Outside Influences

Bel and James trudged along the tunnel, holding their candles high as they searched for any passages that lead upwards and, hopefully, outside. Unlike the unnatural passages of the Labyrinthos, the tunnel they walked through was rough and uneven, and narrowed into uncomfortably tight cracks in places. They had no guarantee that the passages they travelled would go anywhere, but at least they were too small for a tracer or an ambush of scrattes. The fear of being eaten managed to outweigh Bel’s fear of becoming stuck in some dead-end, doomed to slowly wither away in the darkness.

They had been walking for what felt like half a day, although Bel didn’t actually have any way to tell for sure. James’ sense of time was terrible; left to his own devices, she was sure that he would revert back to his unnatural 24 hour cycle. However much time had passed, they were both tired, their feet were rubbed raw and Bel could feel her lips beginning to stretch and crack from dryness.

“So back to your abilities,” James began, his voice slightly hoarse and dry.

“For the last time, James, I can’t look at them while we’re walking,” she responded immediately. “And yes, I do think it would be cool if you could figure out how to write the abilities down on something, but I think it would be even cooler if we’re still alive tomorrow.”

“Geez, don’t hold back. But think about it, each creature must have a few abilities that are situational – like darkvision – that won’t be very popular. But if I could write them all down in what I’m calling a grimoire, then you could easily switch from one to another.”

“You can’t write them down. They have, you know, other directions.”

“Sure,” James agreed, “they’re 4D or whatever. I’ll figure out a way.”

“James, could you figure a way out of here first?” Bel groaned. “You don’t even know what abilities exist!”

She threw up her arms with frustration. “Look, I’ll be happy to help you with your experiments later, but first I want to get the hells out of these caves!”

“Well…there’s another crack up ahead,” James said, pointing.

“Let’s hope it’s not as narrow as the last one. I think I nearly scraped off one of my snakes.”

James snorted.

“I’m serious,” Bel simmered. “They probably don’t grow back like your hair. I’m lucky I got that toughening ability, otherwise I think I would have left a layer of skin behind.”

The light dimmed as James squeezed himself into the crack. Bel’s surroundings grew dark as her brother’s body blocked the candlelight. “It looks like it widens right away this time,” he called back.

James made it through with a minimal amount of grunting, and Bel followed. When she emerged she found herself in a wide, damp cavern. She eagerly inhaled the moist air.

James gestured to the chamber. “Smells like water, right? And water flows downhill. Maybe we can follow the water back up to the surface?”

“I don’t know anything about caves, but sure, that sounds logical.”

The two of them looked around the large chamber. The edges were too dark to make out, but Bel could see the candlelight reflecting from a large, still pool at the center of a hollowed out space that rested at the lowest chamber’s point. Bel’s snakes flicked out their tongues and Bel tried sniffing the air as well.

“Smell something strange?” James whispered with concern.

“Not me. If my snakes smell something I don’t have any way of knowing about it.”

James’ lips pressed together in a tight line. “Right. Let’s try to be quiet.”

The two of them crab-walked slowly, keeping their backs to the cave wall as they moved around the chamber, searching for a way out. Bel was keeping her eyes on the water, trying to see where the largest amount was flowing from, when she felt her gaze drawn to a smooth bulge of rock.

She stared at it, a queasy feeling coiling around her guts.

“Hey James,” she whispered.

“Shush.”

“Don’t shush me,” she snapped.

“I found a tunnel, but there’s something moving…”

“There’s something here,” Bel hissed.

“Yeah, that’s what I–”

“No, here.” Bel tapped the ground.

The rock twitched. Shit, I shouldn’t have done that.

James bumped into her and she almost lost her footing on the wet rocks. She looked up to punch him in the shoulder, but stopped when she saw a thick, stubby leg emerge from a hidden hole.

The leg shifted, testing the ground, before being followed by a head. As the creature came into view her heart thumped in her chest. It was so pale that it was nearly translucent in the flickering candlelight, except for the bony jaw that took up most of its head. It looked like a fish out of a fisherman’s nightmares, one that walked on land to take revenge upon fisher folk while they slept.

