Mariwa: An Ivian Tale

Holly stared at the object on Marquise's desk with revulsion.

Such was its odor that even from a pace away it had managed to clean both her nostrils better than any medicine she had ever taken. It tinged the air with a curious taste, shame she couldn't tell what from the way her tongue burned.

"S-so, what's this again?"

"It's called Aris' Rosetears!" Marquise said, holding the bloated, corked blue gourd upright, "One drop, and you'll see lil'Rose from the neighborhood dueling clouds in the sky! Or so did the guy who introduce me to this stuff said. You, I'd say, might need aroooound... half the bottle?"

"H-half!" Holly backed away with enough strength to drag her chair against the floor, "W-why can't we just leave the usual way?!"

"Weeeell, it's a security measure mostly. First, there are certain obstacles set around to both hide the manor and keep outsiders away that you can't easily circumvent nor deactivate. Second, we can't let the means of getting in unnoticed leak, not when there are so many ways to get information out of somebody, which no offense but you have no training against Holly."

"N-none taken, I guess."

"And third, please? Pleeeeease? You said you'd do anything I ask of you."

"I-I did, a-and I will! B-but..."

"If it helps." Agare piped in from the far end of the desk, slightly closer to Marquise's side, "Most others here aren't allowed to know these measures either, and would need aid to leave unharmed. They are only informed on a need-to-know basis."

Knowing she wasn't being singled out did help, a little. The fear of what that thing would do to her innards, however, remained. The poor blue bottle gourd, robust and fresh, the kind of thing that should last you for years, had expanded in way that filled her with dread, its bottom half covered in ugly blotches that almost resembled rot or mold, were they not acrid green-yellow in color.

But she did promise, didn't she? And needless to say, disappointing the Marquise was not an option. So carefully, she took the fruit from her hand, nails unfurling to better grip the cork.

"Before you do, Holly!"

"What?"

"Good luck, alright? I won't be close to you anymore, but don't be scared, we'll still be in contact! Also, I got a good crew for you! Treat them well, and they'll be your friends for life."

"Thanks! I-I will!"

Her chest hurt. She had to say something.

No. If Marquise was going to keep contact, than this might not be the last time they see each other, right? No need to treat this like another sudden farewell.

So she gathered her courage, pondered how to drink properly from a bottle with her mouth's funny shape, and too anxious to procrastinate further, pulled the cork off with a wet pop. Immediately, she felt a light stinging sensation break across her face. She didn't lose time in raising her chin and pouring the foul liquid down the hatch.

"Holly. Holly! Half, half!"

She took that as her cue to stop. The taste was... unexpectedly mild, for the half second she could feel it before her entire mouth went numb. Outside of a peculiar fuzziness in her stomach, however, she didn't feel any different.

"Ah. What now?" she asked.

Holly woke up paralyzed, sprawled over her limbs.

All she could feel was the cold and deafening silence of the void around her, the only clue she had not been cast down into some dark ocean the dizzying amounts of nonsense battering her through her frenzied Will. She could almost swear it was trying to prop her up in some way, but as consciousness returned, so did her control, and that subconscious desperation faded away.

Her senses came back little by little. First, her blurry sight, letting her perceive the neither dark nor bright environs; second, a cacophony of woodland sounds, from buzzing, to chirping, to more unknowable shrieks, rhythm poorly matched by the peaceful drumming of a heart; then, a slight tang of mold and moist earth, with a hint of musk and mud; finally, she felt very, very sore.

"She's coming to." A voice she recognized as Agare said.

"H-how can you t-tell?" This one took longer until she realized it had to be Furfu. Why did she sound so bitter?

"Her eyes gained focus. Can't you see?"

"S-she has eyes?!"

"Are you joking with me right now?"

"M-my apologies! I-I promise I w-will pay the u-utmost attention to her b-body from now on!"

"...Just feed her, the way I told you."

New noises then, the rustling of something heavy against wood as well as a light crumpling, followed by fluttering. Holly spent the next few seconds trying to move, and with enormous effort she eventually managed to barely twitch a finger. Before anything more meaningful, however, the gentle caress of leather flipped her on her back.

