An Age of Mysterious Memories

B 2 C 39: Rumblings

Har calls out as we land, “Hey Billie pal, or should I say Reggie? You got yourself a couple o’ gorgeous girlfriends!” This earns him getting elbowed by Sal.

My hackles raise and every muscle in my body tenses. I’m still stuck in my authoritative form, so I dismount and carefully approach the pair.

I ask, “You two know who I am? Can you speak with, ugh, I hate calling them this, ‘critterfolk’?”

Suddenly Luni appears as if from nowhere, giggling. My guard finally drops as I relax ever so slightly.

Sal and Har nod, Sal answers, “Luni here has been filling us in, got to say, didn’t expect you to change shape before coming out, but uh, pretty imposing, impressive, probably got the point across I’m assuming.”

I chuckle as I admit, “I kinda lost it, I shot a giant serpent head out of my inventory at Warden Priscilla and covered her in serpent guts and viscera.”

Sal and Har burst out laughing while Luni makes a gesture as if she’s going to be sick. Lil and Teuila grin evilly and snicker behind me.

Har ponders aloud, “So, inventory magic, huh? We’re stuck with stuff like Luni here’s bags. Never even thought there was something more.”

That causes me to ask, “Wait, but how can you talk to my family if you don’t have the whole menu interface and stuff?”

The two exchange a curious glance. Sal shrugs before responding, “I think I know what you’re asking about, like, otters and beavers and pigs and whatnot talk with boxes, yeah? Only, it’s not just boxes, it’s also wind, they still use their lungs.”

Oh of course! These two are some really adept wind mages. I’m surprised the ‘critterfolk’ can hear them, but I’m glad they can. Wait, if they’re adept wind mages, could they possibly know Sylphie? My gaze probably saddens and begins to take on a questioning look because Sal answers my unspoken question.

Her response is, “Yeah, no, Sylphie died a while back. She, uh. She aint really coming back. Not that way. Most of what’s left of her is in us. Guess you’re lucky she’s not mad at you. She’s how I knew you were Reggie Shellcracker and not some Billie to begin with. I’ve got fragments, bits and pieces. Those last few hours were rough on the two of you. My sympathy for all that.”

I choke back a sob as I try not to remember the dam, and when we lost Sylphie. I want to be comforted by my inner circle but now I’m twice as tall as Luni, even new Valkyrie Teuila is barely three quarters my height. I crumple to the ground and sit on my heels as I hug my knees. My right arm spasms and seizes up. I’m mostly over the trauma revolving around Teuila from this event after decades of accelerated thinkspace, but it’s still an event that was destructive to my entire core being.

Teuila herself might no longer be a trigger, but thinking about the event itself still sends me into a spiral of sadness and terror. More than once I nearly lost my family to flood conditions. More than once I had to deal with hostile entities in that dam who had the power to brainwash. I lost an entity who was willing to protect me and sacrifice herself to help me save others. She would have been a true friend. Sylphie was an amazing being who deserved better than to go out like that. It’s too much. It’s just too much.

I think Sal nods to Har, the tallest person here, and Har kneels next to me, placing his hand on my shoulder. Teuila drops her form and sits next to me with an arm around my waist. Lil drops their form and nuzzles me from behind. Luni scoots Har to the side slightly so she can scooch my legs apart to kneel between my legs and between my arms since I’m hugging my knees. She nestles into my embrace and just softly sings. Sal stands over all of us, her hand on my head, a strong breeze whipping up, and I can see the tears she’s shedding ride the breeze in swirls.

Sal suggests we make camp somewhere a bit out of sight, a cove a few dozen miles south along the coast. She’s able to help us travel faster via wind magic to get there quicker, but Luni has it covered with her seven leagues songs. I’m halfway on auto-pilot mode as we make the journey. We can’t stay, we can’t help Sal and Har if they need help with their crusade in this city. We need to get back to our family to make sure Priscilla keeps her deal. My thoughts cycle between the loss of Sylphie, and the possible loss of my family if we don’t stay close enough to protect them.

As I’d expected of the possible cove, it’s almost inaccessible if you can’t fly, or don’t have a very competent ship and crew. Luni can run on walls and cliff surfaces, Teuila virtually flies, Lil actually flies, and I can use my JT movement. Sal and Har can actually fly for a bit as well with wind. Hm, Sal and Har are killers, but so am I. That thought strikes me now all of a sudden.