Its mouth gaped open as its eyes turned towards them. Bel and James couldn’t help but take another step back.

Bel reached for her short sword. Maybe, if I can get behind it, I’ll be able to slice it open.

Bel made a rush to the side, but the ground shifted beneath her and she tripped and fell onto her face. Oh hells.

A snake with a head as large as Bel’s body hoisted itself into the air. It looked back and forth between the intruders in its domain, hissing loudly.

Bel’s snakes hissed back, but she ducked behind a rock and threw her hood over her head to muffle them. A few strides away, she saw James crouching down behind another rock, his eyes wide with fright.

The fish clacked its jaw together loudly, drawing the snake’s attention. The angered serpent lunged for the fish, wrapping around it like a string around a parcel. They both rolled down to the middle of the room, a bundle of hissing, snapping death.

“Run,” James yelled.

Bel didn’t hesitate. She hauled herself to her feet and followed James down the passage where they’d just seen the fish emerge. She belatedly hoped that it travelled alone – if not, they were about to become someone’s lunch.

Bel trailed just a step or two behind James as they tore down the uneven flooring, until James yelped in surprise and fell back onto the ground. Bel’s eyes opened wide and her gaze was drawn to the shape on a dark blob in front of her.

Her weapon flashed out, digging into the creature that had startled her brother.

At her attack, a nest of the fist-sized things sprang into the air, filling the space around her with round, spinning creatures. Bel released a shrill battle cry as she swung her short sword back and forth, desperately trying to fend off the assault.

“Bel! Bel!”

Bel spun to see what was wrong with James, but he was just standing there making placating motions with his hands.

“They were just little bugs, sis.”

He nudged one that she’d stabbed, and in the flickering candlelight she saw that it was, indeed, just a large bug. It had a set of strange forward facing legs that it used to spring into the air, but otherwise it appeared to be mundane.

“Oh,” she said.

“Do they even have cores? Can you absorb anything from it?”

Bel knelt and touched her finger to the little corpse. “No. Whoops.”

The both of them couldn’t help but laugh in relief.

Once he’d gotten control of himself James gestured back the way that they’d come. “If you really want some essence you could go back and see if that giant snake will share the giant walking fish with you.”

“No thanks,” Bel replied. “Let’s just get out of here. This is the way that we wanted to go, right?”

James gestured at a small stream running downhill towards the serpent’s chamber. “Maybe.”

“Yay.”

Bel looked back at the dead insects. “You know, people kill things for more than just essence.”

“What do you–”

His eyes widened. “No. I’m not eating them.”

“Even if we’re starving?” Bel challenged.

It was hours later when they finally exited the cave.

Bel stumbled into the light, soaked and mud spattered, with small cuts and scrapes all over her body. She lifted her arms into the air in triumph.

“Freedom! Fresh air!”

James staggered after her. “I don’t know how you’re so energetic. I still think that I’m gonna hurl.”

She couldn’t help rolling her eyes. “Oh, come on. Those bugs weren’t that bad.”

James shuddered. “They were disgusting,” he insisted. “I can still feel one of them wriggling in my stomach.”

“That can’t be true, they were all dead.”

“How long were we in there anyway?”

“How should I know? A couple of days, maybe. Hardly life threatening, not once we found food and water.”

James continued being grumpy, so Bel smacked him on the back. “Besides, I reached another threshold, and we only had to stab a few crayfish. The underground must be saturated with raw essence for such awkward creatures to have so much in their cores.”

“Yippee for you,” James replied, “does that mean you’ll carry me the rest of the way?”

Bel looks around as her snakes flicked their tongues through the air. “The rest of the way where?”

James spun around once, taking in the sights. They were in the middle of a forest. “Damn. We’re lost, aren’t we?”

“Seems like it,” Bel replied gleefully, “isn’t this exciting?”

“I’m done with excitement,” James sighed. “I want to order in a pizza and fall asleep on the couch.”

Bel’s eyebrows compressed in concern as she looked at her brother. “Hey, at least we found a way out, right? I’m sure we’ll be able to find some people and – oh!”

