was like watching a prodded ant hill panic, a single street filled with more than the entire population of the Lesser. Housewives leading daughters along by hand, fathers and sons carrying heavy bags while laughing to each other, a man in blue cape with his chin held high enjoying the wide berth people gave to the two stern lads besider him, an old men in muddy rags whispering to a group of downcast women, at least a couple holding distressed babes.
Houses grew like trees above them, some reaching as high as three floors with neat walls of smooth stone brick and little in way of gaps or cracks, no patchwork constructions as far as the eye reached. And look at that! An actual balcony, with small plants in little clay pots! Windows of glass! Open, railed terraces where entire families ate as if it was normal! Even the alleyways were wider and cleaner than the kinds of street she used to sneak by.
To say she was amazed was putting it lightly. She was getting dizzy. How did anyone keep track of who was an outsider or not here? If only she could sneak right in through their open doors, avoid the notice of those guards, who would guess? A childhood dream was right there, less than the reach of an arm away, and she wasn't allowed to feel it on her skin.
Aleh's smug grin turned into a frown. A couple beads of sweat drifted down the corner of his brow.
"I can tell it's all in order," the captain said. "My apologies for the delay. I hope the sir and his companions can understand times are complicated."
"Good sir, of course!" Rosen said. "Wouldn't dare begrudge another man of the sword for doing his duties!"
"Hear, hear! You're an example for your kind, good traveler, no offense meant."
"None taken," Rosen said with less cheer. "I hope the sir can understand times are always tense for our group."
"Rough days for me and for thee." A gruff chuckle, and the captain's horse stepped away. "In better circumstances I would recommend your party an inn to rest and refresh yourselves, but alas the moment conspires to make us poor hosts! We are all full. Regardless, I wish you and your gorgeous woman good luck with the roads!"
"So kind of you, sir!" Almalilly said.
The men dispersed, and soon they were moving again. Two sighs of relief echoed inside their transport: first Aleh as he let go of the wall, its color returning almost instantly. The second, from Almalilly, all the way from the cabin and so loud some people outside could probably hear it.
"Damned fucking beasts!" She said.
"If you want a minute..." Rosen said.
"No, this much I can handle, thank you. Just let me breath."
Aleh was giving her a very odd look. Questioning? Examining? She couldn't care less. The little cloth wrapped stone he had literally tossed down the opening of her hood still felt like a constant presence against her Will, buzzing and creeping in thins waves across her being, spreading a cool sensation wherever it touched.
She was thankful for the Fetish, as the vulgar lad called it, as it worked double duty to keep her comfortable inside, but as for the man himself she was still unsure. Would it be rude to ask him to stop staring? To change his attitude a bit? And everything else while at it?
As if reading her mind, Aleh shrugged and closed his eyes, leaning back against his seat. Lads and their mysterious ways. What had that been about? Maybe it was for the better if she never learned.
The Oke moved, and she let the idea slide out of mind.
The sights that same night were not a tenth as pleasant as the morning's.
Having fed in the woods, Agare escorted her back just as the group finished their dinner. They decided not to journey further this late, and soon three of them were drawing lots over the couches, Agare and Furfu taking vigil duty while Rosen and Holly had already cozied themselves on the floor. Not like she would be sleeping, anyway.
Almalilly and Blades settled themselves as Aleh grumbled up a storm, choosing an uncomfortably close spot to set his pillow and sheet.
The noises started the moment he closed his eyes.
A bubbling croak, a repeating plead choked through a drowning throat, a wet plodding like boots on mud, a mixture unlike anything Holly had ever heard. It started distant, then approached at an even pace, so faint as to only be heard thanks to the evening's deathly silence.
Stranger still was how nobody seemed interested. Only Aleh, somehow crawling up the seats and over Almalilly with his wiry limbs to reach the Oke's wall, looked a little alert. Again, it vanished with a touch, though this time a weak luminescence cut through the darkness on the other side.