Another thing I’d suspected earlier, this cove has some minor trinkets and a fair amount of wealth, but the ‘critterfolk’ aren’t here. When the ship pulls in, they stay only until the following night before making a wide berth around the coast to the north. The name of the ship is the Undine. It’s a beautiful name, like Sylphie was a beautiful name for a wind spirit. I wonder if a water spirit guides the Undine.

A twinge in my gut keeps telling me we need to get home. I try exercising my magic while everyone is resting and talking about the state of affairs within the city. I blow through my entire primary mana pool, and secondary, and finally when I’m burning through my tertiary mana pool, my form drops. I revert to the form I know as Reggie Shellcracker when I see my own reflection. Teuila welcomes me back to snuggle away from the discussion. I think Lil and Luni might be staying here with Sal and Har to work on the issue of the ‘critterfolk’ in this city. It breaks my heart that I don’t see a way to fix it. The entire city seems to rely on their sick twisted hatching and slaying of the same creatures over and over to live.

When I jokingly guessed that the captain of the Undine was named Morgan, it turns out I was right. He doesn’t have a last name, but he’s proud to be a free man, and to share that freedom with anyone he can. It’s noble, I want to help, but I can’t shake the fear that I need to get home soon.

After a couple days of planning with everyone, I notice that the army is beginning to assemble for their march. It will be slower than even I could travel alone, but I wouldn’t want to risk it.

I ask those assembled, “Guys, would you hate me if I headed home? I don’t trust Priscilla. I really want to help out here, but I can’t risk it. They’ll take a few weeks, maybe a couple months to get to the river, but I need to make sure our home is prepared to defend itself if they do show up.”

Te immediately asserts, “I’m coming too, we’ll get back quicker if I do the travel, and you just set up camp for us to rest.”

I blink back tears and bite my lips as I nod thankfully at Teuila.

Luni and Lil say what I expected them to, that they have to stay to help out. Sal, Har, Morgan, and the crew of the Undine are the only hope the ‘critterfolk’ have. I don’t even know what kingdom this supposed city belongs to. I could never find a time when it would have been natural to ask what nation the city was a part of, or who their sovereign was, when I was under cover. I could ask Sal, Har, or Morgan, but I feel like I shouldn’t waste their time gathering more information that I won’t be using to help them out.

I hate that I won’t see them for a very long time. I embrace Lil and Lu in the most affectionate hug I’m able to devise, then I kiss Luni and Lil goodbye as lovingly as I can muster. All of our hearts flutter, and Teuila tries to stifle her jealousy.

Teuila’s goodbye consists of, “See you soon Dragbutt, will miss ya. You too Lu.”

Until Luni and Lil tackle her for more affection that is. Teuila relents and smooches Lil affectionately. Te also gives Luni an embrace so tight that I hear cracking and popping sounds from the two of them. Te pulls me into a private thinkspace to point to sorrow, longing, love, joy, and other waves, as she’s filled with a mass of emotions she can barely parse on her own. I nod as I understand how difficult it is for her.

I call out, “I’m sorry again, I’m so sorry. Please forgive me for not joining your noble endeavor. Please, please keep one another safe. Please. Anyone that you save is welcome at Shellcracker Pond, as are all of you. Your entire crew mister Morgan sir, of course you both as well, Sal, Har. You all know how to find it, straight east along the cliff face.”

Morgan’s voice is godly, forgiving, “You have made your choice, your guide be providence itself. Good, bad, or indifferent. Though you don’t need it, a soul is liberated through forgiveness. Go with grace, little old soul.”

Teuila transforms into her Valkyrie form, the creamy gray silhouette version, she wraps her arms about my waist and begins leaping us towards the cliffs, then towards home. Te can’t manage to keep it up indefinitely, it’s not energy-free like the radiant version of the form was. Every few hours we make camp for a short while, and every few times we make camp, we take a full rest.

Still, we make it home with easily weeks to spare, probably at least a month or more. I don’t know if the army has any sort of magic to aid its progress and speed, but I doubt it’s anything near Teuila’s, Luni’s, or mine.

Spice lets me know he has actually been working on something to keep the family safe in secret. He says that he had the family helping him and they didn’t even know it, because he was just having them do small parts or surface adjustments. I’m fairly certain he has dug tunnels and reinforced them above and belowground by his description of the tasks. I’d be surprised if none of my family has caught on yet.