"G-gross, gross, g-gross..."

"Less whining, more work."

Her jaw was propped open, and something was dropped in between her teeth. It barely had the time to grab the back of her tongue in its desperate attempt to escape before her unconscious body attacked, seizing the foreign intruder with a spams, quickly dragging it to her depths. By the time the next one came, she was already wriggling the prickles out of her extremities.

"C-can't I kill them f-first?"

Agare hummed in pondering for a second, "No."

"W-would she e-even notice the d-difference?"

"Maybe, but I would."

The world came into focus.

She had been plopped down inside a hovel, not much worse than some of Lesser Hollow's poorest works. Obviously abandoned, time and weather had bore holes both into the thin planks of its walls and roof, leaving moss and slime molds to grow up the rotten wood. propped over the same mud encrusted, detritus ridden floor as her were a few small pots, brown and red clay, most far too broken to be of use.

Meeting Furfu in the... Mark, Holly said, "Thaaaaank yaaaaaaaaah'."

"Y-yiiiih!"

"Good morning, Holly." Agare said. "How are you feeling?"

"Baaaaaaad." Holly said, trying to raise herself on her elbows. It took a couple good tries before she managed to sit down, and only thanks to the still reliable strength of the far wall, "H-how long did I sleep?"

"Around four days. You haven't been waiting here for long, however, we had to take a different route than planned."

Holly looked from Furfu, pressing herself against the front of the hut after scooting away on her rear, to Agare, holding a large object by the door, and noticed a rather stark difference from the manor: both were hooded, their facelessness hidden by a dense veil of liquid shadow, like Agare had been in the Hollow. Their armor, too, had now a cuirass, glowing so faint it was barely perceptible even in the dark permeating them.

"T-thanks for the food Furfu. Don't know what it was, but it felt really good!"

"D-don't mention i-it." Furfu said, pushing the only lidded pot here away from her. She could still hear scratching from inside, "I-I hope I d-didn't handle you too r-roughly?"

"I-it's fine, I hope I wasn't too unwieldy? On account of, you know..."

"N-no, you're a l-lot lighter than I thought. Are you-"

"We can trade pleasantries and apologies later." Agare said, "Holly, can you move your arms?"

Instead of speaking, she gave each a good spin. They were sluggish, and her joints still hurt, but it apparently pleased Agare enough, as he launched the package in his arms her way without another word. Thanks to the size of the hut, all she really had to do to catch it was extend an arm.

It was quite peculiar. Roughly square, surprisingly heavy, and quite pliable, even soft. It had been wrapped in a thin green fabric with a pleasant floral aroma, tied around with a neat golden bow, so smooth it was practically silk.

"What's this?"

"A gift, from Marquise."

Well then!

She didn't waste time in pulling the ribbon loose with a nail, casting the wrapping aside with complete disregard, to reveal-

Leather?

Not any leather she had ever seen, though the odor, masked as it was, sure reminded her of it. It was smooth, a little thin and airy, with some squish to it, colored an earthly, almost mossy green with black dots peppering its enormous bulk, with exception of the upper part of its sleeves, shoulders, back and spacious hood, which bore trails of white spots.

"Uhm, A-Agare? These are clothes?"

"A robe." Agare said, crossing his arms, "It's part of Marquise's deal. If you want to live comfortably among humans for now, hiding your appearance will be paramount. This is Salazan skin, which are not raised in Ivias but make for popular products among both upper and lower strata of Galehold's rich, so it's unlikely you ever came in contact with it before. It should help with most discomforts you have with other textiles."

"Aaaaaw, do I really-"

"Don't complain." Agare turned his head, looking at something beyond the patchwork destruction of the hovel's walls, "I don't want to be here for much longer."

Alerted by his tone, she only briefly hesitated before pullings its hem over her head.

