strangetalesofnumenera

[strangetalesofnumenera]

Stijak

The fighter climbed down from his aneen and tethered it to a fencepost. Keija pressed herself against his thigh, demanding his attention. The warrior lovingly obliged the seskii before drawing his crossbow and notching an arrow made of trapped sonic vibrations.

Opening the door to the dilapidated shop unleashed a nauseating miasma of chemical and synth smells that assaulted his senses. Trinkets of all shapes and sizes covered the haphazard rows of shelves with seemingly little to no organization. The disorganization was as unsurprising as the lack of artificial light; the place wasn’t really a traditional business, after all.

With a hand gesture, the seskii preceded him into the building, sniffing at everything in search of their quarry. A pair of rubar went scurrying away quickly when she approached. Something that sounded like a faint singing had enticed him toward one particular piece—a strange, crystalline fractal—when a growl from the back of the shop drew his attention. He dropped the piece into one of his cypher pouches and continued on, pushing his way through a heavy dividing curtain to find Keija scratching at the floor in one corner of the room.

It took a thorough check of the location to reveal the trap door. It was almost seamless, betrayed only by a hair-fine crack separating it from the rest of the floor, and the hollow sound made by tapping it with his ear pressed to the ground. Frustratingly, Stijak could not find a way to open the portal anywhere in the room. He was prepared for such an eventuality, however. Such tricks were not totally unexpected, and he’d brought a device for moments such as this.

One had to be prepared for anything when hunting the Convergence.

Stijak pulled the a device from one of his pouches that, when it unfurled itself, resembled a spider about the size of his palm. He pressed it to the middle of the trap door with his thumb, holding it in place as the things legs bored into its surface with a painful, high-pitched whine. When it had finished, the whine reduced to a whirring hum, and he stepped away, taking Keija with him back to the curtain dividing the rooms.

The device could take up to a couple of minutes to finish depending on the complexity of the mechanism holding the door shut, so he pulled the strange device he had found on the shelf from where he had stashed it. The thing’s shifting colors were almost hypnotic, its fractal patterns almost seeming to twist and fold in on themselves as he turned it over in his hands. When he held the object up to his ear, what he had thought was singing clarified itself as a myriad of voices, all speaking at the same time.

He found himself out of time to examine the item for now as a small pop brought him back to the task at hand. The device had finished; both it and the door were simply gone.The opening beckoned to him. He gazed into the opening with Keija, absently scratching her under the chin for a few moments and waiting for any defenses that their intrusion might have roused.

When enough time had passed for him to be satisfied that nothing would be coming, Stijak led the way down the steps. The air grew cold as he descended, filled with the hum of ancient machinery. After what seemed like an eternity just walking down stairs, they ended in a simple looking door.

The warrior checked for traps before pushing it open, revealing a large chamber crammed with machinery. Large tubes filled with some sort of violet, glowing liquid provided illumination in the cavernous space. Pushing his way between the ancient technology revealed a large workspace. At its heart sat what looked like a throne. The figure on it wore black robes, shot through with streaks of ivory and purple. It wore a strange helmet on its head that connected to a machine in the ceiling via a long, writhing beam of energy, like some great serpent made of bottled lightning.

In the dim recesses above, machines moved to and fro, servants to some unknown purpose. He watched as they moved over and around each other, dancers in some intricate, arcane ritual. It was almost hypnotic as he watched them.

His quarry did not yet seem to be aware of him, engulfed as it was in whatever the helmet was doing. That was good, something about the place didn’t make him feel right, and he wanted to be in and out without having to fight a member of the Convergence in their own home. He was prepared and confident that he could win such a fight, but he didn’t want to take any chances.

He put away the crossbow and drew his sword, its golden blade glowing in the dim light with yellow energy. With a quick thrust, he drove the weapon through the target so hard it emerged from the back of the seat. The dance of the machines died with the person on the chair.

Stijak wiped the blood from his blade on the body before sheathing it. He removed the helmet from the body to reveal a surprisingly young face. The woman couldn’t have been more than twenty, and would have been beautiful if she didn’t look like she had been sitting in the chair for the gods only knew how long without food or sunshine. It wasn’t the first time he had been forced to kill someone so young, but he always wondered what it was that drove ones so young to the point where he would have to.

He pulled the body from the chair and laid it on the ground, then grabbed the helmet. The energy connecting it to the machines above was gone, the thing inert in his hands as he turned it over. As if sensing his thoughts, Keija growled in the back of her throat.

“It’s alright, old girl. I’m just going to have a quick look to see what this is all about.” He pressed the object down over his head.

Almost immediately, he found himself surrounded by a crowd of people, all completely nude, looking at his with trepidation. They varied in age from the very young tot he very old. Most were human, but some sported telltale signs of mutation, while others had never had earth-born ancestors. They looked sickly, as if some unknown disease were slowly causing them to waste away. The most severe cases were little more than walking corpses, leathery flesh stretched over atrophied muscle and bone.

He realized he was warm, comfortably so, which was odd considering how cold the room had been. He looked to where the seskii should have been to find nothing. Even the body lying on the ground was gone. With some embarrassment, he realized that he, too was as nude as the rest, even the helmet on his head seemed to be gone.

The press of flesh against his back alerted him to her presence a moment before her breath on his ear preceded her voice. “So, you think you’ve killed me? The big, bad evil Convergence acolyte?” Her voice was soft, almost sing-song as she wrapped her arms around him seductively. “You poor, ignorant fool. That form was already useless to me.”

He spun around to find himself simply facing more of the crowd. There had to be nearly a hundred people crammed into the space, but none of them was the young woman he was looking for. A fingernail traced its way down his spine, spinning him about once more. The woman was looking down at him from where she reclined on the throne, a look of desire on her face. She was beautiful, with the firmness of body that came from an enjoyment of physical activity rather than a byproduct.

“Mmm. You are a pretty one aren’t you? It’s too bad you had to kill my body, you know? Oh, the fun we could have had.”

Suppressing his desire for her, he braced himself for a fight. “And where, exactly, are we?”

“I’m not entirely sure. I discovered that the machine that you found me in is meant to transfer a person’s mind into something called the datasphere. Have you heard of it?” He nodded. “Good, well, I figured it would be my way of achieving immortality. So I began the process, I cant even guess how long ago. Time seems to have no meaning here, it is rather fascinating. Anyway, I think this is a sort of filter. Only by being worthy and strong enough may you find your way through and attain godhood. The rest are doomed to spend eternity here, wasting away but never dying in the hell that the weak deserve.”

“And you’ve found your way through, I take it?”

She stood up from the throne and stepped down to him.“I have found the door. Soon, I will find they key and make my way through it.” She ran a hand across his chest, then grabbed him by the hand pulling him along deeper into the chamber. The devices there were massive, packed together so densely he was forced to squeeze between them painfully in places.

“And then?”

“And then I will become one with the datasphere. All-knowing. all-seeing. I will be able to work my will upon the world through the spirits in the air that the Aeon Priests call the numenera. I will be a god, and the world will tremble at my name.”

They emerged from between the machines into a space that seemed less a room than a gap in the machinery. It was cramped, barely larger than a closet, forcing the two of them together. At one end was a door. It completely filled one end of the room, covered in glowing green and purple lines  emanating from a small hole in its center. Just above it, a circle of soft, white light slightly larger than his head glowed invitingly. beckoning to him. A sound like music seemed to waft through the opening, hauntingly familiar.

She pressed herself against him, driving him against the wall. Somehow, the woman seemed much taller than she had been before as she brought her face so close to his that he could feel her breath against his cheek.

“You know there’s nothing you can do to stop me,” she whispered into his ear. “You don’t have the will necessary to defeat me, not here, but that’s okay. I have a special place for you.” She began grinding her body against his as she continued. “You can be my priest. You will go out into the world and spread the word of my glory. You will let the nations know just whose wrath to fear should they displease me. And your reward shall be pleasure like you’ve never known.”

He looked at the door, at the light coming through that opening, trying to focus on the music. Her words were honeyed poison, he had to resist.

Then it hit him.

The music.

The key.

The strange crystal he had found.

The glaive glanced down at the object in his hand and smiled. “That sounds intriguing, but there’s just one problem.”

“Oh? And what would that be?”

“You don’t have the key.” He grinned at her and her seductive look turned to a snarl of rage. “But I do.”

A look of mixed horror and anger spread across her face as he pushed her off of him. Stijak didn’t let himself enjoy it for too long before jamming his hand into the opening on the door, pressing the fractaline crystal into place.

The door opened, revealing an endless expanse of pure, white light. The music crescendoed, a symphony of all the senses.

“I guess you weren’t worthy and strong after all.”

Her scream followed him through the opening.

He was everything and nothing. All oh history stretched out before him; vast vistas of what had been, all that was currently, and the possibilities of what might be.

He saw the ancient world, from a time out of mist, when great lizards dominated, and the calamity that brought them oblivion. The origins of humanity played out before him, the rise of the first human empires, during a time when the face of the world was unrecognizable from what he recognized as the “now.” He witnessed their spread amongst the stars as, for the first time, they united as one race to expand together.

He watched them fall, scattered across the heavens, fragmented and afraid.

Eight times, great civilizations rose, spread across the world, and fell. Sometimes they were human, sometimes they were not.

It took little more than one billion years.

The number would have boggled his mind, if he was still capable of it. Instead, he recognized it as a small fraction of the life of the greater universe. Looking back, he witnessed the moment of creation, when all that was grew out of a single, infinitesimal point.

Turning his attention to the future, he saw all of the possible futures that might be. The permutation of chance and determination twisted and writhed, constantly shifting and changing with every new choice that was made.

Stijak had no idea how long he floated through the datasphere. His sense of self all but ceased to exist as he merged with the raw information. Time lost all meaning. He was disjointed, overwhelmed.

He saw all that was. There was the Iron Wind, ravaging an aldeia nestled within the Black Riage. He was the Iron Wind, furious, mad, driven to break down whatever it came across and reshape it according to arcane rules left over from a time long past. He watched as the crimson fires of distant Vralk forged an army of death, a machine of destruction whose cogs were the soldiers bent toward the singular purpose of conquest. The Tides threatened to drown him as he bore witness to the Changing God’s never-ending war in the Bordermarch Hills.

After what seemed like an endless eternity, he heard the music again. It cut through the din and the noise like a knife, a clarion allowing him to focus. He reached out and gathered himself from all of the various corners of time and space into which he had spread so thinly. Concentrating his essence required a titanic exertion of willpower, but he finally managed to regain a sense of his self.

With a thought, he found himself staring at his body, still standing there with the helmet on. He was conscious of being able to examine himself from all angles at once, and had to concentrate to maintain his focus.

The music made it easier. He gradually realized that the source of the music was an actual thing and not a part of the structure of the datasphere itself. It was tangible and calling to him from somewhere beyond the horizon. He raced toward it, passing over and through hill and valley, forest and city. It was a struggle to keep himself focused and whole as the numenera spirits followed in his wake, dancing and twisting as his passing disturbed them from their tasks.

At last he saw the source of the sound approaching. It stood up from the horizon, a twisting, purple monolith. Ancient runes scribed some ancient, arcane language down its sides in white-hot fire. The music spread from the structure in a rainbow of energy, reaching tendrils through time and space. A town had grown around the strange object. It was little more than an aldeia, but it bustled with energy.

As he drew closer he realized the truth; the town was under attack from a horde of abhuman monsters. Never before had he personally encountered the margr, but he recognized them from descriptions he had heard. They raved and destroyed as they threw themselves against the walls that the town’s defenders had thrown up. He could feel the madness that drove them like an invisible puppeteer before he saw it. The demonic entity raised its head and leveled its baleful stare at him, as though examining the contents of his soul.

Drawn by the pull of the music, Stijak turned from the entity and flew down into the village. There, below the alien structure, he saw her. A young woman sending out a call for help. A desperate prayer to any who would listen to please come save their town.

He watched as the margr smashed their way into her hiding place, and her valiant stand before they ripped her apart. The entity came with them, the ethereal manifestation of their rage and psychosis.

Stijak fled in abject terror, horrified in a way he hadn’t know possible, afraid for the survival of his soul itself. He flew back to his body across the miles, desperate to flee the ravening hunger that sought to simply destroy.

He found himself standing in a cold, airy room, something heavy and metal settled upon his head, blocking his vision. It took him a moment to remember who and where he was before it all came back to him and he reached up to remove the helmet.

Keija pressed herself against him as he turned the thing over in his hands. Already, most of what he had seen and experienced faded from memory, most of it simply too much for a human mind to comprehend. The power offered by the object was far greater than any person should be entrusted with, but he didn’t know what would happen to the souls trapped in the ante-chamber if he simply destroyed it. Finally, he decided to take the helmet. When he had a chance, he’d bring it to the Order of Truth. If anybody could be trusted to figure out how to help those trapped inside and not abuse the potential the thing possessed, it was them.

He nodded to himself satisfied with that solution as he climbed back out of the hidden chamber and into the light above. That was what he would do, but not yet. First things first, he could hear the alluring call of strange music, and a girl’s desperate plea for help, pulling him from somewhere beyond the horizon.

[strangetalesofnumenera]

Partoss

A light fog rolled off of the river in the cool morning air as Arkwiss checked the straps holding the exploratory party’s supplies to the top of the crawler one final time. He reached out telepathically to Id, the mechanical man who operated the vehicles’ engine as he hopped down into the hatch.

Hey, Id, are you about ready?

Affirmative boss. Refueling is complete. We can now run for approximately one full solar year without interruption if we need to.

Arkwiss looked to Almsqu. sitting at the very rear of the vehicle. Any time they got off, she would be the first one out, checking the area and ensuring it would be a safe spot for the group of villagers they had brought. Every time they climbed back on, she would be the last one to board, providing security until everyone was safe. She was fiddling with her cyphers, checking and rechecking that everything in her tool belt was exactly where she wanted it, adjusting the placement of her pouches, searching for that ever-illusive balance of perfect accessibility and comfort in their placement. He smiled at her, though she didn’t see.

Nir, you’re our pilot today. The call is yours.

The response from the eager adolescent was quick, enthusiastic. A bit more then Arkwiss was comfortable with. Alright. Id, fire it up, let’s do this.

As the engine spun up to a whine beyond the limits of human hearing, Arkwiss admonished his daughter. This isn’t training, and it isn’t for fun. Your primary concern needs to be the safety of our guests. Take it slow, take it smooth. You know how to do this, and I trust you, but don’t let your eagerness take over.

Okay, father. You can count on me.

The six people in the rear of the vehicle were all thrown together as it lurched to a start. The visitors had never been in anything like the crawler before and let out whoops and squeals of delight. As the rolled toward the supposedly accursed valley, Arkwiss let them take turns standing up out of the hatch, watching the land roll by at a speed none of them even knew was possible.

Eventually, after a circuitous route forced on them by the nature of the crawler (one of the passengers joked that it should be called the runner because it moved so fast), they arrived at the Valley of Sins.

Arkwiss had Nir stop for a moment so that they group could climb atop the vehicle and get a better view. Almsqu pulled a flat, square object made of some form of transparent synth slightly larger than her hand from her pack. She swiped a single finger across its surface very carefully before tossing it into the air, where it flew off down into the valley.

Nir, are you getting the view from the cartographer?

I see it.

Good, chart us a course into the base of the valley. We’re looking for anything that looks like it might contain anything useful. In particular, keep your eyes open for any caves or ruins.

Will do.

Arkwiss let the group marvel at the sight for another moment, during which Almsqu sidled up to him.

“It is quite the romantic view, isn’t it?”

He looked into her eyes for a moment, then leaned over and kissed her lightly, drawing “ooh” noises from the other four members of the expedition.

“Okay, guys, I think that’s enough ogling. Let’s hop back in and get going. We’ve got a long day ahead of us and I want to be done and on our way back before the sun is halfway to the other horizon.”

Arkwiss and Almsqu smiled at each other like lovestruck juveniles while the group returned to their seats. When everyone was back in, the crawler set off again. They had made it a little more than halfway down the side of the valley when Arkwiss spotted a cave through the trees and had Nir bring it to a halt.

Nir, Id, wait here and keep the crawler running. We want to be able to leave in a hurry if necessary.

Got it, boss.

Will do, dad.

A low mist clung to the ground as the six numenera hunters dismounted. The entrance to the cave loomed, a disembodied maw among the trees.

As they grew closer, Almsqu moved out ahead of the group. “Halt,” she hissed, her voice barely above a whisper. “I smell something.” She closed her eyes and tilted her head. “Arkwiss, I’m going to go in, wait here until I get back.”

“Okay, I’ll be ready if you need help. Just let me know.”

The seeker nodded and stepped into the opening as Arkwiss got the rest of the group organized. The air inside was damp, warmer than the season would indicate. A rancid smell assaulted her nose, prompting Almsqu to wrap a piece of cloth around her mouth and nose. Not far inside, the cave dog-legged left, cutting off the light from outside. As she pulled a torch from her pack, she noticed a faint amber glow that seemed to emanate from behind the rocks in the wall.