The volcano started erupting once a week recently before we returned, but now it’s erupting almost daily. It feels like a bad omen. I give Sugar and Spice some more instructions on activities to help shore up our defenses to the west and south. I hope we don’t need them, but if Priscilla goes back on her word, or if she didn’t really have any power to make the call to divert the troops, then I’ll be fighting off thousands of enemy mages. If Teuila is careful, she can take out dozens, maybe even hundreds, without suffering many injuries, but eventually a prolonged fight will wear her down.

Hm, most of their attackers were fire magic users, which I don’t really need Teuila’s help to deal with. The ones to really look out for are those specialists in things like acid and poison. I could use Te’s help to keep an eye on the sky for flying thunder mages too. Honestly though with how ruthless some of them are, I’m pretty sure I could get them to murder scores of their own allies without even hitting me. How much am I willing to straight up kill these people? Should I just have done it preemptively anyway, when I had the element of surprise?

No, no. We’ll defend ourselves, that’s enough for now. We met good people. Morgan, Har, Sal, Bettie. Bettie may have accidentally sold us out, based on how some of our guards talked about how we were caught. I think she was just having idle gossip with a customer about the strange kid with a coterie of ‘critterfolk’ and it probably got passed around that she thought I was a noble. She’s pretty much the only person other than Sir Reginald that I spoke to while in the city. Sir Reginald wasn’t too bad either. He didn’t seem to want me to get killed, he genuinely looked out for me and kept offering me chances to back out even after I’d signed waivers. There were also children, babies, innocents in the city. I know that I wasn’t going to attack them regardless, but I suppose ruthlessly murdering all the military may have left some of them without providers, without their mothers or fathers or sisters or brothers. Hell’s bells it’s hard to figure out how to handle these sorts of things.

It’s around the time that we’re a few hours to a few days from when we expect the military to start passing along the river to the south of us when a great gale whips up and some familiar faces join us. Sal, Har, Lu, Lil, and Bettie arrive from the west.

Stunned, I ask, “Guys? What, what’s going on? Did you rescue them all already?”

By the looks on their faces I know it isn’t good news, but I had to hope. They all seem too stunned to talk as Lu walks over to me and pounds feebly on my chest as she breaks down in tears. I gaze around, a sob caught in my throat, my lips trembling.

I cautiously, trepidatiously ask, “Morgan? The Undine?”

Sal almost imperceptibly nods, “They’re alright, last we left them.”

Bettie looks the most shaken up, I’m trying to avoid the obvious question, hoping that I’m wrong. I gulp as my stomach ties itself in knots. I barely form the words, “The city?”

Sal shakes her head, she can only utter one word, “Gone.”

I sink to my knees and draw Luni in closely as I try to console her. She was being a hero, she was putting everything on the line. An entire city, gone, wiped off the map. I can only imagine the cause is the same thing that took so many of her family from her to begin with. Priscilla may have been right. The Leviathans may be trying to take the land inch by inch. How the hell do we defend against something like that? If I was there, could I have flash freeze stormed an entire tsunami’s tidal wave? Does Luni hate me for not being there?

Lu trembles but she shakes her head in answer to my unspoken question. I inhale a ragged sobbing breath as I stroke her hair. Gazing at Sal and Har, Har’s trying to console his sister in much the same manner, stroking her hair. I wonder though if it’s Har that’s deriving the comfort from the action, he looks far away, lost in thought.

Bettie appears to be completely unsure how to handle a town that’s comprised almost entirely of ‘critterfolk’. She seems a bit less intolerant than the rest of the city she lived in though.

Oh crap. As much as I rather want her dead, Priscilla needs to know. There’s no city to go back to, there’s no reason to go to war with the elves over resources. That’s going to have to be up to me.

I gulp as I ask, “Is there anything else? I need to take this news to Priscilla, maybe I can salvage some sort of relationship, and prevent her from losing the rest of the town’s populace in a pointless war.”

The assembled each shake their heads. Teuila looks at me nervously. She knows I intend to do this alone. I explain to her in thinkspace, “I need you to protect the family if this fails, if, if I fail. If she turns on me, I’ll take out as many of them as I can, and try to get back to you, I promise. I will not fight to my dying breath alone against an army of thousands. I will try to find a way out of this if everything breaks down.”