Unfortunately, the cling of cloth was only one of many factors why she hated wearing clothes of any sort. This? Not much better at all. The uncomfortable weight it draped over her shoulder, how tight it felt over her back while being too slack around her waist and hands, the uneven length of it that covered her hands farther than her knuckles but barely reached the middle of her shins, it felt crooked and unwelcome.

Then, a somewhat pleasant shiver up her spine. Something was spreading from the robe, crawling across her skin, making her carefully coiled Will go mad again. With a body of a thousand hands, it groped itself, trying to quickly identify the nature of the threat... only to realize there was no threat at all. Beyond stretching across every bit of skin it could find, this dense body of energy, carrying too many qualities she couldn't hope to understand, felt as lifeless as a rock, not touching her beyond its need to spread and spread further, until it had spread too far.

She looked down on her hands. Liquid shadows had weaved themselves in between her fingers, up to the tips of her nails. Same with her feet, thought there it failed to cover her pale toes. Changing colors in and attempt to match the impenetrable darkness proved unfruitful.

She gave Agare a quizzical look, but his attention was solely on her legs. "Fucking Marquise, you weight her kidneys yet forget to get her measurements?"

"S-she did what?"

"Nevermind that. It's too late to make modifications now, we will have to get something for your feet later."

"M-more clothes?! W-wait! I-if someone asks, why don't you just tell them I'm deformed? It's not like it's a lie!"

No veil could hide the intensity of scrutiny Agare just gave her, which she failed to match. Agare simply turned his back, slowly opening the door with the world's most pitiful creak, "I suppose you wouldn't understand why that won't work. We can think about that later, for now come, I have some people to introduce you, and they are carrying your things already."

"Wait!" Holly said, "A-aren't you going to tell me what this is?! Is this magic?! Did you cast it?!"

"D-don't say that!"

"Uhm?"

"Don't s-say that." Furfu repeated from her corner of the hovel, "D-don't call it magic. H-he doesn't l-like it."

"Agare doesn't?"

"She's not talking about me. Now, come, you both!"

Outside, she was greeted once again by a verdant forest, though one with much shorter trees and lighter vegetation than she was used to from the Hollows.

She could tell that, at some point in time, this had been a farm of some sort, though scant evidence still remained. The hovel was, if anything, a strange anomaly, in a much better shape than what chunks remained of the worm-eaten fences, or the uneven pile of debris and dirt that may once have been a sizable house, already taken back by nature and now serving as bed for wild flowers of many colors and shapes.

For a second, she almost tricked herself into think she had left the Hollows, but to what she thought was east the wall of mountains still reached high. A little further back, and she saw the giant, Mt.Tremor, its peak disappearing above the clouds and fading into the sky. It always made her a little queasy, so she tried not think much about it.

Agare took the distant front, guiding her steps through the overgrown path away from the old property, and she couldn't say how glad she was for the stretch. Working the kinks off her joints, she unbid her Will, letting it reach as far as it could before pulling it back, it too terribly sore from constraint.

It was the first time since that night her Will felt this responsive. No, perhaps it felt even more responsive? The memories had blurred within her head, she couldn't tell anymore.

Hands that were not hands rained upon the undergrowth, grasping and feeling their way amidst branches and leaves, fingers digging into critter of all sorts, scaring them silly! A torrent of information flooded into her brain, of which unfortunately little was of any use, the rest beyond her means to comprehend. She focused, hoping she could now see something else, something new, something-

She didn't know how she did it. Suddenly, a few blades of grass rustled, and Agare practically flipped sideways, stance low and wide like a frightened beast. She froze, waiting for another nightmare to come for them, yet nothing did. After several seconds of silence, Agare looked her way.

"Did you do that?"

"Hehe, s-sorry."

"Refrain from using your Div-Will that way for now. Abuse it while you're still adjusting to the new environment, and you might make yourself faint."

"Y-yeah, no need to tell me twice."

Though she had to admit, it was easier said than done. Now that they were free, her intangible arms were so eager to sense they practically had life of their own.

