Seasons of Heroes: A D&D-inspired Adventure!

[The Laurent]

3:5

The group made its way towards the tower. "After all, it's the highest place in the building, so it's probably the most important," Naja had reasoned.

Aisling had looked at her as if, perhaps, she was very simple indeed, but hadn't said anything. Lotte thought it made as much sense as anything else, and also thought that the point about two parts of a whole might apply to more than just East and West. It'd make sense, right? That's a thing that intelligent people did, make entire dungeons or castles that referenced some strange philosophical point.

Lotte, of course, would have just put the gems behind a big door with magic on it, if she really wanted people not to get to it. But maybe they did want people to find it, and it was just a test? If it was, then it was apparently a very good test. Lotte had never had a test she hadn't failed, of course, the priest frowning over her answers and dismissing her with a wave of his arm and a muttering about lack of promise.

The odd thing was the lack of spiders, and in fact anyone at all. They made their way around the center keep, and then towards where the stairwell to the tower should be, and saw no signs of life or even its memories. There were no skeletons lying around, at least not yet. There were no bloody handprints on the wall. There was nothing, just long stretches of winding, curving hallways.

Lotte almost wished there was something she could hear, or something she could do. It was like walking through a forest and hearing nothing: the absence was large, and honestly scary, it had its own presence, like that prickle on the back of your neck when you were being stalked by some foul monster. She'd never seen monsters, but she knew they existed, often far more dangerous than a Mocker.

Lotte was surprised the place wasn't crawling with monsters. Perhaps the ritual to get in was too specific? It wasn't something some random beast could manage on accident, even one as cunning as monsters always seemed to be in stories.

Finally, they reached a set of stairs, and began to walk up them. Lotte had to take point by then, because there wasn't room for all three of them to walk around. Naja followed up closely behind her, and Aisling took the rear.

"I admit, this is a little… more unnerving than I thought it'd be," Naja said.

"Of course it was. You've been in a ruin before, you said." Aisling sounded carefully blank.

"Well, I was telling the truth, but it was one of those picked over ruins, with nothing left in it," Naja confessed, quietly.

"Naja! Why, I wouldn't believe that you'd lied to me and exaggerated your skill just to convince me to work with you rather than your more experienced brother," Aisling said, voice dripping sarcasm so thickl that Lotte had to wince.

"He's not… yes, he has a little more experience, but he lacks my esprit! So buck up. We're almost…"

"There," Lotte said, as the stairs leveled out, into a room that had four pillars centered around what looked like a table with a book fixed to it. The room itself was circular, and Lotte stepped towards the book, glancing at the writing.

It was in Sepult, and so Lotte couldn't understand it. Or, at least she figured that the big, blocky letters were Sepult. There was also the fact that the desk itself was rather short, so that Naja had to bend down to read.

"All time flows each way, in a world without sense, where blood is green and the night is purple, and the Enemy watches our every step. First it was noon, then it was sunrise, then the last hours of Ghosts, and then back to the hour of the Beloved, before going forward three days hence. Finally, we consider the hour in which the coward takes his last breath, and the moment where the royal midnight is crowned," Naja read, slowly but surely. "Huh."

"What does literally any of that mean?" Aisling asked.

"I… think I have an idea, but let me look around." Lotte held a torch as Naja examined each of the pillars. "There's a green stripe on this one, a purple on this one, a black on that, and a white on that." She pointed from the 'top left' pillar, to the top right, then bottom left to right as she named the colors. "And look at the circle it's all in. It looks a little like an ancient Sepult invention."

"What invention?" Lotte asked.

"They had these clocks that began at midnight and ran for twelve hours, then twelve more hours, powered by… I'm not sure; there's magical and technical ideas behind it, but what mattered was--"

"Midnight? Why would the day begin at midnight?" Aisling demanded.

"I have no idea," Naja said. "But if this is a clock, and it looks a little like one, then they're giving us times to turn to, somehow." She looked around, and then walked over to the desk and looked under it. "Aha!"

She pressed something, and with a rumbling noise part of the wall opened up to reveal what looked like a wheel.

"Should I turn it?" Lotte asked, frowning. She'd already forgotten half of what Naja had read aloud, though she assumed that each was a different time.

"Not yet, I'd like to figure out what it does, and what the clues are. Blood is green, the night is purple, and the time isn't necessarily… linear. So it doesn't just go one way," Naja said, tapping her chin. First noon, then sunrise, then the 'last hour of ghosts', the 'hour of the beloved' and then… the same time but three days later? And then something about royalty and cowards? It could have to do with the purple, since it's a royal color? I'm not sure," Naja admitted, as she began to pace. "Noon is twelve, but when is sunrise? What hour?"

"What are hours?" Lotte asked. "How long are they?"

"I don't know either, Lotte," Aisling said.

"Well, if noon is twelve, then halfway between noon and midnight is sunrise, right?"

"Often less than halfway," Lotte pointed out. "It'd depend on whether it was summer, or winter, or somewhere in between."

"Well, I'm pretty sure that this test is probably just using an approximation," Naja said, with an annoyed sigh. "So noon. Then back to six, or maybe five. But what's the last hour of ghosts?"

"Well, what are ghosts?" Aisling asked.

"You've never heard of ghosts?" Naja asked.

"Of course I have. But people tell different stories."

"These are Sepult, so could it mean ancestors?"

"Not this early, that was… very recent. This whole palace seems like it was abandoned around the time of the Empire's collapse, or earlier," Naja said. "Still, you're right. Ancestors exist first and foremost in the minds of others because… oh. I get it."

"What?" Lotte asked, still not really following along.

"They're in brains because the skull is dark. Light drives them away. So the last hour of the ghost would be whatever hour comes before sunrise," Naja said, snapping her fingers and looking very pleased with herself. "But, hour of the beloved?"

"Marriage, perhaps?"

Lotte frowned and did nothing at all, just waited for them to figure it out. She had no idea whether there was some traditional time to marry that'd be the same as with the Sepult.

It is actually ten minutes of standing around before Naja finally concludes that it's sunset, whenever that is, because they marry then, and then spend the whole night together, as per old traditions she'd vaguely remembered in a book. But this didn't give them a time, not really.

"I think we should start," Aisling said. "If we get this wrong, there's probably a penalty, but we can't spend too long standing around. We should be able to figure out the first part."

"Alright, so, Lotte, you watch out for any attacks. Aisling, you turn the wheel, while I'll stand in the middle and tell you when to stop," Naja said, sounding authoritative.

Aisling walked over and pulled on the wheel, and then frowned. "Oh, this is actually… what if I keep watch for dangers, and Lotte turns the wheel."

"Is it that hard to turn?" Naja asked. "Sepult need to have been able to do it."

"Or maybe there was magic that made it easier and it wore off?" Aisling guessed, frowning. "Lotte, can you turn this?"

Lotte walked over, and tugged at it. It was heavy, and moved very slowly, but she could. Her muscles strained as she did so, then turned back. It seemed as if the central circle had moved, rather than the pillars, shifting around a fraction. "Yes."

"Alright, first, we start out… ah, there's the line. I need you to push it upwards until I say stop."

Lotte got down to it, and noticed something. Despite being a wheel, the spokes weren't actually attached. What was that about--

There was a click, as if something was settling into place.

"Stop! Now, down until I say stop."

"Stop!"

Lotte's arms were aching a little, but she did so as soon as she was told to. "Wait," Lotte said. "I need to try something."

"What? Okay, sure," Naja said. "As long as it doesn't mess everything up."

She turned at the spokes of the wheel, and heard a grinding sound as she pushed.

"Oh shit," Aisling said, and when Lotte looked back, the four pillars were now forming a sort of diamond, northwest, northeast, southwest, and southeast. "So, we've figured out what to do with the colors."

"I think we have," Naja said. "Now, next we need you to…"

Lotte kept on following the orders, even as her arms started to ache. She really could use a meal, since she'd broken her night's fast some hours ago. They were all walking, but now she was the one straining desperately as they went through it.

"Okay, when does a coward die?" Naja asked, a dozen or so minutes later. After each step, there was a click, and Naja waited a little while, trying to think it through no doubt.

Finally, Aisling said, "What about… if they only go in corners, and it's twelve degrees, then the only options are twelve, um, three? Six? Nine? And then times right in between them. Why would a coward die at nine? Or twelve? Or six?"

"But why three, if that's the option?" Naja asked.

"Three in the afternoon? I don't… know," Aisling admitted. "What if it's something about how a coward dies before the day is out? If marriage is at sunset, and ghosts disappear at sunrise, then maybe it's something about disrespect?" She shrugged her shoulders.

Neither of them were sweating, as Lotte was. Lotte leaned against the wall, glad that neither of them had noticed how tired she was, and how much her muscles ached. Yes, pity might have been nice, but she was useless except for providing her muscles. So, she was glad that they just kept on giving her orders.

The puzzle involving the colors involved moving both the pillars and the clock at the same time, so that they all added up. Cowards, apparently, were white with fear, so white and purple were needed, while green and black (the other two pillars) were just distractions. After the last movement, Lotte slumped as the wall opened up near her. It rumbled as it did, but she saw no mechanism for it. It was magic, of course. But she wished she understood more.

"Wow, that was hungry mind-work," Naja said, wiping her brow as if she'd been sweating. "Well, no time to be laying around, Aisling. You just watched."

Aisling shrugged and said, "So, onto the next floor?"

The 'good' news was that there was even less she could do on the next floor. It was this baffling test in which there were five rows of five pots, with colored or marked out lids, and a long set of instructions that said things like, 'When you've found the third red, its neighbor is poison, unless it is drank with the essence of water." Apparently the key was that you had to open certain pots in order, and if you didn't…

Halfway through, Naja made a mistake, and a greenish gas poured from the vase. Naja left back, but she did so while coughing, and Aisling dragged her over to a corner and made her throw up, rather violently, rather than letting anything stay in her after the gas had been there. It could have done something, but as it was, the gas eventually stopped pouring from the pot, and they were able to get a lid on it.

Lotte, meanwhile, wondered whether she should have volunteered to be the one who opened the pots. But Aisling took over for that, while Lotte stood near Naja. "Are you okay?"

"Yes. Yes, I'm fine. A leader must sacrifice for her expedition," Naja said.

"I could have opened it," Lotte protested.

"And then what? If it hurt someone, which of us is easier to carry, all things considered?" Naja asked with a raised eyebrow, as if Lotte had missed something obvious.

Eventually, they passed the test. Lotte took the lead again, as they climbed upwards until it felt as if the tower would never end. Finally, they found themselves in a room with moonlight. There was what looked to be a sort of shaft in the ceiling up above, about the size of a window, but angled slightly oddly. Where the moonlight hit, there was a wooden chair, upon which was a piece of paper. Just slightly off to the side of the moonlight was… something on a stand. It looked almost like the horn of some great beast, but it was made out of metal, and rested on a set of three legs that balanced the strange metal thing carefully.

Lotte stepped forward, towards the strange device, reaching for her bow as she did.

"Wait, let me read this note, first…" Naja said, picking it up. "It's in Central Lands script, actually. It says 'This challenge was difficult, but I ultimately prevailed. I decided to make it easy for those who come after by placing this invention, my Monocular, in this area. It is based on the principles of glass, and the virtues of bifocal lenses. With it, this challenge will involve about half as much bleeding from the eyes.' Bleeding from the eyes?! Are they joking? It goes on to say, 'Look through the monocular and look around at the sky.'"

"I am sure that it is no problem at all," Aisling said, with a shrug. "Isn't it usual to risk your life in such places? That said, you first, Naja."

"No, I believe that your elvish eyes would--"

"I'll do it," Lotte said. "I have sharp eyes too." She stepped forward, and the others backed up.

"Fine," Naja said. "But if you feel your eyes start to bleed, then please step away."

"I will," Lotte said, and she walked over and knelt so that she could line up one of her eyes with the 'horn' of the device, which seemed to end in a flat glass surface, like a window. She looked up from there, and saw the stars. They were strange, a little different than expected, and the night sky had a slight pinkish cast, as if someone had been bleeding a little bit in a large pool of water. She couldn't recognize the stars, but they did not seem to have any noticeable new pattern, nor was there anything else odd as she, after a bit of trial and error, figured out that she could move and swivel the "monocular" to look all around the sky.

She found very little, and finally admitted, "I'm not seeing anything, sorry. Maybe Aisling should try?" Lotte stepped away, reaching a hand out to feel at her eye.

She wasn't bleeding, at least.

"What are you seeing?" Naja asked.

"A purple-pink night sky, and stars that aren't the same as the ones I'm used to," Lotte said. "But nothing else."

"I will try it, then," Aisling said, stepping over and poking at the device. "Ah, there's a wheel here. I bet it adjusts the view, somehow. But first…"

She knelt down, put her right eye up to the glass, and gasped. "What," she muttered, and began fiddling with the device, panning it one way and the other. Her other eye was closed, but she seemed to stiffen, her ears pointed straight up and twitching as she shuddered. "What?" Then she began to mutter in Elvish, or some language Lotte didn't understand. Her whispers grew almost into shouts, and then she broke down sobbing.

Aisling pulled away, and crawled over towards the corner. She wasn't weeping blood, but she kept on muttering.

Naja and Lotte had each watched, shocked, unable quite to act. Naja ran over to her the moment she pulled away from the Monocular. "Aisling! What happened?"

Aisling responded in Elvish.

"What?" Naja asked. "Something tried to…"

Aisling responded, sounding rather angry, and then continued in Central Lands. "Thousands of eyes, with something blinking behind it. And the sky, it went from pink to red and began to bleed. But I saw something. A gem. A red gem. Or I thought I saw it. That's what we're after. I just… I was too afraid. I wasn't expecting it at all, after what Lotte told us."

"I didn't see any of that," Lotte protested.

"Right…" Aisling said, eyes narrowed. Then she turned and threw up on the ground, gasping and choking.

Naja stood up, some minutes of whispering later, and strode right over to the Monocular. She knelt, and began looking, using the wheel and turning it carefully. Even as her hands began to shake, she didn't make a sound, just kept on looking. Lotte watched her, her heart thudding, wondering whether Naja would be okay.

Finally, after what seemed an eternity, Naja held out her hand and plucked, seemingly from the air, a red gem about as long as a finger-nail, and roughly that size. She pulled back, blinking, turning over towards Aisling, who had finally sat up.

She was crying blood, and shaking, but she stalked forward. "Something is hunting us," Naja declared in a hollowed out voice, and then she fell to the ground and dry-heaved.

"What?" Lotte asked.

"I'm not sure. But I think that if we can open whatever is in that fireplace, it'll be the discovery of the decade," Naja said, rallying quickly, as if all that she'd apparently suffered, and even the still-dripping bloody tears--impossible and yet that's what they looked like--were just signs that things were going to go right.

"Right, yes," Aisling said. "You're bleeding from your eyes."

"It happens," Naja said breezily, though it felt like a thin cover over a lot of worry. "So, the Tower is… Mind, or Spirit. Does that mean the dungeon is body?"

"Could be," Aisling said. "Can you stand?"

"I… can. But Lotte, could you keep close to me, to make sure I don't fall?"

She didn't even sound like she was flirting. Lotte walked over to her and grabbed her by her shoulder, and the three of them headed down the stairs.

Behind them, the shadows flickered, as if something large had passed overhead in the moonlit room.

Where to next?

[] East Wing. It must be the opposite, and yet in some sort of paired dynamic, with the West Wing. But what?
[] West Wing. It must be the opposite, and yet in some sort of paired dynamic, with the East Wing. But what?
[] Dungeon. Perhaps this means body, perhaps this means flesh? If it's the opposite of the Tower… of course, none of them are necessarily in the best position if the challenges are physical.

******

A/N: And there we go!

 

[The Laurent]

3:6

They at least ate before they went down. Naja wiped her face with a cloth, and looked almost normal again. But neither of them seemed as if they'd escaped from whatever it was without marks being left. Not on their body, but on… their brains? Or something? Lotte wasn't an expert in anatomy, and didn't know whether souls could even be marked like that by something scary. Well, scary wasn't the word.

It was apparently worse than scary, though Lotte couldn't be sure what that felt like. She'd been afraid before, but she'd never been so terrified she was out of her senses, the way Aisling had been. There was a part of her, like a hunter prowling through the dark recesses of her head--which she imagined must be rather empty and dark anyways--that never panicked. She worried, she got carried away by rage, but she didn't gibber.

But she knew it was nothing to do with her, not really. Aisling could speak two languages, and was wry and clearly very intelligent, and so she doubted she had much of an advantage over the other woman.

So Lotte sat and watched the others, nibbling on the bread and dried meat they'd brought. It wasn't much, but she didn't want to eat too much if she was going to be running around as part of some sort of physical test.