It was gaunt and tall, shaped like a person stretched across thin air, a melting chest inflating to bursting then deflating until the silhouette of ribs threatened to rip its soft exterior open, colored blood red and pitch black blurring together. Almost featureless, it slithered as if made of liquid, swarms of minuscule insects diving in and out of its body with every shambling motion.
And it was looking straight at her.
Holly's blood went cold, nails unperching until they were vertical with her fingers. If her hairs didn't spread across the Oke's it was only thanks to her hood. Her Will, meanwhile, was undecided between tearing into the wall in front to destroy the threat or the one behind so she could run for her life.
Aleh sighed and let go. "Shit, forgot about those."
"Ugh, get off already," Almalilly said. "Leave it be so it goes away faster!"
"Not dealing with it." Blades shrugged.
"Neither." Rosen, who hadn't twitched a finger meanwhile, said, "They can't keep interest for long, just do as Almalilly says."
"Fucking whores, Rosen, and sleep with all this babbling?!"
"A-apologies Aleh, if you would like me to—"
"I want it gone now!"
Silence. It took a few beats before Holly realized she had spoken out loud. "I-I mean, I don't like it! Never seen anything like that, but it looks kind of dangerous, r-right?"
"Dearest and sweetest Holly," She saw Aleh swallow dry "What in the ever loving fuck is wrong with—"
"Aleh!" Blades and Almalilly spoke in unison, but only the former continued. "None of that now. Be kind."
"What?! She is the one who—" He paused, blinking.
"I-it was coming for me!" Holly tried to explain, but Aleh's attention was elsewhere. "Didn't you see? It was looking right at me!"
"Upon further pondering, this might just be quite the useful situation," Aleh said, standing up. "Holly, if you could follow me, I will show you a trick."
"A-are you kidding me?! T-that thing is going to—"
He didn't listen, already hopping right over Rosen and bypassing her towards the Oke's cabin, throwing the hatch open on his way up. She couldn't deny being a little curious of where exactly the lad wanted to lead her, or why he was leaving through a hole she couldn't hope to squeeze by if he wanted her to follow, but she still wasn't too sure of his intentions.
"Aleh," Agare said, sounding none too pleased.
"Aleh," Furfu said, sounding none too pleased.
She heard a low snap and a tap on the roof, and all three outside went quiet. Against the scant moonlight that descended through the shade of the trees, she couldn't even tell Aleh's expressions, and was left to guess the tone of the conversation by his gestures. At least they didn't leave her hanging for long, sound returning briefly after.
"I suppose I see your point," Agare said. "Just make it short. Furfu, accompany him."
"I-if you demand..."
"... Know what? Let's not waste precious time with pointless arguments, let her come," Aleh peeked his head inside, "Holly, climb down the back. Your biometric signature is already registered, however you will need to touch the lock with bare skin!"
"W-what?! That thing is out there!" she said.
"And so are we!"
What could she say to that? She didn't want to go, but if nobody was scared of the grotesque monstrosity outside, then it should be fine, right?
"Because Holly is such an obedient girl, isn't she?"
She gathered her courage, crawling towards the back and earning a good luck from Rosen and Almalilly. The capillaries of each wall converged there, tapering off like the branches from two dead trees, except in the middle where both sides merged into a strange bulging contraption that ever so slightly grew and shrunk with every pulse of the metallic carriage.
The bratty little thing refused to budge, not reacting to a shaking finger, nor a rasping knuckle, and finally not a trembling wrist. By the point she lost her patience and was about to bash her way out, an accidental brush of her forehead got the contraption to shiver. She headbutted the lock again, hearing both sides squelch into the tight confines of their constraints as they separated.
She had to remind herself to stand on two legs, always keep them practiced and healthy, as her every instinct begged her to keep on all fours and close to the ground. The night felt still, breeze stale and weak, the song of bugs distant and cautious. Only those gurgling croaks remained distinct, sharper now that there were no barriers between them both.
It was with no small amounts of horror that Holly realized that the wet shuffling had shifted towards the back of the Oke. It was with immense amounts of horror that Holly saw Aleh jump in right from above, elegant landing complimented by her weirdly muffled screams.
