Chapter 26

  Yuri

  In the depths of the lake, past even the deepest sunken ruins of what had once been a capital city were two brine pools. The substances in those pools were toxic to even the hardiest of the true gold lifeforms down in the deep.

  And yet they were home to a pair of eels.

  Yuri swallowed her fear as her water core worked hard to keep her body from being crushed by the mounting pressure. The left pool stirred first, and the ugly moray, missing both eyes and its nose a mess of scars. Even so it stared right at her.

  ‘’I have sensed you leave our domain frequently, little worm. What calls you away from us?’’ It’s voice matched the ugly appearance, a scratching hiss that wormed in under her scales.

  ‘’The surface Queen has requested my aid to keep her crumbling domain intact.’’ True enough that it shouldn’t tip the ugly one off.

  ‘’And yet, little worm, I sense you nearby.’’ The other pool didn’t stir, the other lord hadn’t been in it. Yuri turned and found him, his head dwarfing her entire body only meters away. ‘’Now do not lie, do not.. withhold, from us, your brothers. What have you been doing up there?’’

  Yuri shuddered as the uninjured brother pressed on her with his will. The chill of deep water ripping through all her defenses, entering her channels and stopping her from doing anything. ‘’There.. There are some wealthy travelers up there, I’ve traded some worthless dregs with them.’’

  ‘’Aah, and what dregs have you taken without permission?’’ The ugly one slipped out of its pool, showing the rest of its broken body. ‘’Those little things? OUR little things?’’ Its madra pulsed and Yuri almost passed out as the stinging salt pushed into her mouth. ‘’You have eaten what belongs to us. Do you not care for us, your brothers? You’d let us starve?’’

  ‘’N-No!’’

  ‘’No matter, big brother, she has brought us something much nicer than mere food, haven’t you? Little worm.’’ Water snaked over her, finding the rings and trinkets she’d hidden under her tongue. Ripping them out for the little brother to see, barely specks of dust to his massive eyes. ‘’Yes, I see, these metals that the surface scum so treasure.’’

  Yuris treasures sank into the brine pools, divided evenly by the little brother.

  The broken older brother coiled around, his wounded face coming close enough that Yuri felt the disgusting madra in its flesh. ‘’I like it, yes, indeed I do. More.’’

  He retreated to his brine pool, the little brother sinking down into his own. ‘’More, little worm, you will bring us more, or we shall have your horns and your fangs and claws.’’

  The little brother laughed, pounding waves slammed into her, carrying her away. ‘’Yes, little worm, more. Or we shall have your scales, your skin, your flesh and bones!’’

  The currents disoriented her enough that she couldn’t right herself before slamming into ruined buildings. Some finally collapsed entirely, giving up after hundreds of years. Others stubbornly held on, bruising Yuri as her body was carried to them.

  All she could do was hold on and wait for their current to subside. Or catch herself on something and risk them toying with her more. She was carried through the old ruined courtyards and hollow buildings, silt stirred revealing age old bones of the unfortunate.

  Finally they grew bored of tormenting her, the current subsided, leaving Yuri pasted to the wall of the palace. The blue stone caused crystals of ice to form over her scales, further draining her.

  More, they said, more treasures that should be Yuri’s. If only she was stronger she would cook them with lightning, boil their blood and pop their organs. Leave them then to suffer as they should.

  She grumbled, carefully not saying anything specific in case they heard, and began the long swim up to the surface.

  On the way she found a shadowy starfish with plentiful vital energy and snapped it up in her jaws. Even when they didn’t request it they would give her gold for anything she brought. Somehow even Yin had the integrity to do such a thing, despite all his flaws as a person. As a human. As a living being.

  Mmm.. Maybe it was time to work off some stress on him again today. He’d left with the monarch- and that had been a terrifying experience, the tree had even made eye contact with Yuri! That idiot boy didn’t have the wits about him to at least warn her that The Tree would be coming so Yuri could make some safe distance.

  No, that irredeemable boy would see some punishment.

  Breaking the surface and activating her storm core, sluggishly still frozen from the lords’ bullying. Yuri rose over the city and then the mountain.

  Down there was the half buried square that she had helped some to excavate. The chimney was belching smoke so mister Duong would be crafting something again. How unfortunate that she’d been held up for so long, watching him work was a pleasure.

  Something flashed in the periphery of her vision and Yuri turned to see Yin’s pavilion (Yuri surely needed one of those as well. But bigger and more ornate.) light up as if the sun focused all its light on it. It lasted for a few seconds before going back to normal.

  Something about it was dangerous.