Naja spoke again only after they'd eaten. "This is a lot, but I feel as if we are getting close to some real sort of discovery, something that will make our reputations. If we turn back now, we've gained nothing, and if the note is to be believed, we don't even get to keep the gem to try again with next time."

Aisling frowned. "But, we almost... "

She trailed off, not having the right words, and then finally after an awkward minute said, "Went mad."

"But we didn't," Naja said. "I'm sorry that I didn't go first."

"Why?" Aisling asked.

"Because I hate seeing you in pain more than--" Naja said. Then she blinked, looking like a cow that'd been felled by a blow, stunned and confused by her own words. "Too much. Besides, if you died, what sort of expedition leader would I be?"

"Then we should go back," Aisling said. "What do we gain? What is even being hidden that is worth that much. If you truly want to continue, why not leave and return with a dozen people?"

"What will that get any of us? A dozen ways, even a fortune would not be worth much, and any discovery--"

"What discovery? Do you really think there's anything here that the Sepult wanted getting out?"

Lotte cleared her throat. "I… feel as if after all we've risked, we might as well continue. But I know I'm not the one who was doing most of the work."

"Fine," Aisling said. "But if the next challenge almost kills us, then I told you so," Aisling said.

*******

They went for the dungeons, or at least tried to. It was a lot of walking to descend the towers and then they had to go down hall after hall looking for how to get down into the dungeons. Finally, after almost an hour, they looped around enough that they could see stairs downward.

Down at the bottom, the walls were a little wetter, and there were cells, to the left and right, each of them empty, with nothing in there worth seeing other than chains. Lotte felt a creeping sort of fear ebb and flow through her in a way she couldn't understand. It was as if she felt something close, and then far off. But the other two didn't seem troubled by it, and Lotte knew she had no room to complain.

They moved from cell to cell, looking around for the trial, and finding nothing… until they found what looked to be a hatch in the ground.

"Aha!" Naja said, tugging at it. Then she seemed to realize that the odds of her being able to actually lift it were low, though in her defense it did move upwards a little before she gave up. "Oh, um, Lotte?"

Lotte walked over and pulled it up with a heave, though by this point she suspected her arms would ache all night when or if they finally bedded down. There was a ladder down, and against all the centuries it must have been there… it seemed to be in perfectly good shape.

"I will go first," Aisling said. "Cover the hole, Lotte."

Lotte nodded, pulling her bow off her back, though not drawing the string back to prepare to loose, as Aisling went down into the darkness. It was two-dozen seconds later when they heard Aisling curse.

"By the blood of the fucking Fae! There's dead bodies down here. Or… are they dead? Someone bring a torch, I can't see that much, even with my eyes," Aisling said. Her voice seemed far less cool and in control than it had been earlier, and Lotte was the next down, while Naja held a torch out, to illuminate below.

When Lotte reached the bottom she saw that they were in a large room, longer than it was wide, and that there were indeed bodies laying, motionless, on the ground. But Lotte could not see any obvious wounds, and each of the people were mostly naked. Men and women were mixed indiscriminately, and a few were Elves or Sepult, there was one Orime, and, bizarrely, a dead Lamia.

Everyone, regardless of their sex or race, was equally intact and equally unmoving. Nearby there were weapons, and in one corner Lotte saw a vast pile of what looked like discarded clothing.

Naja was climbing down one-handed, gasping every so often as she looked on all that…

"I increasingly suspect that the Sepult never actually lived here, at least not in the way an ordinary castle's staff would," Aisling began, "Can you imagine anyone surviving when they have to solve a riddle to go to the toilet?"

Naja laughed at that, though it was a high-pitched, hysterical sort of laugh. "It does seem rather impractical."

"Yes," Lotte said. "Are they… dead?"

"They're not breathing, so yes. But their skin almost looks like it was carefully nurtured," Aisling said. "Like they were all Princelings, rather than, from the looks of some of them, rough mercenaries."

The Orime, especially, was a rather impressive sort of man, tall, broad-shouldered, and well-muscled. It was odd to see such a body sprawled out like some broken straw doll.

All three of the explorers huddled together, clearly not wanting to step forward. Lotte, finally, moved closer to one of the bodies and lightly kicked it in the leg. it didn't move at all.

"Lotte, be careful," Naja said.

Lotte said. "They're not moving. But whatever did that might get back. If it killed them without harming their body, was it some sort of miasma?"

"It could be," Naja said. "The effluence of these bodies, and the clothes in the corner, might be creating just the circumstances to spread disease."

"The… what?" Lotte asked.

"The smell. The miasma, like you said. Rotten ground breeds rotten illness," Aisling said. "Though, the bodies, they don't smell."

Lotte wasn't that stupid, she was not going to get close to smell them, not when they might have died of some poison or something that could effect her if they did.

"Huh," Naja said. "They look as if they'd be perfectly alive, if they only were breathing."

This was not a comforting thought, and Lotte grabbed an arrow, ready to aim and loose her shot at any moment.

They began to move forward, staying as far away from any of the bodies as they could. There were a dozen, just within the first part they could see, and beyond them the hall widened. Its walls were as square and polished as anywhere else, but the ground itself was bumpy at places. At the back of the room was a statue.

It looked like a woman with four arms, one wielding a knife, another outstretched to hold a flower, and one of the remaining hands over her mouth, while another rested in her lap, for the statue was cross-legged.

"Pillagers," a voice whispered, seeming to come from around them. "Pillagers without the nonclav. Sinners, in need of eternity."

"Who are you, and what do you want?" Naja von Siebert asked, her tone haughty and arrogant, nose almost up in the air. It almost hid the tremble of her body as she said it. "I am a noble explorer, no pillager at all."

"I am a bit of a piece of a goddess, and you shall soon be saved."

Lotte stared at one of the men, a thin, hairy man. He was slowly but surely standing up, though his eyes barely seemed to be looking at any of them as he stepped forward.

One by one, almost a dozen of the bodies got up, moving as if they were shaking off sleep. But other than that, there was nothing different. Except that they didn't speak, and except for one of them who reached down to grab a sword off the ground, they didn't dress or arm themselves.

Lotte's arrow struck him--it--in his chest, the arrow's wound half-hidden by the forest of hair. He pulled the arrow out, and began to bleed even more before collapsing.

Well. This wasn't going to be as hard as she thought. Aisling was keeping close to Naja, lashing out with her spear, which was enough to just barely keep the unarmed hordes away. Not all of the bodies had 'awoken' but even the ones that were there were enough to distract everyone.

So it wasn't Lotte's fault that she almost missed the man she shot standing up less than a minute later--after she'd gone through another four arrows, downing four more of the attackers--with not a wound on him. There was blood where he'd been hit, but the wound was entirely closed and he charged right at her.

Lotte shoved him back. For all that he was big, and a man, she had muscles too, tired and sore though they were, and he stumbled. Lotte wished she'd trained herself in fighting with her hands, as she glanced around at the arrows. One of them had been broken off, while the others could be reused, but eventually she'd run out of arrows long before she ran out of enemies if they wouldn't just go down.

"Why. Won't. They. Die?" Aisling asked, a cry from the heart.

"I shall heal them," the strange woman's voice said. "Again and again. I will protect this place from those who would defile it. Those who would--"

"Shut up," Naja said, as she recoiled from the Lamia hissing as she went towards them. The Orime and the Lamia seemed like the largest threats there, since Lotte had the feeling that that long tail wasn't for show. "We need to get to that statue!"

Lotte could easily see that this wasn't possible. The Lamia woman was silent as she blocked the way, and combined with all of the others, even a run for it would probably end badly. None of the bodies were slow, for all that only one of them wielded a weapon, rather than trying to pummel the three of them with their fists.

The Lamia leapt, and Lotte couldn't quite dodge out of the way in time as she toppled over, the tail wrapping around her, dark red in the dim light. It squeezed at her as the Lamia leaned in.

Lotte punched it (for it wasn't a person anymore, that much was clear) in the nose, and it recoiled, its broken nose already forcing itself back into shape as it did. Lotte drew a knife and stabbed at its bellow, right above where… where the rest of it was, below the belt. She wasn't exactly looking, it not being relevant since the beings were clearly unthinking and, in any meaningful sense, dead.

Of course, Lotte's thoughts were more: oh no, come on, come on, as she stabbed and slashed at the lamia until at last its grasp loosened and she could step away, grabbing her bow from the ground. She notched another arrow and hit the Lamia in chest. It was still healing, every wound going away, so she had to keep it up. She ran over and pulled the arrow out and drew another and fired it, the arrow plunging into the--

The truth was, the whole fight was gruesome work. Blood was everywhere, and Aisling was being pressed back. Naja was waving around her little sword as if she had no idea how to use it, and they were going to run out of room soon enough unless Lotte did something. But what could she do?

It was somewhere between frustrating and terrifying, having to keep putting down foes that would not die.

Lotte might have kept on doing it until she ran out of arrows, except Aisling shouted. "Look!"

One of the figures was down, a spear through through her, grotesquely torn apart… and she was healing slowly. Lotte could watch the strange process of the flesh starting to knit, but creepingly, inch by inch. Lotte tackled another one of the bodies and tried to force her way through. What if the statue was running out of power? But more of them were crowding around her, five or six just trying to drag her down. She hauled off, wincing at the feeling in her fist as she punched yet another one of them.

"Naja! You need to get to the statue," Aisling said. "We're too busy trying to fight these things."

Lotte was already tired, and had no idea how she was supposed to keep on fighting forever.

When she fell, and died, would she soon become just another body here? Just another tool for whatever strange being was--

"Not if I can help it," that woman's voice whispered, and as Naja began to run towards the statue, the other figures moved to get in her way. Lotte was running low on arrows, but she nocked another one and the arrow went into the stomach of a man right in Naja's way. As dark as the room was, the press of bodies made it hard to miss, even if it was hard to really aim.

Naja almost slipped on the blood, and the torch went skittering, falling into the blood which…

Which briefly lit on fire, as if there was a little bit of oil in the blood. It didn't last, but it burned, and the being thrashed as it tried to heal and escape. For a moment the way was clear, and Naja didn't slip again as she reached the statue and grabbed at its arms as if it were going to fall apart at the touch.

But something did happen. There was a brief flash, and suddenly all but four of the figures collapsed, healing of their wounds but not moving. The four were the human woman with the sword, the female Lamia, the male Orime and the male Sepult, beard down to his knees, who had been biting and clawing at anyone in reach.

"This is not over. I simply need to focus on a few pieces…" the statue said, its voice echoing, even as Naja held on for dear life and tried to budge or shift the statue. But it wasn't working. Aisling stabbed at the woman with the sword, while Lotte shifted out of reach of the Orime's arms, trying to draw and loose an arrow in a matter of moments. The shot didn't quite go wide, but it hit the Orime in the shoulder, and he didn't even bother taking it out as he pressed in closer.

It was luck that nobody had been badly injured yet, but it was luck that was unlikely to hold. "What kind of challenge is this?" Lotte asked, panting, as she was backed up against the walls.

"One meant for more than three people," Aisling snapped. Oddly none of the four fighters were headed towards Naja, as if they knew there was little she could do.

Lotte was down to her second to last arrow as one went into the Orime's chest. But he didn't go down this time, for all that his healing was still a little slower than it had been before.

"Stop this!" Lotte said, furious and confused. "Why do you abuse the dead like this?"

"It is their bodies, not their souls, there is nothing left, just my healing light to fill them and make them move," the statue hissed, as it began to tip slightly. Naja was straining as hard as she could to move it.

Lotte glanced at the creatures, the monsters, and ran towards Naja. There was no point in fighting them. She reached the statue and grabbed.

"What, what are you doing? That's not how you pass the test."

The statue began to glow, and the woman sounded increasingly desperate as Lotte tugged.

"You shouldn't, there's not, you're supposed to defeat them, not this, don't, please don't, I can't, if you, I--"

The statue was almost toppled over when it spoke, "You… you win."

The bodies fell to the ground, healing slowly and not getting up.

"I can't do it. How many times must I fail to protect this place, and this world, from things like you," the voice said, quiet and soft. But what startled Lotte was that the head of the statue had twisted to look right at her. "I've succeeded, and I've failed. All those times. If you all swear upon your lives to take the key and never return, this fight is over."

"What?" Naja asked.

"You will all die, or you will not, and there will be others. But if you destroy me, then I can save no other lives. I am an avatar, a piece of something greater."

Lotte was staring.

The hand over the statue's mouth moved, until a stony hand was presenting an old looking iron key. Lotte reached out.

"No, not you. This girl that is with you," the statue said.

Hand trembling, Naja grabbed the key.

"Please. Leave. Before I change my mind."

Lotte, arms aching even worse, grabbed a few arrows on her way out. But no more than that.

******

Lotte was sure that they'd turn back, after all of that. All of them were so tired they almost didn't feel sleepy. At least, Lotte was, and the others looked just the same.

Naja led them back to the central area, looking at the fireplace accusingly.

They stood there for a while, blank and tired, until at last Naja whispered, in a hoarse voice, "We can leave if you want, Aisling."

Aisling had been very quiet, frowning the whole way. "No. I feel as if there is something we've missed, and that if we don't do something we'll regret it for a long time. I'm… not convinced whether we should still go on, but I would like to sleep on it? And pray on it."

"Pray on it?" Lotte asked, liking the sound of that.

"Yes," Aisling said.

"We can do that. And sleep in shifts, to keep watch for an attack," Naja said.

Lotte slept poorly, and woke up sore, but better off for having had at least some rest. She'd prayed at night, but everything had felt a little far away, and she'd hesitated to call out to the Nachtmater, now that she'd met the Goddess in person. It felt as if it would be a mistake, though of course she didn't know why. But she trusted her instincts, and felt rotten for it. There was no sun that rose, so it was dark even by the time it'd been hours and hours.

The next 'morning', they all woke slowly, rubbing their eyes and moving as if they were still dreaming. Lotte ate mechanically, wishing she had a fire, or more to eat. Naja kept on muttering to herself, and took out a pack to continue to write. Aisling, meanwhile, was silent the entire time until at last she spoke. "Let's continue."

"Are you sure?" Naja asked, rubbing her eyes.

"No, not at all. But I'm not going to be any more sure than I am now."

And that was that, it seemed.

******

A/N: So, no vote this time. Might not update as fast this time.

 

[The Laurent]

3:7

They went to the east wing next. They were a dispirited bunch, still exhausted, with their supplies good for another week but their hearts and minds good for no more than another day or two of exploration at most.

Lotte knew that she should be panicking more than she was. But at the moment she was trying to focus on the task ahead of her. The light didn't change in this dark place, so it might not have even technically been morning. There were always stories about time moving as oddly as space when it came to Sepult ruins, though you could usually tell when it was. Or at least, there were fewer stories of people stepping into a ruin and stepping out decades later than Lotte might have feared. Usually it was a matter of hours flying a little too fast, or a day or two at most. Even the scariest stories were careful not to promise too much dread. Lotte had, of course, listened to every story of adventure she could.

She followed them through the arch to the east, and then felt something odd. It was a sort of pressure on her chest, as if a hand was trying to push her back. But she kept on walking, keeping close to the other two.

Nobody talked much, not in the shape they were in. They had their own thoughts, though Lotte's were more niggling worries. She wished she'd prayed more, but she had very little to sacrifice, and very little to ask that wouldn't be arrogant.

They reached another archway, and Aisling walked through first, and then Lotte stepped forward to go next.

But she saw blue shimmers in front of her as she tried to do so, like something out of a story, and when she tried to step through it was as if she'd run into a wall, the shimmering blue light holding her back.

"What?" Naja asked, incredulously.

"Can you break through?" Aisling asked.

Lotte pulled her arm back, and then thought better of it… and backed up to have a running start first.

"Whoa whoa whoa, dear Gods no!" Naja yelped, right as Lotte ran fist-first into the barrier, which didn't even budge.

Ow.

Ow ow ow.

"What did you think would happen?" Naja asked.

"Well, it was worth a shot," Aisling said, smirking.

"Aisling, did you think that'd happen?" Naja asked.

Aisling shrugged. "Well, it was magic."

"Maybe I should try it again?" Lotte suggested. Yes, her hand hurt quite a bit, but perhaps if she tried to shoulder past it?

"You… want to try running into a wall again?" Naja asked, staring at Lotte as if she were some rare but particularly ugly flower.

"Just once more, to see whether I can't make it through," Lotte said. "I am pretty strong."

"I refuse. I really, really refuse," Naja said, waving her hands, and then saying. "Let's see if I can make it through. Maybe it's one person only? Aisling, can you get back through?"

Aisling shrugged and walked through the archway without even a hint of the blue sparkling light. Then she walked back, equally untouched. Naja frowned and stepped through, and then looked back at Lotte.