"Now that's how it's done!" he said, searing yellow robes flaring around his ankles.
"Y-you—!"
She had no time to complain, as the creature popped into view, worm like fingers heralding its arrival as they crawled over the Oke's corner. It had been hard to notice before, but the monster's height changed with every step, always taller than her by at least a head. What did it want from her? Could it be the thing from the puddle that knew that certain word?
"Now, observe me with Asha and eyes both," Aleh said.
Her mind blanked for an instant, but there was only one thing he could be talking about. Hesitantly, Holly let her Will free, and wait for it to grapple on to the lad's body.
Aleh's inner chaos was different from Rosen, but not too similar to hers either. It moved different, with stronger currents and in broader streams, making him look larger and more menacing than met the eye. Simultaneously, he was softer around the edges, and more extrinsic in direction? It was the best description she came up with.
"P-perhaps you could loosen your focus somewhat? This is distracting."
The chaos shifted, emanating through her fingers like fine mist. In the physical world, Aleh lifted his hand, palm up, inviting her pursuer closer. At first, it didn't react, until the mist began to coalesce into a second, distinct mass, dense with powerful inner currents, creating ripples in the air. The creature leaned to side, as if about to fall, before reaching back, tendril digits elongating to engulf it whole.
It happened all at once. The mist became energy, became hostility, electric and thorny as to make her retreat. Amidst the ripples, an abomination to match the first appeared like a fish emerging from a lake, a disjointed colorful froth changing shape with every erratic turn, all bulbs and holes and cilia and glazed eyes changing places with no rhyme or reason. The shambling creature's hand blew to the wrist with a wet pop, leaving not so much as a speckle of blood on the ground as a chorus of a dozen choked sobs rang from nowhere and everywhere.
She expected some sort of retaliation. Instead, the destruction spread across the thing's body, forcing it to quiver itself into quarters, than ribbons, gaining distance as it lost form. Then it simply disappeared into thin air, leaving not the slightest proof of its existence behind.
Holly's mouth refused to close. It felt like one nasty prank, and she would have scolded Aleh for tugging her leg if she hadn't seen the situation unfold start to finish. "W-wooo— I mean, W-what happened?"
"What do you mean? Were you not observing?"
"N-not that thing! I don't even know what it was, I'm not going to touch it!"
Aleh sighed. "And that is the reason I told you to observe! You would have known! Oh, so be it, a deeper explanation would always have been required, allow us to move on!
"That, Holly, is called an apparition," he said, pointing in the direction it had vanished. "Mayhaps you have never seen one, but in the chance you heard of their existence: It is not a ghost, not a haunt, not a phantom, but a lesser form of Merurgical being that could cause some level of damage to us if we were some bumpkins toying around, yet that is the important part, for we are not!
"It's important you grow accustomed to them. As we approach the borders between Galehold and Bellfort and reach one the nucleus of the centuries long Yine-Awin conflict, we will be seeing more of them, on occasion in mass if we take a wrong turn inside the Sacred Forest Region! Which we also might not, such creatures are not as common as I am implying, but imagine, what will you do if the worst comes to pass, when you can't handle the sight of them?"
Holly took a few seconds to digest the information, then nodded. "What?"
"What what? Be more specific with your doubts."
"W-what everything! I-I got the part about Yine and Awin and that's it!"
He smiled, sharp and thin. "I suppose my explanation was somewhat lackluster. Allow me: an Apparition is a conglomeration of Type-3 Merurgy created when there are violent, fatal reactions between a living being and a manifestation of Ashic Art, in particular those foreign to the region of incident. Taking a few weeks to manifest, you often see their like in old battlefields, abandoned prisons, repurposed laboratories, and similar places. In other words, Apparitions are, as I'm certain you have imagined, one of the so called False Unde—"
"Stop!"
Aleh froze, and so did she. Furfu strode from around the corner, never having looked even half as intimidating in Holly's eyes.