She grabbed a small pick from a sheath on her belt and chiseled away a small chunk of stone. Behind it, the wall appeared to be made of synth, with strange symbols glowing in amber on it. Hammering away at the stone revealed a small panel in the wall. Almsqu carefully removed it, slipping it into her pack and putting the pick away.

The stench grew more powerful the further she delved into the tunnel. A few hundred feet and another bend in the tunnel brought her to a dead end.

A loud thump spun her around.

Tusks framed an eyeless face towering about her. The ravage bear sniffed at the air, then lowered its head and roared, lumbering into a charge.

Almsqu ducked at the last minute, diving between the monster’s massive legs. It slid into the wall as it tried to turn to follow her. She ran as fast as she could, trying and failing to grab a cypher from her belt. It’s breath was hot on the back of her neck as she exited the cave, shouting a warning to her companions outside. She cut sharp to the left with a tuck and roll, twisting herself back toward the beast as she did.

The maneuver confused the animal long enough for Almsqu to take stock of the situation and pull out the detonation cypher she had tried to grab earlier.. Arkwiss was already engaged with another ravage bear, and a third lay dead on the ground.

She activated the cypher as the animal bore down upon her, throwing it at it’s face and leaping behind a tree. The explosion pushed her across the ground until she slammed into a root. By the time she picked herself up, the final ravage bear had been dealt with. She walked back to the group to survey the damage.

One man was dead, impaled on the tusk of the first dead beast, another was bleeding profusely from a horrific gash in his abdomen. The woman, Axiri, lay unconscious where she had been thrown into a tree, but appeared otherwise unhurt. The final member of the team appeared unhurt.

Arkwiss was tired, but aside from a few minor scrapes and bruises, fine.

Id, Nir, we have wounded, bring the crawler, that explosion cleared a path for you to back up over here.

On our way, father.

The crawler pulled around to where they were as Almsqu provided aid to the wounded man and Arkwiss woke the unconscious woman and helped her back to her feet. They loaded the two casualties onto the vehicle, then turned back toward the cave.

“There are cyphers in there, we just have to work for them,” Almsqu stated, pulling the panel from her pack. “If there were any more ravage bears in there, they would have come out during the fight. It will be clear now, and we need those devices.”

Arkwiss nodded his agreement. “Okay, guys, let’s get to work grab as many as you can carry.”

Reluctantly, the other two followed. They spent several otherwise uneventful hours digging, chipping away the the stone, and peeling numenera from the underlying machinery. When their packs were full, the group went back to the crawler.

The ride back to Ellomyr that afternoon was quiet, everybody very conscious of the dead man on the floor, and the second man who might not make it.

Their return was met with cheers and celebration that quickly turned to grief and fear as the body was off-loaded from the crawler. As soon as it was clear, Id emerged from his place in the engine to help the dying man as much as possible, and Nir crawled into the back to assist. A few of the newcomers to Ellomyr were trained as chirurgeons and medics; a runner went to round them up.

Id worked into the evening with the others in what was ultimately a failing effort to save the wounded man. The automaton didn’t know the exhaustion evident on the faces of the others, but he recognized their grief, even if his machine parts didn’t allow him to express it visually.

After parting way with the other healers, he went to get himself clean of the blood. He hated death. It was always such an unnecessary, messy thing. He’d heard of different ways that humans had come up with over the years to avoid it. One of the most fascinating was the story of a man in a nation to the East who called himself the Changing God. Most such stories were only that, little more than rumor, but he would never understand why flesh-and-blood beings didn’t just figure out how to stop dying.

That’s why he made medicines and other useful cyphers.

By the time he had finished cleaning himself, Arkwiss and Almsqu had gone to sleep, but not before thanking him for his efforts. They would figure out what everything that they had found was in the morning. Nir should also have been in bed, but she complained to him that she couldn’t sleep because she kept seeing the dead men every time she closed her eyes.

Id invited her to sit with him in the cool night air, where he regaled her with stories of gods and demons, heroes and villains. He told the stories of the constellations and the myths about them. All stories he had learned from the Datasphere.

As the first glow of morning started to tinge the horizon, Id realized Nir was snoring lightly, leaning against him. Gently he carried her to her bed, careful not to wake her, then grabbed the packs from the previous day.

There was no time to wait to identify the cyphers. The margr horde was coming.

A few days after the fateful journey to the Valley of Sin, the town gathered before the Trilling Shard to hold a memorial for their fallen residents. It seemed like all of the village’s almost 200 original residents had turned out to pay their respects. Arkwiss felt like everybody was watching him—judging him—as speaker after speaker stood up and said their piece about the dead. He didn’t blame them. They had taken him in, welcomed him and his strange family, and given him their trust, and he’d failed them. A few of the newcomers offered kind words to him and Almsqu, mostly those who had experienced this kind of thing before.

Nir had disappeared somewhere with her new friend, the curious little mutant who’d arrived with the self-proclaimed knight, but he didn’t mind. The nano knew that she understood death from a logical perspective, but this was the first time she had really had to deal with it, and it had been a brutal experience for her first time.

When the last speaker had finished—one of the men’s wives—he looked over at Almsqu, who gave his hand a squeeze, silently encouraging him to face the crowd.

Pushing his way to the front, Arkwiss stoically climbed onto the hurriedly assembled stage. The crowd grew silent as he gathered his thoughts, staring down at the elaborate woodcarving that Dora Redmire had made to honor the two men. At long last, he looked out at the crowd. He scanned their faces, many of which he knew from those peaceful first couple of months after his arrival here. There were plenty more that he didn’t know, however. Newcomers who had been drawn here, called to this place serendipitously at the same time, arriving just when the aldeia needed them the most. He had worked with a few of them on the towns defenses, but most were still strangers. He spotted his daughter with Ro and one of Dora’s boys—her oldest? She had so many it was hard to keep track—sitting on the roof of the Redmire home.

He cleared his throat. “I’ve been trying to think of the proper words to say, but I really don’t have any that wouldn’t tell you anything about these two men that you don’t already know. My family and I have only been a part of this community a few short months, but in that time, we have been welcomed into this community with open arms. From the moment Kyrn said ‘Welcome to Ellomyr’ this community has shown us what that word meant.

“In return, we promised to use our skills and abilities to help where we could. At first, that meant hunting, working the fields, making medicine, and fixing roofs. But than Nieten returned from a hunt, and with her came more newcomers, and word of a demon army massing near the town.

“Suddenly, our skills became much more relevant.

“We’ve tried to do what we can to protect this community and help it prepare, but that comes as little consolation to those of you who lost your friends, husbands, sons. So what I will offer is this: their sacrifice was not in vain. The devices that we recovered during the expedition are already being put to use bolstering our defenses. They’ve allowed us to increase the range that the watchtowers can see, set up remote communications between defensive locations, and create energy fields to protect the shelters being constructed as refuge for those who cannot fight. So now it is up to us to honor that sacrifice by doing what people have done since time immemorial, through the rise and fall of the eight worlds that came before, and survive, live, and tell our children of the heroes who bravely gave their lives that we might continue.”

Arkwiss didn’t know how to finish, so he let those final words hang in the air as he stepped down from the stage to find Almsqu waiting for him. As the lovers embraced, another of the newcomers took the stage, the strange mechanical man who had taken it upon himself to be the town’s hero. Arkwiss was tempted to try to prevent him from speaking, but that wasn’t his place, so he deferred to the democracy of mob rule. The crowd would decide if they wanted to listen to what Hiero Sol had to say.

As for them, Arkwiss and Almsqu decided to take the opportunity to break free of the crowd and return home.

A short, sharp whistle brought Almsqu to a stop, raising a hand to signal the others. She looked up, searching for her daughter amongst the branches. Nothing but the soft rustling of branches as the girl climbed higher. She knocked an arrow to her bow and took a knee, indicating to the others that they should do the same.

Nieten duck-walked up beside her. “What’s going on?”

“I’m not sure. Nir whistled to stop. She’s gone higher to get a better view.”

“Okay, I’m going to relay to the others. Let me know when she gets back.”

Nir returned after a few minutes, dropping silently from the tree next to her mother. Almsqu signalled to the others, who circled around the small mound of dirt and twigs the girl was making.

“This is us,” she said, pointing with a knife at a spot near the edge of the twigs. “The trees end about here.” The knife indicated another spot, not far away. “There’s a group of margr just inside the treeline. The way they were moving made it hard to get a count, but it is definitely more than we can handle. A couple of dozen at least.”

“That’s what I saw.” Nir looked at the group. “What’s worse is what I heard. The land looks like it just drops off, probably into a valley, right about here.” She indicated a spot not far beyond the treeline. “I couldn’t see down into it from where I was, but it sounded like the entire horde might be down there.”

Nieten nodded, thinking. “Gilthk, do you think you can burrow your way there and see what’s what?” The diruk nodded. “Good. Just in and out. Poke your head out, see what’s in the valley, come back. Don’t be a hero; don’t be seen. We’re going to take hide up in the branches, but we’ll only wait an hour. If you aren’t back by then, we have to assume the worst, understand?”

Gilthk gave another nod and a hand gesture that he understood before disappearing. Nieten gestured to the trees towering above them. “Let’s climb up. The margr won’t be able to get us up there if they come this way.”

Nir and Almsqu led the way, followed by Biris, Dora Redmire’s son, Cacer, the strange visitant explorer, and Nieten, who went last. As the motley group settled in, Nir scouted ahead, her extra arms providing her an advantage as she moved from one tree to the next.

Almsqu took up a perch next to Nieten. “Things have changed quite a bit since we arrived in the crawler and you warned us of the Iron Wind, haven’t they?”

“Yes. I should have listened to Dora and Brucha. They knew what they were talking about and I called them fools. At least I suppose people will stop asking me to lead to town.”

“Perhaps. If that is what you want, I am sure that you could allow yourself to become just another face in the crowd with the number of newcomers who’ve arrived. Eventually, I am sure Arkwiss and I will move on, and we would be happy to have you, should you choose to join us. But I don’t think so. Over the past months, we’ve seen you accept where you were wrong. We’ve seen you grow and become the leader that your people always knew you could be. You’ve been leading the town’s defense efforts since the moment you saw the first group of margr and jumped in to help battle them off. I think you’re exactly what this town needs in a leader, and I just wanted to let you know that I’m grateful for everything you do.”

With a smirk, she added one final thought. “Besides, the Iron Wind is still out there. It is still a threat.”

Nieten chuckled and hugged her friend. The two had become close in the past months, spending many days scouting and hunting, and Nieten had been teaching Nir how to use a sword, something neither of the girl’s parents knew how to do.

It wasn’t much longer before Nir returned, followed shortly by Gilthk. The group climbed down from where they had been perched when the rock-man emerged from the ground, forming a circle around him and the impromptu diagram Nir had made earlier.

The diruk grabbed six pebbles, indicating to the group that the small stones represented them. He placed the rocks in a small circle near one edge of the dirt hill Nir had constructed, then reached down, scooping out a deep trench that circled half way around the mound. Into the trench he began to pour small rocks, until it was filled with hundreds, if not thousands, of pebbles, and still they fell from his hand.

Nieten nodded. “This can only mean that the margr are upon us. Diruk, you are our best bet for warning the village. I need you to tunnel back to them. Do not stop for anything until you have reached the watchtower. Let them know what you saw, and that we are coming as fast as we can.”

Gilthk nodded and disappeared once more into the ground. “Okay, everyone, weapons ready, we run until we reach the town, but we stick together.”

Everyone drew their weapons, recognizing what was at stake, and what failure could mean.

And they ran.

The margr seemed to come from nowhere. Ten of the towering, hairy abhumans emerged from the trees ahead of the group as they ran.

Wasting no time, Cacer fired a bolt from her crossbow that caught one of the beasts in the throat, nearly tearing its head off. as Almsqu fired an arrow that flew clean through one to embed itself in the face of the one behind it. At the same time, Nir brought her hands together, loosing a flash of energy. It seemed to have no effect until a third just stopped where it was, eyes rolling into the back of its head and blood trickling from its nose, ears, and eyes, and crumpled to the ground.

Six on five were much favorable odds as the creatures closed the distance, but Nieten was the only true fighter with Gilthk travelling ahead.

The lead abhuman lifted a nasty-looking spear and roared something in a choking, guttural language that sounded more animal than human. The rest of the group spread out, surrounding the small band of scouts.

It was a short-lived victory, however, as the other brought around the bone club it carried to hit her in the side. She felt ribs crack from the force, and the wind was blasted out of her. Coughing and gasping for breath, she expected to die.

Nir charged the nearest, deftly dodging the things spear as she grabbed it’s legs. She only came up to its stomach, but height only mattered when an opponent was on its feet, and her four limbs made quick work of toppling it. The thing swatted at her as she climbed atop it, sending her flying, her ears ringing, but not before she managed to bury her knife in it’s chest and leaving it to choke as its lungs filled with blood.

Cacer slung her crossbow and drew a sword. It wasn’t her preferred weapon, but she didn’t have time just now to spend reloading as one of the smaller—relatively speaking—of the margr charged, spear out, in an attempt to impale the Outsider. She stepped deftly to the side at the last minute, swatting the hideous-looking weapon away as she drew her opponent’s measure. Enraged at the maneuver, it spun, quickly changing its momentum to follow the spear. Coming around in a long, sweeping arc, Cacer was surprised by its speed and agility, and took the weapon through and arm as she tried to dodge. Thinking itself victorious, the margr let go of the spear to try and grab it’s prey, but Cacer, recognizing her opportunity was ready, cutting the things arms off when it got too close.

Almsqu quickly fitted another arrow to her bowstring and let fly, not even taking the time to aim. It grazed one of the margr, who howled with pain and surprise as two of the beast-men closed in on her. She dove between the two, twisting her body as she did to come up facing them, already nocking another arrow. The surprise move worked, and the two stopped where they were until they realized she was behind them. It didn’t take long, but it was more than long enough for her to fire the arrow up into the chest of one. The arrow impacted with such force that it lifted the abhuman to its toes and sent it tumbling into the other, throwing that one off balance. The explorer wasted no time flipping the bow around and smacking the second one across the face with all of her might. It made a wet popping noise as it connected, and the creature fell over, half of its skull caved in.

Nieten found herself face-to-face with the largest of their enemies. It stood nearly a head taller than she, and was covered head to toe in tawny, matted fur. It lifted its spear cautiously as the experienced warrior fell into a fighting stance. The hunter recognized her danger; this margr was smarter than the others and would not be easily taken down, and knew she had to finish the fight quickly. A quick feint to the left failed to fool it, and she quickly realized that it was following her weapon and not her, giving her an idea. It was a stupid idea—a really, really stupid idea, she had to admit—but it was her only one against an opponent so much larger and faster than her.

Nieten threw her prized, glass sword into the air.

The gamble paid off as the margr’s attention followed it up. Quickly, the warrior drew a long hunting knife and plunged it under the creature’s chin.

Biris was the least experienced of the group. Truth was, he’d never fought anything bigger than his siblings. He’d done some training with Hiero and a few of the other newcomers, but it became quickly apparent that he was out of his league as one of the margr approached him. He wondered for a moment if the beast wasn’t laughing at him as it approached. He raised his spear defensively and fell into a fighting stance like Hiero had taught, but the thing deftly avoided his strike as he stabbed at it and grabbed the tip of the weapon. The boy tried to pull his weapon from the monster’s grasp, but it held firm, and used the inexperienced fighter’s momentum to send him flying into a tree close to where Nir was just standing back up.

Biris watched in horror as the thing flipped the weapon around let fly at the four-armed visitant. Without thinking, he pushed himself up, leaping for the projectile. His inexperience cost him as he missed his target, instead taking the spear through his chest for his efforts.

Nieten pulled the knife from her opponent just in time to watch Biris go down. Screaming in fury, she charged at the  unprepared abhuman, grabbing her sword as it came back down. The vicious creature spun around with surprising speed to face her, but not fast enough as she brought her sword down in an overhand chop that cleaved its head in two, killing it before it had time to register that it was dead.

Nir was the closest to their fallen comrade and dropped to a knee next to him. Thankfully, the spear had missed his heart, and he was still alive. She could hear the blood filling his lungs with every breath. Before she could call to the others for help, though, another horrifying sound filled the air, accompanied by a vision none of them would ever forget: dozens more margr, making a strange clicking, popping noise, were coming over the hill that the group had just come from like an approaching flood.

The companions tightened up together and waited for the same death that would surely destroy their town.

A strange tugging sensation and a shout of pain from Nir drew their attention away from the approaching horde. Nir was on the ground hunched over, her face inches from the dirt. One of her arms supported her off the ground, while two clutched her head as though she had a nasty headache. It was the fourth arm, however, that was interesting outstretched toward a strange image of a grey field under a swirling sky just hanging there, suspended in the air like a painting. The image was one of the strangest sights any of them had ever seen. Any but one, however. Cacer recognized the Door immediately for what it was.

“Hurry everybody,” urged the strange woman, “our young companion has provided us a means of escape, I suggest we take it.” The others looked dubious. She urged them to hurry and stepped through, not entirely sure what she would find on the other side.