  Yuri changed her mind, reprimanding the little boy could wait. For now Duong was still making something and he could surely use some company.

  —

  Zeurel

  Without condemning or condoning Yuri’s behavior, Zeurel could decisively say that she understood.

  ‘’Good, you're finally here, come, sit.’’ Talia demanded, getting up from the bench that had replaced her chair last time Zeurel had been here.

  Sitting where the young queen had been and getting comfortable she suppressed a sigh as the woman plopped down in her lap without asking or warning.

  ‘’Well?’’ Talia prompted impatiently, wriggling and digging her butt into Zeurels thighs.

  In a way she was a lot like Yin. But where her boyfriend was cute and mostly only acting when he said unreasonable things, this queen just acted this way normally.

  Zeurel began by tracing the girl's spine and infusing some life madra to spread through her body. Quickly finding knots in her muscles that she massaged out with impunity.

  ‘’Nnn! Nhaa!’’

  Now if the queen could stop making pornographic sounds while she worked that would be a lot nicer.

  ‘’Mmmmoove me closer to the desk, I can’t waste time here!’’ Talia refused to move on her own so Zeurel had to awkwardly shuffle forth while pulling the bench with her. The queen resumed her administrative work, stopping every now and then as Zeurel in turn worked on her.

  Zeruel also refrained from commenting on the fact that she’d obviously not been working while waiting for her to come.

  Moving from her back to her shoulders, then arms and wrists, soothing strain from the constant pencil pushing work.

  ‘’Should I-’’

  ‘’Silence! These idiots in the north have caused issues. Again! Damn them! Aah, I wish I could just send your lot to exterminate every last one of them!’’ Talia audibly ground her teeth and tapped her feather quill on the table, making ink splotches on the wood. ‘’Why can’t they just solve things on their own!?’’

  Zeurel took that as her que to work on her legs, pressing some blood flow back into them. If Talia had actually left this building since last week it surely couldn’t have been a long walk judging by the evidence.

  When Zeurel straightened out Talia followed her reclining back against her chest. Sitting like a puppet with cut strings for a moment. Then she got back to work as if nothing had happened. What was a former sales woman supposed to do in situations like this?

  Convince her to sell the mountain range to Zeruel and give them a tax break for a century?

  ‘’None of you people are diplomatically inclined are you?’’ Talia asked as she shuffled more documents in front of her.

  ‘’Well..’’ Yin? Montai? Duong? ‘’No. Absolutely not.’’

  Talia tapped her quill again, making a vague smiley face with the ink it spilled. ‘’Do you think I would be executed if I tried to leave like my father did?’’

  Zeurel could get behind that idea. Talia wasn’t all bad when you got past her unusual behavior. But. ‘’I wouldn’t know.’’

  ‘’No, of course you wouldn’t.’’ Talia huffed a laugh and rubbed at her face with both hands.

  ‘’Would you be able to live with yourself if you did leave?’’

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  Talia’s voice was muffled by her hands. ‘’No.’’

  Zeurel didn’t know what to say. There was no advice she could give.

  ‘’Massage my tummy too, you’ve done every other area already. Then my face as well.’’ Talia had apparently taken the moment of silence to reset to her demanding persona.

  ‘’Alright, but when I’m done I’ll need to leave and take care of anyone who has gotten hurt over the week.’’

  Talia silently continued working, only fidgeting a bit to silently hurry Zeurel on.

  —

  Duong

  Due to its location, the ores sold in the city were cheap, but unfortunately most were attuned to water madra. Which was fine because the lake provided an almost constant supply of water path remnants.

  But making water attuned things was getting very boring.

  Turning to the holding cells, Duong considered what they had. Mostly dream and light remnants that Secretary was using for something weird. Some force and earth remnants, those were earmarked for some projects he was waiting for the right metals to make.

  Which left the odd one, the remnant with a path of mist.

  ‘’What could I make with you?’’ He asked, pressing the script and releasing the sound dampener, listening to it whisper for a few seconds. Turning the dampening back on Duong walked back to his workspace, reorganizing his tools.

  Then he did inventory on the bindings he had available, almost all water. Almost one and all useless, anything with potential already in a weapon or odd armor piece already.

  Picking up inscribed cloth and folding it, putting away bracers and boots. Before he knew it there was no little busy work left to do, his space was clean.

  ‘’I think I need a break.’’ Going back to the remnants along the wall he forged a pure scale and stacked it over the ones in the feeder to the script. More than enough to keep them all contained for months.