"W-what he is trying to say is," Furfu ruined the image, "that apparitions are like an impression of Dashi killed through A-Asha. T-they are pretty weak, more of a parasite than anything else really, s-so it's easy to scare them off. K-killing them is a little more complicated..."
No amount of darkness could hide Aleh's blood curling glare. "Your leash giving you enough length to watch this lesson does not mean you were given the right to bark, asshole-head! I had a plan!"
A sliver of light slid right to Aleh's nose, a shining mace with a gnarled head. Somehow, he didn't even flinch, "What lesson? You're gloating your knowledge over her and being petty!"
"I'm creating context! To ask questions, she requires questions to ask!" he said. "Once she was curious, I would explain the concepts slower!"
"Silence!" Agare said from atop the Oke, "If you need to do this here, be brief and be quiet."
"M-my apologies S-sir, I will r-rein him in," Furfu said, earning a slight nod.
Aleh remained silent until Agare left the other way, taking a deep breath before slowly clasping his hands together. "Sure. Brief and quiet, you dickhole. Brief and quiet."
"Can't we do this tomorrow?" Holly said, not feeling the mood, "Y-you both should sleep a little."
Furfu just stared at her, a gesture somehow more embarassing then any other reminder. Aleh chuckled. "I will have you know, I had to do overnights often back at the academy, sometimes in a row, so one night wouldn't phase me in the least. Besides, if you don't know such core matters it is better teach them as soon as possible, before it turns into a question of life or death. And weren't you bored, cooped up inside for so long?"
Holly didn't answer. How much attention had he been paying her?
Aleh shrugged. "Allow me to change angles. Marquise understands Ashic Theory as well as the average hick understands Lesser Physics. You can ask her, she taught me that turn of phrase! She must have told you she meant for you to learn Asha, and don't think I forgot you call your Arts 'Will', and mine 'magic!' "
"I call it what it is," she said.
"And swallow your tongue before speaking ill of the Lady, Face," Furfu hissed.
"I just said she invented— Moving on!" Aleh clicked his tongue "Holly, for the sake of simplifying matters, I will start with giving you the crash course all children of the Sect get! A simple light show on the underlying Planes of the universe named The World's Making."
Furfu twitched, "D-do you even know how to do i-it?"
"One of the first things I learned once I had the required skills, for all the good it did me. Now, Holly, if you would please take a close look?"
Still unsure, she was nonetheless too deep in to excuse herself. She watched as Aleh's fingers cupped together, hands slowly spreading apart to left and right, one up and one down, a tiny star blinking into existence in the gap between. For how bright the little guy shone, she couldn't help but notice how light didn't illuminate the ground or the Oke.
A pulse, and the star grew larger, until it was longer than it was wide, until it became an oblong object roughly the size of Aleh's head. A few more pulses and it gained color, patches of texture emerging from the smooth expanse as if pulled from the bottom of a lake.
It wasn't over. The object twisted itself, upper half to the left and the lower to the right, the space in between squeezing until it became a gulf, white creeping from its folds while the bottom became pitch black, exhaling a fine violet mist that enveloped it whole.
Two nearly perfect spheres had been created. Mesmerized, Holly gaped as the lowest was destroyed, turning into a shower of soot that quickly disappeared into the wind. At the same time, the upper half inflated until all Aleh was holding was this engorged, luminescent fruit with a severed bottom, gorgeous in its deep shade of blue, if not for the brown and green mold patches that formed the rough shape of a fractured waxing moon across its surface.
It didn't take long for her to catch on. "I-is that our Starlit World?"
"W-well done, Holly! A-and Ivias is—"
"Irrelevant, this is not geography," Aleh said, the orb rotating at his beckon. "Correct, Holly, this is the world we live in as we perceive it with out sight, our hearing, our touch! Yet, as you sure know, there is more to it than meet the average eyes here, and you can feel it as sure as you can feel the cold, the smell of flowers and rot. Let me ask you a question: What is the base of the Starlit World? What holds it into, well, a world?"
She pondered for a few seconds. Surely he wanted an answer deeper than the immediately obvious, but she had no clue what that would be. "R-rock? Caves?"