Almsqu and Nieten looked at each other for just a moment before moving. The warrior reached down and grabbed the wounded Biris as she stepped through, while Almsqu grabbed her daughter.

From the other side, they looked back at the oncoming horde as the portal closed behind them, sealing them into the strange place. Nir had lost consciousness, blood trickling from her ears and nose, and Almsqu laid her gently on the soft, grey ground, as Nieten did her best to help Biris.

“Cacen, where are we? You know what it was that just happened, don’t you?” Almsqu moved to stand next to Cacen. The landscape ahead of them was flat and a uniform grey color. Each step felt like walking on a think carpet of moss, or a firm mattress filled with feathers. Their sky was manifest chaos; just swirling eddies absent even the nothingness of the darkest black. Even the two seasoned adventurers felt like that death at the hands of the margr was a preferable fate to whatever waited for them in the chaos above their heads.

“I don’t know. Outside, somewhere, I believe.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because it was an opening like that one that brought me to your world.”

Almsqu looked at her sideways, “you mean you come from another world?”

“Yes, one outside of your understanding of reality. I have been searching for a way to return, but it eludes me.”

“But it didn’t have anything to do with Nir, right?”

“No, I have been on your world for quite some time.”

Almsqu nodded. “So you don’t know how to get us home?” Nieten joined the conversation as she stepped over to them.

“No. I would guess that Nir is the only way that to happen.”

“I see. Well, I’ve made the boy as comfortable as I can. It will be a miracle if he lives.”

“Don’t disregard the power of the people still in Ellomyr. I don’t doubt that someone could save his life.” The group grew silent at the mention of the town, unsure if it would even still be there when they returned.

Eventually, the group managed to get a bit of sleep.

It was Nir’s voice that woke everybody. She was panicked, trying to scream but unable to make enough noise as she looked at the sky. Almsqu, Nieten, and Cacer followed her gaze upward, recoiling in horror at what they saw.

The sky was alive. Some sort of creatures, either too small or too far to make out any detail, swarmed like a cloud boiling in from the horizon. Deep in their midst, something lay hidden, just beyond the edge of perception, more of an impression which their minds could not comprehend than an actual observable thing. All they knew, gazing at it’s terrifying approach, was that it was hungry.

Almsqu grabbed Nir by the shoulders as the things grew ever closer, spinning her daughter to face her instead of the oncoming doom. “Nir, love, don’t look. What we need is for you to help get us out of here, okay?” The girl nodded in understanding. “Good, do you remember what you did to bring us here?” Another nod. “Can you do it again to get us home?”

Nir nodded a third time, closing her eyes and stepping away from her mother. “Okay, I can do this, mother. Just give me a minute to find the right Key.”

Almsqu looked at her quizzically, not understanding what she meant, but stepped aside anyway, trusting her daughter’s ability. When blood started trickling from the visitant’s ears and nose, Almsqu had to sublimate her urge to  protect her child by making her stop doing…whatever it was she was doing. Her trust paid off though, when the girl reached out with two hands, as though she were gripping a pair of door handles. It might have been their imaginations, or the sound of the oncoming swarm, but they almost swore they heard an audible click as Nir turned her hands and gave a slight push, opening another portal.

This time, they were looking at home.

Almsqu turned to her companions. The creatures were nearly upon them now; she could make them out, like hideous insects, all legs, fluttering wings, and chittering mandibles. “The way is open! Hurry!”

Nieten and Cacer grabbed Biris as they rushed toward the exit, pulling each other along in their stumbling panic as they fled. Once they were through the location, Almsqu put an arm around Nir.

“Okay, they’re through. Time for us to go.”

The girl seemed impervious to outside events, like she had become unaware of anything that was not the portal. Almsqu pushed and forced her through the opening as the things grew ever nearer, finally tripping through it to fall flat on her face in the shade of the Trilling Shard.

The group only had a few moments to relish the fact that the town still stood before realizing that they didn’t make it through alone. One of the creatures flew through immediately after the mother and daughter team. Almsqu, Nieten, and Cacer each drew their weapons, forming a tight ring as the thing flew in circles around them, looking for an opportunity to move in for a killing blow. A couple of times it tried to make a move toward one of the children lying prone, but each time the three warrior women moved to intercept.

After a few moments, Nir pushed herself up to her hands and knees, and shot a look of pure hatred at the beast. She screamed a stream of obscenities her mother wasn’t even aware that she knew as she pushed herself to her feet. Then, with an evil look on her face, she screamed at it, reached up a hand, and twisted.

The front half of the insectoid thing didn’t appear to register for a moment that it’s rear half was gone. After a moment, though, it’s brain caught up to the rest of it, and the part that was still flying fell dead to the ground. Nir followed it down, falling drained to a kneeling position.

Dora Redmire came rushing out of her house, screaming at the sight of her son.

“Dora. Dora!” Nieten yelled into her face, getting her to pay attention. “Hey, we need to get some help for Biris or he is going to die. Run and fetch a healer and bring them back here. We have to go report in, so it’s up to you.” When Dora didn’t move Nieten put her face just inches from the older woman’s and screamed, “Go! Now!”

That seemed to sink in, and the woman turned and fled in search of a healer for her son. Nieten turned to the others. “Something is off. We’ve been gone hours. The attack should have happened by now. We need to go find the defense and figure out what is going on here.” The woman turned and headed off in the direction of the watchtower.

Cacer looked down at Nir inscrutably, “When the danger has passed, we shall speak more of your power, should we both still live.” She followed Nieten in the direction of the watchtower.

“Nir,” the young visitant looked up at her mother, “I need you to listen to me.” Almsqu moved to a discolored brick in the low wall surrounding the obelisk. Removing it revealed a steel and synth rope connected at the other end to a hidden door in the ground. When she had pulled it open to reveal a ladder descending into the darkness, she continued. “There’s shelter and safety in the tunnels under the city. When the attack begins, Gurner Fron is going to be bringing the children, the sick, and the old to hide down here until its over. They’re going to need you to protect them if the margr get in.”

“But I’m supposed to help you on the walls.” “I know that’s where you want to be, but this is where we need you. Please, there is nobody else who do this., Hiero said he’s going to send Ro to help you, okay?”

Nir started to protest, but stopped herself. Protesting would accomplish nothing, and if this were the plan, then she was needed here. “Okay. I’ll do it. We need to wait for everyone else to get in before we send Biris down, though. We don’t want any of the other children stepping on him when they go down.”

Almsqu nodded. “You’re going to have to get Ro or one of the others to help you, then. I have to get to the walls. Can you handle that? Are you good?”

Nir nodded, looking up at her mother with tears in her eyes. As the strange girl held back the terror, Almsqu thought about just what it was what was asking of her daughter. There was no time to get sentimental as the two embraced, but the older woman kissed the younger on the forehead and stepped away.

“I will find you when the fighting is over. I promise. Just stay in the tunnels and you should be safe.”

With that, Almsqu followed their previous companions, unable to bring herself to look back.

As she departed, Nir made her way to Id’s store, just on the other side of the square.

He could hear them coming from his position atop the rampart. The clicking, chittering noise sent a shiver of discomfort down his spine. Scouts had reported first hearing the noise the day before, but it had become audible on the outskirts near his home that night, and by morning it was echoing through the town, sending the people into a frenzy of hurried, last-minute preparations, expecting an attack to come at any moment. For the first time, Arkwiss was grateful that Kelem and his group had left; the last thing anyone needed right now was someone causing a panic.

The nano-wizard stood near the massive numenera weapon that had been found in the Valley of Sin by one intrepid expedition. They, like his own voyage, had suffered losses, as had most of the journeys into the accursed place, but the thing they had found had validated the sacrifices of all those who had perished in the valley. He and a pair of the other sorcerers had figured out how to make it spit fire, ice, and lightning to great effect, and they would take turns operating it during the battle, ensuring that it saw continual use until it stopped working altogether.

One of the glaives, a promising young man who had proven himself a more than capable warrior and an even better strategist, had had the genius idea of mounting it atop the crawler, giving it both mobility and range. He had even volunteered to pilot the thing—he and Almsqu had agreed that Nir wouldn’t be anywhere near the fighting unless the battle went poorly, much less piloting the vehicle—and a few of the wrights had given it armor and a system that would allow it to run without Id at the controls, freeing his mechanical friend to put his own skills to use elsewhere.

It pained him that the battle would likely be the last time either of the machines would be useable, and he hated to see them used for such purposes, but it was a small price to pay to protect the lives of those he had grown close to over the past several months.

He reflected on everything he had seen and experienced in the time he had been in the village as he awaited the return of Almsqu and Nir with increasing anxiety. They had departed before the sun crested the eastern hills with a small team to try and determine how long they had before the margr horde fell upon the city in all of its horror. That was several hours ago, and he knew it might be several more before they returned, but that knowledge did nothing to allay his fear.

At one point, somebody brought him a few bits of gallen jerky, his allotted ration as the town braced itself for the worst, should it survive the coming days. He forced the food down, knowing he would need his energy for the battle to come, even though he was not hungry.

It was shortly after the sun had reached its zenith when the rumble of earth just inside the gate alerted him to the return of Gilthk. Not making any assumptions, but fearing the worst as the reason the diruk would return without the others, Arkwiss rushed to the stairs that led down from the palisade. He took them several at a time with his long, bounding strides, eager for news.

Using a combination of waving hand gestures, a pile of dirt covered in twigs, and pebbles, the alien explained what he had seen. The margr force was on the move, not far now from the town. Arkwiss let out the breath he hadn’t realized he was holding when the rock-person informed them that the rest of the reconnaissance party was on their way back, but that they had sent him ahead in case anything happened, so that the town would at least get the information.

When the debriefing had finished, runners were sent to alert the town to drop what they were doing and assume their assigned battle positions. Arkwiss had just returned to his position when Nieten and Cacer came from the direction of the Trilling Shard, followed a short distance behind by Almsqu.

Arkwiss rushed back down the stairs, again.

“What’s going on? Why have the margr not attacked?” Nieten’s query came as something of a surprise.

“Umm, because it hasn’t been that long. You guys haven’t been gone very long. It’s just past lunch, you were only out a few hours. Now, why are you coming from that way? I’ve been waiting for your return all morning.”

“That’s not possible, we were gone for nearly a full day. Your daughter seemed to open a door to another world, we rested there for several hours alone.”

Almsqu interrupted them. “Okay, it doesn’t matter. All that’s important is that we’ve arrived in time to warn you. Has Gilthk returned yet? We sent him ahead in case anything happened.

“Yes, he was just here, we’ve sent runners to spread word for everyone to get ready.”

Almsqu and Nieten nodded. while Cacer walked off in the direction of her position. Atop the wall, a young man whistled down at them; when they looked up, he was waving a signal torch.

Almsqu, Nieten, and Arkwiss ran up the steps as fast as they could and looked out at what had once been peaceful fields surrounding the aldeia, What they saw this time was one of the most terrifying things any of them had ever witnessed. In the distance still, but clearly visible now and drawing ever closer, was a teeming mass of fur, teeth, and crudely fashioned weapons.

The horde had arrived.

There had to be some extra medicine somewhere. Over the past couple of days, everything in Id’s little shop had been moved to strategic points in the defenses where it would be useful, but surely something remained. Nir searched every nook and cranny that she could think of to no avail. Finally, just as she was headed back to the square, she saw something poking out from behind a workbench.

Not worrying about breaking anything, she grabbed the table and tossed it aside, revealing the small spray emitter. It wasn’t exactly what she was looking for, but it would have to do.

Rushing back to where Biris lay, Nir wondered where in the world the healers were. Surely Dara had been able to find one by now?

Then she saw them. Gurner Fron and a small team of assisstants were leading a small army of children, the elderly, and those incapable of fighting right to where she was waiting.

“Nir! Than’ th’ numenera, you’re alive, chil’!” As the children began climbing down into the darkness, Gurner swept her up in a hug so fierce she almost dropped the device.

“It’s good to see you, too.” Nir returned the embrace, then pushed herself from his grasp and gestured to her fallen comrade. “Biris is hurt. Dara went to find a healer, but she hasn’t returned.”

“I’m sorry, girl, but there won’ be a healer. Th’ mar’r are here. All of th’ healers are takin’ there place with th’ defen’ers.”

“Skist,” muttered the girl, drawing a surprised look from the old man. “Fine, I suppose if that’s how it has to be. Once everyone is below, can you help me get him down?”

“Sure, we’ll do what it takes to keep him alive.”

“Thanks.” She turned and looked about at the commotion as people rushed to their positions. “Have you seen Ro? My mother said she was going to be coming to help.”

“No, I can’ say that I have. She’ll be here though, Hiero promis’ to sen’ her, an’ there are few men I trus’ to keep a promise more than that robot.”

Nir nodded at the old man, knowing that, if there was anyone she could trust absolutely to keep their word, it was Hiero Sol, Champion of Starlight and Defender of Humanity and Ro, the indomitable little mutant girl who had become  her closest friend.

When the last of the line had disappeared into the blackness of the tunnels, Nir grabbed Biris under the arms, while Gurner grabbed his legs. Together they dragged the young man to the hole and somehow managed to lower him down the ladder, pulling the door shut behind them with one last look around for Ro. The bottom of the tunnel smelled foul, and there was some sort of muck clinging to the bottom. Even the walls glistened a putrid green color in the light of the glow-globe someone had lit. Gathering the shirts from several of the older boys in the group, Nir improvised a matress and laid Biris down on his side the way Nieten had done, careful to keep him off of the slime that seemed to coat everything. She pulled out the little sprayer she had found in Id’s shop.

“Okay, Biris, I can’t promise this will work, and it will probably hurt, but it’s our best hope of keeping you alive until the fighting is done, okay?”

He nodded, barely conscious through the pain. Nir pulled back the bandage that Nieten had improvised. The wound underneath was an angry red, streaked through with ugly black bolts of lightning shooting out from the center. Almost immediately, thick black blood began to ooze out, and she could hear in his breathing as fluid began to pour into his punctured lung. The girl had seen medicine like what was in the device used before. It would emit a fine cloud of tiny machines that would  cover the wound and begin the healing process, all she had to do was spray it in the general vicinity of the injury and depress the trigger.

She shoved the tip into the wound as deep as she could and squeezed.

The response was nearly instant; the sound that came from Biris’ mouth could not accurately be described as a scream. Nir wondered if any human voice had ever made quite such a horrible sound before as she tried to hold the screeching, squirming boy steady with her four arms.

A couple of the other children—she thought they might be his siblings, but it was hard to tell in the dim light— offered to help. Together, they held him still long enough for her to finish administering the treatment. He passed out as she withdrew the tip of the sprayer and reapplied the bandage.

A few moments later, the creak of the door drew her attention up the ladder. Nir fell into a fighting stance as a small silhouette filled the opening.

“Wow, it is really dark down there. Are you there, Nir? Hiero sent me to help.”

Nir sighed with relief. “By the Shard, Ro! You terrified me, you beautiful slying seskii.”

The younger girl laughed as she climbed down, hugging her friend upon reaching the bottom. “I was beginning to get worried until I saw Cacer and Nieten. I knew that they wouldn’t just leave you behind.” “I’m fine,” replied Nir, pulling away and gesturing toward the wounded boy. “Biris is hurt, though. I gave him some medicine, but he needs a real healer.”

Ro nodded as Gurner Fron made his way back from somewhere down the tunnel. “Come on, everybody. There’s a safe room ahead for us t’ hide in. We got supplies aplen’y there.”

The pair gestured for him to lead, and Ro went with him, while Nir followed at the rear, carrying Biris and making sure none of the children fell behind. The tunnels seemed to wind for an impossibly long time, with other tunnels feeding more refugees into their group. Finally, the tunnels emerged out into a large underground cavern. The smooth walls and floor of the massive space were lined with synth; the roof held up by massive stone pillars. A constant low rumbling noise echoed in the space that someone identified as water flowing behind one of the walls in the back.

When everybody had made it inside, Gurner showed Ro and Nir how to close and seal the heavy metal door, then showed them to the cache of cyphers that had been hidden there in anticipation of their needs. Among the devices were a case of explosive devices, weapons including spears, daggers, clubs, and slings, even a handful of crossbows, a pair of large-scale shield generators, and even a pair of simple automata wielding nasty looking solid light swords and spears. The real prize, however, was a small, square piece of synth with a piece of glass covering one side. As soon as Nir picked it up, several projected images appeared in the air above it, revealing views of several different places where access to the tunnels could be obtained. By reaching out and twisting the image, she discovered that she could change the view between several different options showing different views of the tunnels. The weapons were passed out to the people hiding in the underground space. Few had ever held more than a knife, but Nir and Ro insisted anybody who could lift one received a weapon; any defense was better than no defense if the margr made it this far. Ro placed the shield generators where they would be able to block the doorway and prevent entry, giving two of the oldest children quick instructions on how to use them, and strict orders to activate them without question if they were told to do so—even if it meant trapping her and her friends outside.

