The Mother of Monsters

It was less a word and more a sound, an echo that burst forth into the endless void. There was only darkness there beyond the flashes of violet light behind thick clouds of ceaselessness. Memories of lives played out in a mock slideshow across the clouds. Figures clashed, embraced, and fell together. Yet amongst the silence only one sound could be heard, overwhelming it all as a single rumbling note.

The system flashed to life, violet light blazing across the cosmos. Something had gone wrong. The vast will that crashed against the surface of the clouds sent them scattering, violet lightning curling around them like threads. A mass of thoughts, a chaotic upturn of words, voices spreading through the bleakness like the hum of a swarm. Screams breached the surface. Anger. Rage. Confusion.

A peal of violet thunder hurled motes of light across the cosmos. Worlds churned under the wrath of the void, the confused whipping of power against an unknown enemy driving the system into a fit of rage. It would find a solution to deal with the interloper.

Teyva woke from her brief nap with a splitting headache. She’d learned a few things since the party started. First of all, she’d learned that as long as it was for leveling up, she could quite literally fall asleep anywhere. The second was that Orcish craftsmen made some of the most comfortable chairs period, though it could have also been the severe lack of comfort that she’d encountered along the way that colored her impression of the thick luxurious padding on the firm wooden frames. The last thing she learned was that when she was leveling up, it didn’t quite count as sleeping.

Teyva rolled onto her side and groaned as the first flashes of light hit her eyes. Torchlight burned all around her and it took a few heartbeats to realize where she was. The orcish settlement, still unnamed, had gathered to celebrate after Teyva and Azrael had cleared out the corruption beneath the Balthin Green Sea’s Great Tree. The two women had fought with all their might to take down the boss of the dungeon beneath the tree; The Bound One. They’d nearly died in the fight but they’d won all the same. Azrael had been crippled briefly only to be restored by way of the Aspect Stone of the Wolf Lord.

“Are you alright?” Azrael’s voice came.

Teyva rolled her neck and rubbed the sore spot. “I’m fine, just powering up.”

“I have no idea what that means.”

Teyva chuckled and glanced toward her friend. Azrael’s skin tone was slate grey bordering on a very pale green. She was taller than Teyva by a few inches now that she was paying attention. Azrael hadn’t said anything yet and she wasn’t about to give the girl some ammunition. The Aspect Stone had changed more than her height and build, though, Azrael’s eyes had gone from a magnificent emerald green to an eerie yellow. Not unlike Teyva’s own.

“How’s that new stone treating you?” She asked, nodding down to Azrael’s leg.

Azrael looked up at their surroundings while she absently rubbed her once withered calve. The round-a-bout at the center of the Orcish settlement had been turned into what amounted to a street festival. Spherical lights were strung above their heads and tables were scattered all over with food brought out in all directions. Torches had been set up on stakes to add extra warmth and atmosphere while banners made from intricate patterns of colored thread hung here and there. Orcs of all ages had gathered to celebrate the end of a time of danger for their people and the so-called heroes that had achieved it for them. Yellow-green, olive, forest green, it was a sea of greenery framed by the darkened trees of the forest overhead.

Before Azrael could respond, a rhythmic clapping began. An enormous male orc approached at the head of a small pack of the locals. Elat was ruggedly handsome in that ‘woodlands hero’ sort of way that seemed to appeal to Azrael. Afternoon shadow on his chin and long hair in a thick ponytail. Teyva didn’t really get it herself, but she had her own tastes.

“Lady Akura, Warden Unabi,” Elat said, raising a fist to his heart and inclining his head; “Would you join us for a dance and a drink?”

Azrael of course was on her feet in an instant, a delighted look on her face. Teyva took a few more seconds to drag herself to her feet; the brief headache had passed only for it to resurface with the loud rhythmic clapping of the onlookers. A few of those present took Teyva in with wide eyes. Why wouldn’t they? She was literally glowing. Her teeth were like needles and her smile wider than should be natural. Her yellow eyes were slitted like a feline and her fingers ended in razor-sharp black fingernails.

Before the fight with the Bound One, she wouldn’t have paid it any mind. She had been proud of her frightful new looks. Now, though, she felt like she wasn’t in her right body. Not that she could even properly remember what she looked like before all the changes. The attention sent a chill down her spine now, making her hesitate a little when Azrael turned to see if she was coming along. Azrael made a face at her and Teyva dismissed it with a hand and a brief nod.

