The Mother of Monsters

The next day Teyva spent the majority of her time wandering the halls. Meanwhile, the Mockeries helped her navigate for the most part but even they couldn’t figure out the specific way out of the labyrinth. Fortunately for her sanity, the Behemoth was pleasant enough company, though he wasn’t able to speak. He would grunt or react in other ways when she spoke which amused her. Now and then they would come across small groups of skeletons and do away with them without much in the way of effort. Though she did have to admit to herself that the main reason they had to fight so much was because she was basically a walking glow-stick. Conversely, Teyva was relieved that she hadn’t run into another one of those giant lizards so far.

“...and then all of a sudden out of nowhere his friend comes flying in and blasts away the bad guy chasing him,” Teyva said, moving her hands through the air like they were vessels flying about. “Now let’s blow this thing and go home!” She added gruffly, glancing up at the look of delight on the Behemoth’s simple face. The creature clapped wildly and gestured for her to continue her story. Teyva was about to get to the explosive ending when the chime of a prompt caught her attention. “Just a second dearie, I promise I’ll finish the story,” She held up a hand and called up the prompt.

“Finally!” Teyva cheered, throwing her hands up in the air. She’d honestly forgotten about the trait but she sure was glad she had it now. The Behemoth stared at her in confusion while she called back the mockeries to give them a break. She turned to look up at the big teddy bear of a monster and beamed a grin at him. “We’re getting out of here, dearie, just you wait and see,” She said, turning to peer down the latest passage and focus. She closed her eyes, drawing in a deep breath and for a moment it felt like the flow of mana around her was beginning to drift in the direction she was heading. She opened her eyes and blinked before glancing around and doing it again. There it was, as if the cloud of mana around her body was being tugged on like a piece of fabric.

She started to follow the pull of the mana in the air, slowly tracing a path through the halls. She turned randomly on occasion, taking abrupt lefts and rights without very much in the way of warning. Now and then she would stop and ask the Mockeries to go out ahead and check for mobs. Once or twice the trait would guide her straight into a group of skeletons. It was the empty room that she stumbled upon a few hours later that put her on edge. It was wider than the others she’d seen so far. Not only was it spacious, there seemed to be pre-installed counters on either side with space behind them for storage. Was this some kind of marketplace? She tried to imagine Labyrinthians traveling the endless halls and stopping here to shop or sell what they had to make ends meet.

As she took in the chamber she checked her notifications, noting that her Mana Manipulation skill had increased again.

So close to ten! It was interesting that she was still experiencing steady growth in her skill despite it getting closer to her current level. Was it separate? She dismissed the thought and focused on the chamber around her. It occurred to her that since she had the trait, it made sense that other Labyrinthians would have it too. To them, traveling the winding passages was no big deal then. Especially if they lived in the area. On the other hand, it was veritably impossible to navigate for someone who wasn’t Labyrinthian or who at least had some kind of acute senses to traverse. She visualized armies getting lost in the Labyrinth. That brought her to another thought, “Why didn’t the evacuees escape to the Labyrinth?” She asked, glancing up at the Behemoth like he could even remotely come up with an answer. The great beast shrugged and instead pointed toward the other side of the room. She followed his gesture and spotted a figure standing in the center of the doorway. Her lips thinned into a line.

“Paraklytus,” She hissed, “Where’s Nephral?”

“Again with the wrong questions,” The Lich said, its violet eyes blazing with light. “This is my problem with you, Teyva Akura, you have so much potential and you waste it. You don’t think, you don’t take advantage of what you have. You have the power to become a Queen! Yet all I see right now is a bit player in a game dealt by a hand that couldn’t even care less about your name.”

Teyva winced, “I’m not interested in becoming a Queen! I just want Nephral and Azrael back! What do I have to do to get them back, damn it?” She snapped, whipping her arm out and shaping into the razorchain. Behind her, the Behemoth bellowed a challenge at the Lich who didn’t even so much as twitch in response.

“Better, still not good enough,” The Lich said, “If not a Queen, what do you intend to do with all that power?” Paraklytus asked, his bony head a perpetual sneer, “Wasn’t it Azrael’s beloved King who said that People with Potential cannot avoid it?” The lich raised a finger, “A wise man.”