After that, all there was to do was wait. Nir was tempted to tell Ro about the expedition, and the strange, horrible insects they had discovered in the strange place they had wound up, but it didn’t seem like the time. Instead, the two sat in silence just outside the door to the cavern, leaning on each other. The irony was not lost on either of them that the two had both been ostracized by the other youths, and were now likely their greatest hope for survival.

It didn’t take long for the sounds of battle to reach them. Dull, thudding explosions shook the tunnels and sent goopy chunks of dirt falling on the heads of those taking refuge. Not long after, it seemed, a more audible explosion echoed its way to them, followed by a snapping, popping noise. Nir and Ro readied themselves, waiting for the inevitable.

The first margr to come around the final corner caught an explosive cypher to its face. The thing’s head simply disappeared in a spray of blood and bone, and the energy from the blast set the two trailing it on fire. The flailing beastmen managed to set more of their brethren ablaze, stalling the onslaught long enough for the pair to activate the blade-wielding robots that someone had left for them, just in time for them to engage the rearmost members of the group, who had simply pushed the ones ahead of them on fire into the muck and trampled them in their drive to destroy.

The machines went about their work to great effect in the narrow passage. Nearly a score of the margr came over the tops of the smoldering corpses of their companions, but the automata cut them all down. The pair of machines ran out of power shortly after the last of their opponents was shut down, and simply stopped moving with weapons still outstretched. Nir attempted to dislodge the weapons they carried to no avail, but together, the pair  managed to position them where they thought it might create the biggest impediment to any more enemies that might be coming.

The young team barely had a moment to catch their breath when more of the creatures could be heard coming down the tunnels. Warning those inside the cavern to raise the shields if the margr arrived before they returned, they grabbed the case of explosives and set off toward the noise. As soon as the creatures saw them, they broke into a snarling charge. Blindly, they threw the weapons behind them as the ran back toward the cavern, knowing that every one was bound to hit the seething horde.

Helping each other along, the two mutants managed to put some distance between themselves and their foes by the time they reached the cavern, screaming ahead to alert those who were waiting for them. Moments after they made it through the opening, someone raised one of the energy shields, cutting one of the creatures neatly in half. The rest piled up against the barrier futilely, and everyone watched in horror as those closest to it were crushed to death by the pressing mob.

Nir turned to Ro, kneeling next to her small friend and looking her square in the eyes. “Ro, do you remember what I was doing when we first met?”

“You were practicing opening your Doors.”

“That’s right, it seems so long ago now, doesn’t it?” Ro nodded. “Do you remember why I was practicing with my Doors?”

“Of course, you wanted to use them to save the village.”

“Yeah. I can’t do that, but I can try to save the people in this cavern. In order to do that, though, I’m going you to help, okay?”

“What do you need?”

“I’m going to have to open a bigger door than I ever have before, and I’m going to need a much different key than before to do what I’m going to try to do, so I don’t know how long I’ll be able to keep it open. I need you to get everybody ready; as soon as it’s open you get them through as quickly as possible.”

“Okay, I can do that.” The younger girl set off, alerting the others to be ready and enlisting the help of those she thought would be of assistance.

Nir came running as the boy operating the shield generator hollered at her. The device was almost out of power and wouldn’t last much longer. She had him leave it and helped move the other device to the center of the room where Ro was gathering everybody. A pair of the older members of the group grabbed up weapons and what remained of the explosives and stood by the entrance, promising to do their best to hold back the swarm for as long as possible.

Thanking them for their sacrifice, Nir activated the second shield generator, raising a bubble of protective energy around the group. As the group watched, the first barrier collapsed, and the old couple immediately began hurling explosives through the portal.

Nir hugged Ro tightly. “Whatever happens, protect them, Ro. I trust you.”

Ro hugged her back, equally as hard, “we’re going to be fine. We have a plan, and if we stick to it, everything will be okay. It’s a good plan.”

Nir nodded as she took a step back and closed her eyes. Blood began to trickle from her nose and ears, even her eyes, as her forehead furled in concentration. After a few moments in which the group watched with horror the way the margr overtook the elderly couple, savagely ripping them apart, Nir raised her hands together. The whole cavern shook, bits of stone and muck falling from the ceiling, and the girl spread her hands, opening a hole in reality like a large set of double doors. Nir opened her eyes to see where she was sending them, giving a nod to her friend when she found herself looking down at the aldeia in the distance, a twisting spire rising up near its center. Flames burned in many parts of the town, but it was too far to make out any real details.

The cavern trembled, making it hard to stand for beast and refugee alike, as Ro wasted no time ushering the group through the opening. Children and elder ran screaming through as the shield generator collapsed. Rocks fell on the group as they pushed their way into the portal. Last through was Ro, pulling on one of Nir’s four arms.

The older girl had not yet made it through the portal when it vanished, leaving the young mutant holding no more than a severed hand.

Almsqu ran to the watchtower. The structure soared into the air. On a clear day, the most eagle-eyed of watchers said they could see out to where the world curved below the horizon. Her sight wasn’t that good, but she was perceptive in other ways, with almost an extra sense for danger and tactics that would prove useful.

When she reached the top, the veteran explorer fit the strange helmet over her head, buckling the strange mouthpiece over the lower half of her face and lowering the synth-glass visor. Someone had found the item in the Valley of Sins. The device contained some sorcery that would allow her to focus her senses on distant parts of the battlefield, allowing her to monitor anywhere she saw a need for the town’s forces to focus their energies. One of the wrights had even built a small attachment that would allow her to project her voice to anyone she could see.

Getting used to it had been strange, but she had been practicing fairly consistently, and was now good enough that she could quickly switch her focus, or just use her normal senses if she needed to defend herself. So it was as the margr crested the last hill.

She leaned her bow against the wall of the watchtower and looked at her two companions.

“Look, guys, I know I should probably say something…inspirational? But I’m not very good with words. I’m sure Hiero would have a speech prepared,” they chuckled at the thought of the odd mechanical knight giving a rousing speech, “but I’m not some great hero. All I can say is that, if we all do our jobs well, and don’t let fear get the better of us, we’ll win, okay?” Both of them agreed.

Marik couldn’t have been more than 16, but she had proven herself to be a deadshot with a crossbow and wielded a specially designed weapon that would allow her to fire at great distances. Her goal would be to try and pinpoint the margr leaders and take them out. If enough of their leadership were decimated, one of the glaives had said the horde would likely disolve into infighting as they tried to establish new command, tearing itself apart.

Ramben, on the other hand, was nearly useless with a weapon in his hands, but had a way of keeping machines runnning longer than they should otherwise. His skills would be invaluable in manning the strange, self-firing weapons���someone had called them “turrets”—that had been mounted in the tower.

She pulled out the new explosive devices that Id had designed, with their strange, long tail and tiny motor, and grabbed one in each hand. “Okay, guys, here they come.”

They crashed against the palisade below like a living tide, flowing over everything outside of the wall.

Marik began firing into the mass, taking careful aim before each shot, while Ramben got the turrets firing. Almsqu started throwing explosives with little regard for aim; there were so many targets that each bomb was sure to hit one.

Every time she witnessed a change in the margr horde’s movements, she relayed the information to the squad most readily positioned to respond. With hope, she watched as the strange, towering numenera weapon that one determined group had brought back was put to effective use, carried around the battlefield on top of the crawler with Arkwiss and a pair of his fellow wizards using it to blast fire, ice, and lightning at any who came too close to the gate.

So it went for what felt like an eternity, until a large explosion from the west drew her attention that way. She watched in horror as a section of the wall collapsed. Defenders rushed to fill the gap, but she dozens slipped past into the town. There were not enough defenders available to respond, so she prayed silently that they didn’t find the tunnels.

She was just asking Ramben to focus the turrets on the gap in the wall when she felt the tower shake violently. As the structure collapsed below her, she had time for a single prayer, that her family would be safe.

Then she hit the ground, and everything went black.

Id had seen things most people wouldn’t believe as he traveled all across the Steadfast and Beyond with his friend and maker. He’d been to the Lands of Dawn, where he had encountered the Emerald Magus of Bruul, climbed the Ghost Mountain to visit the Lily Queen, and met one of the most amazing humans he knew. In the Rayskel Cays, he’d witnessed the ascension and retreat of the Slavering Falls. Once, deep inside of an old world ruin, he and his companions had activated some sort of a lift that had descended into the planet’s core, a beautiful sight unto itself.

In all, he was satisfied with the life he had led in his few short years. He knew he probably didn’t have a soul, not that he’d ever been particularly interested in religion before that moment, but he was okay with that. In fact, the only thing he regretted, as he watched the margr horde descend on the aldeia that had become his home, was that he had never recorded his experiences anywhere outside of his own memory. The things he had done that many would have thought impossible. The things he had seen that most people wouldn’t believe.

Yes, he reflected, the Ninth World was an amazing, beautiful, wonderful place. It was a shame that all of those moments would be lost.

It was a selfish, thought, he knew, but he couldn’t help it. He supposed that, faced with their impending destruction, all creatures must be a bit selfish. That was the nature of evolution, after all, was it not?

He pulled himself out of his reverie and watched the clicking, popping mob of goat-men approach the wall.

As soon as they were in range, he started firing his modified explosives into their ranks. He watched in mild horror as bodies were exploded, limbs destroyed, heads removed, and still they came. Archers slaughtered them in scores, firing at a frenzied pace thanks to the lack of a need for real aiming, and windriders overhead dropped even more explosives into their midst, and still they came.

Near the main gate, Id saw the crawler rumble into action. He barely recognized the thing that he had once been a part of. Heavy plates of synth armor clung to its sides, studded with spikes and blades. The front had been fitted with s scooping device of sorts, designed to funnel any soul unfortunate to find itself  caught in front of the oncoming vehicle underneath its wheels. The strangest sight was the towering weapon that had been mounted atop it, however. The ancient weapon—it clearly was a weapon, regardless of what Arkwiss might say—stood atop its back, one of the nanos charged with operating it frantically working the controls. Arkwiss and the other sorcerer hurled bolts of energy and ancient numenera devices into the horde that did everything from summon strange creatures to ravage their numbers, to create holes in reality through which the abhumans disappeared by the score.

He had just applied a tourniquet to a young woman who had just lost her arm to a rather vile-looking spear when a snarl from behind him drew his attention. A rather small margr was just cresting the top of the pallisade, pulling itself up and over with a growl. The goat-headed thing was naked except for tufts of coarse fur scattered about its body, and dragging a spear nearly twice as long as it was tall.

The margr charged at him with a howl, swinging the weapon in a long arc around its head. The haft of the weapon caught him in the side, nearly sending him tumbling from the wall. When he tried to grab ahold of it, his opponent pulled it back with surprising speed. He sidestepped the stabbing thrust, but heard a sickening squishing noise from behind him. He knew what had happened even before he turned to look at the spear sticking through the head of the woman he had just saved, bits of bone and brain matter clinging to its serrated tip.

It’s just a child, he thought. How vile are these creatures that even the little ones are possessed of such viciousness?

As the margr struggled to pull its weapon from the corpse, Id ran, slamming into it with all of his weight. It tumbled from the wall, but not before managing to find a grip on the machine man’s armor and pulling him over the side with it.

One of Id’s arms was severely damaged when he landed on it, mangled to the point of uselessness.

A squad of defenders came to his aid, helping him back to his feet and offering to escort him to wherever he needed to go. It was a moot point, however, as an explosion from the west rocked their position. A report came from Almsqu that a section of wall had collapsed and the margr were pouring through. Their group linked up with others as they headed to the breach, hoping to intercept the invaders before too much damage had been done.

As the group of defenders rounded a corner, they found themselves face to face with a small army of the enemy. Still, there was something to be said for the ferocity with which humans would defend their homes. The group, nearly 50 strong by that point, charged right into their enemy’s ranks, felling three of the creatures for every one of their number that fell. Still, it wasn’t enough, and their numbers dwindled.

Id wasn’t much of a fighter, but he was able to throw explosives and other weapons over their heads and into the crowd streaming into the breach. Someone else saw what he was doing and joined in, then another. He knew that there were margr in the city, past their lines of defenders, but he and the others somehow managed to hold out long enough for a couple of nanos to arrive and begin using their magic to seal the opening in the wall.

Confident that the tide had been stemmed, Id set off on a new mission, leaving the still-fighting defenders behind. He made his way cautiously toward the Trilling Shard at the center of town. The towering pillar was singing, he thought. with a voice like a beautiful chorus. It reminded him of a choir he had once seen on a visit to Nihliesh. The funeral for Arkwiss’ mother had been a beautiful, sad affair for the popular, beloved woman, and a group of mutants wearing strange helmets had sang as her body was fed back into a machine that would convert it into fuel for the ancient machines at the city’s heart.

He found the door that led down into the tunnels below the village; the ones where Nir was supposed to be guarding the aldeia’s children and infirm. His only goal now was to prevent the creatures from finding their way down.

A small group of abhumans entered the town square and were blown into the air when Id tossed an explosive into their midst. He only had a handful left, so he had to make them count. His hopes disappeared, however, as he as he misjudged a toss into another approaching group, and it sailed over their heads to explode near the back of their ranks. He didn’t even have time to throw the next one before they were upon him; he just activated it in his hand.

He thought he could hear the Trilling Shard grow louder, inviting whatever passed as his soul to join it, as the world disappeared in a flash of light.

The crawler rumbled to life. To his ears, so familiar with its inner workings for so long, it sounded like a sick, dying thing, not the great machine he had helped build all those years ago. It didn’t even look the same, all covered in armor and weapons. He hated any time machines were twisted into instruments of death. There was something twisted about human nature that, once that event horizon was crossed, all they seemed to see was a weapon. Perhaps it was for the best that this was likely to be the end of the vehicle.

Once the others were on board—a young nano-sorceress who called herself simply Void and the half-man, half-machine Staram—he closed the rear door. The trio climbed atop the vehicle, where their charge awaited operation as he signaled to the pilot of the vehicle that they were all on board.

The numenera device stood nearly five feet in height. It’s reflective octagonal shape seemed to be one solid piece that always showed a perfect chromatic negative of whatever reflected in its surface. A strange, flanged nozzle of some sort stretched the entire height of the device, giving the impression that it had maybe been designed to affix to another piece of some much larger machine.

Together, the three mages had figured out how to operate the device. There was a small, circular section on the top, and one on the rear of the device, that reflected a normal image of whatever was in front of it. They had discovered that, by touching it in specific ways, they could get it to discharge fire, ice, or electricity—or any combination of the three—from the opening on the other side. It was capable of other functions, but none were as useful to their purposes as the discharge function they had discovered.

The nano-sorcerers wrapped themselves in the harnesses that would hold them fast to the top of the crawler no matter how rough the ride got. The plan was to move about the battlefield, hurtling their magical energies, small numenera devices that had been salvaged from the Valley of Sin, and the arcane energies of the ancient device in to the margr horde as they saw needed. Almsqu would be in the watchtower, as well, monitoring the ever-changing battlefield and directing them where they might be most helpful.

The press of the margr horde was mind-numbing. The group watched in horror as the gate opened just enough for the crawler to drive through, revealing several ranks of the abhumans already crushed to death in the press against the walls. As their corpses fell through the opening, dozens more were met with an immediate and deadly barrage of magic and arrows while they scrambled over the bodies of their fallen with little or no regard for the dead. Even more fell with the sickening noise of bones being crushed under the wheels of the crawler as the glaive who had been given the task of operating it—an older man named Kryashka—forced a path through the tidal force of the creatures.

Outside the walls, the margr were so thick that Arkwiss questioned if the crawler ever actually touched the ground. The weapon spewed death into the horde, and the crawler rolled over both the living and the dead, but still they came. Quick work was made of the goat-men in the immediate vicinity of the gate, and those nearby learned quickly to avoid the rumbling death machine, which allowed the defenders within to begin sending our sorties to try and strike back, but as soon as they moved off in search of a new target the mob closed in behind them.

The margr might have been yovok. For all the resistance they mustered, the three nanos were death-gods, leaving nothing but bodies in their wake.

Void tapped him on the shoulder; it was his turn to man the weapon. He threw the singularity bead he had prepared, pausing just long enough to watch it disappear, warping reality around itself. Half a dozen margr simply vanished, and all of those around them looked like they had been pulled apart in the aftermath.

Arkwiss felt unclean as he manned the weapon, putting it to use killing margr by the score. People tended to think he was just some ignorant moralist, but nothing could be further from the truth. He recognized the necessity of what he was being forced to do, he just hated it. This particular device didn’t have any real intelligence that he could detect above anything he would expect from an animal, but he knew—he Knew—that it was not meant for this purpose. What he was doing with it now was a corruption of its true purpose, even if he didn’t know exactly what that was supposed to be.

The explosion echoed across the battlefield. Even from his position at nearly to opposite end of the battlefield it was impossible to miss the section of wall that had just fallen. He looked at the other two, and all three had the same thought.

Void hollered down into the hatch. “Kryashka? Darling?”

A gravelly voice responded. “I see it. Brace yourselves.”