"Oh, well. Maybe only two people can come? But then, wouldn't you have been able to go in? Maybe it has something to do with age? Or perhaps… do you think you'd be okay here?" Naja looked extremely dubious. "On your own? You know that there's something here, something after us, right?"

"I will be fine. I hope you two will be as well," Lotte said, not wanting to be a burden again.

"Please, stay safe," Naja said, her eyes wide.

"I'll try."

******

Despite that, Lotte was more worried about them. There was a feeling like she was being watched, but she saw nothing, not even any odd shadows. It was simply a long, boring wait. She couldn't allow herself to relax, or miss anything. As far as she knew, she didn't, and eventually, Aisling and Naja came through the archway again.

Naja was limping. "Hurt my foot in a trap," she muttered, when Lotte stepped forward. Aisling looked a little tired, and she smelled faintly of sweat as if there'd been running or fighting involved. But neither of them looked nearly as bad as Lotte had feared.

"What happened?"

"There was a maze, and there were traps in it," Aisling said. "Along the way there seemed to be plaques, and drawings, telling the stories of ancient heroes. Half of them were destroyed, but we saw one for the Sepult heroine Claudina, and another for Vespasia, and a few others whose names were defaced. Naja stopped to translate them."

"It was… important information," Naja said, continuing to limp forward. "And we got the blue jewel." She held out her hand, and in it was yet another small gem. They had three of them now, and Lotte hadn't been attacked. "Did anything happen?"

"No, it was quiet," Lotte said.

"You were bored?" Aisling asked.

Lotte said. "No, of course not."

"We'll try to bring a few more monsters for you to fight next time." Aisling waved her hand. "So that's one down. Who's willing to make a bet whether the west wing has a force-field too?"

"I'll bet you a white Pfin they don't," Naja said. "Yes, they're creating pairs, but how are they even supposed to divide us up. Could it be by age? Or species?"

Aisling pursed her lips, looking at Lotte as if trying to see into the depth of her soul. "I'm not sure."

*******

"Guess what you owe me?" Aisling asked, standing in front of a red barrier. "A blood barrier?" She reached out and touched it. Just like the other one, the sparkling light seemed to congregate where she was touching it.

"A White Pfin," Naja muttered to herself.

"What was that? I didn't hear you."

"I owe you a White Pfin," Naja said, with a sigh.

Lotte frowned. So, were none of them able to get through?

"Alright, now you try, Naja."

Naja stepped forward, and the process repeated.

Then Lotte stepped forward and… nothing. She walked straight through the archway. On the other side was a hallway ending in a door.

"Oh, well. Go on ahead, Lotte?" Naja looked nervous. "It just doesn't make sense. What's Lotte have that we don't? What do we have that Lotte doesn't?" Naja's hands rubbed together, as if she were trying to light a fire.

"I have no clue," Aisling said, though her ears were stiff, and twitchy.

"I'll try to get back here as fast as I can," Lotte said. "Please, be safe."

"We should be the ones telling you that. There's two of us, but only one of you," Aisling said. "Just get in and out as fast as you can, but take no unnecessary risks. If you're hurt, there's not going to be anyone to pull you back out of there."

On that uncertain note, Lotte left.

*******

Through the door, things immediately stopped making sense. There were two ways to go, one to the left and one to the right, and Lotte suspected that this was the start of the maze. Except that the wall in front of her had been knocked down. No, torn down, brick by brick, the runes on the wall around the area broken. Lotte, frowning, ducked through it, and found herself in a straight path. She walked forward, and when she turned a corner stopped again.

The wall to the left was covered in arrows, so thick that there was no free space left. Lotte, looking at the pattern of the arrows, decided she'd have to run for it. She sprinted across the area with the arrows only to hear--

Clicks. Clicks, like a crossbow without a bolt.

"What is going on?" Lotte muttered to herself.

A pitfall trap was filled in with dirt, another trap marked with lines where the stone would give way to trap her ankle. Where there were the plaques, or what looked like the start of drawings, someone had spent a good deal of time carving it up until it was unrecognizable, not that Lotte could have read it anyways. The path to wherever she was going was entirely clear, without any maze to navigate at all, since anywhere there was a choice, there was a door knocked through a wall.

At last, she reached what looks like where the gem should be. There was a stone table, and on it an odd looking red pillow. But Lotte's eyes were drawn to the wall to the right, where it looks as if someone had knocked it down and then begun to dig out, going downwards.

Lotte, watching the opening, walked over to the table and noticed… there was nothing on the pillow.

"Hehehe," a ragged voice said. It wasn't Lotte's.

Lotte whipped around, ready to draw and loose an arrow, her heart racing.

"Someone finally arrived. All these years waiting, and finally a man arrives," the voice said.It sounded like a man's voice.

"Who is this?" Lotte asked. "My name is Lotte, and I am a huntswoman."

The voice giggled, hoarse and unhinged, and said, "Sure you are, sonny. And I'm a godling. One second, let me see you with my eyes." There was shuffling, and then a figure stepped out of the darkness of the wall.

He was dressed in rags, with golden hair so dirty and matted it was blond only in places, with a beard that swallowed his face. His bushy hair almost hid how thin he was, but his hands showed it. The man wasn't skeletal, but he did look as if he had been eating just enough to keep going for years and years. Lotte had seen farmers who looked like that, or beggers passing through. The rags themselves stank. Lotte had gotten used to the smell of poop (you had to be on a farm), but the man smelled like rot and death itself. His bright, mad blue eyes took Lotte in. "What a drink of water you are. Tall, blond, and heroic looking. Here to slay the… no, no, I bet that's not it at all."

"Who are you?"

"You can call me Waiz."

"Orphan?" Lotte asked, frowning.

"Well, I am one, sonny. Lotte. I'm also the boy with the gem you need."

He didn't look like a boy. If Lotte was to guess, she'd guess that he was somewhere in his thirties, or perhaps even forties. "What do you want for it?"

"Want? I want to talk with you, brave fool. I've been here this whole time, and if you kill me for it… then you'll have to get back the hard way. My Daddy figured it out, if you die or leave the dungeon, then everything you did is undone, at least unless you do some crazy magic shit. And maybe even then? I'm not sure. It depends. But kill me and things get harder for you."

"I wouldn't kill you!" Lotte said.

"Well, then, so you're here to break down the doors of the prison, are you? As my Father and I were, all those… what year is it?"

"I don't know," Lotte admitted. She knew there were schemes to number all the years, but she didn't see the point. Wasn't it more important to know how many years a Duke had reigned than to combine them all into a number that didn't matter?

"I was ten winters old when I came in here," the man said.

Lotte stared. Decades. He'd been here for decades. "I'm sorry."

"Sorry? There are worse places to live. There's water, and I can grow mushrooms and other delicacies in the soil. By the only God that matters, I am quite blessed. And I get to meet you, you strange… what are you, again, sonny?"

Lotte considered protesting again that she was in fact a girl, but it wasn't as if his insistence would hurt anything. She'd just let him think whatever he liked. That's why she didn't say anything, of course.

"A person," Lotte said, a little baffled. "I don't know what you're talking about?"

"You don't?" Waiz asked, looking at her as if it shocked him. Then he began to creep forward, a grin on his face. "Well then, that's the first step. I need to see just who I have before me." The man moved as if he wasn't used to moving around other people, straight forward and yet slightly cringing. He stared, and reached a filthy hand out to hold Lotte's.

She didn't know what to do. If she attacked him, what would happen? But she didn't want to attack someone who hadn't--

He pulled out a knife, and she shifted away as he slashed her palm. She winced at the bite of the rusty knife, and punched him in a single, smooth motion. He went down, holding the knife above his head, as if he were trying to keep it as far away as possible.

"Fuck, that's an arm," Waiz muttered. Then, louder, he said, "I wasn't going to hurt you, sonny!"

"You slashed me!" Lotte protested, staring at this strange, loathsome and lonely man.

The man frowned. "Yes, but it didn't hurt that much, did it? Big tough guy like you, whining about a lil' ol' cut."

Lotte flushed, unable quite to find anything to say to that.

"This is a test. You'll see in a little bit, what happens…"

Waiz stood up and stumbled over towards the walls, which he had not defaced. At least, he hadn't defaced what was left when the walls had been knocked down at one place. Then carefully, he smeared the dripping knife over the wall.

The runes began to glow, and the glow began to spread, rune by rune, shimmering and seeming to leap like fire from one rune to the next. Lotte stared as the dark room, lit only by a guttering torch in one corner, began to grow brighter than day as it spread.

"Wow," Waiz muttered, staring at him with tears in his eyes. "You did it."

"I… what?" Lotte asked, baffled.

"I can't deny you the gem, not after that." Waiz tossed the knife aside and began digging in his rags. "I had more tests, I had more questions, but what's the point of it?" He giggled a little. "Best get out of your way before I'm run over like a boy jousting with a cart."

Lotte stared at him. "What?"

"You really are confused." He pulled out the red gem, which was almost pink, and walked over to Lotte, holding out his hand. Lotte took it, gripping it tight.

"Yes, I am."

"It is the will of the Gods, if you are confused. I am simply a messenger."

"You should come back with us," Lotte said. "What is there for you, here?"

"Duty. Peace and quiet. I haven't seen another human in fifteen years, and only the one, hehe, little son," Waiz gave a grin that showed off his broken, rotting teeth. "You should run along before nightfall."

Lotte took a step back. "Nightfall?"

"Isn't that what sons--"

Suns?

"Are afraid of?"

"I don't know," Lotte said, her heart beating rapidly. Something about the man's tone unnerved her, and so did the runes in a way they hadn't before they started glowing. The light seemed like it was dancing, and Lotte could no more understand them now than she could before.

"You are afraid."

Lotte admitted, "Yes. I'm just not sure what."

"Good. Be afraid of everyone. And everything," Waiz said. "It'd make sense."

"I'm going to leave now," Lotte said, her voice trembling. She needed to get out of here.

His mad, giggling laughter followed her as she ran back.

******

The glowing ended some dozen feet from the archway, so there was no way that either of the other two saw it. Lotte had no idea what any of this meant, and she preferred not to think of it as she stepped through.

"Oh! You're hurt!" Naja said, rushing over, eyes glued to her hand.

"That was fast. Did you get it, or did something stop you?" Aisling asked.

Lotte opened her uninjured hand as Naja began tutting over the wound.

The gem gleamed.

"A h-aon, a dha, a tri, a ceithir," Aisling counted out, aloud, with a satisfied smile. "We have gotten it. Was it difficult?"

"I…"

What could Lotte say? That she had somehow made the walls glow? That there was some madman who'd helped him through the maze?

"Not that difficult," Lotte muttered.

Aisling looked at her with worried suspicion, but Naja was too busy fussing, as they made their way up to the fireplace.

It took a few minutes to bandage Lotte's hand up as well as Naja wanted, and then they stood in front of the fireplace.

"The only question now is… what order do we put in what we've found?"

Lotte felt as if that was far from the only question.

But What Do They Do?

[] Aisling believes that it might be a journey. Thus, they should put it in order in which they gained it. It was clear that the dungeon itself was in some way watching… or it feels like it. But at the same time, how is that balanced?
[] Naja has two ideas, the first of which is to place the top and bottom at the same time, then the left and right at the same time. After all, each is a balanced, co-equal pair, so they should all connect.
[] Ooor, Naja thinks, it could have to do with all four in balance, in which case she and someone else should put all of them at once.
[] Write-in.

******

A/N: There is a right and wrong and very wrong answer.

 

[The Laurent]

3:8

"It's in balance. The note even says so. So obviously, this means putting in all four at once. That way, everything is balanced," Naja said.

"But, what does Mind and Body have to do with… whatever the other two were. Do the Sepult have some sort of weird… everything is four things schema?"

"Not really, but it just makes logical sense. It has to do with balance, and we balance all four at once. After all, the top and bottom both involved facing an entity, while the west and east both involved navigating a maze, right?" Naja von Siebert asked, with a dramatic sweep of her hands.

Lotte almost opened her mouth to reveal that she never actually navigated the maze… but did she? She had gone through the whole thing, in a way, even if there had been no threat or wandering.

"Sure, but--" Aisling began.

"In order? What does that have to do with balance."

"We did it top, then bottom. East, then west. We did it in balance. I was pretty sure that was your idea, wasn't it?" Aisling asked.

"Well, yes, of course. I intended to do it in that order because I knew, haha, yeah, I definitely knew that was the right option," Naja insisted.

"You did it at random, didn't you?" Aisling asked.

"...well, I just thought that the lowest place would come after the highest. But you're right, that the order we did it matters… but not for putting in the gems and the key." Naja frowned, "Though to be fair, the key doesn't really seem to fit with all the others. It isn't a key made of gemstones, after all."

"It's probably a pun. Or a metaphor," Aisling said, glancing over at the fireplace.

"Well, Lotte, are you willing to help me with the gems? You seem like you had a better time with the maze than I did." Naja smiled, and Lotte felt even worse. But what would they think if they heard what Waiz said? He said insane things, and called her son, and what if they heard it and thought she was weird and terrible, or secretly working against them, or…

No. It was better to lie. But, she hated lying. Lying was wrong, and the kinds of people who lied to another person were the kinds of people she'd never wanted to be.

"Lotte, are you okay?" Naja asked.

"No. I mean, yes," Lotte said. "I'm fine."

"Well then, let's get in there."

They both crawled into the fireplace, and Naja handed Lotte the east and west gem, small as they were, and then said. "I can crawl under you, if that's okay, so that I'm between your arms, so that we can put it all in at once."

"Naja, focus on the task at hand. You can talk about putting it in later," Aisling yelled out.

"T-that's, that's not what I meant," Naja stammered, as she crawled underneath Lotte, her back pushed up against Lotte's stomach as she got into position.

Lotte had to admit, there was something to be said with how close they were, the way Lotte's shirt was rubbing against Naja's back, the warmth of the fireplace. It felt as if it had just been lit earlier, but from the ashes it had been some time. Lotte moved her hands, until she was leaning against the wall to one side, and she was holding the two gems right before where they should slot in. They were just the right size.

"On three," Naja said.

"Wait. When you say one, or will you say go afterwards?" Lotte asked.

"When I say one, of course. Why would I say go?" Naja asked, frowning.

"I dunno. I've never timed anything like that," Lotte admitted, with a blush.

"You're adorable, and also a little hapless. It's part of your charm," Naja said, pushing the key against the lock. "And three, two, one!"

Lotte and Naja managed to do it at the same time, as Naja turned the key as well. There was a glow, and it spread from the fireplace to somewhere behind them.

But the glow was odd, a little dark, and there was a smell, and a sick feeling in Lotte's stomach moments before the entire fireplace went up in a raging inferno. The flames roared around her. They hurt, but the pain was secondary, as Lotte grabbed a flaming Naja and threw herself backwards, out of the fire, rolling around desperately on the ground, and patting at Naja.

Every year, at one festival or another, someone wound up setting their fool self on fire, and so she knew what you were supposed to do. You rolled around, smothering the fire, and got some water. Then with the burns, you--

She didn't know. She'd never paid attention, and now she hated that she hadn't.

"Naja! Lotte!" Aisling yelled, and as Lotte rolled she felt water being dumped all over her. In fact, it felt like almost all of their water was being thrown away. But she needed it.

Finally, after a few desperate moments, the fire was gone. Lotte felt the burns here and there, but looking over both herself and Naja, it was…

It wasn't okay at all, but they weren't badly hurt, for all that their clothing was now blackened with soot, and Lotte's neck felt as if she'd been way too long in the sun.

"What happened?" Naja muttered, as she picked herself off, looking wide-eyed. "It should have worked. Did we do something wrong? Were we supposed to tip over the goddess? Or… Lotte, can you tell us about your maze? Maybe it was different in some way we--"

"Guys!" Aisling said, pointing at the wall. There was a trail of runes, not the whole wall, which was still lit up. It was like a path.

"I, I--" Lotte began.

"What?" Naja asked, glancing from the runes on the wall to Lotte.

"Did you leave something out of what you told us?" Aisling asked.

"It would not be hard," Naja said, and then gave a few hoarse coughs. "Agh, the smoke in my lungs. You didn't tell us anything, just that you'd gotten the gem."

Only moments before, Lotte's actual life had been in danger. But she hadn't had time to panic, and so she hadn't. She'd just acted, and even the pain felt distant now. But those words made it feel as if the world was closing in. Lotte wasn't afraid of tight areas, but she was used to having a wide-open world before her. Now, it felt as if she were in the smallest room possible. "I think I messed up."

"How?" Aisling demanded, narrowing her eyes, and looking from Lotte to Naja. No doubt blaming Lotte for it.

"Someone had disarmed all the traps in the maze, and knocked out the walls. I didn't… I didn't walk a maze, I just went through the path I was told, and there was a man at the end."