  Duong walked out into the living room silently, the steel boots he’d made with a shadow binding didn’t allow any noise. Somehow the little one, Ti Li, knew he was coming anyway. Perched on one of the couches with that exquisite blade she’d stolen, polishing it with her sleeves.

  She turned and hid the masterwork with her back, grumbling about something or other. For some reason she didn’t mind much when Yin just took her stuff, but Duong merely seeing what she had was no good. Strange child. Good fit with the group though.

  Duong wasn’t hungry, rarely was these days with Yuri coming around to offer something every now and then. So what else to do? He was far from a conversationalist so chatting with someone other than Yuri sounded like a crap idea. Zeurel had boasted about having been given some books or something the other day.. Was that a week or a month ago?

  No matter, reading should be a nice change of pace. Let the creative fluids build up again.

  Knocking on the wood frame that held a script that made the doorway opaque he waited for a moment. The sound of hooves pounding on the floor breaking through the sound dampening. The plane of distorted air faded and the goat hunched down a bit to see him past the door frame. ‘’Duong?’’

  As usual these days she wore something that might have been called a shirt if a girl Ti Li’s size had worn it. And a patterned cloth wrapped around her hips in a way that would be quite fashionable in tribes that had only just discovered textiles.

  ‘’I.. am bored. I’m really bored and uh, you said you had books or something once so I thought I’d-’’

  ‘’Oh, yeah, hold up.’’ Duong wasn’t sure if interrupting someone was rude or not anymore. It felt like it was just how everyone did it now. Zeruel returned with a stack of thin, leather bound books. ‘’These three are a poem series, this one is a story about a hero, and this one..’’ She wriggled one out of the stack and showed it to him with a sly smirk. ‘’is erotica!’’

  ‘’You can keep that one then.’’ Duong told her gratefully, not interested in smut. For some reason she looked disappointed with that. He knew she was a lustful creature, she’d never hid it, but projecting those desires on others was a bit much. ‘’Thank you, Zeurel.’’ Saying her name was important to her, enough so that she’d made quite a stink about it back in the day.

  ‘’Yeah, sure, see you later?’’ She asked, as if they didn’t live together.

  ‘’Yes? I’ll be going then.’’ Duong gave her a small wave and went on his way, hearing her mutter something about him being weird on the way. Whatever.

  Taking a seat in the living room and ignoring Ti Li’s suspicious glares, Duong began reading the adventure story. Feeling that was a better starting point rather than dry poetry.

  The writing style was odd, the characters too relaxed for the situations they were in. And worst of all it ended with a completely unearned romance for the main character. Drivel.

  Ti Li had stared at him quite intently while he’d been reading and as soon as he put the book down she asked. ‘’What did you think of it?’’ She didn’t give him time to organize his thoughts. ‘’I love the story of Sasilon, it’s one of my favorites!’’

  ‘’I think it’s bad.’’ Her face fell. ‘’I think Sasilon is a bad hero, his foes are stupid and I don’t know why the ending with the princess was there at all. It just dragged the story out.’’

  He couldn’t figure out why the girl had so much trouble responding to that, sitting and spluttering and looking terribly mad. Duong put the poorly written story down and started on the poetry.

  "You're STUPID!’’ Ti Li shouted and promptly exploded into a spray of black blood. When the shower of madra made substance was done coating the room Duong found she’d disappeared.

  ‘’Rude.’’ He brushed the pages off with some pure madra and got back to reading.

  A blood weapon?

  Hmm…

  No. Too hard to work with.

  Blood and shadow though..

  —

  Montai

  Beating his wings hard he slowed enough to softly touch down on a tall rock formation. His claws dug into the stone, holding himself up more by strength than balance.

  ‘’We’re here.’’ Montai said and waited a moment. ‘’Guys?’’ He felt a shift in the feathers on his back.

  A cocoon of black solidified blood broke and Ti Li peeked out, followed closely by Ten.

  ‘’We’re here, and they’ve seen us.’’ Montai told them, watching the group of black clad bandits, now scrambling all over their camp a few hundred meters away.

  ‘’What!?’’ ‘’Why did you land so close!?’’ The siblings started complaining right away.

  One of the bandits raised some type of caster, too far to see anything other than a thin line being pointed their way. But Montai didn’t wait to see what it would do. ‘’Hold on.’’ The girls didn’t waste a second to do as he’d said, and Montai enveloped them all in his Blackwind Shortcut.

  Following the breeze he’d stood in he directed his madra and flew through it. Cutting some of the actual distance out and appearing on the other side two seconds faster than he would have normally. The trick was incredibly tough, even after years of using it he only succeeded in actually shortening the distance at all one in five times.