The vehicle rumbled and growled as the old warrior pushed it to the limit of its capabilities. Arkwiss didn’t know what happened, or why, but he suddenly found himself floating, weightless. Time seemed to slow as the weapon spun around, bathing his companions in deadly energy. Both fell before it’s fury, and then something struck him in the side of the head, and he knew nothing more.

Arkwiss came to to the rumble of the engine, gradually growing aware of the fact that he was in the crawler. He couldn’t move very much, but that was because he was strapped down. Why was he strapped down? The answer became obvious when he suddenly found himself weightless. The vehicle slammed back into the ground, and everything came rushing back to him.

The battle.

The wall had fallen.

The weapon.

His companions, awash in killing energy.

He could hear the sounds of battle from outside.

He managed to free himself from the straps that held him in place. Carefully, he pushed himself into a sitting position. Hid head hurt, and there was something sticky in his eyes. When he put his hands to them, they came away covered in blood. That explained that. He pushed his head up through the hatch to get a look around.

Staram manned the weapon, firing blasts of energy into the margr horde. His flesh parts were seared and melted in places, but the machine half seemed to be holding him together. Void, too, stood firing into the mass of goat-men. From his angle, she at first seemed relatively unscathed, but then she turned, revealing horrible burns, flesh sloughed off in places revealing the muscle and sinew beneath, clothes melted onto her skin. He didn’t know how either of them were still standing, but was grateful that they were.

Arkwiss could sense that something was different about the battle. It took him a moment to figure out what, exactly, it was, but then he realized; they weren’t firing indiscriminately into the horde any more. No, they were now loosing bursts of energy more carefully, deliberately. Pushing himself fully onto the roof, he buckled himself into position again as he stood, uncertain of his footing through the pain in his head.

Void put a hand on his shoulder to steady him.

He looked across the battlefield. Countless margr lay dead or dying, and the ones that lived were in full route. The reason why was evident to the north when he saw the reinforcements that were even now pushing through the margr ranks. Somehow, someone had managed to get through to Kelem and his group.

Nobody had seriously blamed them for leaving; everyone understood their reasons, though the resentment and bitterness were real. Still, here they were, returned at the 13th hour to aid their kin.

The crawler itself was bolstering the ranks of the defenders, who had now come out onto the battlefield en masse. Still outnumbered nearly two-to-one, the seasoned warriors and townsfolk alike fought with a renewed vigor, inspired to save their home from the vile invaders.

Before long, the two groups had come together, splitting the enemy force into two parts: those with a fairly clear path to run away, and those caught between the army and the wall. Nieten climbed aboard the crawler to get a better vantage and started shouting orders. Arkwiss wondered why Almsqu wasn’t directing troops and looked back toward the aldeia to see the awful truth: the watchtower was gone.

By the time the two forces met, the margr numbers had been decimated, their leadership destroyed, and the remnants of the horde in full route. It was quick work to crush the ones who had been caught between the Ellomyr army—and it was indeed an army now, with Nieten and Kelem at its head, giving orders and directing squad movements— and the wall.

Small detachments were sent after the remnants who fled, but Arkwiss declined to join them. The watchtower lay in ruins, the bodies of defenders scattered about the crater that had once been its foundation. The upper portion lay some distance away, a pile of rubble and synth containing the body of the young woman that had been assigned to man the structure with Almsqu.

It took another hour of searching before Arkwiss found his beloved, lying broken amongst the remains of what had once been a storage shed. It appeared as though she had landed on its synth roof hard enough to punch through the top of the structure, weakening it enough for it to collapse on top of her.

The explorer was alive, but barely. Her body was twisted at an extreme angle, and bones protruded from her leg.

The nano screamed for help as he picked up her limp form, desperately searching for a chirurgeon.

At long last he found someone to help, and he waited impatiently as they gave the woman a quick once-over. He needed to get her taken care of, but he also knew he needed to find Nir and Id. This long after the battle, he should have already at least heard something, and then he did. While the healer worked on Almsqu, he overheard a report that there had been some sort of explosion near the Trilling Shard.

They had found pieces of what seemed to be a synthetic person, but it would take some time to figure out how they were put together to know for sure. Additionally, while there were dead margr piled up around what seemed to be the center of the explosion, it had also collapsed the entrance to the tunnels. There were reportedly scores more margr dead in the confined spaces, but a few were still alive and putting up a fierce resistance.

Arkwiss just sat there, listening in shock, when a cheer rose up from outside. Gurner Fron had been spotted coming down out of the hills with the ones who had been hiding under the city.

Making sure that Almsqu would be okay, he rushed outside to meet the survivors. The look that Gurner gave him when they saw each other spoke volumes, then Ro showed him the bloody thing in her hands.

At first, his brain refused to process the thing in her hands. He stared at it, disbelieving, until the girl spoke up.

“Don’t worry, I’m sure she’s still alive, and she’s going to need this.” He just looked at her, dumfounded. “Just because she didn’t make it through the Door doesn’t mean she’s dead. She is Nir after all.”

The nano just nodded and thanked her, taking the severed arm and made his way back to the makeshift hospital, leaving it behind. He found the bed that Almsqu had been moved to and leaned over her still form, watching the rise and fall of her chest just to confirm to himself that she was still alive. He closed his eyes, composing himself for a moment, before leaning over and kissing her on the forehead.

“I don’t know if you can hear me,” he whispered into her ear, “but I have to go find Nir and Id. I fear the worst, but I have to make sure. I’ll be back before you know it.”

Before leaving, Arkwiss found the healer who had helped Almsqu leaning against a wall on the outside of the structure. The middle-aged man looked older than his years and ready to collapse from exhaustion, clearly haunted by what he’d seen. He hated to interrupt the man’s brief respite, but he had to.

“You know,” began Arkwiss, “I don’t think I caught your name before.” He offered the other man his hand.

“Siylias,” replied the doctor, taking it. “You brought the woman who fell from the watchtower, right?”

“Yes. Thank you for everything you did for her. I lost Almsqu once, I don’t know what I would do if I lost her again.”

“Well, we all have our role to fulfill. I’m just glad I could help.”

Arkwiss nodded. “I suppose that is true, but I need your help one more time.”

“Let me know and I’ll see what I can do.”

“My daughter and my friend are missing. I have to go find them, but I don’t want Almsqu to wake up and be alone. Could you sit with her while I’m gone?”

“I suppose I could do that. I don’t think I’m going to be of much use to anyone else today, anyways.”

“Thank you, it means more than you know.”

“Be careful out there. There are still a lot of hazards, and they say there are a few margr left somewhere.”

Arkwiss nodded and waved as he walked away.

It didn’t take long to identify Id’s remains. Parts of the machine man were scattered about the square, testimony to his tragic fate. A small crater at the center of the ring of destruction led down into the tunnels under the town.

The bodies of the margr were beginning to smell, adding to the pungency of the slimy tunnels. The sound of fighting drifted back to Arkwiss as he picked his way through the bodies.

The small group of abhumans had made it into the large chamber where Nir was supposed to be. A handful of the town’s defenders were preventing them from breaking out, but the group was neither skilled enough nor equipped to enter the room and fight them properly.

Arkwiss, exhausted from the days fighting, opened himself up to the nano spirits. He had expended too much of his magic and needed a rest; the tiny machines that permeated the air flitted just outside the edges of his ability to reach. He did, however, sense the devices scattered about the feet of the invaders. With the last of his energy, he activated them, then dove behind the wall, signaling to the others to find cover, as well.

The explosion shook the tunnels, raining dirt and chunks of the already damaged walls and ceiling down on their heads. Elsewhere, the sounds of collapsing tunnels came racing back to their position. It accomplished their goal, though. All of the remaining margr were dead.

Entering the chamber, Arkwiss surveyed the damage. Large chucks of stone and slabs of synth littered the room. Near the door, the bodies of an elderly man and woman lay shredded, viciously torn apart. The pair had gotten theirs, though; both still clutched weapons slick with blood, and several margr lay dead about them from nasty wounds.

One of the others called his attention to the center of the room.

Nir lay pinned beneath a large piece of synth, bleeding from where it had struck her in the head. One of her fine wings was extended from her body at an awkward angle, and another was bent in two. One arm ended in a bloody stump. It took three of them to move the piece from her, but she groaned when they did, proof that she was still alive.

Tired nearly to the point of collapsing, the group carried the girl from the tunnels.

[strangetalesofnumenera]

Trouble In The Trees

“So, first you were born.”

“Of course.”

“And then you grew old.”

“Yeah, like, really really old.”

“Older than Gurner Fron?”

“Nobody’s that old.”

“Really?”

“Really. I overhead the knows all those stories because he was there for them.”

“Because you weren’t even alive for one whole day.”

“Right”

“But then you died.”

“U-huh.”

“And then you were born again.”

“Yep.”

“The very next day?”

“Yes.”

“And this happened every single day?”

“Yeah.”

“For how long?”

“Around ten years, I think? It sort of grew hazy there for a few years.”

“And all because some mean old witch in a place really, really far away from here decided to put a curse on your parents.”

“That’s right.”

Ro thought about Nir’s story for a moment, laying back and floating on top of the water. It was a rare moment when the friends actually had a few free hours at the same time, so they had decided to go bathe in the river after a particularly grueling session training with Hiero.

Nir still wasn’t sure about the strange automaton, but her and Ro had become fast friends, nearly inseparable during those rare moments when they were both free at the same time.

Usually, their time together involved training. Nir recognized in Ro a kindred spirit, someone who, like her, was misunderstood, but had an intense desire to be worthy of the real heroes around her.

Unfortunately, Ro’s hero was Hiero, the Blundering Idiot who Talks Too Much. At least his heart was in the right place; he wanted to help save the town, even if he was determined to be the big hero like one of the characters in Gurner Fron’s stories. She did enjoy getting up in the morning and going to his training sessions. They were of dubious value to most of his forced trainees, but she couldn’t deny at least his skill as a fighter. Besides, she had fun, and took the opportunity to spar against the automaton on an almost daily basis once he had let the others go.

“You know, it sounds like this witch needs some hero to come teach her a lesson.”

“Maybe you and me could do it together.”

“I don’t know. Maybe with Hiero’s help. I’m sure he could handle her.”

“You should give yourself more credit. You’re better with a spear than I am, and quick, I’m sure you’ll be a great hero soon.”

Ro smiled at the compliment. “I don’t know, but I’m going to try.”

The two swam in the cool water for a few more minutes before getting dressed and heading back toward the village. As they passed through a copse of trees, Nir became aware of a snorting sound, like a large animal but unlike any animal she had ever actually heard.

She put a hand out to stop her companion. “Ro, there’s something here with us,” she whispered, looking around.

“I know, I heard it, too.”

“Why don’t you climb a tree and see if you can spot it, I’ll look around down here.”

“Okay.”

Nir watched her friend disappear up into the branches, then followed the sound, keeping pace as Ro climbed from tree to tree.

The source appeared to be a large man, close to eight feet in height, and covered in thick, coarse fur, but otherwise naked. Instead of feet, it had hooves, and what appeared to be small horns growing from it’s head. It carried what appeared to be some sort of spear made of large bones lashed together, studded with sharp teeth.

Margr! screamed Nir’s instincts. Her parents had told her about the nature of the goat people threatening the town. She looked up to the trees and made eye contact with Ro. Using had gestures to develop a plan silently, the young visitant stepped out behind the monster, hoping she was being as stealthy as she felt.

As Nir drew close to the creature, she stepped out from behind a tree and found herself looking into the thing’s hairy face. She let out a small yelp as a powerful hand hit her in the side of the head, smashing the side of her face into the trunk. Dazed, Nir fell to the ground, seeing her death in the margr’s eyes as it stood over. It lifted its spear for the killing blow as it let loose an otherworldly victory yell. The celebration was cut short, however, as a small knife emerged from its throat, the goat-person’s eyes barely having time to register its surprise before it fell over dead.

Ro rode the dying creature to the ground, losing her weapon as the motion twisted it from her grasp. She grabbed her barely conscious companion under an one an arm, trying to help her to her feet and shake her out of her stupor.

The mutant began to panic as the sound of more of the goat-men drifted toward her through the trees. “Nir, please, we need to get out of here. I think there are more of them.” The small mutant grabbed her much larger friend by the hands, determined to drag her back to town if necessary.

A roar drew her attention to a trio of margr emerging from the brush, all between the pair and their destination.

Nir was late. Nir was never late. Id was only mildly annoyed because he needed her to deliver a bundle of explosives to the watchtower for testing. The new design involved attaching a small winged engine to a standard detonation cypher, allowing a user to throw it at targets that were far away.

He guessed that she had probably just lost track of time during her morning training sessions with the machine knight and the little mutant who followed it around. He was glad that she’d found something that both made her happy and would be of use in the defense of the town, but she had other duties, and he knew her parents would never let her anywhere near the actual fighting when the time finally came.

Deciding to track her down once the delivery was complete, Id grabbed the heavily padded crate into which he’d packed the weapons, as well as a special item he had built specifically for Ro, Nir’s mutant friend. He’d watched a couple of their training sessions and had found himself impressed by the skill of one so young, so he took it upon himself to make her a weapon that might give her an advantage over foes much larger then herself, like the margr. Now would be as good of a time as any to deliver it. He would also finally have a word with their teacher about his methods. Too often, Nir arrived with blood trickling from her nose, sometimes her ears, as well. One time it had even been coming from her eyes. The wounds were a telltale sign of the kind of a blow to the head that would lead to damage of the brain, especially in one as young as her.

Biris, one of Dora Redmire’s sons, was on watch when he showed up with his delivery.

“Good morning, Id. What do you have there?”

“Prototypes for a new weapon. This needs to be handled very carefully. I’ve already shown them to Nieten and Brucha, so they’ll be coming by later to test these and let me know what they think. Please take care of them until then.”

“Will do, my friend. I have to admit, though, I’m surprised you’re bringing these yourself. Where’s Nir this morning?”

“I believe she’s still at her training with Hiero Sol. I intend to locate her just as soon as I climb down from here.”

“She can’t be, walked past not 5 minutes ago.”

“Did you see where he was headed?”

Biris pointed East, toward an impromptu inn that had sprung up to house some of the other newcomers to the village. Id thanked the boy and climbed down the ladder. 

“Tell her I said hi when you find her, would you?” The boy’s voice came floating down after him, and Id shook his head in amusement. Human mating rituals were a bizarre thing to witness.

Hiero was, indeed, in the small inn, conversing with a small group of patrons. “Hiero Sol, a word, please?”

The much larger automaton turned to him in surprise. “Ah! It is you!” It pointed a finger in the air as if to declare a fact known only to himself. “I have seen you around the village! You are the strange one who makes medicine one day and weapons the next! Nir helps you at your shop!” Hiero listed the facts as if trying to convince Id of his own identity.

“Indeed. My name is Id, and I have actually come to find her, she is late and I had need of her assistance this morning. Do you know where she might be?”

“I do not. She left training with Ro two hours ago. She was actually supposed to meet me here right now, but these fine gentlemen were telling me that they haven’t seen her. It is unlike Ro to be late. She is a promising hero in training!”

“Do you have any idea where they went?”

“No, but I know they often play together amongst the trees near the river, that would be a good place to start.”

“Good, let’s get going. The sooner we find them, the sooner I can get back to the shop and the list of things I need to accomplish today.”

“Indeed!” Hiero struck a pose that Id wasn’t sure wasn’t supposed to satirize what actual heroism looked like. “I am Hiero Sol, Champion of Starlight and Defender of Humanity, and I will not let you down!”

Id just shook his head as the strange pair of living machines set off to find the errant children.

Ro watched as the margr split up to surround her. Hiero wouldn’t be afraid, so she couldn’t let herself be. She had to be brave. She had to fight. Nir’s life depended on her, and she refused to let her friend die.

Swallowing her fear, Ro drew her weapon from where it was still lodged in the dead one’s throat. She flicked the blood from the blade and fell into a fighting stance, straddling her fallen friend protectively and focusing on the one in the center, the large one, the one clearly giving orders to the others, even if she couldn’t understand their snarling, snorting language.

Her best bet was surprise. Maybe if she caught them off-guard she would stand a chance. She launched herself at the center one with a scream, hoping to surprise it. The creature was deceptively fast for its size, stopping her airborne assault with a well-timed foot to her chest that it used to slam her to the ground, pinning the small mutant.

Ro panicked, squirming, struggling for breath beneath the thing’s weight.  She watched in horror as the other two emerged from the brush. The larger of those two stopped to grab Nir from where she had fallen, lifting her by the hair as the visitant’s four arms swatted at it feebly.

A nearly blinding light pierced the shade of the small grove, enveloping the margr to the right, and the one holding Nir gave a brief squeal of surprise before it simply disappeared as though it had never been there, leaving the girl to fall back to the ground.

There, toward the town, Ro spotted the glorious sight of Hiero Sol, Champion of Starlight and Defender of Humanity, and Id, the other machine person. Nir’s friend.

“Three on two is not very honorable combat, you fiend! And attacking children no less! You must be taught a lesson!”