"A… man?" Naja asked.

"He and his father went into the place, I think. But his father must have died," Lotte began. "He called himself Waiz, and he called me son, and talked about the sun… and then he cut my hand and rubbed it against the runes."

"What an idiot. How old was he? How insane? He sounds it," Aisling said, voice snapping.

"He was odd. I do not think he was entirely there. But the runes lit up. I don't know why," Lotte insisted, desperately. The idea that she was working with this dungeon somehow was silly, but what if they thought…

"Perhaps it has to do with your parents? Or perhaps only the blood of a hunter can activate the runes?" Naja asked. "Still, that's more evidence. If the two weren't--"

"If Lotte had told you about it, you might have guessed!" Aisling said, striding forward.

"She's saved our lives repeatedly," Naja insisted.

"And lied to us!"

"I…" Lotte began, feeling the prickling of tears against her eyes.

"See, and now you've made her cry."

Aisling snorted. "Her? Is it her I've made cry? I'm starting to wonder--" Aisling began, and then she turned away. "Whatever. We should follow it. If we're not going to turn back."

"I'm fine, so why would we?" Naja asked.

"We're out of water now."

"Lotte has some in her pack. She'd be willing to share."

Lotte nodded, uncertain that they were doing the right thing. There was more that she hadn't explained, and more that didn't make sense. For one, why had her blood done that? Did it really just come down to being a hunter. How was being a hunter in her blood?

*****

The trio looked nothing like the heroic legends. No, by this point they stumbled exhausted through the dungeon, still damp, ash-soaked, burned in places, limping, low on arrows and low on water, though not food.

But the path of the runes was pretty clear, taking them down and around, to a part of the castle that they'd walked by on the way to the dungeon.

At least, that's what it looked like.

They were also very quiet. No songs of adventure for any of them, especially with Aisling glaring at Lotte the whole time. No, it wasn't just glaring. There was a part of the look that felt as if she were weighing Lotte on a scale, and wasn't sure whether she'd turn out not to be a clipped coin.

But as they walked, Lotte began to hear sounds behind them. Yet whenever she looked back, she didn't see anyone. Nor did she see anything, since she thought the odds that anything here would be a person rather than a monster was unlikely. Even the people were warped and twisted.

The sounds got louder, but there was still no sign of anyone, as they hurried until at last they came to an archway that hadn't been there before. It was about half-again Lotte's height, and far more elaborate than anything else in the palace. Along the arch for the door, in white against the black rock, were what looked like the pattern of snakes, twining and crawling their way upwards, their eyes made of pretty looking gems whose value Lotte couldn't guess. At about stomach level on each side, there were strange vessels. On the left, there was a tiny, thumb-sized cup held in the mouth of one of the serpents, which had icy blue gem eyes. On the other side, what seemed like a hand coming out of the spiralling pillar of the arch, holding a tankard.

Then up top, there was what looked to be writing… for the door was not a door, but instead a white wall of stone where the entryway should be.

"Oh," Naja said. "One moment, let me translate this."

There was a hissing sound from behind them.

Lotte turned, and saw nothing. She stared out into the darkness, and finally she saw it, a glint far off, and bright eyes, as if someone was watching them.

"It's some sort of creature," Aisling said, her elvish eyes no doubt seeing better. "I can't make out details, but we need to hurry!"

"It says: one drop, or one cup."

"That's all?" Aisling asked. She looked briefly panicked, and then she turned to look at Lotte. "You should try your blood on the smaller of the vessels."

"What? No, we can't just…" Naja began.

"We've fought and we've bled already than this. You burned because Lotte was too scared to just admit what happened, and what it meant," Aisling said, fingers gripping tightly on her spear. "Lotte, you will do it." It felt like a threat.

"I was going to do it," Lotte said, looking at Aisling. "You do not have to threaten me."

"Do I? I feel like you know far more than you let on. Is this all a trick?" Aisling asked.

Lotte stared at Aisling, not sure how she was supposed to prove it wasn't. Wait, she had an idea...

"You forget yourself!" Naja said. "I am the employer, and not you!" Naja looked like a rope that was about to finish fraying and snap. "We approached Lotte, not the other way around! If anyone was deceiving anyone, it was me! And I wasn't!"

Lotte took out her knife and pricked her thumb, before stepping forward and pressing her hand to the tiniest cup. She pulled away, and that's when the very top of the entryway began to glow. It was a very thin patch, at the top where the two archways met, but it seemed to be moving.

"Oh," Aisling said, staring up at that. "It's doing… something."

It was then that the monster in the distance began to move their way. It flowed across the ground, with a billowing robe that covered its lower body, and a strange bone-white mask barely visible underneath its hood. Gloved hands gripped a sword that seemed to wave and move, and a strange hissing sound came from the monster as it threw itself at Aisling.

Aisling managed, just barely, to duck aside, spear-point coming up to slash at the robes of the creature.

"Aisling!" Naja yelled, pulling out her own sword.

"Stay back," Aisling retorted, barely keeping up with the movements of the monster, which were just a little faster on the ground than a human's should be, let alone while still wielding a weapon. Naja wouldn't stand a chance.

Lotte, meanwhile, drew one of her last seven arrows, notched it, and when Aisling had taken another step back, loosed the arrow into the thing's chest. It let out a high-pitched scream but didn't slow down, pressing Aisling still further back, until she had to either stand or let the monster aside.

Aisling changed instead, spear stabbing at the thing's shoulder as she ducked a fast, powerful blow from one side, and shifted away from an overhead blow… leaving the monster open as Lotte buried another arrow in its torso. Lotte didn't have the time to really aim, and so she focused on getting solid shots in the same general area, rather than trying to hit the glowing eye-slits on the mask, or anything fancy.

With each arrow and spear stab, the body of the monster seemed to grow more solid, to the point where Lotte could hear a strange sort of scraping sound, like a boot dragging very quickly across the stones. But not quite that, worse than that.

Lotte's third arrow caught it in the already wounded shoulder, thanks to a desperate shift to avoid another Aisling offensive.

Lotte was down to four arrows, but the creature seemed more solid now, and it looked like what was trailing back behind the robes was a… tail? Like a snake, perhaps. It was hard to tell, and Naja distracted Lotte for a moment by saying, "Look!"

She was pointing at the door, and when Lotte glanced she saw that the light had grown. It was as if the door was opening, or rather turning into pure light, from the bottom to the top. It was still above their heads, but if it kept on dragging itself down, soon enough it would be a door they could use.

Aisling let out a cry as the masked being shifted forward and… bit her. That's all that it could be described as, its jaw unhinging as it took a chunk out of her shoulder. She went down in a shower of blood, stabbing limply upwards..

It shouldn't have hit, but the monster was careless, and the spear went straight through its stomach. It screamed, and its sword sliced the spear in two as it backed up. It didn't take a step back, no. It slithered backwards.

"A lamia?" Naja asked, eyes wide, as Lotte's fourth arrow caught it just below its neck. It twisted and turned, one way and another, as Naja stopped heeding Aisling's advice and began desperately and clumsily attacking it.

"Naja, out of the way!" Lotte yelled, and her fifth arrow caught it in the stomach, just below the spear.

"Grab the damn spear from its guts," Aisling cursed, covering her bleeding shoulder with a clumsy hand.

Naja, realizing what she meant, grabbed it and pulled as hard as it could. But it was stuck in there tight, and the monster continued to slash at her. She ducked, a slash cutting across her forehead as she did, and Lotte realized that the moment for standing back had passed.

She charged forward, roaring in anger and frustration, one hand with a bow in it, but the other open to pull out the spear.

The creature stared at her for a long moment, then finally slashed, but by then she'd half-slid under it, and then grabbed the spear. From where Lotte was, she could see how there was a point where human flesh became that of a snake, below the belly. In a single pull it came out, and with it the bile and guts of some strange and ancient… ghost?

Lotte retreated, filthy and exhausted, and drew another arrow as the monster keened and writhed.

"Lotte," Naja said, her voice faint. "Lotte."

Lotte wasn't in front of her, though.

No, Lotte stared at the creature as it died. It whined and wailed, it was hissing in a tongue Lotte did not understand.

Lotte was in front of a wolf, all those years ago.

It was dying, there was nothing she could do, and perhaps no mercy it deserved.

If she approached seeking to slit its throat, it'd probably tear her hand to pieces. She could only act at a distance, and while the world had seemed to retreat for the fight, now she could smell the bile on her body. She stank as bad as she had early on in her hunting career, when she'd been less careful about blood and guts, and fascinated as a child was by all of it. The monster, the lamia (another species, like others she'd seen) was hissing and groaning in misery.

It would never thank her. Nobody would.

But it was the right thing to do, and Lotte grabbed her second to last arrow and shifted into a proper archery stance, nocking the arrow and pulling it back. Then she held it for a moment, shifting where she held it, and how she held it.

The lamia's eyes weren't glowing anymore. In fact, the mask had half-fallen off, revealing a face like any other. In fact, the rest of his body above the waist was entirely like any human's, at least if you didn't consider his eye color, or the tongue in his mouth, lolling now as he writhed and died.

Then she loosed the arrow. It seemed almost to whistle as it went through the air and slammed right into the lamia's heart. She'd taken the time to aim, and it gasped and collapsed. In a matter of moments, it died. Then, after it died, a male voice said, loudly. "Praise… and… thank… you."

Lotte blinked, not wiping at her eyes because her hands were filthy. But she was crying a little.

"I… I should be fine," Aisling said. "If I can get up."

"We'll rest here, and then continue. Unless there's another monster, in which case we'll go in or run away." Naja tried to stand up, and stumbled, the cut in her head no doubt keeping her from thinking.

"No. We go back," Lotte insisted. "I'm the only one strong enough to do anything. I'll carry you out of here if I have to." She would have been willing to go on, if there was one less burden, if she hadn't almost gotten them burned alive, if she hadn't just killed another… person?

"You're going to try to carry me?" Aisling asked. "What happens if I fight back."

"I… I don't want you to die," Lotte said. "You can keep your coin, if it means you live." Lotte thought about Naja's brother, who wouldn't have wanted Naja to keep on going into death. "We're going, and that's final."

"Lotte," Naja said, eyes wide.

"What? I'm sorry I'm yelling," Lotte admitted, since her voice was very loud. "But I don't want--"

"Lotte, behind you!"

Lotte turned, just in time to see what seemed like a tendril, or a tentacle, or something inky black… wrap around her leg. It was smooth to the touch, though she had very little time to appreciate this as she was tugged backwards towards the almost entirely open gateway.

Fumbling, she grabbed onto the edge of the archway with one hand as the powerful tendril tried to drag her in. She shifted, trying to get her other hand to grip the side, the spiralled grooves of the pillar helping her to hold on, as her burnt, bloody fingers were very slippery. She was screaming, wordless fury and fear, heart feeling like it was about to explode.

Lotte managed to get her second hand around the archway, which was when she felt a second tendril grab her other leg and pull. Her fingers slipped, and she scrabbled, screaming, at the archway. She was hanging on by her fingertips, every heartbeat an impossible struggle.

Thump. Eyes blinded by tears, sure she was going to die.

Thump-thump. Just a few fingers.

Thump-thump. She let go, and was dragged into to the light as the stone closed up behind her.

She thought it'd last forever, dragged until she died, dragged until at the end of the tendrils was a mouth.

But, just as suddenly, the tendrils were gone, and she was… somewhere else.

******

A/N: To be concluded.

 

[The Laurent]

3:9

Lotte's eyes had been tightly shut in those last moments, half-blinded by the light, and so it took her a few moments to get her bearings. When she opened her eyes, she found that she was in a large field, covered in thick, overgrown grass, under a vast, open sky. There were none of the other plants that should be growing in the field, as if The field ended, at least to her left, in a blank black wall that stretched hundreds of feet up, and yet barely began to touch the sky, which was the red of a sunset.

She could just barely see the stars, just waiting for the sun to go down further to come out. More imposingly, in front of her was a pathway made of large cobblestones, improbably smooth, as if they'd been in a river, even though there was no water around. Lotte turned around, half-stumbling, and walked the other way. She thought there was no good in anything around here. She paused after a few steps to kneel down and run her hand through the short grass. It felt entirely normal, and when she dug with her fingers, there was good loamy soil, smelling remarkably like that on her parents' farm. It was the kind of soil anything would grow in. So, this impossible place was somehow like the place she knew.

Lotte kept on walking, and then blinked in shock. She found herself at the start of a cobblestone path again. When she turned around she saw, behind her, the area where she'd dug up dirt, still faintly disturbed. So she turned herself right and kept on walking… before finding herself, after a minute, back in front of the cobblestone path. When she looked behind her, she saw… the hole she'd dug up out of curiosity.

This was bizarre, and there was a sinking feeling in her stomach. She'd have to walk on the path, unless she just sat there. But a part of her was afraid that the tentacle would come back, and so she began to walk.

She was still soaked in gore, still with barely bandaged wounds, still smelling slightly charred if you could smell that beneath the sweat and blood and guts. Lotte was just about at the end of her strength, and so she limped along, her legs aching more and more with every step. Finally, she spied a shape in the distance which, as she grew closer, she could see was a building made of a very familiar looking type of black stone. It looked a lot like slabs of smooth stone stacked on top of each other like steps.

When she got closer, she could see that it was vaguely triangular, and that on each level except the ground floor, there were dozens and dozens of life-sized statues of Lamia, humans, a few Sepult, and snakes of all shapes and sizes. They were beautifully carved, and almost looked real, and were--unlike anything else here--colorful, clearly painted to look just like real life. They were slightly off, the yellows too bright, the blues of a cloak looking too much like the sky.. At the very top of the structure was a shining, white-gold capstone that seemed gemlike. It glittered like the stars had when she'd looked at them. Plain and normal, but… if that's what she saw, what would others see?

At the base of the structure, where the cobblestones led, there was a wide open door. As she got closer, she realized that each of the steps was about twice her height, so the door itself was very big. It gaped, leading into some sort of hall. But just before she stepped in, she heard a voice, coming from up above.

"Prince, you have returned," it whispered. "No, not Prince."

"Who are you?" Lotte called out, loud enough that she winced, afraid that she'd be attacked again. But no one responded, and after a tense, terrified moment she continued on into the building.

Lotte saw no other choice but to walk in, looking around. There were what looked like stone tables, here and there, in a large circle. There were several doors, and the room smelled faintly of perfume. It was almost relaxing. The first door seemed to lead to more halls, and the second, when Lotte finally managed to make it over there, opened up to… well. The room's floors were of the same black stone as everywhere else in this place, but they were slightly slick on the stairs down, and then there was what looked like a huge bathtub, the size of a pond, stretching outwards. It was empty.

Then she reached out and touched it with her hand. The black stone of the tub began to turn white, spreading from where she'd touched it, until the whole tub was made of this strange, beautiful white stone, which seemed almost to have patterns swirling in it. Then the water began to fill it, slowly, coming from seemingly nowhere. Cautiously, Lotte touched the water. It was warm, but nothing more than that, at least not at a glance.

Lotte had a feeling that whoever had dragged her here wanted her to bathe, and so she turned around and walked out.

She was too tired to be polite. And why should she be? This wasn't some noble, who she had to be polite to because of their status and power.

She was stopped short when she opened the door in the front area of the building. She came upon smooth stone steps down to what seemed to be some sort of stone altar, white unlike everything else in this building. After a moment, Lotte realized something.

...a Temple. This was a Temple. At the heart of this 'Palace' was a Temple, and one incredibly hard to reach.

Lotte walked down the steps, setting down her bag at the second to last of the black stone steps, and then touching the strange stone table that looked like it should be laden down with holy works like a beast of burden was with supplies.

"Why am I here?" Lotte asked, her voice echoing.

Then she saw symbols on the table that felt vaguely familiar. When she reached out to touch the table, the altar… sacrificial, perhaps? It began to turn into white stone, and Lotte knew instinctively what it said.

One drop or one cup.

Lotte bit her lip, but felt an odd sort of pull. It was as if she was going to throw up, and she reached out her bandaged hand and rubbed it against the white stone until a little blood came out.

Nothing happened, at first, and for that Lotte was glad, because her body had moved almost without her.

Screaming, crying, hoping and dreaming, nightmares that wouldn't end and then a feeling of being watched. Blood, so much blood.

The world drowned in it, sometimes. But she cried for her own blood, blood not even shed so much as released by her body.

She felt sick and strange, as if her head was about to burst. She staggered back, and blinked as darkness gathered all around the center area where the altar was. Then the darkness began to take the shape of eyes, and serpents, thousands of them.

There were snakes in a riot of colors, a voice seeming to come through all the snakes, on the ground and yet seeming to stretch out to be connected to… nothing. The voice coming through them was somehow able to make the ground shake.