The instant he raised his finger, a hulking shape dropped down from the ceiling. Teyva jumped, startled into motion by what had to be the biggest lizard she’d ever seen. The creature was the same species as the dead thing she’d seen before, but it was five times as big. Twenty feet long and thick with fat, it turned its head lazily in her direction; its swirling eyes locking on her with a bottomless hunger. Its long tail whipped against the ground, creating a terrible cracking sound that ravaged her ears. She pulled her functional hand and elbow up, covering her ear as the creature tried to disorient her with the sound. She grit her teeth and called up her journal to check its stats.

Teyva jerked her head towards the beast, glancing up at the Behemoth. The giant didn’t need any more orders than that before it charged toward the massive thing, its fists raised over its head as it bellowed a war cry. The Ugroth reacted immediately, stopping its tail to instead turn it’s heavy body to take the brunt of the Behemoth’s charge. Unlike its head which only had protection over its eyes, its entire back was covered in those dark stone plates. The Behemoth crashed into the creature, forcing it to slide a few feet but otherwise leaving it unharmed. Teyva whipped her head in its direction and drew in a deep breath. It wanted to fight with sound? She could do that too.

Teyva opened up with [Cry of the Siren], her jaws opening wide as a rippling shriek of sound crashed through the air and struck the Ugroth square in the face. It staggered, opening its own mouth in preparation for an attack when a heavy fist came down over its nose, shutting it’s jaws tight. Teyva was calling the mockeries into the air when she heard a voice come from behind her.

“You have a gift for language, yet you waste it. What secrets could you have learned from actually studying Teyva Rani’s tomb? Mayhaps the answers you seek now are already there and you just couldn’t be bothered to check,” The Lich snapped, bearing down on her. Teyva whipped her arm backward and struck where he was standing only to find nothing but open air. She snarled and resumed her focus on the fight, watching the Ugroth throw is head left and right, trying to dislodge the Behemoth. Her mockeries hurtled forward, acidic teeth digging into living flesh and spreading necrotic frost across it’s skin. Teyva grinned as instances of [Hungering Cold] began to stack up.

“Ah, your bread and butter, droll. You have four aspects and you have reduced yourself to nothing more than a font of mana to support your creatures,” The Lich continued to chastise her, “When was the last time you asked Nephral for his wisdom? Not just some inane question about the world around you that could be answered by your journal. Why haven’t you used your shifting power to make some use out of those claws of yours?”

Teyva bit down her retort, throwing all of her focus into the fight. She tried to push the Lich’s words out of her mind, she knew she’d made mistakes. She’d done reckless, stupid things, but she was learning and growing every day. She wouldn’t make the same mistakes again. She whipped her arm out and wrapped it around the creature’s leg, ripping her arm back and tearing its flesh with the chain’s blades. Ghostly chains rose up from the ground to restrain it while Teyva fed [Chilling Touch] into the chain. She released her mana, burning through her stores as she unleashed a [Dawnstrike], a flash of pale light erupting from her chain and burning through flesh and bone.

“What about your so-called sacrifice for Azrael? Was that really necessary? Was there not a smarter way to go about it? Could you not have fooled the Justicar into leaving or perhaps fled and lost them in the trees? You wasted a precious life on that madness. Who do you think you are, anyway? Presuming to take the place of royalty? Some ‘hero’ you turned out to be.” He laughed, “Why did you choose to trust her anyway? Desperation? She could have been just as dangerous as the Humans, for all you knew. Lucky, that’s what you’ve been so far, very lucky,” The Lich continued to lambast her, the needling pushing at her fury, her anger from a simmering boil to a roaring blaze in her chest. Not even her Mana Manipulation was enough to soothe the growing inferno. She felt sick and tired, she missed her friends, she hated this monster and hated Paraklytus even more.

“Your moods and whims swing this way and that without warning, you cannot even be bothered to be consistent in how you treat others. You reserve your time only for your little circle of friends and have not even given a moment to consider the people of Osan. Yet you presume to accept the title the King would bestow upon you? Don’t make me laugh, you do not deserve any of what you have gained, any of what you claim to have fought for. You have done nothing on your own, you lean on others like a crutch and-”

Teyva exploded, finally cutting him off. “Enough!”