Author's Preface
“What do we do? Don’t just stand there in shock, like we’ve done fucking three times already in this whole scouting trip!”
In the aftermath of the shadow’s devouring - those words echoed too loudly in the silent chamber.
For a long moment, no one answered. The three remaining scouts stood in a loose circle, the weight of absence pressing down harder than the incredibly powerful foe they just survived.
“D-don’t ask me!” Leila’s tattoo flared up, the radiant stars on her hand briefly flaring up. “A giant mal'un shadow just swallowed him up, after we survived fighting against that bitch, right after we survived fighting the Ancient Watcher!” She hugged her arms, suddenly looking smaller.
“We’ve gone through more in a few hours than most do in their entire lives! And… now. Nassor… Mister Reddy… Miss Singh…”
Arjuna stared at the empty tiles where his brother had stood, green eyes glassy. His fingers twitched toward his bow, then fell limp. “I… I don’t know,” he mumbled. “What’s there to do?”
Kazan broke the silence with a low grunt. He leaned against the wall, clumsily finishing the bandage around his stump with his teeth and remaining hand. The greyed flesh still leaked faint black mist.
“Calm… calm down,” he muttered, more to himself than the others. “That Overseer bitch sounded jealous at the end. Like her goddess picked the wrong toy. Unless she’s the type to throw her whole life away for her god… maybe Nassor’s not dead. Just… somewhere else.”
They took a moment to let his words settle in. Thoughts scattered across the faces of each scout.
It wasn’t a comforting sentence, but… it was something to hang on to.
“... we have to head deeper.”
Leila took a slow breath. Then stepped forward and placed a hand on each of their shoulders, forcing steel into her pretty features.
“This room is completely empty now. The Scales themselves disappeared. So… nothing else to do but head deeper,” she reasoned calmly. “We haven’t even reached the depths of the Royal Tombs yet. So maybe there’s something else. Besides,” a weak smile tugged at her soft red lips. “We haven’t even accomplished your original objective. Securing a route to the treasures.”
Arjuna exhaled shakily, then nodded. “You’re right. No point in moping. We’ve faced worse… like kashvi has said.” He offered her a small, grateful smile.
Leila couldn’t help her smile growing a bit more. “I’m a shining star now, Juna? You always had a way with words…” she didn’t do more than stroke his cheek - for now. “Well! You heard him, Kazan. We’ll press on, maybe find some way to bring him back… and if not? We come back here - and just sit and wait. Sounds good?”
Kazan pushed off the wall, gripping his staff. “... yeah, that’s the logical option, I guess. We’ll have time to process all this bullshit… and my lost arm… while we walk,” he grumbled “C’mon.” He flashed a crooked smirk. “Before I lose my mature guy mask and start freakin’ out.”
It wasn’t much, but the familiar rhythm of teasing settled over them like a thin, frayed blanket. A distraction. A way to keep moving when every instinct screamed to curl up in the dark.
Past the antechamber was a second vast hallway, still lined with black tiles, the walls a deep purple.
Sweeping, grand, and much larger than any previous hallway. There were bits of old, broken furniture along the walls. Halls leading down to different smaller chambers… but the group’s focus remained on the last massive door ahead. And of course…
“Man. Looks like that weird darkness is mostly gone,” Kazan remarked, his pace a bit slower than the rest. The residual bit of limb was held close to his chest. “Never thought I’d be happy to see these automating blue torches again…”
Leila and Arjuna glanced back, smiling faintly. Their paces slowed just a tad - and they broke formation, walking alongside Kazan.
“Definitely,” the Heiress chuckled. “Staring at Azarin’s dark flames… ugh. I felt shivers down my spine all the time. I wasn’t close to her at all, but still. Seeing her act so normal yet twisted…”
“Tell me about it,” Kazan groaned. “Acting all noble-like. Then what, bitch was patting my head like I was a kid after! I ain’t no kid! If it was that one dancer from that little pub back in the village, then maybe I woulda liked it, but…”
Arjuna burst into soft, genuine laughter. “Yes, I know you would. Leila hasn’t been introduced to your little eccentricities, has she?” He turned to the Heiress with a smile, his steps light on tile. “Kazan most certainly likes tall, gentle women.”
“Hahahaha!”
Leila floated over to the other side, walking at Kazan’s right. A little smirk on her face.
“Don’t worry,” she whispered conspiratorially. “It’s not like little Juna can talk. He also adores when I smother him with my-”
“AHEM!”
Stark red had flushed the cheeks of one slim, delicate, soft-faced archer.
“W-we should be focusing a bit more, no?” Arjuna stammered, eyes straight ahead. “Look! T-there’s another Azurite door up there. Um… shouldn’t we be ready for more enemies, or traps?”
“... honestly? I think not,” Leila responded smoothly. That impish little grin turned into a faint grimace - as she thought back to the last chamber, before… “... I assume those Watcher remains and the other corpses… At least some of them were guards from deeper in the tombs. But traps? Perhaps.”
It seemed that the cheerful attitude had settled once more. A brief distraction from the horrors they had just faced… back to the cold, dank air of the Mystic Royal Tombs.
Leila took a deep breath, as the trio reached the end of the hallway. Her hand pulsed with Star Magic again, right on the door’s center mass…
“Let’s see if this is the jackpot.”