"I-in a sense, but think more abstractly, y-you—"
Aleh spat. "Don't interfere, she followed the spirit of the question."
She heard Furfu's hands ball into fists. "If the disciplinarians were here—"
"The disciplinarians are not, so fuck them and be quiet!" The image crumpled for an instant, creating beautiful blue and green waves across its surface. Sadly, Aleh was quick to rectify the mistake. "You want me to get to the point? Then to the point we shall get!"
Before her eyes, their world opened. No, she realized, not only opened, but bloomed like some grandiose flower, multiple layers of ethereal petals that grew dimmer the closer they became to the center serving as pedestal to a second button, golden and spherical, churning like soft sand around itself but never in any single direction: currents clashed, merging and rebounding and completely absorbing one another until they covered this new world in thousands of chaotic rivers.
"Will," he said, and smiled when she was left staring at him agape.
"T-this is... so this is what it looks like?" Holly said.
"It is... subjective." He frownedt. "Different practitioners sense it in different manners, but what unites us is sensing it somehow, and in that regard you are not so dissimilar from a witch, Holly. Perhaps you were even better, some have such an intimate relation to this Plane that their meeting can be said to be a mere matter of time. Yet, knowing it does not mean you "know" it, if you understand me. So I ask, what are you looking at right now?"
She didn't hesitate. "I-t's Asha! It has to be!"
"V-very close Holly! Almost there!" Furfu said.
"It isn't?"
Aleh's mouth opened, but he had no chance to speak before Furfu poked the golden orb right in the middle. The entire flower retreated as if punched, petals slumping as if melting, peaks of distortion wracking the golden sands into colorful storms.
"W-we call it Merurgy," Furfu said, not giving her fumbling comrade a glance, "Or some call it the World's Flesh, because if the physical plane is the skin, w-well, muscle is what comes n-next, right? I-it's an energy, of sorts, the accumulated existential value of a thing, the d-disciplinarians used to—"
"O-oi Faceless, did you forget what you are?! Hands off the craft!" Aleh's face furrowed in concentration as the flower gained shape again.
"Oh, my apologies." Furfu said. "A-anyway, everything needs Merurgy to s-some extent so they don't fall apart, but many b-believe it originally b-belong only to living creatures, because there is a difference in quality, you see, but then inanimate matter was infected—"
"Excuse, me, which of us both was sent to pursue higher education on Asha and its fundamentals? Indeed, so don't bog us down with useless trivia and outdated theory!"
"Stupid cunt." Furfu whispered, then was wracked by a full body twitch. "W-wait, what did you s-say?"
"You heard me, you gormless asshole!" Aleh took a step forward, the fragile world flower flickering again with proximity. "You are regurgitating information considered questionable before I was born the same manner some woodland Phantasmal trying to lure children off the road would mimic words it heard before, because you are far too incurious to ever stop and read current facts!"
"And how should I, being a Faceless?!" Furfu pulled her hood back, revealing her Mark. "Am I supposed to just walk to an academy and ask to get enrolled?!"
"You are supposed to be grateful for the nuggets of information that reach your uncouth, brutish ears and let the professionals talk! Listen to yourself, what next, are you going to start rambling about the World's Language model?"
"What's wrong with the World's Language model? It's literally the foundational model the World's Making was made to explain! Look at the name!"
"Not since before you were sperm! You attended the same sessions as me, so how do you not—"
"Quiet!" Holly put a hand in between them, careful to not touch either, specially Aleh with the fragile bud he didn't seem to be trying to maintain anymore. "The others are trying to sleep!"
"Not with the bards at full volume." Blade's voice made Holly jump. The woman had already put her cuirass back, sitting by the Oke's entrance with her namesake bared and being polished over her lap.
"I-I guess not..."
"What a waste of time." Aleh rolled his eyes. "Let us continue and forget about trite discourse."
"It's the foundation behind half of the continent's enchantment models!" Furfu said. "I have seen you use it before!"