'Little One. At last I can see you with mine own eyes, rather than the pale reflections. It has been too long.'

The voice was strange. One moment it was deep, the next high-pitched, and then after that raspy, as if it was everything at once.

"W-what?"

'I looked upon you once, upon a dream. You remember it. I knew you then, I dreamed with you, and knew that you would come back to me, sooner rather than later.'

Lotte gaped as the snakes swirled around him. They didn't seem to have a center, some place where they came from. They were everywhere, never stopping their motions. Then they began hissing all at once, as one. Lotte knew they were tasting the air, but it didn't keep her from backing up a step. But of course she was surrounded.

'Eighteen years. Eighteen years I've waited. And I could not see into your mind because of my deal with Her. Eighteen years, and only a single glimpse dearly bought. And now you are here, at last, my child.'

Lotte spun around, drawing her bow and preparing to loose her final arrow at… where? Where was she supposed to target?

'Do not. Do not attack me. It will do you no good, and we are linked, the two of us. It was bold of you to come like this, to wear a false face and call yourself a woman, as you are not. It shows a dedication to me.'

"Who is…?" Lotte asked, heart hammering in her throat.

'I have many, many names. Speak three and at last we can begin. Speak three and you can at least see. You've spent all those years, and now your body and soul are ready. Or you can stay here, trapped. I can give my word by my divine essence that it shall do nothing more than reveal who you are.'

Lotte blinked, "What words?"

'Did they not teach you, boy?! Well then, repeat after me. I have ten trillion names, and to declare this is a name.'

Lotte hesitated, but she realized she was surrounded by a… a mad God of some sort. Or Goddess, or… both? It was hard to tell, hard to be sure. "I have ten trillion names, and to declare this is a name." The words sounded strange, and seemed to echo, as he spoke them.

'I have been Forgotten, but not by my friends: to declare this is a name.'

Forgotten? Lotte, her legs hurting more and more with each moment. She had to fight through all of that, and heartsickness, and the headache, even as she recognized the name. She had heard it before. "I h-have been Forgotten, but not by my friends: to declare this is a name."

'Imnatash ai Hurwasa.'

Lotte hesitated.

'We are here, at the beginning of all things, at your rebirth. I cannot read your mind, but I know your fears. How could I not, after so many times? Seven and seven. Speak it.'

From a choked, broken voice, Lotte spoke the final name, unable to help herself, as if the words were being dragged out of her. "I-I-Imnatashi ai Hurwasa." The weight of the name seemed to drain her energy, and for a moment she stood there, barely standing.

Then she felt agonizing pain in her legs, and then her body, and she began to scream. She'd never hurt like this, she'd never felt closer to dying, she'd never felt as if it would be better to die than to feel this for even a moment longer.

She was still screaming in pain and terror when she passed out into the darkness, to the voice of the… God.

'Sleep, and awaken to a new world, my child.'

*******

A/N: And there we end the Book of Lotte. To be continued in the Book of Rebirth.

 

[The Laurent]

The Book of Rebirth

"You are what your deep, driving desire is. As your desire is, so is your will. As your will is, so is your deed. As your deed is, so is your destiny."--Brihadaranyaka Upanishad


"'What is it you want?' asked he, without fear. 'For you have done much to harm me, and you have transformed me, and I do not understand what I am now, and why you have done it.'

'Peace, my chosen child, for all shall be explained' the serpent said, with bright, flashing eyes.

Yet he did not balk, and demanded again, 'Peace I shall have, but answers as well, for as the dog sniffs its prey out, so too do I stubbornly seek the truth with my every breath.'

'Do not think to question me, child, for what is your station and what is mine?'

'My station is to ask. Is yours to answer? I ask thrice, what is it that you want?'

'I answer again, though you heard not: a rebirth.'
--The Book of Rebirth, 1:8-15

 

[The Laurent]

1:1

Seen from above, without context, the sight might have interested a viewer. Certainly it might have distressed one. But it wouldn't have terrified them, wouldn't have baffled them, not knowing what they didn't know. There was a young man lying half in and half out of the water, unconscious.

The pristine whiteness of the tub stood in stark contrast to the bloodied water within, seeming to flow around and yet not come from the young man flopped with boneless exhaustion against its edge.

They would certainly look like a young man from above, with short hair, the blonde of the purest, most lovely gold. The hair just barely tickled against the curved plains of his neck, which gave way in time to the strong muscles of his back, the rolling hills that showed strength untouched by the lash of a whip or the hash ravages of time.

Here was a youth, head turned slightly on its side to reveal boyishly handsome features. His arms were sculpted, wires and chords of seemingly indomitable strength, trailing over the edges of the bath like great formations of stone.

The vast clouds of blood and gore floating behind him almost obscured what there was where his waist ended. What there was, and what there wasn't.

There even an observer without context might gasp, might be distressed and suddenly afraid. But not for the reasons they should be, no.

*****

Lotte awoke slowly in stages, far slower than she was used to, farm girl that she was. She'd awaken ton an odd ache in her body, the soreness after a hard day's work. It'd even taken a few moments for her to remember that she wasn't back home, and was in fact uncomfortable on something hard. Had she passed out on the floor?

She tried to sat up and flailed a little, slightly off balance. She recognized the room the moment she saw it. It was the baths she'd passed and not gone in, only now, from the sound of sloshing water, she was taking a bath. Lotte tried to stand, and flopped over, turning as she did. What?
'
She looked down. She didn't look any different… except that she was naked, and that showed what was different. Where before there would have been somewhat small but well-formed breasts, instead she had a flat chest, which poked out only a little, and with musculature rather than anything else.

Lotte… definitely felt a sinking feeling in her stomach, sick and horrified. As a girl would be at that.

(At the least, the dismay was real. How had that happened?)

Then she turned and screamed.

She had a tail.

No, that wasn't it. Below about the waist, she was a tail. A snake tail, thick at the base, and tapering to an end that still wasn't all that thin.

She only really stopped when she'd ran out of breath, and she tried to shift it around as she took a look. Her tail was somewhere between ten and twelve feet long, and moving it wasn't the same as moving legs at all. In fact, she spent the better part of a dozen minutes figuring out how to stand, sort of, pushing her torso up as she began to get out of the bath.

She could feel every movement, could feel her tail against the stone, though in a different way from how she'd been able to feel stone against her leg. It was bizarre how easy it was, and how hard, to think of it as hers. She had no instincts, but it moved when she wanted it to move, if not always how she wanted to move. It was brown and green, in mottled combinations that seemed perfect to blend in to a forest, though there were ridges of purple, here and there.

She was dripping as she got out of the water, and she looked around. If someone had left her here, perhaps the strange and terrible God, perhaps they had left towels? And, indeed, there were some towels down on the ground. She struggled for a while to try to lower her body without just slamming into the ground, and eventually she figured out how to do it. She suspected, from the way that half-ghostly lamia had moved, that it was a matter of getting used to it.

She was like a stumbling baby fawn, the sort that only a monster killed, no matter how tender their meat was said to be, unless starvation and desperation took you. She wobbled one way and the next, but eventually was able to begin drying herself off. She moved slowly, feeling as if the faster she rushed the sooner she'd be forced into some new madness. Her scales felt odd beneath her fingers as she tried to dry off. There was a lot more to dry off, because her tail wasn't small on top of being long, but she worked at it.

She knew she should be freaking out, but she tried to focus on the physical tasks involved in preparing. Once that was done, she glanced around for clothing. She hadn't really explored what her body was truly like, but she wasn't interested, not now.

All of these tasks, they reminded her of what she'd done those first few years when she had her monthlies, the way she'd drown herself in mundane activities, ones she didn't have to think for.

She didn't have to think to look for her clothes, either, though she found none of them, nor her bow. She was glad the bow wasn't around, considering the wetness of the area. It was so easy to ruin a good bowstring. Finally, she felt dry enough, and so she began to move towards the door.

She was going to get better at this, at least until she could find a way to ask the God to turn her back. She could see how, if she got the hang of it, she'd probably be able to go a lot faster than expected, and with a lot more maneuverability than it felt like now, where she felt like turning was a slow, clumsy process.

Before she reached the entryway, the head of a black snake popped around the corner, as if it were popping in while leaning against the wall.

'You are up. At last, my son. We have much to talk about, and I have much to explain. Please go to the circle so that we may talk. There are clothes waiting there.'
Lotte hesitated, but followed. When she turned the corner, she saw that the snake was improbably long, stretching back to and no doubt connected to the ritual site. Despite the awkwardness and her fears, Lotte kept on moving, and clearing the steps down wasn't difficult either. She was already getting used to it… well, no, that wasn't true. She was in shock, and she knew her body and she could learn a new body if need be. In the center were a small cluster of snakes, far less impressive than the ones that had surrounded her before.

'Thank you for coming, son. It has been eighteen years since I sent you away, in Her care, directing her to find a family pious in my ways.'

Lotte blinked, staring at the snakes. Pious in… its ways? Lotte had never heard anything about the Forgotten God until it had been mentioned by the spirit of a martyr.

Lotte wracked her brain, but couldn't quite remember the specifics, except that the Forgotten God was apparently bad.

"Erm," Lotte said. "Why did you do this to me?"

'Do this? You were always thus, but hidden. I could not keep you where I reside, for it is dark and hidden. But nor could you become as this immediately, for you are no regular lamia, you are not of my people, but of divine blood, that will--'

"What do you want from me?!" Lotte demanded. "You call me son and you lie to me and you trap me here, and you turn me into this!"

'I did not turn you into this. This is who you are. And though I cannot read your mind, surely you must be jesting. It is wise and even pious of you to come here under a false name, pretending to be what humans call 'a girl' but--'

"Pretending?" Lotte burst out, furious and terrified, as if this Forgotten God was going to tell someone else the lie and they'd believe it and then they'd judge her or ask why she wasn't being a good enough woman to apparently seem like one to a God.

'It is no matter. I--'

"Explain! I don't understand any of this," Lotte said, tearing up as she glared at the snakes.

'I am trying to explain, if you will be patient and listen.'

"Listen? Why should I--"

'Because I can give you power! And I can give you a way out of here! You really are like a dog on a bone, are you not. I am a Forgotten God, exiled and cast aside, and I wish to be reborn in this world, so that I can protect my people, and all Beastfolk. I am a liar, but there is no point lying to you, because you will see through any lie I tell, in time. What is the lot of the Beastfolk in this world? Is it kindly?'

"No," Lotte said, realizing suddenly just what being a lamia meant for her. Even more than other Beastfolk, excepting the spiders, people whispered things about lamia and their hateful nature.

'It is because their fear of me drove the Gods to ignore evil, out of the hopes of harming me. It was successful. There's no need for destroying all the other Gods, if I can simply activate enough shrines and gain the strength to claw myself up and take my rightful place.'

"And you want me to help?" Lotte asked.

'It helps you as well, for it strengthens your divine essence, but also your mortal essence. It is why I could not keep you, and why you thought you were human. What is divine in you would have torn itself apart without a human shell, and what is human in you would have rotted away in the darkness, leaving only divinity. It would have made you nothing more than a shadow-puppet, an avatar, powerful but ultimately useless. So, She took you away, as She took away six before you, in exchange for her blessing upon you as upon them.'

"Who?" Lotte asked, baffled.

'It is you to answer your own questions, ultimately. I cannot.'

Lotte bit her lip, but didn't respond to that, instead asking. "What are your tenents? What am I to do?"

'You being here has activated it, but in the future you will need to act. But we can talk now, in your dreams, but only if you agree. If you do not, I am barred. You can if you want, find some cottage and never answer my call again. But if you wish to seek the truth, to seek your destiny, to change the world and find a place in it, I can guide you to it. Seventh of a seventh, unique.'

This whole time, Lotte had been talking and listening, the world having fallen away, all the sensations of the air blowing across her new snake-skin, the strange feeling of being not quite right and not quite wrong, and only in that pause did she realize just how odd she felt. It was hard to define, how did a drowning man describe air? Something was right that hadn't been right, and tears prickled at her eyes when she thought of it, unable to hold onto the anger. Perhaps she was not made for anger, perhaps anger was like a bow, and could not be held back for too long before she had to either loose it or give up the shot.

She was afraid and she was enchanted and she was confused, before this bizarre snake God.

"Seventh of a seventh?"

'The sixth came from far off lands, but gave up the quest, planted a tree and prayed to me one last time as he was taught, and then I never saw him again.'

Lotte remembered the tree, remembered Aisling's avid interest, and yet all she hadn't said.

"We call them Memento Trees."

What memories were there to forget? Lotte's mouth was dry, and her head was buzzing with questions. "Oh. And… my clothes?"

'They were beyond any care. But there are more, clothes from past days, preserved. Waiting for you. Waiting for the hero, the adventurer, who will change everything. Remake everything. I ask you to consider my words.'

Lotte nodded, slowly and hesitantly biting her lip so hard she was terrified it'd start bleeding. The lights in the room, which seemed to come from nowhere, flickered as the God stared at her. "I'll think about it. I need to get dressed first."

'Then follow… I believe I can break one out, here and now, empowered as I am by your presence.' One small, unnaturally yellow snake broke off from the mass and hissed for a moment before moving towards the back of the room and another doorway. Lotte slithered after it. The area they were going to smelled like all of those old books Lotte always hated reading, and as she moved the stone lightened and this white stone spread, overwhelming the black. So even though it wasn't that bright, Lotte could see everything as they came upon a gnarled old door that looked like it'd been made out of branches clumsily stuck together. Lotte opened it and entered, nothing to himself that it'd now take him a while to be entirely in any room he went into.

Inside, Lotte saw what had to be a bed. It wasn't quite what he expected, being low to the ground, and huge, with faded blue sheets that looked impossibly soft, and downy white pillows everywhere.

A lamia's bed, Lotte realized. Of course they'd need more space, at least unless they curled up on themselves. Which they probably would do when there wasn't a bed, just like a human would. Next to that was a dark, heavy desk, and next to that a cabinet. Lotte slithered over and opened it, and blinked. There were piles and piles of clothes, all of them men's clothes, in no particular order or size. She'd have to get a tailor to fit them to her, but perhaps she could find something fitted to someone close to her size. Much of it was too small, and there were a few pieces clearly fit for an Orime, but there were a few that worked.

None of them were, in some ways, for someone like her. They were for men, and they were well-made, and soft, even those clearly meant for hard usage. But eventually she found a grey-brown shirt about her. It fit well enough, especially without her… breasts in the way. Then she found a set of leathers that would make a sort of protective tunic, except it had an opening in the middle. It was bizarre, but she liked it, and slipping it on made her feel protected. There were even a very few archery gloves of sorts, even thinner than the ones she was used to, minorly enchanted to protect the hand. She slipped those on, and then dug around for a belt and what looked like a sort of… tan cloth wrap of sorts. Looking closer down at her body, she could see that there was some sort of opening, near and around where flesh became scales, and so she had to cover up just a little bit. It wrapped around her, without looking too bad, and the dark leather sash would hold it all in place.

'Do you wish for a mirror?'

'I… yes.'

Then there it was, suddenly before her, shimmering and clear.

*******

Even without a bow and arrow, Lotte looked impressive, imposing, like some well-born young noblewom--no, nobleman, it was no use lying to herself. Her features weren't any different, but that just meant it'd be a handsome, somewhat pretty boy rather than anything else. The only thing different about her face was that her eyes were now both blue and slightly yellow-ish, and her tongue was longer and forked. When she stuck it out, she could smell the mustiness of the room even stronger than before.

The rest of her body, above the waist, was similarly unchanged beyond the lack of breasts. The shirt and the strange vest were welcome and appreciated, and the gloves were gorgeous.

It was strange, to look in the mirror and be so happy; it was strange to look in the mirror and feel so sad.

Something was better about how Lotte looked, and something was wrong about it, and she couldn't figure out why any of it was like this!

She made faces, trying to keep a light heart, but she just couldn't help but picture it. Were her parents lying to her?

Were they monsters, secretly doing the bidding of a strange God who she remembered had been behind the assassination of a martyr… or so the martyr claimed. Unless it was a different Forgotten God, said with solemnity and fear.

Were there thousands of Forgotten Gods, with far too many names for a dullard like Lotte to understand?

But even that moment of self-loathing felt more distant. She wanted to laugh and laugh until she started crying, but instead she turned to the snake, the God.

"How do I get out of here?"

'There are two ways. One back through your former friends, one avoiding them. It is your choice.'

It meant it, too. Lotte felt as if this had to be the truth, as if the God at least knew that it couldn't do anything yet. Right?

'There are of course all of your other supplies. Also, you vomited in your sleep. So you will be hungry soon. You eat anything you would before. But you can devour raw food now without your stomach doing that strange thing human stomachs do.'