Bel pulled the hood of her tattered cloak up and draped it over her head. It did a poor job concealing her snakes, and the inquisitive creatures kept peeking out as well. Bel spent a moment trying to poke them back under cover before giving up. “Anyway, we’ll find some people and figure out what’s happening.”

“Then what? Get jobs? Put out missing person posters for Beth, the wanted criminal?”

Bel chewed on her thumb before spitting it out when she realized how gross it was. “Well, I still need to get through the Barrier or I’ll die and my soul gets eaten. A short rest couldn’t hurt though. I mean, you can see the Barrier from pretty much anywhere, how long could it take to get there?”

Half an hour of searching eventually turned up a small game trail that may have had human footprints, although neither of them were confident about that. Another half an hour of following the trail convinced them that they were going the wrong way, but another hour traveling in the other direction brought them to the top of a hill that overlooked a small hamlet. It was mostly crop fields, but it had a small cluster of houses a thousand strides away from their overlook.

The two of them approached the edge of the closest field and hesitated. Bel’s disguise was slipshod and would barely stand up to a moment of scrutiny. James spoke the native language with an obvious accent and a tendency to throw in random English words, even when he tried his best to avoid them. They had usually relied upon Beth for anything beyond basic interactions in a busy market, where a shopkeeper would care more about their money than their oddities.

In a small hamlet like this though, they were bound to attract attention. As those thoughts worked their way through them, the siblings turned to look at one another.

“Shit,” they both announced.

“Maybe we should–” Bel started, but then James interrupted her. He’d become distracted before she could even finish a sentence.

“What’s that? Is he using magic?” James punctuated his question with a vigorous point of his finger.

Bel looked and saw a man, fit but slightly past middle age, dressed in a light, undyed cloak. He was walking through a field, holding a long staff with a fan made of what looked like thick paper. As she watched, he advanced several steps and swept the fan over the crops. Wherever it passed, a brown haze burst forth from the plants. The haze hung in the air for a few moments before settling on the ground again. His efforts left a trail of plants that looked more green and vibrant from his efforts.

“Is he some kind of plant mage?” James asked.

“Don’t ask me,” Bel replied, “I don’t know anything about this stuff.”

She stared in fascination as the man worked, and a few of her curious snakes slipped from under her hood and flicked their tongues in the man’s direction. Bel absently pushed serpentine heads back into hiding, but, since her snakes outnumbered her hands, the effort was futile.

“These snakes are such a pain now that they’re moving. Do you have some cord so I can–”

Bel froze as she looked back at the man. He was looking straight at her. While she was messing with her snakes.

She frantically urged the snakes under her hood and tugged the cloth closer.

“For your snakes?” James asked.

Bel cringed. “We should leave,” she hissed.

“Beloved! Child!”

James and Bel turned to see the man running directly to them, heedless of the plants that he crushed. He was either using an ability to move so quickly, or he trained for the bi-yearly Central City athletic competitions. She hadn’t thought that the simply dressed man seemed capable of such speed.

He waved his staff to get their attention as a wide grin split his face. “It is your humble servant, Ventas!” he shouted. “I am coming, Beloved!”

Bel stared at him with wide-eyes. Then she turned a bright crimson as blood filled her cheeks. I hate my full name! And how does this guy know it? And why is he so excited?

James’ eyebrows shot up. “Uh, Bel, when did you get a servant?”

“I have no idea who this guy is,” she shot back. “Maybe we should run?”

Before they could move though, the man slid to a stop in front of them, kicking up little bits of mud with his feet. He grabbed her hands and squeezed them before bowing deeply. “Beloved! Your humble servant, Ventas, greets you! I am overjoyed that Lempo’s child has found her way to me!”

My mother? Bel froze up as she remembered her terrifying encounter with Lempo. How could I forget that? Brief flickers of memory passed through her mind, momentarily stunning her.

James saw Bel go rigid and stepped forward to clasp the man’s hand.