"As if you would know! Holly, listen to me now. In a basic sense, the Faceless is right, you are seeing what can be said to be the placid surface of the bottomless ocean we call Ashic Arts, a type of energy inherent to all physical matter down to unicelular beings called Merurgy, and when you reach into that intangible unknown right beneath the skin, this is what you feel.
"Yet, surface remains surface. Epidermis remains epidermis. Merurgy is complex, the various academic fields dedicated to unraveling its mysteries attest as much, but such complications belie the consensus reached decades before either of our births: it is a membrane. It is energy, yes, and it is power, and a mere cover nonetheless."
Holly frowned, feeling confused and frustrated. Not like she could dismiss all this talk when it did make some dots connect inside her mind, but it didn't quite feel like the truth. The fighting didn't help in the least, either.
"Or perhaps... a protective shell." His tone lowered into a whisper. "Such is the school of thought one my mentors followed, and thus I asked: a protective shell for what? What does it protect, and from what? The answer never left me: It protects us our most inner selves."
The outer petals of the world's flower withered into crumbs, and the golden button grew until its seams split open. A thick liquid like honey poured in rivulets as, rather then a blooming flower, the "button's" skin burst like overripe fruit, outside curling into seven distinct peel slices as the pulp revealed itself.
And what a pulp it was. A labyrinth of white roots and smooth thorns, twisting its halls into overlapping spirals and glistening channels. A forest of bare spires poking through the shed skin of serpents, pricking each other is rhythmic waves of jabs. A living creature made of sharp legs and oozing arteries trying to unfold itself only to knot itself further on its own mess. None of those? All of them, at different points? It hurt to look at.
Aleh smiled proudly for an instant, before a scowl took over his expression. "Magic. An infantile attempt to dismiss the most important of sciences as an inherent unknowable, as useless preamble invented for the sake of complicating the scorching of ones enemies through arcane flames. Foolishness doesn't cover it."
"A-Aleh, I'm not liking this..."
"It is self harm," he said."It is the deadliest bastardization ever invented. It is purposeful obfuscation, because the relation between us and the forces that keep us coherent beings is far colder than the average Rose is willing to accept."
"Oh, here we go," Blades rolled her eyes.
"This is what Merurgy protects us from. This is us." The writhing sphere expanded, larger than the golden button, larger than the Starlit World's flower, and with it the number of darting silhouettes inside. Legs? How silly. She wasn't seeing joints. She didn't know what she was seeing at all. Segmented worms? Barked tendrils? "Millennia ago, sages and scholars gathered to solve an enigma wrapped in superstition and political power, being shunned for their troubles. The name witch was meant to oppress us, to cast suspicion on the truth we pursued, and we stole it with our own hands.
"This isn't magic, Holly. Here is the World's Organs. Here is the World's Functions." The orb touched his palms. It was as much light as it was shadow, breathing and beating like a living heart, making her stomach quiver with repulse. "Here is... Asha.
"Some call it the World's Skeleton, for it provides the framework of all that can be and all that can occur, from a natural perspective. It is Asha that makes a rock a rock, and it is Asha that makes Dashi the Dashi, and yet both exist because Merurgy protects us from the crushing, callous force that created us in the first place! So dangerous it is, so paramount to life, and yet so obscure it took centuries of blood and sacrifice to grasp its form once.
"N-nowadays it's a lot safer, Holly! S-still a little dangerous, though," Furfu said."T-things happen if comes in contact with the p-physical world, so—"
" 'Things' is the understatement of the year! Living phenomena, Nothingness Syndrome, Ashic Inversion, conditions death would be preferable to!" Aleh huffed. "Merurgy regulates that contact, within limits, shifting to adapt to circumstance as need permits."
"M-many witches back at the S— a-at the Remnants used to die like that, f-forcing themselves past their limits, but Faces c-can be stubborn like that..."
Aleh's eyes widened, the sphere sundering itself apart for the blink of an eye. In that brief moment, Holly saw something growing under the white labyrinth, under the flowing limbs. She didn't have the words for it; it wasn't a thing of shape or color or image, for all he had tried to make it so, tinging it with malice and fury.