Well.

Lotte took a deep breath, and tried to think. What did she want? Her whole world had been turned upside, and she didn't know whether anyone would accept her. Not her parents, not Aisling and Naja, not… well, perhaps yes Lisbeth if they met again, but who else? Everyone knew about lamias even when they didn't know about Lotte's semi-divine nature. She wasn't going to reveal that, but what if they found out?

What does Lotte do? At least, the first thing that comes to mind.

[] S/he knows nothing about being a lamia. Perhaps it is best to find some of her (?) people, that is to say other lamia, and try to ask them. There are hidden villages, or so people say, away from 'good' people. Perhaps… perhaps she can find somewhere new to be, at least for a time until she works out how to even move half as well as she did before.
[] Lotte believes in Naja and Aisling, right? Surely if she went to talk to them, she could work things out and they could figure this out together. Lotte would have to lie, and talk about… maybe some sort of curse, rather than some divine destiny. Maybe it wouldn't even be a lie? But if she doesn't do this, she'd be leaving them behind, to worry about Lotte, to think Lotte was, quite probably, dead. But… if they are hostile, then she'd be losing them too.
[] Lotte needs to talk to her parents. Were they in on it? The Forgotten God stated it, yet Lotte had heard nothing about him. She had seemed so confident that Lotte had been taught, and it was stunned when she didn't. What were They hiding from Lotte, and for that matter were her parents ever… were they… she should just go around the back and make it back home. Even if it risks being seen, even if it risks learning her parents never loved her, or were just using her for their hidden secret religion or… or something.
[] Write-in, subject to veto.

******

A/N: I'm aware that this is a heavy and exposition-heavy update, but it's an important one.

 

[The Laurent]

1:2

There were worse crimes than distrusting a friend, Lotte knew, but Aisling and Naja had been there for her. The idea of turning her back on them… wouldn't that prove that she was a different person? She'd almost died saving them, time and again, and running away now would be saying that Lotte was no longer Lotte, just because of the tail.

She couldn't pace anymore, not really, but she moved back and forth across the room, trying to get used to how odd it felt to move. She wasn't any slower than before, though, at least not at walking speeds. There was more of her, but that was…

(No. It wasn't okay. It really wasn't okay. She was starting to think of how everything might end. Lotte had never seen a lamia before, but she'd heard all the stories, knew that they were liars and cheats, murderers and thieves. Or rather she had known. Now she wasn't sure at all. What if most of them were like that? But, people said that ratfolk were terrible but not as bad as lamia. Yet having met Lisbeth, Lotte could not imagine 'terrible' being used about her at all. So, here she was. What if lamia were like anyone else?)

That was something she'd have to live with.

The thought of going up to her parents and asking whether they were secretly plotting this the whole time was about the feeling the ground must get before it was all dugged up and planted-in. Something would grow out of it eventually, but you didn't know what. But was she the soil, or the seeds, planted and growing strange and wild and wrong? What if they hated her? What if they attacked her?

What if Aisling attacked her?

What was she supposed to do? Naja wasn't a threat, at least not physically, but she was a noble. If she hurried back home declaring Lotte was a monster, what would happen? She thought about how the descendents of the assassin who'd killed a holy martyr had been hunted down. All but one. Was there only one Forgotten God, or many?

If lamia had a God, why not ratfolk, or werewolves, or any of the other strange non-human beings that Lotte was supposed to be a part of now. Lotte didn't like thinking too much, worrying too much about things she couldn't change. She couldn't change the way people saw lamia, didn't know how she'd even try if she could.

Outside, there was no longer the endless loop. No, Lotte slithered down the road, and moved closer and closer to a free-standing door. The sun was high in the sky, but Lotte didn't know what it meant, that it was no longer night, no longer twilight. The grass was thicker than it had been before, and she felt as if perhaps it meant that time had returned to this place. She'd changed it just by being there, hadn't she? She was chosen for some great destiny that she didn't understand.

She reached out and touched the door, and could somehow hear beyond it.

"She's not coming back!" Aisling said. "I'm hurt and couldn't fight off anyone at all. We need to go. I don't like it but--"

"We don't abandon our friends." Naja's voice was as loud as Aisling's. "Do you think Lotte would turn her back on us and walk away?"

"I--"

"She wouldn't. She's not some fork-tongued noble friend of mine I'm asking you to tolerate." Naja's voice had only grown more strident. "She's true and earthy and as common as the good soil of her home."

"I'm surprised you aren't saying that with a sneer."

"Do you think that makes her any less, that she's not some deep enigma, kindness and cruelty and doubts all wrapped together?"

Lotte should have opened the door, there was even a knob, cool to the touch, the color of silver. Instead she listened.

"No, but I would have thought you would. Though I wonder about her. Why was she able to go where we couldn't? It couldn't have to do with attraction. Or did it have to do with love. Or…"

"It's not our place to question her. She's going to come back, I know she will." Naja's voice was as steady as a newborn calf.

Lotte had no sense of showmanship. There was no life in which she was a wandering player. She knew her strengths, and it didn't involve being smart, or even particularly clever. But she knew that now was the moment to show up, before she caused them even more pain. If only she'd been able to escape from the strange tentacles, she might have never learned about what she was.

Who she was.

She'd be happy with ignorance, she had to be considering how much reading bored her. She'd be happy to live her life unaware of any greater destiny, journeying out to do great deeds and perhaps one day finding something to settle down with. She wanted to make a better world, but she knew that it was the task of each man and woman to do their best with their own hands and then leave the work, like a field passed on through the generations, to the next pair of hands.

It was all anyone could do, hero or lord or peasant or even priest.

But there was no choice anymore. Nothing would ever be normal again.

Lotte threw open the door, and finally saw them again. Aisling was slumped against a wall, paler than ever, her ears aimed at the entrance. Kneeling nearby her was Naja, her handsome face tight with worry as she stood up.

"Lamia! You! Where is Lotte? What have you done to her…"

Naja trailed off as Lotte pulled herself through the door, no doubt struck by her size. "I'm sorry that I was dragged away." Lotte's voice was soft, but it carried. The air stank of blood and death, and the lamia was there still, the dead body that she had granted mercy to. "I'm even more sorry that this happened. What is behind me… isn't somewhere you should go."

"What are you saying?" Naja asked. "Where is Lotte?!"

"It is a Temple to something called the Forgotten God--"

Aisling gasped. "What? Oh. Of course. Oh no." Aisling's voice was shattered, as if a simple crack had grown until a single touch broke it apart.

"He… they, whatever it is, said several of their names and…"

Lotte paused, unsure of what to say. She couldn't tell the truth, and so she just said the first lie she could think of. "Cursed me into the form of a lamia!"

"Cursed you… then where is Lotte?" Naja asked, reaching for her sword.

"This… don't you get it?" Aisling gulped, staring at Lotte with some dread recognition. "That is Lotte… or at least it was! At least it was before she was cursed and controlled by the Forgotten God!" By the end Aisling's voice was almost a hoarse, panicked scream. Aisling tried to stand up, but all it did was end in her groaning and collapsing again, one of her smaller wounds reopening as she does.

"I'm not controlled," Lotte said, though she couldn't be sure. She felt like herself, but what if there was some secret command in her head that had made her get here. "I think? What would it feel like to be controlled?"

Aisling stared at her for a long moment, jaw slack. "What would it feel like…?"

"I've never really been controlled. Would it be him, them, I'm not sure quite what they were, telling me what to do?" Lotte frowned. "I didn't think that's what happened, though."

"Didn't think?" Naja asked, incredulously. "Surely you'd know!"

"I'm not really, uh, all that smart." Lotte flushed a little, hoping that she could hide the fact that she was lying to them about just what happened. It was better to be cursed than the daughter of a hated God. But what if they tried to cure the curse?

"And, and," Naja added desperately. "If she's cursed, can't we find a way to break the curse and live happily ever after?"

"She?" Aisling asked, looking at Lotte with some dire suspicion. "I am not--"

Lotte panicked, not sure that she had an answer for any of this. "I… uh." She flushed and shifted forward, keeping her hands carefully out of the way. "I still have my bow, and my last arrow. I almost, uh, shot the God with it."

"Lotte, no." Aisling was staring at her as if she was perhaps the dumbest being alive, which was a fair accusation, now that she thought about it.

"I didn't, though." Lotte took a breath and looked around. "It let me go. I don't… I don't fully understand it. But there was a room, and it had clothes I could steal. I still don't know how to move around like this. It's strange." She shifted a little closer, but then on seeing the tension in Aisling's faces, moved herself a bit to the left, so that she was still as far from Aisling as she was before, just at an angle.

Of course, if Aisling thought about it, she'd remember that Lotte was an archer, and wouldn't get closer to attack anyways.

"Can you explain all that has happened since we last saw you?" Naja asked.

"Yes. But do you have any bread? I'm hungry."

"Bread, and not babies' blood?" Naja asked.

Lotte made a face. "No! I'm pretty sure even, er, lamia born that way don't eat blood."

"You never know, with those sorts. That's what my Dad always says." Naja nods, not seeing the way Lotte recoils without meaning to. Aisling does, and her eyes narrow.

"Well, I'm still hungry." Lotte shook her head. "I was dragged in, and woke up on grass, with a path in front of me. It led to some sort of elaborate Temple, and when I tried to go any other way, I'd find myself looping back around as if I was in some, some circle." Lotte didn't even have words for it. "And I tried to dig up the earth, so I know that it was the same spot because the same little hole was there. Finally I just went into the Temple. There was a large bathhouse off to one side, and an altar in another room. When I got there, the God appeared… a lot of snakes, a lot of lashing tails, and said a lot of things I didn't understand." Lotte took a deep breath. "I woke up in a filled bath looking like this. I tried to go to the altar and get answers, but I didn't, and then I went and stole some clothing. My pack and everything else were just lying close to where I passed out."

All of this was true, though incomplete. Lotte bit her lip and added. "I… thought about trying to find some other way out."

"What? Why?" Naja demanded, advancing on Lotte.

"Because she was scared," Aisling said, dryly. "Considering your father would hate me because I'm not human, and you're repeating his lines like you learned them by rote, is it any wonder she was afraid?"

"I wouldn't--" Naja began.

"Now, I don't trust you Lotte, but it has nothing to do with you being a lamia now, however temporarily. I've never met a lamia, we didn't have you back on the isles. It's your connection to a dark, evil God. Perhaps even the one associated with a cultist noble family whose downfall is what led Naja to noticing you. I think you're a vessel, a tool for something you don't realize." Aisling coughed, her voice raspy and tired. "But even then, you're not acting like you should if you were hiding something like that. But you are hiding something, and I've heard stories." Aisling didn't try to get up, but she looked like she wanted to. "The Fae can turn a lover into an elf to grant her another century or two with the one she loves, there have been stories such as that, or into animals."

"Listen, it's just, a lamia--"

"Well, perhaps you'd be more enthusiastic if Lotte had become an Orime." Aisling snorted. "More muscles for you to oogle. If we're going to help her, we need information."

Lotte wiped at her eyes to clear the tears from them. "Thank you."

"Don't thank me. There's something I'm missing, like why you're flat-chested." Aisling's ears were once again sharply pointing at Lotte.

"Hey, you can't just insult a w--whoa." Naja stared at Lotte for a moment. "What happened?"

"I woke up without breasts," Lotte admitted. "Well, without visible ones. I don't know why. Do lamias not have breasts?"

"I'm pretty sure they do?" Naja sounded like she was asking a question. "At least, the illustrations of, er, evil lamia seductresses always had breasts."

"They would, wouldn't they?" Aisling asked, wryly.

Lotte was feeling rather uncomfortable, but she was also aware that these were her friends. "So…"

"We're going to help you, of course!" Naja nodded. "Also, nice outfit. You really do look like a little Lord now. Or, some King's sworn liegewoman. Something grand, I mean, y'know what I mean." She gestured vaguely, as if to say 'except for the tail.'

"I understand," Lotte said, a little nervously. "Does Aisling need any more help?"

"I can get up. Well, eventually. We need to leave here before we all get attacked by that God again." Aisling reached for some more cloth, and began to wind it over her wound, clearly intending to get up. "We also need a healer, to make sure this heals clean."

"We can afford it," Naja said.

"But then, where are we going?"

"My father's castle. He has quite a library, and there are plenty of resources to look up curses, and lamia, and this forgotten God." Naja nodded firmly.

"No, no, your father would murder Lotte over here with his guards if he even smelled anything on you. Plus he'd probably glare at me." Aisling shook her head. "Your not-brother, the one with university ties and who is very experienced and skilled, can help out. We know he's around here somewhere, and if he actually goes 'die, lamia!' it's a lot easier to run away from him and his guard than a Lord's retinue."

"Well, it's Lotte who is going to be in danger if this goes wrong!" Naja laughs awkwardly and smiles at Lotte. "So what do you say? What should we do?"

Lotte had no clue, and no real knowledge of either of the options. But at the same time, when she thought about it, there was a preference.

Which would she rather do?

[] The Siebert Estates: The less personal option, even if it involved hiding somewhere on the grounds of some lords' castle. It would be a homecoming for Aisling, one way or another, and any lordly manor, especially of an ex-ruin-explorer, would have plenty of notes… though of course the fact that Lotte lied about the curse would complicate things.
[] Karle, somewhat-brother of Naja. He is an experienced man, and even more than that has ties to Universities. Surely he knows something, and if he doesn't, he might be able to get access to some libraries that do know something. On the other hand, he and Naja don't get along well, even though he clearly cares about her despite his words. There's also the fact that Lotte lied about the curse, and that will complicate things.


Belated XP Gains From Last Adventure
XP: 3/14
+2 Successful Adventure, by some definitions
+.5 (Easy Hunting Challenge)
+2 (Medium Challenge: The Statue)
+1 (Hunters' Achievements)
+1 (Confronting the Madman)
+.5 (The Puzzle, Half-Credit)
+2 (End Of Book 1)
+1 (Transformation)
=13/14 XP

With the new Transformation comes one new free Physical racial (Lotte is still Central, Human in other respects after all) Trait (Choose 1)!

[] Steady Tail Stance (Level 1, Physical, Lamia, Hunter/Archery Based Class): It's something of a cheap trick, but it's possible to shift one's tail, or even wrap it around something, to make one's aim even steadier and harder to discomfit than if one stood steady as a human.
[] Slithering Speed (Level 2, Physical, Lamia): Learning how to move as a lamia is difficult, but once you figure it out you can move a lot faster than expected, even if your endurance isn't any greater than before.
[] Snake Eyes (Level 1, Physical, Lamia): You can see in the dark pretty well. It isn't perfect, but the night is not nearly so dark and full of dangers as you expected it would be, for whatever reason.
[] Taste Of The Air (Level 2, Physical, Lamia): You have quite an ability, though one still being drawn upon, to 'taste' the air in order to smell things that are more difficult to smell. Being a hunter, you have figured out immediately just how useful this could be to track animals or foes.
[] Iron Stomach (Level 1, Physical, Lamia): You are not quite immune to poison, but you can survive it… and in fact rotten food, a lot better than you could before you became a lamia.

*******

A/N: So, there we go. Trust… maybe not, but help? Yes.

 

[The Laurent]

1:3

Despite all their fears, leaving the prison was easier than expected. Nothing attacked them, now, and while Aisling was unwell, if wrapped up well enough she could walk for short periods. They would not be winning any speed records. But Lotte didn't think there was any rush at all, especially considering the risk that they'd learn she was lying.

Because Lotte was lying to people who cared about her, and this was a terrible feeling, especially when they kept on bringing it up.

"We'll have to avoid the villages," Aisling said once they were out in the good, clean woods air.

"I'm sorry." Lotte flushed. She was still working on how to move, and the other two were giving her a wide berth, perhaps afraid of tripping over her. That was a problem she'd have to work out, sooner or later.

"Don't apologize for not being human." Aisling sniffed. "If you turn out to be secretly infected with some sort of spell of the Forgotten God, you can apologize then. But for being yourself?"

Lotte nodded, trying not to look as ill as she felt. The sun felt good against her skin, though, and so she allowed her thoughts to drift a little as they moved. They'd have to keep off the main roads, and of course she'd have to figure out how to move more carefully. She was still learning how to move at all, but eventually she'd have to figure out how to hide her tracks. There were simple techniques that'd still apply. She was larger, but it was still just a matter of moving on hard ground or stone, right?

Beyond that? She'd have to think.

Meanwhile, she wondered whether the pleasure she felt at sunlight was the result of being a snake, or of having been in a prison for far too long. Lotte smiled and hummed to herself as they moved through the forest, slowly but surely.