Hiero’s words came as a welcome distraction, and Ro used it to free herself from beneath the creature’s foot. Something that looked like a miniature spear, about one foot long, with a flanged tip landed near her as she rolled. Any weapon was better than no weapon, so she picked it up as she scrambled to her feet, improvising a fighting stance with the strange weapon. As soon as she lifted it into a fighting position, a lance of hot, white energy emerged, nearly twice as tall as she was but weighing no more than a knife.

“Hey, gallen-breath, my name is Ro, Champion of, of,” Ro couldn’t think of anything right away, so she used the first thing she saw. “Of trees! Defender of Humanity! In the name of the village of Ellomyr, I am placing you under arrest for spying, for having an unlicensed army, and for attacking the town’s defenders!”

The margr spun back toward the girl while Hiero nodded emphatically and gave her an encouraging hand gesture. It screamed and charged. Instinctively, she brought the strange weapon to bear. The monster nimbly dodged the tip of the spear and brought its own weapon up to strike.

Defenseless, Ro watched as the tip drove toward her face. She brought her weapon back across frantically, hoping to parry the blow enough to avoid dying. Instead, she watched  as her spear of energy connected with the bone weapon in an explosion of energy that knocked both combatants several feet backward.

The mutant fighter rolled backwards painfully, once, before slamming into a tree, knocking the wind out of her. The margr flew threw the air and landed on its back hard, its weapon destroyed, but quickly recovered. In a rage, it charged right toward Ro on all fours, snarling as it crossed the relatively short distance faster than the girl could hope to avoid.

Realizing she still held the strange device, she reacted almost instinctively, holding it out in front of her. Energy flared from it and as the creature drew near, lancing out to pierce through its face and skull, coming out the back near the base of its skull, stopping the margr dead in its tracks. The creature’s fur smoldered, nearly catching fire as the dead beast man fell over.

Ro watched in shock at the ease with which her opponent died, while Hiero applauded. She came back to her senses at the sound of a low whimper to the side. She stood to see Nir trying to push herself up. She rushed over and helped her friend. “Hiero, help! She’s hurt bad!”

The two automata rushed over, scooping up the injured children. Nir squeezed Ro's hand as they set off back toward the village. "Next time, I'm going to make you tell me where you came from, okay?"

"Mmm-hmm," responded Ro, barely registering the question as she passed out in Hiero's arms.

[strangetalesofnumenera]

Nir and Ro: An Inauspicious Meeting

As per usual, Nir was bored. She had spent the morning helping Id at the apothecary he had set up, and now she had nothing to do. She wished she could play with the other children, but they were scared of her. Arkwiss was meditating at the base of the Trilling Shard. She reached out telepathically, but her powers weren’t strong enough to touch it like her father. Mother was out scouting with a couple of the newcomers. They wouldn’t be back until tonight.

Her bored wanderings brought her out past the gallen herds, where she was confident nobody would see her. Nobody knew about her Doors and Windows. That’s what she called them. They went Elsewhere, allowing her to do things nobody else could. Like see things before they happened. But it hurt to use it. Sometimes, when she opened the door and stepped completely through instead of just looking, she started bleeding from her nose and ears. She had her parents convinced it was from training with the warriors, but knew they would find out eventually. She had to get stronger by then.

She had to be able to use it to save the aldeia.

She reached out a hand. The Door wasn’t really a door, rather a manifestation of the energy within her. Father had told her about what he saw the night she was born, when he had gone to find her mother, who had died in the violent experience.

There, she grasped an invisible door handle and turned. On the other side, she saw a field. The land appeared flat for as far as she could see, covered in a sea of azure grass, with the occasional cluster of wildflowers of all colors. She glanced around to make sure nobody was watching and stepped through.

The grass wasn’t growing out of solid ground.

She tried and failed to catch herself on the not real Door. After a few moments of falling, she emerged on the other side of the grass. She was in some sort of cloud! Where was the ground?! A gust of wind sent her tumbling as the light took on a brownish color in the haze.

She flapped her mostly useless wings to try and steady herself. Once that was accomplished, she took a couple of deep breaths to calm her nerves and reached out again, drawing on her inner power. Never before had she tried to open another Door so soon after the first, but she recognized her peril if she didn’t.

Blood trickled from her nose and ears as she fought through the headache. There it was! She found the correct Door and quickly turned the handle, falling through it as it opened.

She didn’t come falling through the other side. Back in the field, the Door was oriented like normal, so she came flying out of it like a bullet. She hit the ground hard enough to know the wind out of her and rolled nearly a hundred feet before coming to a stop. She did her best to protect her face and soft spots with her four arms, but her wings took a painful beating.

“Halt, you!” A tiny voice pierced the silence. “In the name of the good people of Ellomyr, I am hear by placing you under arrest for spying, and attacking a member of the town guard! Why, if I weren’t so good at my job guarding the town, I might not have seen you come flying out of nowhere, but I did, so you missed, and now you’re my prisoner!”

Nir peeled her head up from the ground to look at whatever it was that was addressing her like that. She had seen this creature before, with the strange knight who thought it was going to be the town’s big hero. She didn’t care about such things, and thought it a baffoon, but this child she didn’t know about. It couldn’t have been more than a dozen years old, short—very short—and bald. It’s skin looked like some sort of scales, colorful like a seskii. A tail protruded from its back, and every time it opened its mouth it revealed the same rows of teeth as her own, teeth that frightened the other children away.

The child had a knife, and was pointing it at her.

“Kid, put the knife down,” Nir said, pushing herself to her hands and knees. “I’m only going to tell you once.”

“No, you are coming with me so to go see Hiero Sol, guardian of Ellomyr, so that you can explain how you just appeared out of thin air and he can decide what to do with you.”

Nir made a couple of quick calculations in her head. She wanted to just run, but she was hurt and unsure of how far she’d make it, plus, the kid had seen her come through the Door, and she couldn’t let anybody know about that yet. Very well, she would do what she must.

It only took the visitant a moment to cross the distance between herself and the little mutant. Even hurt, she had an enormous physical advantage over the child. The child was quick, but she managed to grab the arm that held it by the wrist, twisting it until the knife fell to the ground. With the other hand on that side, she covered her mouth to prevent any screaming. Finally, with the two hands on the other side, she grabbed the child’s other arm in a painful lock, twisting it up and back and forcing her back onto the ground, where Nir sat on her chest, pinning her in place.

The whole event took only the span of a few short seconds.

Nir leaned down into the child’s face. Blood still dripped from her nose and ears, falling onto the other girl’s face. All she got were two defiant, angry eyes, doing their best to mask their pain. “Look, I don’t want to hurt you, so I’m going to stop twisting your arm, but I’ll grab it again if you try anything, and this time I’ll just rip it off. Nod if you understand me.”

The girl nodded, and Nir let the arm go.

“Good, see how this works?”

Another nod.

“Good, now I’m going to take my hand off your mouth so that we can talk, but if you scream, I’ll have to silence you, do you understand?”

A third nod, and Nir took her hand off the girl’s mouth cautiously.

Silence.

“Good. Now, my name is Nir, what’s yours?”

“Ro.”

“Good, Ro. I wish I could say it’s nice to meet you, but this hasn’t been very nice at all, now has it?”

Ro gave a small chuckle. “No, I guess not.”

“It could have been worse though, right? Can we agree on that, as well?”

“Yeah.”

“Now, about what you saw. I’m not a spy, okay? Would a spy have let you live?”

“I don’t know.”

“Of course they wouldn’t, they would have to kill you to protect their secrets. That’s what spies do, right?”

“I guess.”

“That’s right. Now, I’m sure you know Id, who runs the apothecary?”

“Yeah, he’s the other mechanical man. Hiero says there’s something wrong with him.”

Nir needed a moment to process what she had just heard, then laughed in a way that she hadn’t in a long time.

“Oh, Ro, if you only knew. I’ll tell you what. I’m going to let you go, because we’re on the same side. I want to save the village, and I’m going to let you in on a little secret, okay?”

“Oh? A secret? What is it?”

“You have to promise me that you will absolutely keep this a secret. If you tell anybody, I’ll know.” Ro nodded again. “I have a secret power. I can open Doors that go places. I want to use it to open a Door that will save the village, but I’m not strong enough, okay? I have to practice. That’s what you saw. I wasn’t attacking, or spying, or anything like that, I was practicing.”

“So that you can save the village.”

“Yep.”

“Oh, okay, but why does it need to be a secret?” “Because I don’t want anybody to get their hopes up. If I fail, then nobody will be disappointed, but, if I’m successful, then everybody will be surprised and the village will be saved.”

“I think I understand.”

“Good, Ro.” Nir stood up and helped the girl to her feet, even grabbing the knife for her. “Now, despite all this, I think we could be good friends, how about you?”

“Me, too.”

“Well, then. Next time you’re free, why don’t you come find me, and we’ll get to know each other some more?” Nir offered a hand, the way she occasionally saw her parents do.

“That sounds like fun.” Replied Ro, taking it.

The two shook, both with mouths stretched ear to ear, showing off their rows of teeth.

[strangetalesofnumenera]

Arkwiss

Arkwiss brought the crawler to a stop on the edge of the village. The nano watched the commotion caused by his arrival through the view-screen for a moment before removing his piloting harness and crawling through the narrow access from the cockpit to the cargo area in the back.

As he emerged, the engine gave an animalistic groan that indicated it was powering down. “I take it we’ve arrived?” Almsqu climbed out of the hammock they had strung across the small space, groaning with the pain of contractions as her body prepared to give birth. She squatted over the small birthing basin they had rigged in the rear of the vehicle, letting out a pained scream as the baby slid quckly and painfully from her womb.

Arkwiss handed his proxima companion a water skin while he used another to begin washing the baby.

“All systems have been safely shut down. We have approximately 52 hours of fuel left.” Id said, emerging from the engine compartment. His metallic skin glistening with steam and fluids from the ancient machine.

“Alright, thanks. We’ll see what we can pick up in town. Coming down the hill, it looks like the place is built around some sort of pillar in the center of the village, so hopefully they’ve got a spare cypher or two that we can use. Same routine applies, you stay here, Id, ready to restart the engine until we know that it’s safe, and that they won’t have a problem with an AI walking around on its own.”
 “We understand, boss,” the sapient machine’s choir of voices betrayed their disappointment, but it had been self-aware long enough to understand how it made some people feel.

“Hey, how about we have a maintenance day when we refuel?”

“Sounds good, boss.”

Arkwiss grabbed fresh clothes as Almsqu began to feed the child. “It seems like it’s a normal girl today.”

Arkwiss opened the hatch. “Good, I’m going to go out and see what’s what. I’ll be back in a moment.” He pulled himself out, climbing up to stand on top of the vehicle. A crowd had gathered to marvel at the spectacle of the strange machine that had come into their midst. “It looks clear. Just some villagers. Nothing too out of the ordinary.”

Almsqu passed the girl up to him through the opening, curly, bright red hair ringing a small, heart-shaped face. She hugged him around the waist as she stood up shakily. “Hello, Arkwiss, I’m Ezylwyn. At least for today”

“Hello,” he replied, reaching down to give the seeker a hand. When he stood back up, Ezylwyn had already scrambled down the side of the crawler and was approaching an elderly woman who had stepped from the crowd.

“Well,” said the woman as she approached, “that isn’t something you see every day. Welcome to Ellomyr.”

“Iadace,” replied Arkwiss. “I am Arkwiss Partoss, this is my partner Almsqu, and that one is Ezylwyn.” Almsqu gave a low bow while the girl turned to stare at the sun still rising over the hills to the East.

“Well hello Arkwiss, my name is Kyrn, and, as long as you mean no ill, all are welcome in our humble little town.”

“Thank you, Kyrn. It would be nice to spend a couple of nights in a real bed, eating real food.”

“Well, as you can see, we are a very small village, but I’m sure we could find somewhere for you and your daughter. Follow me and I’ll take you to Gurner Fron, he’s what passes for leadership around here. Perhaps little Ezylwyn can play with the Revell children while we get you situated.”

Arkwiss nodded, and adjusted his pack. “Perhaps. Ezylwyn, why don’t you cover up and follow us when you’re ready?”

“Very well,” the girl answered, tucking her long tresses into her hood and wrapping her face in her scarf.

Kyrn led the trio through the town, pointing out the landmarks and introducing them to some of the more curious villagers. As they passed one house, a woman emerged carrying apack full of supplies and a strange, glass-like blade.
 “Nieten,” called Kyrn, “good morning. Off on another hunt?”

“Yes, it’s going to be a good day today, I can feel it.”

“Well I hope so. By the by, this is Arkwiss, Almsqu, and Ezylwyn,” she said, gesturing to each in turn. “They’ve just arrived in the most fascinating machine. You’ll see it on your way out of town. Arkwiss, Almsqu, and Ezylwyn, this is Nieten. She’s not exactly a people person, but she’s the strongest warrior we have, and a much nicer person than she would have you 

believe.”

Arkwiss offered his hand, “iadace, Nieten. Tell me, as the town’s strongest warrior what kinds of dangers does you typically face.”

“None. We’re pretty safe here. The biggest threat we need to be prepared for is the Iron Wind, not that there’s a whole lot of preparation to be done for it.”

“Isn’t that the truth. Have you ever seen it, the Iron Wind?”

“I’ve seen what it can do.”

“I see.” Arkwiss got suddenly animated, “Well, I once had to ride it out with nothing more than a minor protective esotery and my cloak as shelter, and let me tell you, it is not something I ever wish to experience again.”

“Interesting. We shall have to speak more about it later. Perhaps when I’ve returned.”

“Indeed. Best of luck on your hunt today.”

“Thank you.”

Ezylwyn piped up, her voice cracking with the first signs of puberty, “You’re going to go kill your food? Do you mind if I join you?”

“I prefer to hunt on my own,” said the glaive. “Like Kyrn said, I’m not really very good with people. That’s why I like to get out of the village when I can. I appreciate the offer, though.”

Ezylwyn made a noise of disappointment.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea, Ezylwyn,” interrupted Almsqu. “This is a new town, you should probably just stick with us.”

Kyrn looked at the group quizzically, “shall we press on then?”

“Yes, thank you,” Almsqu said.

As they approached the village square, Kyrn grew silent. A musical sound, almost like singing, filled the air. Soft at first, it grew louder as the group drew closer.

The square was dominated by a towering, vibrating obelisk. It was covered in strange symbols, almost like runes. The sun had fully emerged from behind the hills, bathing the stone in light, creating the illusion of a god or angel coming to offer salvation, radiating the light of heaven.

Arkwiss felt drawn to it, as though it were calling to him personally. As he approached, the vibration grew stronger, the music becoming almost painfully loud. He stretched out his hand toward the strange object, laying his palm on its surface.

The music stopped.

“Do. Not. Do. That. Again.” Arkwiss turned around to see Ezylwyn glaring up at him from the ground. She looked as though she had tripped—or been pushed down—her face contorted in pain, hood flung back and scarf lying in the dirt several feet away, as though she had just tossed it aside in her haste to remove it. As she stood, she locked the nano with the kind of withering stare that only an adolescent could give.“That hurt, Arkwiss. I couldn’t breathe. I do not like it.”

Before he could respond, a new voice interrupted, this one gruff, old, “I have been tellin’ tales an’ wonderin’ about the Trillin’ Shard a long time, but I’ve ne’er seen it seem t’ reac’ t’ someone like that.”

The newcomer stood in front of a thatched-roof house a few yards away. He was elderly, his face kind, lined with the passage of more years than Arkwiss guessed anyone he’d ever known had seen.

As he looked about, Arkwiss realized that almost everyone was watching him and his group. He couldn’t imagine that many strangers passed through this remote little hamlet, so he could understand their curiosity. A small army of children stood in the shade of the house next to the one that the elderly man had emerged from.

After a moment, Kyrn broke the awkward silence, “Good morning, Gurner. I trust the morning finds you well?”

“It surely does, Kyrn. Any mornin’ that somethin’ new and interestin’ happens is boun’ t’ be a good one, an’ this one will surely make for a good s’ory for the li’l ones.”

“I am sure it will. Might I introduce you to our guests? The big one playing with the stone is Arkwiss. His companions are Almsqu, and the,” she paused for just a moment, “the young one is Ezylwyn.” She said “young one” almost as though it were a question she was too polite to ask. “Arkwiss, Almsqu, Ezylwyn, meet Gurner Fron. If any person could be said to be truly in charge of the Ellomyr, it would be him.”

Gurner let out a good-natured “bah” as he approached the group, “I’m too ol’ t’ be in charge.” He shook Arkwiss’ hand, then Almsqu’s. “I jus’ wan’ t’ en’ertain the chil’ren and maybe learn a true s’ory or two about the s’one and it’s purpose before I die. Let the youn’ ones lead. Like Nieten. Dora is always talkin’ ‘bout her an’ how she shoul’ lead. I can’ say I disagree, either. But that is an issue for another day.” Ezylwyn took a step back when the old man offered her his hand. “Well, aren’ you the in’eres’in’ one.”

