More than Legacy
Season of Rushing Waters
The past flows towards the present as the forked water flows towards the sea, the banks might shift, the way might meander, but there was no way back along the water. There would be no returning the Xulgath to the ones who traded gold and steel, works of cunning subtle craft with the iruxi, but they might be more. Those who are unhatched might rediscover the work of their old-sires and make from them a new thing if he would but let the magic stand. Gorok trusted his new allies, scaleless and sometimes soft in the head though they seemed to him he had learned they often had a reason for acting as they did, even the goblin, he trusted that they would eat the victor-feast without the spirit, but battle was never certain, one of them might fall and not rise again, as they had come all too close in the fight in the kitchen.
Without another word he follower the signs of the spirit towards a disk that hung on the far wall, one that looked at first to be made of stone, though when he touched claw to it the dust scraped off to reveal soft gold, the mark of the sun in sunless halls. He tore it from the wall with the strength of anger, at himself, at Sshesh for being an enemy at the spirit for not wanting to perish for its people, Gorok did not know. What he did know was that the gold would fetch a fair price in the markets of Cauldron and beyond.
That would have to do.
The light did not die all at once but guttered, like a candle in a high wind leaving the eggs in darkness. A moment later a hand touched his shoulder from behind, Akorian. Gorok looked back to see if he required support, maybe he had been wounded more than he let on and did not heal himself fully. No, the look in his eyes was... odd, hard to read in the way the soft faces of the warm-bloods often were. They touched more than his people for him the touch of claw to skin was most often a show of power, a threat of violence. He was offering to help hold Gorok up, not in body, but in spirit. Not knowing what to do with it he handed back the disk.
Though the hand was removed the heat of it remained, an uneasy reminder of the choice he had made as the spirit flower around them, a thing of grey-green scales and bubbling rage at the one who has stolen its people from them. He Who Lurks Above did not so much fly though the air as it flowed though it like hissing smoke.
The doors on the far wall, heavy and banded with iron flew off their hinges with the sound of splintering fungus wood to reveal the sanctum of the ancient Xulgath. Pillows were strewn on the stone in serpentine trails, the spoils of raids against the drown from the looks of them and low tables of the kind that were meant to be crouched at in positions no warm-blood would be able to comfortably take were piled high with tablets of stone and bowls of silver filled with choice meats, Gorok thought he could recognize maps of the surrounding tunnels drawn on the skins of cave lizards, places that would soon face the conquering book of Sshesh, but it was the warlord himself who stood out to every eye.
Heavy built as though a crocodile had learned to stand on his hind feet his bulk was wrapped all in scales so black they shone with wuisps oily color, red and black and green. His eyes were as molten gold without iris or pupil, but only a fool would think him blind as his head snapped to the sight of the broken door. If he had any fear of the spirit he had bound now loose and hunting his blood he did not show it a warcry of old ringing out instead as he pushed one of the tables over making of it a kind of barricade.
At the sound of their leader in peril trio of Xulgath warriors drooped down from a trap door that lead deeper in the cave system. They too were black, but not of scale. Instead they sported heavy iron armor and in their hands cruel hooked spears.
How do you fight Sshesh?
[] Write in battle plan
OOC: The spirit looks like it is charging right for Sshesh and you do not have enough control over it to call it back.
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)so it might have to wait until tomorrow or the day after.