"This is so strange," Lotte said, as they passed a tree that she now knew was special. She looked at it. "We're back here already." She stuck her tongue out, trying to get used to tasting the air. There had been… animals here, at least somewhat recently. She could smell their scat, ever so faintly, in a way she couldn't quite do with her nose.

"Is that a smell thing?" Aisling guessed.

"Yes. I thought I'd at least learn how all this works." Lotte didn't know whether that was okay.

"You know, this is all really interesting, even if it makes me sweat a little," Naja admitted. "We should stop for dinner here."

"Interesting?" Lotte asked.

"Well, you look good, dressed how you are. There are pluses and minuses here."

"Pluses and minuses?" Lotte had been reduced to a Liar Bird, parroting the words.

"You look more handsome, but you don't have as much of a posterior now."

Lotte blushed as hard as she ever had. "D-do you… I…"

"If you're asking if I'm still attracted to you, probably yes. The offer still stands."

"No!" Lotte couldn't imagine it, didn't want to look, had closed her eyes when going. All she can tell is that it seems to be about the same as before, but more hidden. "I… but thank you." She wasn't sure she meant it. But she did like being treated like normal, like not that much has changed. Maybe she'll hate that eventually, but right now she needs something to cling to, somewhere to sink her roots into.

"So, are you going to do the hunting?" Aisling asked. "We do have enough food, but we could use some variety."

"I only have one arrow."

"Two. I kept one of the gunky ones that didn't break." Naja pointed that out absent-mindedly as she began to clear out a patch in the dirt.

"Oh. Good. I suppose I could do something." Lotte could probably find some small critter to add a little meat to their meal, if she was lucky and careful. "But, whatever village we visit next, I'll need more arrows." Lotte winced. "I'll have to stay outside the town."

"You know, sooner or later, we're going to have to just admit that you're with us and take whatever hatred comes with it." Aisling had found a tree nearby and was resting against it. She wasn't bleeding, but she was still weak.

"That's only if we can't just solve the problem in the next few weeks," Naja said.

"If it was easy to fix, then surely we'd have heard of an easy solution before." Lotte straightened herself up, 'standing' a little taller as her tail shifted. "What about the stories of the Fae, Aisling?"

"There are stories, but being turned into an ass until the coming of the full moon, or being transformed into a rabbit to be hunted by a Wild Hunt only lasts until you escape. If it were a Fae, you'd know full well, even if it was in a rhyming riddle, what would turn you back." Aisling's voice had a musical tone to it as she continued to speak. "Instead you have been cursed, apparently without a word, into a form that seems to come with at least some familiarity."

"Comes with some familiarity?" Lotte asked.

"You're already… slithering, I suppose it'd be called, as skillfully as we are walking. Well, as Naja is walking. There's a little clumsiness, but I bet if a lamia was given legs they'd still be crawling. Even without any weakness to newfound limbs, it's still very different."

Lotte wondered whether a part of herself somehow knew how to slither. It wasn't a curse, which meant it might simply be something about her soul, or body, or how all of it worked. "You're right." Lotte shook her head. "But I can't really regret it that much. If I didn't know how to move around, this would be a lot harder."

"That's fair enough." Naja looked Lotte over, eyeing her up and down. "Y'know, we never did find a treasure of any kind. Well, unless you count friendship as a treasure."

"I do," Lotte said. She wasn't going to talk about the blessings and the curses that came along with the revelation. Even if it wasn't a curse, it was a sign that she'd never quite fit in again. She'd been cast out of the world.

Lotte tried to ignore the feeling, ignore the simple facts that even an idiot like her could notice. She wasn't going to be standing in an alehouse anytime soon--or ever again, if it came to standing--among her fellow humans, drinking down beers and smiling and laughing and--

If she arrived in that alehouse where she first met Naja, and Karle, she'd terrify everyone there, and probably start a fight.

"You really are something, Lotte." Naja was looking at her with a soft smile. "You haven't changed a bit."

"Yes. I'm surprised you were singled out for a curse, actually." Aisling had that same look that combined suspicion and trust. It was a strange look, eyebrows narrowed, but ears not quite as sharp as they might be.

"They didn't try to grab you as well?" Lotte asked. She knew they hadn't, but she wanted to be sure. Plus, wouldn't she ask that if she was really just a random victim?

"No, but we cannot tell whether this is because you were closest or they only wanted one person." Naja then added, after a moment's thought. "Or they targeted you specifically."

"Why would they?" Lotte asked. Then she added the truth, "I'm just the daughter of farmers from a small village. I'm a hunter who has been on a few adventures. There's not really a reason to grab me, is there?"

"Not that we know. But there are any number of reasons why you could be taken. It could be something about your humours balance, or your hair color, or even the emotions you were feeling at the time." Naja looked Lotte over, considered her with a rather different eye than before. She wasn't looking at her with a leer. No, Naja had a ready mind, one more flexible than Lotte's own.

If she thought about it too much, she'd figure it out.

Lotte shrugged. "I don't know. I should go and hunt, see what I can bring in. Aisling, you should rest."

"You giving me orders?" Aisling smirked at Lotte.

"No, I'm just--"

"Same ol' Lotte." Naja waved. "I'll need time to put together my speech."

"Speech?"

"Don't ask. She has a dramatic speech about Karle she's preparing, and she'll make us all listen again and again and again. So, in the interests of saving yourself one go-through, leave now.

******

Some things hadn't changed. There was a grace, a divine sort of feeling, to lining up a perfect shot. You couldn't shoot with just your arms, you had to shoot with your eyes, your chest, your fingers, your brain, and your legs… or your tail, for that matter. If there was something about you that was not just right, what you would do would be less than ideal.

Lotte had loosed plenty of arrows she was ashamed of, had known they would miss, or known they could have hit more cleanly. There were misses she respected more than hits, and even with the new tail, it worked.

Her stance was perfect, and the arrow slid through the deer's eye as carefully as someone slipping between two men with a whispered apology. The deer reeled, and collapsed. Lotte slithered over towards it, her heart singing holy hymns. The Forgotten God could steal everything from her, but it couldn't touch this moment. She was a liar, a fool, and now an outcast, but she was still a hunter.

This meant life just as much as it meant death. She went over to the body, knife in hand, to carve out what she wanted and leave the rest for any animals who wished it. She removed the guts first, took care to remove what hair she could early on as she unrolled her game bag, recently washed, and began to section out the deer.

She needed only so much, and when she was done she had to pray. She prayed to Wilfhuld out of habit, and the Waldherz for having been allowed to be a part of the forest, and Geweian, the antler'd God of competition and struggle for having taken one of his does. Lotte wondered at this, the way so many Gods were animal-like, and yet beastfolk were so hated. She knew the excuses, that their very existence was hubris, that they didn't worship the same Gods, and all sorts of words she could no longer credit.

But she had nothing new to replace it with, especially since the Forgotten God themselves might be evil. Certainly, they could be cruel, and Lotte couldn't imagine praying to Imnash right now. Still, she said in her quietest whisper, "Imnash, I know you're listening. We can't talk now, but in a few days, in a week or two, we need to discuss what all of this is. Y-you're a God. Y… you'll keep."

Lotte couldn't imagine saying that to any other God, eternal and immortal as they were. Wait--was that why the Nachtmater was sorry? Had she somehow helped the Forgotten God? She hadn't thought about the words as deeply as she should, but if that's what they meant, then she had another God to talk to.

She hoped she would keep as well, long enough to understand what had happened.

******

"So, knowing Karle, he's going to try Baddings." Naja said.

"Ah, right," Lotte said, nodding as she worked on the food. She'd never been the greatest cook in the village, but her Mom had taught her enough to get by, and she certainly knew how meat was to be treated. She had put all of it in an iron pot they had, and she'd boiled it. That and the bread they still had would be enough. Whatever meat was left would probably just be thrown away, since there didn't seem to be much enthusiasm for such lengths.

Luckily she'd figured rightly enough as to how much meat everyone would want.

"You don't know what Baddings is, at all?" Aisling was looking around at the fire, looking at the wind to calculate the breeze, and otherwise getting underfoot by simply looking at everything.

"...No," Lotte mumbled. She felt her cheeks heating up as she continued to work on the food.

"Huh. I thought everyone had heard of it," Naja said, getting a voice a little like the priest before he started an hour long rambling lecture. "It's a town that discovered a very powerful Sepult ruin a century ago. It's long since been ransacked, there's no wealth to be found there, but it was a powerful ritual site, and a place of… sacrifice, among other things. There's rumors of ghosts, cults that haunt the place… all sorts of nonsense, considering it has become an attraction for pilgrims and rich, bored, nobles--"

"Such as yourself," Aisling chimed in.

"Yes, such as--wait!" Naja blinked, and turned to glare at Aisling.

"I met Karle, he doesn't seem like either." Lotte looked from one of them to the other. "What am I missing?"

"There haven't been many university-trained scholars with his sort of experience checking it out, with a set of incredibly expensive instruments and no desire more than knowledge." Naja sniffed. "He thinks himself an altruist, finding knowledge and truth for later generations. If he found anything as dull as a pile of gold coins, he'd be in a terrible mood for months."

"He's not always in a terrible mood?" Aisling asked.

Naja frowned. "Maybe? But whenever I'm not around him for a bit I start to get fond. Better meet him again so we can go back to hating each other. Badding is just four or five days away, if we can get a mount. There should be one in the next village over we can borrow."

Their horses had, surprising nobody involved who'd thought about it--so surprising everyone but Aisling--had run away after they'd decided to not turn back at the end of the first day in the ruins. Lotte hoped they were still alive. She hadn't thought about the horses much, not knowing how to ride one with any real skill. Now she'd never learn. It didn't feel like she was missing all that much. It would mean she'd have to deal with being slower than those with a horse. But she had already expected to spend much of her time walking.

She'd just have to learn to build up her endurance even more to keep going for longer. She'd figure it all out.

"I can't, though," Lotte pointed out. "So it might take longer."

"We can afford the time. You walk--walked, pretty fast, Lotte." Naja nodded to herself, as if that was settled. "We will have to be careful about where we ride. Could we take a side-path some of the way?"

"Some of the way, but unless we go off road entirely, you're going to be seen with a lamia and an elf," Aisling pointed out.

"I know. There's a reason I decided against my father." Naja bit her lip and said. "Either way, once we reach the town, it shouldn't be too hard to find Karle. Then we can dump the problem in his lap."

"Sounds like a plan."

******

That night, after first sleep, Lotte went to use the facilities, and heard what sounded like a hiss saying, "Understood."

Well, so at least she wouldn't be bothered with any strange dreams.

******

Aisling was doing better the next day, though also acting very oddly. The wry-as-bread (Lotte was pretty sure they were spelled the same way, anyways) elf was now chipper.

"She gets like this, at the start of anything," Naja muttered, chewing on a little more of the bread they had. "She quickly falls into the bad habit of sarcasm and disillusionment when--"

"I heard you! But I do not care." Aisling grinned and said. "So, at the start of this adventure, let me pray. Fae, this is an ever-changing world we live in, where all that is true fades into lies, and all that is a lie can become true again. Protect the liars, and the true, and defend us if you will it. We shall defend ourselves, and by iron, blood, salt and bone, we shall come to some sort of truth. We seek Karle, and we seek knowledge of a curse. May we find it."

Lotte bowed her head, though she hadn't known anything about Fae before and did not afterwards. So she had no reason to suspect what came next.

"Now, if we're about it, we need a traveling song." Aisling nodded to herself. "And you're singing it too, Lotte. You can sing, can't you? And if not, you can whistle I'm sure."

Lotte looked over to Naja, who just shrugged, but with a glint in her eyes as if today was her nameday.

"Ahhh," Lotte sang out, a single pure note. Her voice was clean and crisp, on tune but untrained, a little higher than she was used to speaking, as if she were trying to escape some cage.

"You don't have to sing higher, you don't have to sing sweeter, you just have to…"

Sing a song of traveling friends
Round these corners and round these bends
Sing it low and sing it sweet,
Sing it fast and high and neat
Sing off key.
Just follow my voice.

The Fae have found a world of plenty
Yet who knows it? Not one in twenty
We rest as eggs in our pitiful shells
We tell each other ambition never sells
But take a step outside your home,
And keep on walking, dare to roam.

An Adventurer knows what to sing
We adventure, and we find,
Truth and lies and our own kind,
Wanderers, liars, heroes, more
Waiting to see what the world has in store

Lotte tried to sing the song, and tried to make it hers. She liked her voice when she let it be a little rough, when she let it be a little tired, because she was tired. She slithered through the forest, and her eyes darted at every bird call, in stretched, uncertain wonder.

It was not that long before she stopped outside of a village, and waited there. Lotte handed over an arrow for the fletcher to use as a model, though no doubt he had adequate arrows enough. The village was small, but well made, and the people must have been happy with the business, because it was not long before Naja and Aisling returned with the arrows and two horses.

The horses, big, brown ones, edged away from her. But eventually they got used to her, and if she moved at a decent enough pace, the horses could trot and she could keep up. All through the first day, and the first night, there was song after song.

Lotte could see that Aisling was slipping away from the optimistic start, could see the way Naja watched her with pursed lips and narrowed eyes, could see darting eyes and suspicions.

Lotte wondered what caused Aisling to be like this, when it was so clear she was loved.

Lotte knew she might not be loved, not if her parents heard; they could have been kind and generous and amazing if Lotte had gone back to them, but this possibility helped less than the pain of them not being so would hurt.

Roads lead to rivers, and rivers to sea
Oceans lead to the ends of the sea
That to the end of the world
So it is told, so fate unfurled
But we can never find that place

Yet onward we go!
Adventure, ho!
To the far horizon,
Bards and druids, thieves and warriors
Singing this song until it grows hoarier
All songs grow old like elves,
Slow and then fast

The races of the world all join in this:
War, death, hate, love, a kiss
And adventure, dear adventure!
Bound together like a promise kept
Adventure, dear adventure!

The sun was beautiful, the moon was shining, and Lotte was tired but not without hope. She couldn't be uncursed because she was not cursed, but she could learn something about Imnash from Karle. She could figure out what was wrong with her, and then hopefully find a way to keep the truth away from Aisling and Naja. She knew--not suspected, but knew--that they would have abandoned her if she had revealed the truth. They'd abandon her now if she told the truth, and that meant that she had to hope that nobody ever learned the truth.

It was a sickening feeling.

It was on the third day of travel that someone finally saw Lotte on the road.

They'd slowed down because Naja, noting Aisling's grim sarcasm and downtrodden arrogance, had insisted on trying to solve it. Lotte had left so that she didn't have to hear the results of that. So they were behind schedule, but it should be fine. "Karle," Naja said, "Is meticulous."

A carriage kicked up dust as they walked, in the distance, big and black and supremely ugly to Lotte's practical eye. The driver's eyes went wide, and the horse skidded to a clumsy start. The driver--a thickset man with greying hair-- knocked on the door of the carriage.

"What is it?" a woman's voice called.

"Highway bandits. One of them's nicely dressed, but one of them's a damn snake." He made no attempt to keep his voice lower.

"Highway bandits?" Naja snifted, looking angrily at them. Then she yelled out, "My good man, I am Naja von Siebert, heir to the Siebert estates, and I am horsed as well! What bandit would have horses? Aren't they called footmen?"

Aisling, on the other hand, just sighed.

She was still sighing when a man came out wielding a crossbow. His black beard was like the tangle of a forest at night, and his clothes were dark, trimmed with gold. "Are you now? Well, I am Humboldt von Konik, Lord of Isse and Baron of Barewore. And I never saw a noble with a snake on the retinue. Is it a prisoner?"

"She is a friend, and I will have you put away that crossbow or you shall taste my steel in a gentlewomanly duel," Naja insisted, riding forward despite the crossbow pointed in his direction. "If a Konik even knows the meaning of such a thing."

"What do you mean by that?" Humboldt said.

"Everyone knows the Konik were in trade two-hundred years ago, and still have family so burdened by such… peculiar monetary ambitions." Naja sniffed, and in that moment was perhaps the most obnoxious person alive. "Now do you believe who I say I am? Or do I have to mention having met your wife, hidden away in there, once at a party."

"That doesn't explain the snake, it--"

"She."

"Are you sure it's a she, perhaps snakes--"

"Humboldt, if that is your name. Speak again and you have two challenges," Aisling said.

"If that is my name?"

"Can you merely sling but not face silly accusations, short-lived fool?" Aisling had swung herself off the horse, and glared at them. "Now move out of our way."

"Fine. It is no problem, but that Naja von Siebert consorts with lamia will be known!"

"Let it be known. No fool would believe your stories," Naja said. "Now, let us pass."

"I shall, then."

Humboldt was perhaps many sorts of cad, but he did not fire on her retreating back, and soon enough they were past.

"You didn't have to do that," Lotte said.

"Do what?"

"Hurt your reputation on my behalf."