Seeing it once was enough. "I-I want to go back in—"
"Your frivolous comments are both unwelcome and against the whishes of your master, you whimpering animal, so I would save myself the embarrassment and fuck off if I were you," Aleh glared.
"W-what's your problem now? L-Lady Marquise said I could talk about back then so long as I kept it simple!" Furfu said.
"It's uninformed! Pointless! What purpose does it serve? To remind us that a shit stain refuses to leave out collective presence? That some beasts are far too idiotic and spoilt to comprehend the truths she lived through?"
"Lady Marquise told me what I could and could not say. You're the shit stain, little cave rat defending the honor of the dead when I did nothing but say the truth!"
Aleh's blanched, and with it the sphere cracked. She didn't need Will hands touching it to see how twisted its structure had become. That hidden horror Aleh had created inside the fruited slowly gnawed its way to the surface, eager to retaliate its master's hurt, completely unaware of what it was about to lay bare.
She saw venom in his eyes. Before he could spit, Blades hopped off the Oke, sword cutting in between the both. "Alright, this is enough. Let's cool—"
"As if you had the right to butt in, Face!" Furfu's mace pushed it up and back. Blades eyes widened, but she recovered fast. "Stay away, if you don't want me to break your toy!"
Blades gave her a taut smile. "Sorry ma'am, but I obey a higher authority and it's my role to deescalate this mess. If you could both step away from each other..."
"No," Aleh's grin was as wide as a human mouth would allow. "Step away, Blades, a Faceless wouldn't care about breaking a few toys! I can handle the situation."
"Aleh, knock it off and back up."
"It was a long time coming. For a failure to become this entitled, you must have been coddled like a babe, weren't you dearest Furfu?" The orb split, its interior spilling out like foam. Holly's heart sunk as she glimpsed a truth she knew deep inside was not meant to be learned this way.
It had been there all along, probably. The end point to Aleh's lesson, something of a magnitude she could not comprehend yet had known all along, a name she should never have uttered rising to the tip of her tongue like bile, ready for unveiling.
The moment she felt air about to be forced out of her lungs, she broke.
"She said to knock it off!"
Asha? Merurgy? Magic? The countless hands that closed around Aleh were nothing but sheer Will. The sphere stung like crushing wasps under a thousand palms, but it was crushed, its physical image imploding into smoke and fading jell. Aleh threw his head back with a gasp, too late to escape as fingers pressed into the rivers of his chaos and squeezed.
He fell on his knees. She couldn't focus on anything but the lad, but she was duly aware that someone was shouting. That terrifying Aleh now felt as frail as old parchment, his face pallid and petrified, eyes trying to roll out of their sockets trying to look at her.
When was the last time she felt this angry? Oh, the last time she saw Elder Seneschal.
"C-can't you hear me?!" Her screams echoed like howls, but she couldn't stop herself. "W-why do you always torment me like this?!"
"H-H-Hooo-Hoooolllll—"
"Y-You're mean! You're cruel! D-didn't you see what you were about to do?! I don't even know, and even I know! It doesn't make any sense, but it does, and it creeps me out!"
"Hoooollllyyyy—"
"I don't know what's going on! I still don't know what that thing was! I barely got what Merurgy was and you talking about Asha just ruined it! H-how can I keep up with everything when you don't care for me to above getting into a yelling fit?! Why bring me here at all?! Just to hurt me again?! Why?! What did I ever do to deserve it?!"
She pushed deeper, and Aleh reacted. She felt his Will push back, streams turning to burning barbs, but it was so weak it felt like a small bug pricking her, she could smash it to paste any time she wanted.
She shivered, actually pondering that thought. That wasn't Holly Seneschal. That couldn't be.
What was she doing right now? What could she possibly accomplish, throwing a tantrum in front of everyone? She looked around herself. Blade's sword was pointed straight her head, her lips moving to no sound Holly could recognize. Rosen and Almalilly were watching from behind her, not carrying weapons but looking severe. Furfu's mace was held in both hands, but the Faceless was shivering and retreating instead, as if she had seen some kind of absurd monstrosity.