I take to the skies with JT movement propulsion, and angle southwest over the canopy. It doesn’t take long to spot the lights that mark a massive gathering beneath the canopy. So I come crashing down at the biggest concentration of lights, intentionally plummeting through a tent and flash freezing everything in a massive area, everything save one person.

Priscilla screams in terror, “No, no, we, we’re diverted, we, this is far enough isn’t it? You can’t, you can’t!”

I kneel in front of her and grip her hand, with tears in my eyes. Suddenly she takes on a somber stance. I shake as I try to find the words. Priscilla gazes at me, jaw agape, shaking her head. It probably dawned on her why an enemy would drop in unannounced, tears in their eyes. I’m shaking uncontrollably, and surprisingly, Priscilla kneels down to wrap her arms around me, breaking into sobs.

This woman who I despise has just lost everything she’s fighting for. Someone I consider a vile enemy. I can’t help but try to offer her comfort as every part of my being vibrates in my own discomfort at the situation. I’m quelling fear, rage, sadness, grief.

Arrows begin landing near me as the rest of her forces come rushing in to see what the giant crash and glacial blast was about. I don’t care. I let several arrows hit me before she holds up a hand.

She asks me with fury underlying her sadness, “Was it you? Did you do it?”

I shake my head as I utter a one word response, “Leviathans.”

Every last bit of strength drains from her form as she collapses in my arms, her arms go slack and fall to the ground beside us her head rests against my Valkyrie chestplate. The sound of her breathing is a grotesque mixture of wail and indescribable noises.

Hours pass. I guess Priscilla was at least the commander at arms, or whatever her position is, because whenever we’re advanced upon by yet more troops, she holds up a hand and they relent.

I gulp as I stutter and stammer, “I, I can’t, I won’t make demands, I can’t begin to express my sympathy and grief for your losses, but, but please, please don’t, don’t throw your lives away. Please. You may not believe me, but ‘critterfolk’ are people, we can build community, society. I’m, I’m not going to ask for an answer, I’m just begging you to preserve your lives, at least for a while, find some place to make your home without trying to steal it from others. I, I can help, I would be honored to help, if it could mean peace. You know how powerful I am, I want nothing more than peace, safety, and happiness for all who seek it. Please believe that. I’ll, I’ll. I’ll leave you to your grief and plans. I’m sure there’s much that must be done.”

Priscilla grips my arm as I try to stand. The expression on her face is twisted, grotesque, morphing between fury, hatred, anger, grief, loss, shock. In short, her most fervent expression is pure anguish. She asks once again, “Was it you!?”

I shake my head slowly, gulping back my own sobs. As I stand, Priscilla grips me by the ankles and sobs at my feet.

I don’t have a good answer to this situation. At any moment, her grief could turn into a desire for vengeance, a desire to lash out at anything nearby. My family is nearby and their safety is my priority. I spot Sir Reginald nearby looking flabbergasted. Maybe I can get his help in smoothing over this situation. I beckon him over.

Reginald addresses me, “Young sir, or is it madam? Billie, we had thought you detained, although I suppose a jailbreak was not out of reach for one who could present such an exhibition while holding back.”

I gulp down sadness as I reply, “Sir Reginald, instructor, proctor, I’m sorry to be the one to deliver this news.”

Sir Reginald interrupts, “By your tone, this devastating entrance, and my commander’s grief stricken sobbing, I fear it must be the worst possible news.”

I nod. I get around to asking what I wanted to ask, “Sir Reginald, it’s gone, the entire city washed away by Leviathans. I’m so sorry. I can’t and won’t make demands of you in your time of need, but I will beg and plead for you all to not throw your lives away. I want peace, safety, and happiness for all those that seek it in our lands. My family’s safety is my top priority, full stop, nothing comes before that. If my family is not in danger from this contingent, I will do everything in my power to help you find a new home without stealing from others. Others includes ‘critterfolk’ mind you. They are people. I am ‘critterfolk.’” As I announce this, I reveal the scaled tail I’ve been growing.

The tail is small, but much more noticeable than when I’d had my pants blasted apart in the arena. I’ve been working on the self-actualization training while Teuila transported us home. I desperately want to be able to be at peace with the naga folk. If Dehlia wasn’t lying, they have a community. It would be dangerous for this army to wander southeast into the swamps. I need this tail and more scales to cover my body before I feel safe heading to see them though.