Their walk took them a fair distance from the strange hovel, down the gentle slope of a hill, the vegetation covering their path growing sparser. After a slight curve, they happened upon an immense ficus, beneath a twisting bifurcated trunk which lied a great shape, like a box on wheels. At first, it tickled her mind, finally coalescing into a name, wagon, then differences became know. Could wagon wheels really be that thick? Where were the draft animals? Besides, the frame didn't fit what she had pieced together from the decayed, rusted, turned over thing that used to lay somewhere in the woods close to the Elder's home. Then again, that thing had been mulched, and her memory wasn't too good back then.

Around this not-wagon, four people milled about. Or three did, while one rested above the vehicle.

It still was a while until one of them spotted their group. He broke away, running towards Agare.

Once he was closer, Holly gave him a good look: He was an older man, thirties to early forties, tall and well built, though no match for Julius, her brother in law. He was actually very handsome, lightly tanned skin revealed by his loose yellow tunic, body heavy with hairs everywhere her eyes could see, from his well defined pectoral to his chiseled face, beard sporting a small braid.

"Sir!" he said in a gravely voice, giving a light bow with a fist on the middle of his chest, "All preparations completed, all that's left-"

"Agare."

"Sir Agare, my apologies! I-"

"Agare, Rosen, Agare!"

"S-S-Sagare! My most sincere apologies, I promise to get it right soon!"

"Good to hear, and good job. Gather everyone now, we have to talk."

Not losing an instant, that Rosen ran away, quickly beckoning all the others over. She was too far to hear their conversation, but the tone of it was tense, specially when the one above the not-carriage said something, dismissing with a hand, earning him two exasperated glares, none from that man.

"S-so many F-Faces to take c-care of..." Furfu said.

"They can take care of themselves. Remember your mission."

"Y-yes, S-S-Sagare."

"Don't start."

"S-s-sorry..."

Faces, to her knowledge, was how you referred to those in the Remnants that couldn't become Faceless, and generally got the more mundane side of business to tend. Marquise and Agare had implied that there were at least a few in the manor, and Holly had failed to figure out if they had been deliberately kept from her, eluded her by complete accident, or were just fruit of a misunderstanding actually.

The three below approached, the fourth only stuck his legs out the side of the not-wagon, Holly's preferred outcome really. All three greeted Agare the same way, a light bow, a fist on the middle of every chest.

"S-Sagare, as commanded! We await orders!" Rosen said.

"Well done." Giving her a wide berth, Agare stood in front of the trio, looking at each in turn, "Pay attention, I will say this once! This here is Holly Seneschal, a pivotal piece of our leader's plan and soon an important comrade of yours! You will treat her well, and you will safeguard her life the same way you safeguard one another's! If any of you have any objections, say it now, while you can still return to Meagerwind!"

"No, Sir!" All three said in unison.

"Agare!" Agare yelled alone."And I'm glad to hear. Starting with you, Rosen, introduces yourselves."

As Rosen straightened his back, a transformation took place. She couldn't say she knew his usual posture and demeanor, however she could bet an eye that the care-free slouch and easy smile he now sported weren't usually part of it. Still, she couldn't complain, the way it made her heart race, just a little.

"Well, I suppose I should have done this earlier, yeah? My bad, didn't mean to be rude. Let me make up to you by telling you a little about this beautiful creature before you," he said, giving the back of his neck a lazy scratch, "Name is Rosen, enchanted to meet you! By trade I am a traveling pit fighter, with a name that goes as far as the Territories, but this time I'll be serving as both your personal shield and an aid to our guide, being the most well travelled among us! Y-you excepted, S-S-Sagare, of course!"

"Stop with that Sagare thing! You next."

The one who hummed in agreement was a beauty of the kind that turned heads, regardless of, or in Holly's case considering, the large scar that traced her chin to nearly her severed earlobe. Aristocratic features, pale skin, piercing green eyes, hair a mixture of brown and copper she had never seen before, differing from Lesser Hollow's ideal lady in her choice of clothes: She practically wore what the two other Faceless did, with the same dark leather for her gloves and heavy boots, as well as an iron cuirass that very faintly glowed.

"Name's Blades." she said, her voice both husky and tranquil.