  When he came out of his shortcut he glanced back and saw a ruby red line searing through the rock formation he’d stood on. It was a lot like Yin’s starshot, just piercing instead of exploding.

  Very much not something he wanted to experience with his body.

  Montai wrapped them in shadow again and descended under the treeline, weaving between branches. Before he’d drunk that absolute nightmare potion Secretary had made for him he probably would have plowed through a tree already.

  Quickly they were upon their targets. Montai caught a man in his claws and drove him deep into the soil as he landed and whipped a long line of cutting wind to occupy the rest.

  Ten flicked her hands one at a time, and each motion sent fans of forged finger length blades into a trio of bandits that failed to guard themselves.

  Ti Li… Had disappeared.

  Montai refocused and used his counter to the domain thing Yin was working on. The air around him darkened and whipped wildly, the bandits had to focus more on defense just to keep from being cut to shreds.

  Then Ti Li appeared behind one bandit from a puddle of blood and sliced the man's lower back with that cool sword she’d stolen.

  The agonized scream startled the rest into being more proactive, and all hell broke loose.

  Rocks flew, fire burst, water crashed. Wind and blades wove through techniques and hit casters. Blood and shadow lurked under their feet and struck at unexpecting targets.

  In seconds the group of bandits was reduced to only two, a pair of older men. One stood with the ruby caster clenched in shaking hands. Montai spread his wings in a threatening, instinctive, display. ‘’Joawan the Soulsmith and Joadan the Teacher, Queen Talia Tawlim has ordered your execution for your crimes-’’

  The shaky one cut him off with a hoarse voice. ‘’What crimes!? The only crime committed was by Talion! The COWARD! LEAVING- ah.’’ He sighed oddly. Breath leaving his lungs as a sword pierced through them from behind. His brother looked from the sword to Ti Li who pulled it back out and sank into her pool of blood.

  The other man didn’t move, only closing his eyes and muttering a prayer under his breath and waited. Ten finished forging a blade that looked the same as all her others but held many times more madra. It shot out at speeds Montai couldn’t track, the old man dropped dead.

  He waited a bit for Ti Li to rise from the blood on the ground to say. ‘’That was fucked. Nah that was completely fucked, man.’’

  ‘’Zeurel told me what that word means, please don’t use it in front of Ti Li.’’ Ten requested like she hadn’t just dropped a man who wasn’t even trying to fight back at all right in front of the girl.

  ‘’I’m almost thirteen and I know what it means too.’’ Ti Li grumped, tearing a length of cloth from a corpse and using it to clean her sword off.

  ‘’You guys are way too fucking comfortable with killing people.’’ Montai rubbed at his head with the elbows of his wings. ‘’And I know we came here to kill them, but, fuck.. I don’t know, couldn’t we at least hear him out. Last wish type shit?’’

  ‘’Yin said that if you let them talk they’ll do something dangerous.’’ Ti Li told him, almost condescending.

  ‘’Don’t listen to Yin, he says a whole lot of shit because he thinks it’s funny. Actually, what did he say?’’

  ‘’Uhm… ‘When they monologue it’s because they need time to charge their final move’.’’ Ti Li mimicked Yin’s voice really accurately. ‘’I think. He said a lot of things in that language you guys use.’’

  For the first time in years Montai felt a tension headache coming on. ‘’When we get back I think we all actually need to sit down and establish what’s right and wrong.’’

  Ten shook her head dismissively and shrugged off her backpack. Opening it she retrieved a few wooden containers. ‘’For now, let's gather some blood for your cycling chamber-’’

  ‘’No! No human blood! No sacred beast blood! I’m putting my foot down here, don’t go doing taboo shit like this.’’ Ten’s usual lack of expression gave way to some confusion, but eventually she sighed and put the containers back.

  Somehow he’d managed to spend a lot of time with these two and never really got to know them.

  Well. He’d sort of known they weren’t normal, but this was far beyond the pale.

  ‘’Can I take their things?’’ Ti Li asked, visibly holding herself back from going ahead and doing just that.

  Montai thought about it and eventually sighed and let her. They were already dead, and they needed to dispose of all the weapons and stuff they’d brought with them.

  Oh man.

  ‘’Gods.. Fucking damn. We’re gonna have to burn all the bodies.’’

  ‘’What?’’

  ‘’We’re going to have to burn all the bodies.’’

  ‘’Oh.’’ Ten stood next to him and looked out over the nearly two dozen dead people. Her face scrunched up almost imperceptibly. ‘’This is going to be disgusting.’’