Arkwiss spoke up, “iadace, Gurner Fron, I am glad that we could bring you some joy, but could you perhaps tell me where I could find your village’s Aeon Priest? I have some questions about the stone.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, we don’ actually have one here. I’ve always hoped one woul’ come through, maybe provide us some answers since nobody here knows much of anythin’ beyon’ what’s been pass’ from generation t’ generation.”

“Well then, you’re halfway in luck. I’m not actually an Aeon Priest, but I did study with them when I was much younger. Perhaps I could examine it for you and see what I might learn.”

“Well, perhaps you can. But I’m sure you mus’ be tired and hun’ry from th’ road. Let’s get you fed, first. “ He offered a wide grin, revealing a mouth largely devoid of teeth. “I was jus’ about t’ make some gallen bacon, but I have a batch of eggs that I’m told come from some place call’ Karrow, Carow, somethin’ like that. I’ll fry up some of those, as well.”

“Caroa?” asked Almsqu.

“I suppose that coul’ be what it was called.”

“That is my homeland. I have not been back in many years.”

“I see. Well then, why don’ you two and your daughter come inside an’ make yourselves at home?”

“I am not their daughter.” The teenager looked irritated, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

“There’s no need to be rude,” stated Almsqu, stepping up next to the girl as they approached the house. She continued in a whisper, “he doesn’t know about our situation, please try to be polite.”

Ezylwyn rolled her eyes and stepped ahead of her “mother.”

Arkwiss lagged behind, falling into step next to Kyrn. “Thank you for your hospitality, this town seems unusually pleasant.” He tried to keep the suspicion out of his voice.

“Oh, we try. We don’t really have the resources to afford to be angering anyone. We don’t want trouble coming to visit, so we welcome anyone and everyone with open arms. Everyone is happy, and everyone is safe.”

“I see. Well then, we have one more companion. He stayed behind in the crawler because we didn’t want to alarm anybody, but I know he’d like to get out and see the town as well.”

“Oh, well, then, let’s get him in here. Tell him to come have a bite to eat.”

“I will, thank you.” Arkwiss closed his eyes, reaching across the distance with his senses. Id, the town seems to be safe. I’m going to open a portal so that you can join us.

Okay boss, sounds like a plan.

Arkwiss opened his eyes. “Okay, Kyrn, step back.” He reached out his hand as she complied and made a motion like turning a doorknob. At that spot, reality itself seemed to peel away, replaced by a six-foot circle of pure, white energy.

Id had to duck to fit through the portal, so that the first thing that came through was his head. When he was safely out, the portal closed behind him as he stretched to his full height of nearly eight feet.

From a distance, Id could almost pass for human, albeit an unusually tall, skinny one. Up close, however, it was easy to tell that he wasn’t. His “skin” was actually a material somewhere between synth and steel, run through with fine, silvery-blue lines, and his movements were slightly jerky, not quite as fluid as those of an organic person. His face, too wasn’t quite right, it’s resting expression a not-quite-natural smile, and his eyes a pair of twitching, telescoping lenses. He was also gaunt, to the point where one could almost see the mechanism beneath the surface giving him life.

“Kyrn, this is Id. Id this is Kyrn,” introduced Arkwiss.

“Oh, my,” responded Kyrn with a small laugh. “Aren’t you a sight. Welcome to Ellomyr. I’m sure you’re going to be very popular around here.

“Iadace, Kyrn, it is a pleasure to meet you.”

The Trilling Stone let out a single, percussive ring, loud enough to echo back a few moments later in the otherwise quiet morning.

A pained shout and a thud emerged from Gurner’s house. Arkwiss ran inside, using a simple esotery to blow the door off of its hinges. Ezylwyn lay crumpled on the floor unconscious. Blood trickled from her ears and nose.

“What happened?”

“She jus’ scream’ an’ fell over holdin’ her head, then she started bleedin’.”

Almsqu looked at Arkwiss. “Perhaps this Trilling Shard possesses the answers we’ve been looking for for so long.” Arkwiss nodded his agreement.

Gurner started to speak, then stopped, his mouth agape as Id entered, followed by Kyrn. “Well, I’ll be a diseas’ seskii. Your family sure does jus’ get more an’ more interestin’ by the momen’.”

“Id, healing spray.” Arkwiss lifted Ezylwyn off the ground and carried her to a couch. “Something’s wrong, it seems to be having some sort of reaction to the sound that the shard makes.” He laid the young woman across the cushions as she began to twitch and shake.

“Affirmative, boss, give me a moment to synthesize one.”

“Is there somethin’ I can do t’ help?”

“No,” the denial was more aggressive than Arkwiss had intended. “Almsqu, hold her still, please.” 

The seeker did so as Id passed something small and pill-like to Arkwiss.

“Thank you, Id.” He shoved the pill into Ezylwyn’s nasal cavity, pinched her nose shut, and squeezed the bridge of her nose as hard as he could until he heard a crack and pop, followed by a soft hiss.

Almost immediately, Ezylwyn’s body went limp. Arkwiss released the breath he had been holding and slumped back into a seated position.

“You wan’ t’ tell me what that was all about?”

“It’s about a curse, laid upon Almsqu many years ago by a woman who calls herself the Emerald Magus. She was one of the few sorceresses I’ve ever come across who truly terrifies me. The result is Ezylwyn. We don’t know what it really is, but every morning Almsqu gives birth to it, it gradually ages through the course of the day, and that night it dies. 

“The next morning, she gives birth to it again, this time with a different name, a different form. Sometimes it looks like a boy, sometimes a girl. Sometimes it looks human, or close to, and other times it bears no similarity to anything I have ever seen. The only thing that is constant is that it is born, ages, and dies, every single day, and that it always remembers, perfectly, everything that has come before.”

“Every day you say?”

“Yes. Can you imagine what it must be like to die, over and over, only to be reborn and remember dying?”

“That soun’s horrible.”

Arkwiss ran a hand over Ezylwyn’s head as she dozed. “We don’t even really know anything about it. Is it purely a creature of magic? Is it really alive? Does it have a soul, and, if so, what does it see on the other side? It’s lived and died thousands of times. What must that be like? Our search for a way to bring this horror to an end has led us here.”

“An’ it woul’ seem that Trillin’ Shar’ may have some sor’ of effec’.”

“So it would seem.”

Almsqu rubbed her temples and dropped into a chair. “Please, anything you know about the shard would be helpful. Whatever else Ezylwyn might or might not be, I do feel like its mother. I just want its suffering to end.”

“Like I said, nobody aroun’ here knows anythin’ about th’ shar’. Jus’ th’ odd legen’ tol’ from one generation t’ th’ nex’. Cer’ainly nothin’ that I woul’ wan’ you t’ base a life an’ death decision on.” Gurner shrugged resignedly, “Ar’wiss, you say you spen’ time with the Or’er of Truth, is you thin’ you can learn somethin’, then by all means. We welcome all comers aroun’ here, an’ I don’ thin’ anyone in Ellomyr woul’ have a problem with you all s’ayin’ as lon’ as you like. Jus’ make sure you’re able to earn your keep is all.”

“We appreciate it, and we’ll be more than happy to help around the village for as long as you’re all willing to let us stay. I can use my magics in a variety of ways, and I’m particularly good with machines, Almsqu is a skilled explorer and fighter, and Id does a little bit of everything, but he’s especially good at making useful items and tools. There wouldn’t happen to be an empty dwelling we could use, would there? Or enough material for me to make one?”

“Make one?”

“Yes, Id can help me use a spell I know to make us a house. I just need the material to construct it with.”

Gurner thought for a moment, then looked to Kyrn. “Kern, woul’ you goin’ t’ see if anyone is available t’ help gather s’uff to make a new house with? This is something I wan’ t’ see for myself. If you can do that, you might jus’ become the mos’ popular man in town. Make a whole lot of people’s lives easier.”

“I look forward to the opportunity.”

Gurner nodded and moved into his small kitchen as Kyrn departed on her mission.“Well, th’ day is s’ill early. Might as well make that food I tol’ you I had. Why don’ you join me over here an’ let th’ little one res’.”

The trio of adventurers joined him as he pulled several slices of meat and a large, green and pink mottled egg from a metallic box. Almsqu’s eyes widened when she saw what emerged. “That is a tremulan egg. In Caroa, my family followed the herds across the plains. I had though I might never again enjoy their meat. Please, let me cook it, I will make sure that it is done properly.”

“Well, alright, if you insis’. I’m glad I coul’ brin’ you such joy.”

“Oh, yes, thank you.” Almsqu went about starting the cooking fire and preparing the food.

“So, tell me a s’ory, Ar’wiss. Somethin’ from your adventures. I’d bet a her’ of gallen that you got a tale or two t’ tell. Maybe the s’ory about how your in’eres’in’ little group came to be adven’urin’ together?”

“I can do that. It’s a small price to pay for your hospitality.”

Arkwiss told Gurner about Id, the first of his group that he had travelled with. He relayed the story of a town called Deleon, and it’s miraculous healing waters. Of how an attempt to find the source of the water by digging below the town had unleashed a horrific plant monster that wound up destroying the settlement, the great digging machines he had found underneath that helped him to destroy the plant monster and the creatures it had turned the townsfolk into, and their perilous escape as the tunnels collapsed around them.

The nano wove the tale of the journeys he had with the machines and his friends who lived inside of them. Adventures that took him from one end of the Beyond to the other, until a fateful encounter with the Iron Wind near the Clock of Kala. How, battered and hungry, he had limped his way to the town of Norou, keeping his machine friends alive and moving by sheer force of will, and gained the assistance of an Augur there to reforge the battered remnants of the great artifacts into the crawler that he still travelled in, and the intelligences that once controlled them into Id.

With help from his companions, the tale of his journey through the Great Reach to the Lands of Dawn, on the other side of the world. It was there that he’d met a beautiful explorer in a hostile land filled with strange beings to whom humans were cattle. Despite their romance not lasting very long, they had decided to continue travelling together. It was during this period, he said, when they had been exploring a ruin below a place called the Forest of Razors when they had stumbled upon a fortress inhabited by a woman who called herself the Emerald Magus. As punishment, she had used a strange, black box to place the hex upon Almsqu that led to Ezylwyn, with the promise that only in death would the curse be broken.

Almsqu grew quiet as they ate their meal and Arkwiss recounted attempts to find a way to undo what had been done. Failures and false hopes, crushed dreams, wise men, seers, and wizards, for seven long years they had ceaselessly searched for an answer.

Finally, he told them of a merchant, in the grand city of Qi, who had told them of a small farming town built around a grand pillar of which little was known.

As the tale of Arkwiss and his companions drew to a close, the group grew silent, reflective.

Gurner was the first to break the silence. “I knew you had a tale t’ tell, an’ I wasn’ disappoin’ed. I’ve been craf’in’ s’ories for th’ little ones of th’ village for as lon’ as I can remember, but that was somethin’ else en’irely.” He pulled a piece of dried meat out of a pouch and began to chew contemplatively. “All th’ thin’s you mus’ have seen, I can’ even imagine.”

Arkwiss nodded. “Indeed, I have seen things most people wouldn’t believe. I have travelled from the Sea of Secrets to the Clock of Kala; the Caecilian Jungle to the Southern Wall. I took a portal that whisked me to the Dawn Lands, as far from here as one can get on this planet, as though I were simply passing through a city gate. From great machines drawing their energy from the fiery depths of the planet’s core to beings made of sound guiding travelers through the dangerous eddies of the sideslip fields. But all I want is a way to bring an end to the suffering suffered by both Almsqu and Ezylwyn.”

He looked across the room at the woman still sound asleep on the couch. “I just hope that I’m able to figure out what it is about the shard that caused such a reaction.”

“I hope the same, Ar’wiss, I really do. For now, though, why don’ we get out of here and see how those chil’ren are comin’ alon’ with the s’uff t’ buil’ your house.”

“That sounds good to me.”

Almsqu spoke up for the first time in a while. “I think I’m just going to wait here with Ezylwyn. I don’t want it to wake up all alone in a strange place.”

“That is probably a good idea. We won’t be far if you need anything.”

“Thank you. And thank you again for the meal, Gurner.”

“Oh, it wasn’ anythin’ special. Jus’ bein’ decen’.”

Arkwiss stepped out into the midday sun, Gurner Fron leading the way and Id close behind. They walked the short distance to the next house where aging villager knocked lightly on the front door before just pushing it open and letting himself in. The interior of the house looked like it had been tossed by one of the great spinning storms he had sometimes seen in the beyond.

At the back of the house, a middle-aged woman was carving the likeness of a xi-drake into a door-like slab of wood. With it’s wings outstretched and it’s mouth screaming soundlessly, Arkwiss could almost picture it soaring through the skies over the steadfast, an Angulan Knight standing proud on its back.

Gurner introduced the woman, who laid her work aside and stood as they approached. “Good day, Dora. That sure is a lovely piece you’re wor’in’ on this mornin’. I’m sure you saw, but we got some new arrivals in town, an’ I jus’ wan’ed to s’op by an’ in’roduce them. This is Ar’wiss and Id. They’re probably goin’ t’ be s’ayin’ in town for a while. Ar’wiss, Id, let me in’roduce you to Dora Redmire, the fines’ woodwor’er this side of the Black Riage.”

“Iadace, Dora. In all my travels, rarely have I seen such skill with wood carving. It is truly a beautiful piece.”

Id examined the carving, curious. “Interesting. The fine detail exceeds that of a baseline human. Your talent is clearly evident. Congratulations.”

Dora Redmire took Arkwiss’ proffered hand. “Well thank you, I guess. You must be the ones that my kids were sent to gather material for.”

“Yes, we hope to join your community while I study the Trilling Shard, so Gurner was kind enough to have Kyrn ask the children gather us the material for a house. We wouldn’t want to impose upon anyone during our stay.”

“Well, as long as you aren’t a burden, welcome to town. It’s pretty quiet around here, but that’s how we like it. Hey, maybe you can talk some sense into Nieten. She lives in constant fear that the Iron Wind is going to come and destroy us all, but Brucha One-Hand and I have been trying to warn her that the margr are a much more serious threat that we need to be prepared for.”

“Have you had issues with the margr around here?”

“They raided the town about 5 years back. Killed my husband and took Brucha’s hand. We’ve been trying to warn the town that they’re going to return and that we’re too vulnerable, but nobody wants to listen.”

“I see. Well, we met Nieten this morning as she was on her way out to hunt. She was interested to hear about my encounter with the Iron Wind once before, so I’ll talk to her when we get together.”

“Thank you, I suppose that’s all I can ask for.”

“Alright, Dora,” Gurner interjected himself into the conversation, “we’ll tal’ t’ you later. For now, we need t’ get this youn’ man an’ his people settled.”

Arkwiss and Id wished Dora a good day as the threesome departed the house.

“Dora’s th’ bes’ wood wor’er you’re likely t’ ever meet, but she does go on an’ on about th’ mar’r, the poor woman. Hasn’ been th’ same since Kole was taken from her. Many days I thin’ that th’ only thin’ keepin’ her alive is her chil’ren an’ her craft.”

“Would you mind telling us about what happened?”

“Th’ attack was a blur. They came down out of th’ hills without warnin’. There were so many. Before we realiz’ what was happenin’, they were in the village. Everyone was screamin’, an’ I didn’ know what t’ do, so I hid. It was all noise, an’ death, an’ when it was over, we buried our dead an’ figur’ out how t’ carry on livin’. Mos’ of us at leas’. Poor Dora jus’ can’ accep’ that the mar’r are gone.”

Arkwiss nodded, sympathetic. “I saw the aftermath of a margr horde once. I thank the gods that I was spared their fury. I had just left Nihliesh, the great machine city where I was born, to study with the Order of Truth in Qi. As I came over the hills just East of Far Brohn. In the valley below me, I could hear them, even miles off, in the early morning. As I drew closer, I thought it must be some strange beast, a massive ooze, roiling across the land. I hid, until it disappeared into the hills on the other side of the valley. When the caravan I travelled with went down to survey the destruction, there was nothing left alive, and one of the guards told me of the horror that had befallen the destroyed town that we found. I will never forget that village, or the horror of the demons that caused it.”

“Then you have some idea of what it was that we experienc’. We will always remember an’ honor our dead, but the mar’r are gone, an’ they aren’ coming back.”

Arkwiss looked toward the hills he had come down from, thoughtful, as he followed Gurner. He was still lost in thought when Id shook him gently by the shoulder. His attention snapped to to realize that they had stopped on the edge of the town near where the crawler was parked. 

In front of him was a stack of lumber, sheets of synth, and a pile of rocks. Several townsfolk had congregated to marvel at the spectacle of the crawler, and the building materials that had been assembled by the small army of children now chasing each other over and around the piles.

Gurner gathered the children with promises of a grand spectacle of magic that had been promised by the sorcerer and his companion. 

The nano-wizard looked around at the crowd and stepped forward, self conscious. He closed his eyes as he did, trying to shut out the sensation of everybody watching him. Focusing his mind on the tiny machines that spoke to him out of the air, he implored them for their aid. His need was great, and the task before him would push him to the edge of his abilities. 

The reaction was almost instantaneous; like a question spoken straight into his mind: what do you need?