But she had, hadn't she? Holly let go, allowing Aleh to fall to ground and breath. She felt like running away, but didn't, sure she had nowhere to go no matter how far she fled. Instead, she waited as the lad sat back up, giving the top of the Oke a gesture for pause, letting her simmer in shame.
He fixed his robe's high collar, coughed into his fist, and sighed like he hadn't almost become mystical mash. "Holly," he said, tone sickly sweet. "Are you aware you are one fucking weirdo?"
The shame vanished.
In the cacophony that ensued, Furfu was forced to tackle her to the ground and hold her by the shoulders. Meanwhile, a kiddy giggle from right besides her ear was the only thing that could convince her Will from leaving the now much better defended Aleh alone.
"You don't know me!" She screamed from the ground, trying to be heard over all the shouting "Don't you dare talk like you know me y-you mean weirdo!"
"Oh, turning mine own take against me, such a refined madam blesses our presence!" Aleh said, kept from stalking over her by the efforts of Almalilly. "As if I lied! You are far and beyond the strangest creatures I have ever met!"
"I'm not a creature, you stupid little lad! I'm a completely normal human being! N-no matter how I look!"
"When we first met, you were introverted and gentle, except with me. Later, you frolicked on meadows and talked to my colleagues with such submissiveness it was akin to a brat playing with her aunts and uncles!" He frowned. "Later, in the flip of a coin, you withdraw, get curt with everyone, eerie, sulking in complete silence with little reason. Tell me, if that a weirdo doesn't make, what does?"
"T-that's because..." she tried to say, but a knot had formed in her throat.
He whispered something to Almalilly, starting a short back and forth before she nodded and let him go. Aleh crouched right within reach, but the anger was gone again, replaced by curiosity and fear.
"Because what? You know we are in this together, right Holly?" For the first time she had seen, Aleh looked serious but not annoyed. "I don't know what motive you have to dislike me so, but being in this together means we take care of each other regardless, and tell each other whenever unusual occurrences affect us. It's how comrades keep each other alive."
It felt wrong hearing the lad speaking to her like that when he was supposed the worse and most childish of Marquise's agents. But then again, he was one of Marquise's agents after all, so it was only a given he was more than met the eye, right?
That also meant she had doubted Marquise, even if unconsciously. Worse, she had done to him what had been done to her her entire life. "I-I guess that's true."
"We have theories on what happened," he said. "but theories are not conclusions, and we are lacking critical information. I need to stress this: to keep each other safe, we need to be honest, to keep each other informed, so we are best prepared for what comes! And from your reaction, I can't imagine it was a mere pebble to your sole that changed you this way."
She could feel heat pooling on her cheeks. "I-is that why you gave me that weird lesson? To get me open up?"
"In part. I also did wish to cover the material with you sooner or later. Perchance... some lackluster socialization skills also played a part in this kerfuffle. How do you feel about an exchange? If you tell us what happened four days ago, I will apologize for calling you a fuc— Ouch!"
Blades walked away from Aleh as he rubbed his rear. She sighed. "That boy, so complicated..."
"Alright! I apologize for calling you a weirdo, I didn't know it would have that much effect," he said, glaring at the rest of the group. Agare was watching the scene with his arms crossed, impassive.
"I-I'm sorry for freaking out too," she said, tapping Furfu to release her before she pressed her shoulders broken. "A-and for keeping things from you guys, I didn't mean to. I-I just didn't know how to explain that t-they knew..."
"They knew what?"
She told them the truth. Most of it, anyway. She kept that horrible word, the one Hazel insisted was her name, well out of her mouth least she had to explain her sister's secrets, and least any of them actually payed the notion any thought.
It didn't take long, and by the end, everyone looked uncertain, exchanging meaningful glances as if she hadn't noticed. Were she caught on her omission? Did she forget to mention something?
Aleh took another deep breath, and smiled."Holly, how would you like to talk to Marquise right now?"