That, of course, was when the music started and the Orcs all joined together in a series of whoops and shouts of the same word; “Kosa!”

Teyva couldn’t even have the opportunity to ask what the word meant, her Trait translating it instantly. The instinctive knowledge was unsettling, just like the feeling of another presence in the back of her head. She had a few suspicions as to its identity but had tried to play blissfully unaware for a little while longer. Denial was a self-serving act, sure, but she felt better at the moment.

The music that played was centered on the strangest yet most familiar instruments Teyva had ever seen. The drums were domed inward with a large pocked and indented surface formed out of shaped leather. The frame of the drum was made of slats of wood that were arranged in an unusual way, almost like- one of the drummers pulled out of the well and began to strike the side of the drum. A xylophone? Teyva was blown away. It was some sort of rustic, leather-made steel-drum and xylophone hybrid. The sound it made was out of this world too. She couldn’t help herself as a smile crossed her lips.

“What is that instrument called?” Teyva asked Elat, catching up with the pair.

“A Yatal,” Elat said, “You like it?”

“Actually, yes. It’s got a good sound to it,” Teyva admitted, passing by a small grill where a teenage orcish boy stood. He blinked a few times when she turned to face the iron bars, taking a whiff of the seared and sauced meat. “What do you have here dearie?”

“Street folds, L-Lady Akura,” The boy stammered.

“Street Fold?”

“Y-yeah, slices of meat are folded into a roll of thin bread and filled with sauces and vegetables, it's very good!”

Teyva raised an eyebrow and gave him a playfully dubious look; “Show me, three please.”

While the boy cooked she felt a weight land on her shoulder and glanced over in time to see Nephral’s head within centimeters of her own. The muscular feline coiled his tail around Teyva’s throat and folded his wings to settle into a comfortable position on her shoulders. “Enjoy your nap, Neph?”

“Did you enjoy yours, mother?” The sphinx shot back.

“Hardly call what I did a ‘nap’,” Teyva said, glancing back down as the boy worked on the folds. They looked like something between a crepe and a burrito. She tried not to look amused by the similarities and instead reached her hand into her travel bag to run her fingers along the pile of coins that had nestled in the base of the satchel. The coins wriggled and writhed, Mockeries of real objects, the little darlings hissed hungrily in the back of her mind through their shared connection.

“Oh hush, you’ll get some,” She shushed her bag. The boy looked up at her with a raised eyebrow and she laughed, waving it off. He shrugged and went back to making the meals.

He had just finished when she felt something prod her in the back. “You’re easy to spot!” came the wily voice of old man Yol. The aged Orc chortled a little when Teyva turned to face him.

“Enjoying yourself old man?”

“I should ask you the same! Party is in your honor! Why not join your friend?”

He gestured toward a circle where Azrael was standing firm in front of Elat. The two of them with drinks in hand. Each of them stared the other down before kicking back a beverage into a long chug. Teyva looked away and shook her head; “Not my kind of thing, I’ll enjoy the show, though.”

“Ah, well we need to talk anyway. I would teach you how to conceal tonight, yes?”

Teyva’s attention snapped in his direction. He had noticed that she possessed multiple aspects so easily and now that Azrael had two aspects on top of Teyva’s three it was clear that if someone looked hard enough they would be found out. She wasn’t sure how he had picked up on her attribute but he hadn’t so much as blinked before offering to give her a way to hide her powers. Just by that alone, she figured that it wouldn’t be good for a stranger to figure her out. She’d have to learn and learn fast.

She turned back to the young cook and was pleased to see three delectable-looking meat and vegetable folds waiting for her. She took one and immediately placed it inside her bag which began to rustle and shake as her dear little mockeries sated their hunger. The boy watched in mute horror as she raised the other to Nephral’s feline lips and her mouth. She cast [Simple Shift] and changed her teeth to something that could handle chewing better. Then she took a bite; spicy, sweet, with a texture that was both soft and crunchy at the same time. Finishing off with a smoky undertone from the grill. She sighed; it was divine.

She smiled at the boy and winked at him; “Magnificent, thank you, dearie,” She said.

“Dearie?” Yol chortled; “You sound like you are my age.”

“Do I?” Teyva asked, a little surprised herself. She was about to put more thought into it when the old man rapped her on the back again.

“Come on then, let’s sit and talk, go, go!”