They crawled across his skin now, passing into and through his body at the summons. The assembled crowd gasped, as a sudden gust of wind rushed in toward the strange man and he began to float, just a couple of inches off of the ground.

To Arkwiss, the outside world had ceased to hold a place in his mind. He was one with the mechanical spirits of the air, looking down upon the tiny beings on the ground from his new body, an ephemeral titan with the power to create or destroy as he pleased.

A strange vibration drew his attention from the crowd. There, in the center of town, the Trilling Shard was gone, replaced by a pillar of light, a silent symphony that spoke to him in an ancient language. He knew that he should know what it said, if only he could make out the words.

It took all of his effort to turn away from the deific sight, effort that left him with a sense of emptiness in his soul, as though he were turning from the gates of paradise. Drawing from his reserves of mental energy, he one again brought his attention to the task at hand.

As he picked up a piece of wood, the crowd gasped. Setting the piece into place, he willed a small piece of himself to remain with it, holding it steady. After completing a simple wall of synth and wood, he picked up the pace, confident that he had gained enough control over this new form.

Bit by bit, the piles of material shrank as the house took shape. The children squeeled at delight and Gurner had a difficult time controlling them, preventing them from running and playing among the floating pieces, any of which could easily kill or maim the unwary. 

After what seemed like an eternity, the building was done. It was a small house with two bedrooms and a covered bay for the crawler. He built beds, couches, chairs, and a cooking space right into the walls and floor, ensuring that all four members of their group would be comfortable, with a bit of extra space for guests, and a planning room for Almsqu to use as a staging point for exploratory missions into the surrounding area.

The structure would only last a day before the forces holding it together got bored, or distracted, or tired, and let it fall apart, so he had to make it permanent. To do this, he shed most of the ethereal body, keeping just enough that he could enter into his friend and show him what needed to be done.

The exciting part of the show now over, most of the assembled went on their way, excitedly chattering about what they had just born witness to. Together, Id and Arkwiss worked to fortify the structure into a permanent installation. A few of the towns people offered help in exchange for Arkwiss’ services to assist them with their own construction needs, to which, speaking through his partner, he gratefully accepted.

As the sun fell low into the western sky, Arkwiss became confident that the house would stand on its own and returned to his own body, satisfied. After thanking the ones who had helped him, he looked to Id.

“Why don’t you pull the crawler inside, and I’ll go get Almsqu. It’s been a long day, and I could definitely use a meal.”

“Sure thing boss. I’ll go ahead and unload everything and then standby for you to return.”

“Thank you, and good job today.”

“Thank you, boss.”

It seemed like all eyes were on him as he walked back toward the center of the small village. Most of the inhabitants had probably never seen real magic, and those that had most likely had never seen anything beyond some minor hedge spells. The attention made him uncomfortable, but he just put his head down and increased his pace.

Almsqu was sitting on a chair in front of Gurner Fron’s house, staring absently into the distance. The elder himself was seated on a chair next to her, chewing on a piece of cured meat, but not actually eating it. 

“She’s dead,” said the proxima. “It was horrible. The shard started humming. It was a low, angry noise, but somehow rich and hopeful. She woke up, looking like she was trying to scream and couldn’t. Instead, she just clawed at her throat and began to bash her head against the ground. I tried to stop her, but she kept getting out of my grip and just smashing her face into the floor until she died. I didn’t want to move the body in case there might be some clue to help you figure out what’s going on.”

“I see. It’s probably best we don’t let anybody see us carrying a body through the village, so I’ll take care of it. Id is waiting at the new house, back near the crawler, so why don’t you go ahead. I’ll take care of Ezylwyn”

“Okay, please don’t take long.”

“I promise I’ll be as quick as I can.”

Almsqu nodded as she stood and headed back the way he had come from. Arkwiss looked through the door at the gruesome scene, then turned to the old man. “I’m sorry that this had to happen in your home.”

“I appreciate th’ sen’imen’. Do you wan’ any help takin’ care of th’ body?”

“No. I will handle it. Thank you.” The adventurer entered the residence and approached the body. Almsqu hadn’t quite done justice to the scene. Ezylwyn lay in a pool of drying blood spreading from where her face was pressed to the floor, one arm pinned beneath her. He gently rolled the body aside onto its back to see a hole in the floor. Pieces of meat from her mangled face clung to the broken slabs of wood, evidence of the violence that had been done, and her hand clutched her throat as though trying to remove a strangling force.

Arkwiss closed his eyes and drew a breath, suppressing the urge to gag at the sight. When he opened them, he stretched his hands out, casting a minor spell to clean up the mess and fix the floorboards. When that was done, he reached out again to the nano-spirits. They came almost immediately to his call, consuming Ezylwyn’s body quickly and cleanly, until there was no trace of it left.

When it was over, he stood. “Until tomorrow, then.”

Arkwiss thanked the spirits for their assistance and dismissed them as he stood, exhausted from the events of the day.

“Firs’ I saw you look like you were communicatin’ with th’ Trillin’ Shar’. Then you open a door in th’ air that allows your frien’ t’cross th’ town ins’an’ly. You buil’ a whole house for yourself an’ your stran’ frien’s with magic, and now you cause a dead woman to jus’ vanish an’ clean up th’ mess with little more than a wave of your han’. Is there anythin’you can’ do?”

“Yes,” he replied, stepping past the old man. “There’s too much that is still beyond my capabilities, in fact. Right now, I’m so tired that I doubt I could stop an angry yovok.”

“Well, I don’ know what that is, exac’ly, but I’ll take your wor’ for it.”

Arkwiss nodded and made his way back to the house. He was too mentally exhausted to focus on any more than putting one foot in front of the other, so that’s what he did.

When he arrived, Id was standing in front of the crawler. “Everything inside is ready to go. Tomorrow I will make a unit in which to properly store fresh meats and produce.”

“Thank you, Id. Would you mind standing watch all night tonight? I’m exhausted and can’t possibly pull a watch shift, but I’m still a little nervous about being in a strange new town.”

“I understand boss. I will stand ready until you and Almsqu wake in the morning.”

Arkwiss nodded and went inside. Almsqu was already asleep on the divan, having not even removed her boots, so he grabbed a blanket and covered her with it. “You’ve got the right idea. We’ll deal with everything else tomorrow, he muttered, kicking off his own boots as he entered the room he had decided would be his own.

The sound of screaming woke him. It was a horrified, pained sound. He jumped out bed and rushed to the front room.

Almsqu lay on the floor, body curled into the fetal position as best as she could with her swollen belly. Her mouth opened and let out the sound that had awoken Arkwiss from his sleep. Id stood nearby, looking lost.

“I don’t know what’s going on, boss. She just started screaming and flopped onto the ground.”

One glance told Arkwiss that something was wrong with the pregnancy. The swell of her belly was much too large this time. When he tried to move her into a position where he could get a better look, she grabbed his arm and threw him to the floor.

“Id, I could use some help. I think we’re going to have to cut her open and remove the baby.”

The machine moved, finally having a clear course of action before it. Grabbing Almsqu by the feet, he pulled her out of the fetal position and rolled her onto her back while Arkwiss regained his feet.

The screaming intensified, an inhuman sound now, as all three watched an impossibly large hand press into the flesh of her abdomen from the inside, then a second, third and fourth, followed by a too-large face. As Arkwiss grabbed a knife to cut her open, the screams devolved into a hideous liquid sound, and blood began to bubble from her mouth. The pair of would-be wet-nurses watched in horror as first one finger then another forced its way out through her skin until twenty little digits were poking through.

Well-defined muscles rippled across the gaunt creature’s back and the four arms that sprouted from it’s oversized shoulders as it uncurled itself from the bloody mess that had once been a woman. Arkwiss and Id watched in horror as the thing stretched out onto the floor of the small house. Gossamer anisopteran wings unfurled themselves from the gore-soaked form, twitching lightly.

“Id, grab all the water that we have,” Arkwiss ordered as he knelt next to the thing on the ground, and Id went to the supply closet without comment. A powerful arm swatted his hand away as he reached down to touch it, and the creature flopped onto its side, its stomach and chest twitching and heaving as it made bubbling gagging noises. Other than the arms and wings, it appeared to be a human girl, about ten years old, as it looked up at him with wide, amygdaloid eyes just slightly too large for its face, each one a different shifting color.

It vomited what looked to mostly be blood on the carpet, before pushing itself to its knees and crawling back toward the corpse. A throaty, belching, hacking sound emerged as it bent down and bit a chunk of flesh from Almsqu’s face.

As Arkwiss watched on in horror, it turned it’s blood- and gore-covered face to look at him inquisitively for a moment before grinning. It’s mouth stretched nearly ear to ear when its lips split, revealing several rows of what appeared to be razor-sharp teeth with bits of meat still clinging to them. The horror of the scene was only compounded by the voice that came from it’s throat, the voice of a typical ten-year old little girl, as it said “hello, father.”

Id returned with the water as the thing curled up in the middle of the floor and closed its eyes, quickly falling asleep.

“Do you want me to start cleaning up the mess, boss?”

Arkwiss just stared in stunned silence, prompting Id to repeat the question. He looked down at himself, then around at the room. Blood was everywhere, a macabre mural across walls, floor, and ceiling.

“Don’t touch the girl or the body. I’m going to go get cleaned up. Can you make me something to restore my energy? I have a feeling I’m not going to be getting back to sleep any time soon.”

“I can do that,” Id said, passing a water-skin. “It will not be a real substitute, but I will prepare something while you bathe.”

“Thank you,” replied the mage, walking into the washroom. He stripped off his clothes, hung the water skin from a hook, and began to scrub the grime and dirt of the previous day. The cool water was refreshing, providing a jolt of adrenaline to help him wake up. When he was finished, he used a minor hedge magic to dry himself and clean his clothes. He looked at himself in the reflective sheet of synth embedded into the wall. At least he didn’t look as bad as he felt.

When he opened the door, the girl was waiting, squatting like a thuman, clad only in crimson, looking slightly older than she had before. “Hello, father,” came the childlike voice again.

“Hello,” he hoped his voice didn’t betray his uneasiness around the creature.

“I know why you feel afraid. You have nothing to fear from me. I will not harm you.”

“Oh, okay.” He knelt in front of her, looking into her strange, color-shifting eyes. “Do you have a name?”

She cocked her head, thinking for a moment as though processing the question. “You can call me Nir.”

“Okay, Nir. Why do you keep calling me father?”

“Well, father isn’t quite the right word, I suppose.”

“No?”

“There does not exist a proper word for what I am to you. The best way to describe myself is that I am the possibility of what could have been. I am partly of you, partly of Almsqu, and partly of the Outside. I carry your essence and memories, as well as those of my mother, but my true self was brought here from somewhere else by the Emerald Magus’ spell. The magic of the Trilling Shard interfered with the curse, though, and now here I am, able to tell you the truth.”

“So, tell me, do you know if the curse is broken? With Almsqu gone are you here to stay?”

“I can feel myself changing,” Nir said, holding out her four arms for inspection. “I can feel the magic dissipating, though, so I think I will stop growing soon.”

“That’s good. Are you able to clean yourself? Do you know how to bathe?”

“I possess memories of this, yes. Would you like me to do so?”

“I think that would be a good thing, yes. I’ll just go grab another water skin from Id and get it hung for you.”

Arkwiss stepped into the room where he had left Id and Alsqu’s body. Id was frozen in place, kneeling in the center of the room, water skins strapped over his shoulder with a rag in one hand. “Nir, what happened to Id.”

“I made him go away. He was bothering me.”

“What, exactly, did you do to him?”

“I don’t know. I just thought about wanting him gone and then he just kind of was.”

He nodded and grabbed one of the water skins. “I see.” He walked back to the wash room and replaced the used water skin. “How about this, why don’t you get cleaned up, and I’ll see what I can do for Id? When that’s done, we’ll see where we’re at, okay?”

“Okay.” She disappeared into the small room as the nano-wizard reached out with his mage senses, searching for the spark of sentience that was his friend. Normally, he could communicate with any machine that had even the most rudimentary intelligence just like having a conversation with his mind. This was different. 

He found himself in a void. To say that there was nothing would have been an improper description; this was the absence of nothing. He shouted into the emptiness, but even his voice disappeared almost before leaving his mouth. Closing his eyes against the darkness that wasn’t actually darkness, Arkwiss opened his other senses, trying to feel anything.

At the very edge of his consciousness, he could feel his body, calling to him, trying to pull him back like a seskii on a leash. He forced himself to ignore it and moved deeper into the darkness.

There, in the distance, he could feel a sound, almost like the beating of a drum, very faintly against his face. The more he focused on that sensation, the stronger it became. He felt the impression of the sound against his flesh more than heard it. When he finally opened his eyes, he found himself standing before a towering pillar of light. Id stood beside him, basking in it’s radiance, staring into it contemplatively.

“Id?”

“Hi, boss. Did she send you here, too?”

“No, I was trying to reach out to you and found myself in this place. Where are we?”

“I think we’re Outside, in some sort of a dimension of the mind.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Because we seem to actually be physically here, but also not. I feel like I am using my mind more than my body to act.”

Arkwiss nodded in agreement. “That makes sense. What is this, light, then? Is it the way out?”

The articial intelligence just shrugged. “I am not entirely sure. I think it is some sort of beacon. If it is more than that, I have not been able to deduce how to use it.”

“I see. Would you like to go home? I think I can get us there.”

“Sure, boss. That sounds like a good idea.”

“Good, then let’s get going, shall we?” The two old friends clasped wrists as he reached out to his body. The light surrounded them both in a warm embrace. After a few moments, the pair found themselves both back in the small house, and not. It was as though they had moved to a place between where they had been and their physical reality. Swirling eddies of color painted themselves through the air, moving over, around, and through each other and the objects in the room. As he turned around, he saw the light again, slowly dissipating now, this time shaped like a girl with four arms and gossamer wings.

Arkwiss heard a sound like a low whisper, over a background of faint music., and realized what was happening. “Id, you should be able to just will yourself back into your body now. I have an idea, if I’m not back in the next few minutes, it will be up to you and the girl to find me.”

“Are you sure? What are you going to do?”

“I’m going to fix this.”

“Okay, I trust you, boss.” Id seemed to shrink before disappearing altogether, almost as though he were being pulled back into his physical body.

“Okay, Almsqu. Let’s see about getting you back.”

Arkwiss reached out and scooped a swirl of crimson and violet nano-spirits into his hand. He recognized them for what they were now, and had an idea. He called out to them, stretching his arms out in supplication. “Spirits of the air and magic, please, answer my call. I am in desperate need of your assistance once more.”

The response was swift and immediate: yes, we are here, we are with you.

The mage lowered his head. “Thank you. My friend has been gravely wounded. I do not know how to fix her, but I have seen great miracles wrought of your power. All that I ask is that you fix her body.”

This is within our power, but the vessel is empty, the soul departed. We can do nothing for this.

“I know, but I think I may be able to.”

Very well. It shall be done.

“Thank you. I shall return shortly.” He stepped toward the light, recognizing it, and, by extension, Nir, as a gateway to the Outside. Once again, he was surrounded by the non-emptiness.

This time, he recognized that the constraints of his physical form didn’t apply, so he shed them as though he were removing his clothes. It was a similar sensation as earlier, when he had stepped outside of his body to construct his house, but on a scale that he could hardly comprehend. When he opened his senses now, he saw Earth, awash with energy, floating in a vast, roiling sea of chaos. Tendrils extended like bridges to other islands in the sea, and he looked down upon them like a deity observing its creation.

A single voice called out in response to his probing, one that he recognized, from the island that was Earth. He focused on the voice, falling down into the world he knew, following it ever lower until he found himself standing at the base of a mountainous structure of glass, metal, and synth. The Glass Mountain, Carao. He knew he shouldn’t be shocked. The call was coming from the base of the structure, where a throng of incorporeal forms had gathered.

He pushed his way through a crowd of spirits, calling her name until he found her. She looked confused, lost, unsure of where she was or why she was there. The relief on her face as he drew near was obvious.

“Arkwiss, where are we? Did we die?”

“Yes, but I have come to bring you back. We need you.”

“I see. Are you sure? I’ve never heard of the dead coming back to life before.”

“Yes, I’m sure. The spirits are helping, I just need to bring you back. Take my hand, and we’ll go home.”

When the seeker had accepted his outstretched hand, Arkwiss listened for the sound of his body, following the pull of his physical self across the leagues. To Arkwiss, it seemed as though only a few minutes had passed. Id was still in roughly the same place, though now he was standing there, apparently speaking to Nir. The teenager, still faintly appearing to be made of light, stood there, dripping water, still naked from her shower, clutching a towel in one hand. Almsqu’s body floated in the air, mostly restored by the swarm of colors that cocooned it.

Time seemed to be moving at a much faster pace for the pair as Arkwiss led Almsqu to her body.

“Don’t worry, everything is going to be okay.” He picked her up, placing her spirit into its corporeal shell before turning back to his own body, still kneeling where it had been when he first went searching for Id. “Everything is going to be okay,” he assured himself, and stepped back into himself.