Priscilla stops her wailing for the briefest of instants before resuming it. Sir Reginald gasps at the revelation.

I continue, “I don’t know how much power either of you have, or what you can decide on now, or any time soon. I pledge that I will try my best to ensure peace and safety in these lands though. I cannot begin to contemplate your losses. Please take the time to grieve before doing anything rash. I beg you.”

Sir Reginald maintains composure before slamming his right fist to his breast and bowing towards me. Priscilla has gone fetal and let loose her grip on my ankle.

I could just leave. I could let them take care of each other. This isn’t my people. It wasn’t my city. They were horrible people. Why do I care? Sighing, I sit down and pat the ground next to me for Sir Reginald. I help lift Priscilla’s fetal form partially into his lap as I lay a hand on her shoulder in comfort.

Sir Reginald rambles, “She’s, she’s my commander, we don’t, we hardly know each other. Her husband is, no, was in politics. Her son was in the reserves, I don’t know if he was dispatched to join the contingent yet. Oh mercy me. She lost her husband and son. I fancied a barmaid at the Salty Wench. Her name was Eustace. She had a sister named Euriel who promised to fix us a picnic dinner when we returned. All gone, everyone, all of them. I, I can’t really comprehend it. It isn’t sinking in. Every last one?”

I do my best to take in the information without judgment then I try to reply, “As far as I’m aware. I don’t have scouts like you, only the word of some of my family that escaped.”

Sir Reginald continues, “Those two promising new recruits, fresh out of the exhibition trials, the same as you, gone, never to reach their full potential.”

This time I can interrupt Reginald, “Actually, they’re um, sort of part of my family. They’re why I know what happened. They’re okay, but I don’t think they’ll be rejoining you. They love and respect ‘critterfolk’ too much to be a part of a military that might harm ones such as my family. Or any others.”

Sir Reginald nods, barely comprehending, as he absentmindedly strokes his commander’s cheek and her curly hair.

I try to be as polite as I can when asking, “Do you need anything, anything that you think I might be able to provide? Does your force have provisions? I will not let you go around killing the nearby critterfolk for food. If you need food, we can provide produce and fish aplenty. We might ask for some things in trade if it becomes a regular thing.”

Sir Reginald says, “We, we have some provisions, though I suppose many of those you aren’t going to like.”

I gulp and frown at what Sir Reginald is implying. They have eggs they use to harvest people for loot drops of food. What if some of my family randomly respawned in their clutches? What if Atamai or Penina respawned in that city? Olioli reincarnated as an egg in Shellcracker Pond. Who’s to say Atamai, Penina, Iakopo, or Taito couldn’t have done the same as an egg far out to the west?

Closing my eyes and biting back my fury, I state, “I would like to propose a formal trade union, the first substantial trade will include a month of provisions for the entire assembled population, in exchange for all of the people you’re using as cattle. Please try to convince your commander to take this deal when she’s finished grieving. I must take my leave, because there are layers of grief to this situation that I can not personally handle at the moment. Sir Reginald, you have my respect and adoration. I truly hope that this situation resolves in a safe, peaceful ending for you and those remaining that you hold dear.”

Before I break down and slaughter my way to the supply lines to find the eggs, I blast off into the skies with JT propulsion and head towards home.

Upon return, I inform everyone of what transpired, Sal and Har are fairly surprised at both how I handled it, and that Priscilla fell apart. I let them know that I intend to try to rescue the ‘critterfolk’ by way of trading supplies for them. I’ve got the wealth to buy thousands of units of produce, and a single set of Valkyrie equipment can purchase thousands more if we sell it to our shop. We’ll deplete our stock of fish quickly though. We’ve actually succeeded in getting an extra school of fish to spawn by expanding the pond, so my theory proved correct.

I didn’t really check if the lake up by lava biome has fish spawns, perhaps we can make this work after all. I excuse myself to JT propel myself up into lava biome to check the lake and its possible fish spawns. The volcano explodes, erupting yet again, each time has been more violent than the last. That’s when I notice it, out of ten obelisks that used to dot the landscape, there’s only one left. 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 then it enters at the beginning. Something is going to be let into our world. Something whose presence will stretch back to its first beginning. If that last obelisk falls. Hell’s bells this couldn’t have worse timing.