"B-Blades?"

"Blades." She tapped her holstered sword, "They told me I could call myself whatever I wanted."

"O-oh. W-well picked! I guess."

"Sure was. I fight, and protect this girl right here."

"Charmed." the leftmost Face, yet to introduce herself, said.

"If you need to teach somebody a lesson, call the other guy, I don't like dulling my swords over nothing.

And indeed, she had a most strange weapon, a sword with a blade both thin and long, a simple scabbard contrasting heavily with its highly elaborate pommel, where the shape of a beast's skull had been carefully worked on the tip. Not for a second did Blade's hand stop idly caressing or squeezing its handle, and the fact Agare hadn't acted made Holly hopeful that wasn't a threat.

"Sheesh, will you never stop talking?!" The leftmost said, "My turn, right Agare?"

"Go ahead."

The last person here on the ground was another woman. Holly thought she had grown used to the idea of women fighting in the Marquise's manor, but the involuntary flinch she gave at looking at this one a second time proved her wrong.

She was, for the lack of a better word, what Holly associated with matronly: A corpulent body, brown hair neatly divided in twin braids, and a modest yet airy dress, green with a wine colored underblouse, that wouldn't look too bold used during the Flowering Season back in lesser hollow, hems below the knees and sleeves just past the elbow. She also had brown skin, calloused hands, a nice smile, and actual spectacles! The first Holly had ever seen, with big round lenses.

She dropped into an elegant curtsy, speaking with a soothing voice "You can call me Almalilly! That's a foreign flower, if you're wondering, blue and lilac petals with a white core! I do a whole lot, though I'll be mostly planning our course and dealing with boring bureocracy wherever needed! as long as we stay in this place anyway. Oh, oh, the Marquise also asked me to continue your Awinian studies, so I hope you're ready because I'm not a very kind teacher!"

"Too wordy." Blades said.

"It's an introduction, it's meant to be wordy!"

"Brevity is the soul of art."

"Mystery is the death of companionship!"

"Subtlety is sexy, actually."

Almalilly rolled her eyes "I'm not trying to fuck her, you know?"

Holly flinched again.

"Oops?" she asked, with a quirked eyebrow, "Don't like that kind of language, Holly?"

"S-sorry, it's fine, I'm just not used to hearing ladies say things like that, b-but don't hold back on my account!"

"Ladies, is it?" she said with a smile, "Now that's a compliment I don't get everyday. Still, pardon my manners, I'll be sure to keep it in mind next time we talk."

"Sorry about that..."

"Nothing to worry about. So, ready for the final battle?"

"F-final battle?"

"With your leave, Agare?"

"Go ahead."

Holly, of course, knew exactly where Almalilly intended to take her, and had a bad feeling about it. The last Face hadn't budged the smallest distance, watching the conversation below with an impassive expression, but the slightest hint of a smile started showing as she approached, immediately setting her on edge.

Holly knew she had no grounds to judge others on appearance. Holly, regardless, couldn't help herself. Had these people not been chosen by Marquise, she would avoid him like a pile of maggots.

The word that came to mind was lad. Short, scrawny, poorly combed hair growing just past his neck, a pathetic excuse of a stubble peppering his chin, Holly didn't need to examine him any further to see all those signs of a growing lad she despised so much. His garish red robe, the toothy thing supposedly resembling a smile, those eyes that stared her deep into the soul, not a detail that could help the image.

And then, before she could speak, he pushed himself off the top of the not-wagon.

Time slowed down as their gazes met, the lad falling her direction, her body refusing to act. For a terrifying, endless moment, she imaged that smug face missing his landing, scrapping his ass clean off skin.

The next moment he did exactly that.

A silent second of stupefaction was broken by a chorus of "Young Sir!" The lad simply rolled on the ground, cradling his rear and softly cursing to himself as Almalilly rushed to his aid, Rosen sprinting in for the rescue a blink later.

"Fuck! Fuck!" The lad said, his voice bearing that unpleasant hoarseness of a young man at the cusp of age, "Stupid cunt-guzzling Fetish, what else do I need to do to make your work?!"