"Lotte, I would do far more than that on your behalf," Naja said. "You don't deserve to be treated this way."

Lotte felt sick, thinking of how much she was lying to those so kind to her. She opened her mouth to speak, but in that moment a bird cried out and Aisling's shifty gaze looked up. Her moment of suspicion, as if this was some unusual sound, broke the moment, and Lotte resolved that she should tell them… some day.

And should the road finally end
Should I find some suitable friend
Should I settle like a rock in place
Look at my eyes, look at my face
Am I still alive at all?!

Sing it high and sing it low
Sing it fast, sing it slow
Sing it deep, it is no holy psalm
Sing it angry, sing it calm
We are adventurers! The road is our way
Today is our day!

On the fifth day, they reached the sign. It was an absurd thing, a sign outside of the valley a village rested in. Why would you need a sign? Why wouldn't you just know what the village was called, or go into the village to ask?

But it was stuck in the ground, held up by two poles, and painted white, with the words in blue.

'Badding, Home of Ruines, Misteries, and Sekrets.'

Naja snorted at that. "Really?"

"Secrets is spelt kind of funny," Lotte said. "Though, the Priest told me that there wasn't a set spelling."

"Sure, but… Ruines?" Naja asked.

"Doesn't that about sound how it's said?" Aisling asked. "I don't see the--"

"Come on, you can't really…"

The bickering lasted the rest of the journey.

But where are they going?

[] They could wait outside the town, and have Naja go in and send a message for Karle. This would be the most discreet, but might take some time until he arrives. Then, it's a matter of whether he'll go to meet her or not.
[] They could journey into the ruins to meet him. It would be faster, and in some ways more private… but there would be the risk of assistants or other explorers being around to see Lotte, unlike with having Lotte wait out of the way for Karle to be led to her.
[] Write-in.

******

A/N: And so it goes!

 

[The Laurent]

1:4

Lotte had to wait in the trees nearby while they went down to the town to talk. It was a town, or at least a large enough village that Lotte wished she could visit. But she didn't need to be told how dangerous visiting the village could be. She wasn't secure in her own form, at least not entirely, and she would be expected to defend herself against dark accusations, glares, and perhaps worse?

Lotte had seen none of the cruelty that Naja's haunted, dark stare promised. She never wanted to. But eventually she'd have to either live entirely in the wilderness without others around, or trust people to see who she was. But who was that? If she didn't know that answer, then what was she doing here?

When Lotte thought that she'd have to wait with the trees, it was what she meant. Not the woods, and certainly not the forest. Most of the trees of the valley had long since been stripped out in order to better see the scar upon the earth, and the piles of stones that rested upon it, visible and glowing at night. The building wasn't all that large, but it stood out now as it had not before.

It seemed a mockery to Lotte, but one that she couldn't exactly criticize. After all, they were just doing what they could to survive. It did seem as if they must have trouble getting enough wood to survive without importing it. But it wasn't Lotte's business. People far wiser and smarter than her had no doubt thought through all the consequences long before she was born.

In Lotte's experience, it was a mistake to assume one's elders were fools. Lotte knew plenty of young men and women her age who acted the fool, who drank too much and called their parents village idiot and otherwise behaved terribly. Lotte had left, but she would no more act to dishonor them, then…

But then what was her lying? What was her transformation. It wasn't her choice, but you could dishonor from lack of choice. She was no noble, to hold her honor dearer than anything else. But a person's word was supposed to mean something. A person who didn't keep their word was like a bow too rotted to loose an arrow, a shirt too tattered to keep out the chill.

If a person could not say what they were going to do, and then do it, then where was anyone in this world? Oh, sure, the nobles lied and schemed, but the people who made the world work were supposed to be different.

Nobody could get away with more than the pettiest dishonesties in a village as small as Lotte's. At least, not professional ones. In their personal lives… Lotte thought of the fights spouses could have, and shuddered.

As it was, Lotte couldn't ramble and walk with so little space to walk, so instead she found a clearing in the woods that there was, a ways away from the village-facing side, and lay on a rock. It was enjoyable to soak up the sun, and she wanted to think. She indeed did, thinking circles around her like a dog that had caught the wrong scent.

Shouldn't she be pursuing the truth? Instead, here she was, lying to those she cared for, in order to get answers she hadn't needed. What would she learn that was new from all of this? The curse didn't exist. She'd learned more in the last hour, such as that the sun could make her sleepy in a pleasant way, and that her body was all but made for reclining now. The lower half, at least, could coil in itself to take up only a little more space than she would have sitting as a human. It wasn't uncomfortable at all, and it was remarkable how much her body, if not her mind, took these changes in stride. Of course it would, if this was the true her.

All the same, she still allowed herself to relax. She even learned, after getting bored enough, that she could sleep on her own coils. They were not soft, because even her snake half was strongly muscled, thankfully enough. But there was a give to them, and it was a little like how sometimes heroes would sleep on the lap of their beloved.

Now, Lotte was no fool, and had managed to guess that there was, on top of anything intimate and romantic, perhaps some…

Well, perhaps she was supposed to assume that 'sleeping on the lap' implied sex. But it was just such a romantic picture all on its own, wasn't it? The closeness, the care, the trust. There was none of that here, but it was still impressive. That at least inspired Lotte to wonder whether there were any magical powers that came with the form. Lotte wasn't all that interested, but she did spend a few minutes straining her eyes to try to make something happy, biting at her hand as if it would turn into a giant pair of venomous fangs, and otherwise messing around. She felt something that might be eyestrain, and at the end a fluttering in her stomach, but nothing more than that.

Eventually Lotte gave up, and decided that she should practice her archery. She'd been hunting a little to help feed them over the journey there, but she hadn't done the sort of focused practice that you were supposed to do if you wanted to get better. She'd made her way to a likely spot in the pitiful clump of trees when she heard rustling. She slithered back, and then relaxed when she saw Naja and Aisling.

"Well, they've been bribed to tell Karle that Naja von Siebert desperately needs to talk to him, and will be waiting in the forest for his arrival, and that it is a matter of life and death," Naja said.

"This isn't a forest," Lotte said, with all the stubbornness of someone who had actually ever gone into a forest of her own volition, and thus knew what a forest actually was. Lotte was rather determined to press this very essential fact.

"Well, whatever it is. I'm sure Karle would call it a forest."

"Or would he point out that in a book there was a size definition of forest, and this did not count," Aisling pointed out, fetching up a devious smile.

"Forests aren't about that either," Lotte said. "Not… entirely."

"Then what?" Naja asked.

"The Waldherz. His presence makes a place a forest or not." Lotte frowned. This wasn't obscure theology that she'd read in a dusty book, but the common knowledge that anyone should have.

"That is very pious of you," Aisling pointed out. "But then what about all of the wooded areas of my homeland. There is not, as far as I can tell, the Waldherz in any of those."

"Perhaps some Fae serve that purpose?" Naja asked, with a playful look on her face.

"Fae are not Gods," Aisling said, as if she'd said this a thousand times before. "However, this is all besides the point."

Lotte, who thought it was in fact the exact point, resolved to whittle some tokens to thank the Waldherz and other Gods for all they'd done for the world. Lotte could not know whether any of the Gods would even accept her efforts anymore. If she really was a demi-God of some manner, and to a God opposed to at least some of their principles, then were her prayers really meaningful?

Well, even if they weren't, she was going to pray. If you prayed only to get results, only to obtain things from a God, what sort of worshipper were you? She only hoped the Gods would hear and then ignore her prayers, rather than seeing her as something worthy of opposition or attack.

Still, she would keep faith. It was not their fault she had been as she was. If she had not visited a temple, how long might she have not known what she was?

"Are you okay, Lotte? You look rather distant," Naja said.

"Just enjoying the sun," Lotte said, and laughed to make the lie more convincing.

They all stared at her. "Well?" Aisling asked.

"What if it is, uh. What if it can't be undone?" Lotte asked.

"Then you live your life." Aisling shook her head. "There isn't really any other option. You're still an adventurer, aren't you?"

"Yes," Lotte said slowly, without enthusiasm. How could she help people when she couldn't help herself?

"You want to help people, you want to make money, you're still a good archer, and you're still attractive and wholesome looking, I mean, at least your face is." Naja said it all in good cheer, though she flushed a little at the end, wiping her brows. "I mean, I have offered plenty of times if you wanted to join in. Do you think that's because being temporarily transformed into a lamia made me pity you?"

"I, er." Lotte coughed. "I'm not sure if I want to have… sex with anyone I don't love."

"Oh. You're the marrying type?" Aisling asked, frowning thoughtfully.

"I guess?" Where she came from, basically everyone got married if they lived long enough and could afford it. Even the drunken layabouts usually managed it, though pity their husbands or wives. "I also, I dunno, feel a little uncomfortable with the idea of it."

Now Naja was frowning, all of the serious, important talk forgotten to gossip about Lotte's love life. "If we were making you uncomfortable we--"

"Do not apologize, but perhaps we might have been softer. I could have put a gag in Naja's mouth." Aisling interrupted smoothly, glaring at Naja.

Lotte couldn't help but laugh at that, the sound forcing itself out of a throat which had had very little to laugh about these past few days. "No, no, it's not that. I've even kissed someone before. Two someone's." Though only one was worth remembering, only one brought a feeling of warmth to her stomach now, after all that had happened.

"So?" Aisling asked. "What's…"

"I'm in a new body, of course I'm uncomfortable."

"That makes sense." Naja nodded, having apparently realized that Lotte almost felt hunted by some of the words, especially since what if she revealed she'd be stuck like this, and already knew it. "All of it?"

"What?" Lotte asked.

"Do you hate all the changes? Including." She gestured towards her own modest, attractive bustline.

Lotte stammered, "Of course!"

"Naja, could you go gather wood for our fire?" Aisling asked.

"What would I know about--oh. Of course." Naja bit her lip, eyes darting over to Lotte. "Are you sure--"

"I am sure."

Naja left, no doubt to find the wrong kinds of sticks. But Lotte had a feeling she wasn't getting away."

*****

"Do you really not want to tell me the truth? If you just calmly say it and mean it, I'll stop asking. But I'm trying to figure all of this out," Aisling said, with a nod.

"I… well, they did get in the way a little. It's just practical. I'm sure any woman who was an archer would agree."

"Or a warrior?" Aisling asked, her tone light and understanding.

"Yes, see."

"Except… no. I've met women who wished they had smaller than a solid handful, and certainly you were not, er, poorly endowed. But I doubt any of them would want to lose it all."

Lotte blinked at her. It didn't make any sense. Why not? Sure, she understood if one was someone… well, she could at least understand how giving a babe suck might be difficult. But if one was an adventurer--

Then again, she wanted to get married, right? But the idea of suckling a babe didn't seem pleasant. Surely she wasn't like the nobles who had a wetnurse? Though, perhaps…

"You're worrying, now." Aisling frowned, looking Lotte over. "So, you don't miss having breasts?"

Lotte hesitated and then shook her head. "I'm fine without." This was a lie: she felt more than fine. At the thought of getting breasts back, something inside her whined like a dying animal. "I don't, I mean. It's not that unusual. You said some would prefer smaller, I just prefer a little smaller than others."

She still had breasts, after all! Well, sort of.

Aisling looked at her dryly. "Is there anything else? Do you like looking like a lamia?"

"No," Lotte said. Lotte looked her in the eye and said it simply and honestly.

"Okay, I believe that. But there were two reasons why I was asking, Lotte. Well, three. First, I was just curious and if curiosity does kill the cat like they say--"

Lotte had never heard that saying.

"Well, at the moment death wouldn't be so bad, really." Aisling shrugged as if she had not said something incredibly distressing with a wry smile on her face. "Second, I have a suspicion I'll not voice until I'm sure. Third, I think this may be part of the curse."

"What?"

"If there are parts of your appearance now you like better, and you had to get rid of them to go back to being human, would you?"

Lotte stared at Aisling as the wind whistled through the trees above. And what if… what if continuing to serve Imnash led to more transformations? What if she was enough of a freak, not normal enough, that she liked some of those as well? How had Imnash known she would have liked a smaller bust? It made her wonder. "I think so, but I'd rather not. Can a curse be reversed in part?"

"I dunno. That's why we're getting Karle to help us. Just think about it."

Lotte did, even after Naja stumbled back with dew-damp sticks of green wood.

She thought the next day, as she began to carve some totems as she waited. First, she carved a Waldherz to dedicate, and then what were known as prayer-sticks. It was difficult to carve the likeness of some Gods without being far better than Lotte was. But the Gods would accept sticks with their symbols on them for the purpose of praying. Lotte used tree branches to carve the full and crescent moons, as well as the wings, for the Nachtmater, and a far smaller one for Mite, the God of desperate causes.

(He aided the poor and the meek, and spread himself so thin that his help was always small, but the fact that he helped anyone was infamous. It was said of someone terrible that "Even Mite would not aid them." Lotte hoped that Mite would aid her.)

There were a few others, carefully made over a day of waiting, and then that night before her second sleep she prayed to the Nachtmater. The next morning she was praying to Mite when Karle and his guard finally arrived.

They made noise enough that Lotte heard them coming a long way off. Aisling's ears swiveled to hear them, and Naja slowly got the picture and stood up, smoothing down her trousers and looking around as if hoping for a mirror or some present for her guest.

"So, Naja, what is this about? There's no way you'd contact me unless your request was… Lotte?"

Lotte was rather stunned that he'd recognized her, considering she was coiled up against a rock.

"Is that you? You seem to have changed rather drastically since we last met. However, the hair seems familiar, and so does the bow."

"Yup. That's Lotte. He got hit by a--"

"She," Naja corrected, helpfully.

Lotte blushed, but didn't say anything about the exchange. She still didn't understand what Aisling was arguing.

"So, she was transformed by a curse?" Karle asked. He was covered in dust and looked as if he'd slept in a tomb, but his eyes were bright. His guard, still in her chainmail, gave a friendly wave to everyone, though her eyes were hard. "And you want my help?"

"I know that you don't want to help," Naja began grandly. "But I am calling in the favor I have--"

"Oh, of course I will help. This is fascinating, truly it is, and I feel for Lotte. Certainly you will find no errant bigotries in a university trained man, unlike others." He glanced over at Naja, who hadn't seemed to realize he said yes.

"I know you deny any familial sentiment, but surely you cannot deny a favor, not when--"

"As well, there is something to be said for understanding more of this curse. Especially since it must be of great import. To have been cursed by the one whose agent you exposed mere weeks before? It is the start of something that I wish to understand."

"Oh. That's a yes?"

"Yes it is, you fool." Karle shook his head. "We'll be going to a hidden library I know. There is a group I am part of that maintains them, and this particular one is not that far from here."

"Oh! I know what you're talking about. But really?" Naja made a face.

"It is not as if the nuns and monks of the Nachtmater mind a secret hidden library beneath them," Aisling muttered.

"You told her?"

"It's pillow talk, sir," the guard said. "If it were wise, it would not be spoken of so. It does no harm."

"Does it?" he asked.

"Everyone on the road's heard of the Secret Libraries of the Corner Club."

...actually, it did sound familiar. Vaguely. She'd heard a story of it, once. A club of nobles and non-nobles dedicated to knowledge, who swore to honor all Gods therein. She hadn't heard anything about the secret libraries, but in truth she'd been more interested in the idea of them adventuring to recover lost knowledge. Libraries, as far as Lotte could tell, were entirely useless to a dullard like her.

...except now they weren't.

"Yes. You'll each have to have some piece of knowledge, or wisdom, to share in order to enter," Karle said. "At least, if you haven't shared anything this year. You all agree to go, right?"

"O-oh. I thought this would be harder," Naja admitted.

"Are you kidding me? This will be a most excellent adventure, especially compared to the disappointments of my own trip."

"You know what. Tell me about them," Naja said, and for a moment it was almost like they were family.

Then they started arguing about translations.

During the Trek, What Does Lotte do? (Choose 1)

[] Karle's instant, if brusque and wordy, acceptance of Lotte was… bizarre and baffling. Perhaps Karle knew something about lamias or lamia culture?
[] His guard seems a friendly enough sort, and the type who wouldn't press Lotte too much, if asked not to.
[] What did Aisling mean about the… everything.
[] Sometimes isolation can be a good thing. Perhaps she could train her archery on her own, and try to improve herself while she's at it.


What knowledge or Wisdom does Lotte *try* to use? (Choose 1)

[] Try to think of some folk saying they haven't heard before, some piece of wise story or cant.
[] Carve an image of the Nachtmater from memory and personal experience: surely not everyone has seen Her in person.
[] ...one of the names of the Forgotten God would certainly count, though it'd certainly be revealing to at least whoever she was telling it to.
[] Write-in.

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A/N: So, there we go.