“Hello Ventas,” he said cheerfully. “I’m James, Bel’s adopted brother.” He leaned forward and whispered. “Oh, she likes to go by ‘Bel’. It attracts less attention – if you catch my drift.”

Ventas caught James’ hand between his own and smiled happily as he squeezed with excitement. “Of course! It is a pleasure to meet you as well, James!”

Ventas sketched a short bow to James before pulling off his own cloak. He was wearing a brown shirt and breeches underneath, and had a powerful physique at odds with his soft face. “Please Bel, put this on. While the townsfolk would of course welcome Lempo’s child, the agents of the betrayer, Technis, are everywhere.”

He looked around with suspicion. “In fact, might I suggest that we make haste to your mother’s shrine? I will be better able to protect you there.”

Bel had managed to unfreeze herself and accepted the robe with numb fingers. She relaxed slightly as the wider hood settled around her head. “Thank you Ventas. Getting out of sight sounds great.”

She gestured awkwardly. “Please, um, lead the way.”

Ventas nodded enthusiastically, his head bobbing like a bird as he took off at a brisk walk.

James gave her a questioning look, but she could only shrug in return. Maybe Lempo was actually going to help out with this crazy quest thing after all.

Meanwhile, on the slope of a mountain nowhere near Bel’s location, a woman’s hand thrust through a small hole in the ground. With a surge of strength, Beth pulled herself out of a small chasm and into the light.

She spit dirt from her mouth and scowled.

“Shit-born scrattes. Stupid carrion-humping worthless sons of hagfish.”

Her cursing was cut short when she realized that she wasn’t alone. By the time she looked up, she had already been surrounded by a ring of figures dressed in protective leathers. They held short spears towards her, clearly ready for any sudden movements.

“Hold, stranger,” one of the figures commanded. “It’s rather suspicious to see someone crawling out of the Labyrinthos. Where have you come from?”

Beth turned on him with a snarl that was brought up short when she saw his face.

“Who the hell are you assholes?” Her hand dropped to one of her daggers. “Don’t tell me that Technis has started sewing the faces of animals onto his favorite followers?”

It was just her luck to surface in the middle of some other mess – as if she wasn’t already mixed up in enough! Now she was being ambushed by a bunch of half-human monster people. They were all dressed in the same rough armor, but every other one had scales or fur or ears or some other inhuman feature. She faced off against her ambushers for a few moments, but her odds worsened as even more of them showed up.

She found herself outnumbered ten to one. She was still considering making a break for it when a mustached man with a furry tail broke through the circle to spout some nonsense in a language that she didn’t recognize. She considered simply stabbing him right between his yellow eyes to avoid listening to his voice, but discarded the impulse. Unfortunately, her current situation wasn’t very good. She decided to take a wait and see approach.

The man twerked his mustache slowly and finally turned towards her, giving her a quick once-over, like a hunter sizing up his prey. Beth resisted the urge to stab him for the second time.

“You are fighting against Technis? Did I hear that correctly?” he asked. Beth found his voice just as grating in Satrap’s common language as it had been in his other tongue.

Beth could recognize a con-man from a hundred paces with her eyes closed. This guy was clearly about to try to sell her something – but maybe she could get more out of him by playing along.

“Oh yes,” she said in the voice of a sad, desperate waif. She tried to coax some tears into her eyes as well. “I’ve been running from them and their war for days!”

His bushy eyebrows rose. “War?”

“Yes, it’s all kinds of murder and mayhem, sir! You aren’t one of Technis’ foul creations, are you?” She blinked back her imaginary tears, but she had to cover her face to hide her smirk. It had been a while since she’d done this and she was a bit out of practice.

The man twirled the tip of his mustache. “Why, no, I serve a much better god.”

Wow, it’s like this guy has never even heard of subterfuge, she thought.

“Thank my stars!” she exclaimed. “Could you offer me sanctuary, kind sir?”

“Well,” the man said slowly. From the way that his tail wagged, he was clearly enjoying the drama. “Perhaps I could. But I hope that you can tell us more about this war, and… whatever else is happening.”

“Oh, of course sir. I’ll tell you everything!”