"What were you thinking?!" Almalilly crouched by his side, "Are you still all hanged up on that thing?!"

"Young Sir! Are you hurt?!" Rosen said, "Let me check-"

"Tch! Unhand me, you both! And what's wrong with trying to fix something I bought with my very own money?!"

"This makes it twice you got hurt the same way! You told me yourself it was hopeless!"

"Even my professional opinion is subject to change!"

Slapping away the helping hands, this young sir got back to his feet by himself. He beat the dirt out of his clothes, gave his rear one last good rub for good measure, then looked at her again as if just remembering she was there. Sleazy baring of teeth back, he practically screamed, "Holly Seneschal!"

"M-me!"

"Forgive my lackluster entrance." He shook his head, "Many say that one's first impression speaks the loudest, alas what must always follow the adage is that sometimes, you simply have no control over the circumstances of your introduction."

"I guess."

"Let's not waste any more precious time." The young sir gave a theatrical bow, one arm spread wide while the other remained crossed over his chest, His gaze never losing hers, "My name is Aleh. I'm this party's witch, specializing in cognitive and supportive arts. I am also an enchantment repairman of some talent, experienced with all five Great Asha of the Meshelaa Continent and the all three of the Bear's Arts! None of which this fucking Fetish incorporates, I assure you, so I hope you can disregard this incident without issue."

There was a lot there that went right over Holly's head, but one things stood out.

"Asha?" She asked, feeling her heartbeat hasten.

His lips shut, his smile gained an almost mischievous edge, the first Holly was willing to guess was any level of honest.

"Asha." he said, simply.

One of his hands came up, slowly, palm up and finger pinched together. Her Will twitched, feeling a strange presence so close it could only be one thing. It happened in an instant: His eyes widened, his lips blurred with a haunting chant, his fingers were thrown open, and suddenly twin tongues of energy, one black one violet, manifested in mid air! They stretched, intertwining like serpents into a multicolored spiral, their cores melting into one another until all that remained was a spinning sphere of impossible depth, a hole into nothing in a gorgeous monochromatic hue.

"A-Asha!"

"Asha!"

"T-that's so cool!" Holly said, completely transfixed on the show of colors, "Y-you're a magician? You do magic! H-how did you do it?! Can you show me?!"

And just like that, the sphere exploded.

Holly took a step back, shocked as the once enthralling performance grew grotesque. In the cloud of light that had taken the sphere's place, unspeakable shapes and undefinable artifacts tried to manifest, consuming one another before any could mature. And through it all, Aleh's smile, now sharper than any knife, only became wider.

"You called me... a magician?"

"W-wasn't I supposed to?" Holly said, her nails unfurling by reflex. A vague memory tickled her brain, however she had no attention to spare now.

"Magician."

"Y-young Sir." Rosen said, paling.

Then, as they had been there all along, his toothy smile and hollow eyes came back, "Sure! That's what I am! I promise, you will see as much magic as you want when we are on the road. Now, I need to take a look at a few things, if I'm excused."

Briefly, his face twisted with such naked contempt, she was sure he was going to attack. Then, she realized it hadn't been directed her way.

She hadn't heard Agare approaching. He stood closer than she had ever seen him since that night in Lesser Hollow. Tensions broken, Agare seemed to finally notice it himself, taking a long and quick stride away from her.

"W-what was that?"

"I-I told you n-not to do i-it," Furfu said, to her other side, "S-stupid prick..."

"Yeah, and you didn't tell me to whom!"

"M-my apologies..."

"W-what did I do wrong? What was his deal?!"

"Ask him if you ever have the time. Almalilly, get her inside the Oke, we have much ground to cover today."

"Y-yes! Good idea!" Almalilly said, gently grabbing Holly's hand, "Come this way, Holly, let me show you something!"

She looked askance from one member of Marquise's "good crew" to another, hoping for an explanation that never came.

Sighing, she though to herself, Marquise chose them, repeating it to herself over and over, a mantra that ever so slightly relieved her anxiety.