“Nassor…”
“Handsome young man…”
“Big hero!”
“You cheating scoundrel-!”
All those voices kept rushing into my ears. Drowning me in a cacophony of dissonant madness. Swirling like incense smoke, sweet and cloying, layering over one another until they became a single, velvet murmur inside my skull.
Loud. Too loud. And then the writhing, shifting, dark elephant in the room…
“... the hell am I even looking at?” I murmured, staring into the being descending from… the floor? The sky? “Are Gods supposed to be this… I dunno. Fragmented?”
Too confusing. Along with the mysteries of the floor being the night sky, and the ceiling being the dunes of Solara - but my gaze was still drawn to that being.
I stared right into the multitude of faces. Faces I knew, and faces I didn’t. But mostly those I knew.
Leila. The innkeeper. That barmaid from that one pub. One of those dancers with the veils. Hell, even that one lady who was folding clothes outside, when we were walking to the tombs.
Shit. This was messed up. Although-
“... why are you all so gorgeous?” I couldn’t help but say it. Even in the face of… whatever that crazy Overseer had called this thing. “Swear yer making them prettier than they actually are. A bit thicker too. Maybe.”
“ Ahahaha… is… it… working…?”
A smile fluttered across the being’s face, as she got closer and closer to me. And the closer she got, the less it felt like I could breathe.
And then a shape finally pulled itself together right in front of me. Woman-like, but alien. Tall and sinuous, obsidian skin that drank in the light. Her hair drifted like it was underwater… or maybe no gravity.
Two arms. Four arms. Six arms - before settling to two human, slim, fair arms with a slight amount of muscle.
And those eyes… deep red slits that felt ancient. Hungry. Almost loving.
A low, velvet laugh brushed against my ear even though her lips hadn’t moved.
Then I felt it. Something was moving behind me. I squinted so I could get a better look…
OH. Oh hell no-
“I dunno if it’s working,” I retorted, my usual cocky grin as my shield. “But you’re real handsy, Miss. Or… what is it. Uh… tailsy?”
That long, creeping dark thing trying to be a snake’s tail had wrapped around my arm. It was midnight black too, with some shining spiral masses within, things I had no clue what they were. Masses of stars? Of Jiu energy? Dunno.
The tip of that “tail” tilted my head up, letting me gaze right into those eyes…
“ You jest to hide your fear,” came the woman’s voice. She chose to settle on an older, soft, yet commanding voice. “You have never felt unease until today. You froze while fighting her. I can change that, puppy.”
… puppy? Did she seriously just call me that? First it was Azarin calling me a damn desert mutt, and now-
“ No thinking out to yourself,” the god spoke. “You’d never have to be afraid. Never have to show weakness. Be the true leader that you are. Just think.”
I wanted to speak. To make my usual sarcastic remarks. But that weight on my chest. The tail around my arm. The vision of inhuman beauty in front of me…
And how memories began to flood my mind, all sparkly and heart-warming. Visions of me and Arjuna back at the orphanage, with the matron. Leila’s laughter. Teasing Kazan. The rush of going full-power Flow. Winning fights. Eatin' good foods. Sports with the rest of the mercenary band. Even Captain Raktam's small bits of teaching.
But then the darker stuff crept in too. The times I’d frozen. The fear that I was all talk. That Arjuna was the better one. My own dark, nasty thoughts that were blasphemy to say out loud.
I'm his older brother, for crying out loud. Is wrong that I think I should be better at most things? Be a little cooler, a little more wise? So what if I was cocky about it too? Arjuna didn't need a shitty, anxiety-ridden older brother to guide him, to be his sun. No way.
“Think. Recall. Envision, puppy. People fawn over your brother as well. He’s fragile. Even more cowardly. The Heiress even favors him over you…”
A forked, flitted tongue writhed out of unearthly, plump red lips.
“... is he even your brother? Blood tells stories, and blood tells all. You see it. Only your ambitions may rise... Nymeria doesn't have two suns in the sky.”
CRASH!!!
“Enough of this absolute bullshit , monster.”
My fist came lashed out before I even could think about it. That slight bit of an opening gave me a chance to jump back. I stood up taller - facing the monstrous goddess or monster or whatever the fuck this was head on.
“You don’t know me. And you don’t know Arjuna,” I scoffed. “I’ll be honest. You were kind of on the nail with half of what you were saying. I WAS a coward. For a moment. And I DID make stupid bullrush at Azarin earlier. But that don’t excuse shit. ”
I pointed my finger - both fists glowing with that deep red-gold of Jiu, straight from my heart. My SOUL.
“My brother’s off-limits for any sorta bullying from anyone but ME. And if I wanted to crawl into bed with a cold-blooded, brainless reptile, I'd find a swamp. At least the mud there has some personality, some they didn’t steal from my memories!”
Heh. Good one, me. Write that down for later. Maybe use it against a cultist, or that Overseer. And if I survived.
“Besides,” I shook my head - clenching that pointing hand into a tight fist. “I might be an arrogant piece of shit at times. But I earned all of my skills. Didn’t inherit it from no mystical ancient bloodline, or get a hand-me-down from a scheming god-bitch. I’d rather be weak than take your damn power. Now…”
My stance shifted. One foot behind the other. Fists up. Muscles screaming and ready to go.
“Kick me out, or we’re fightin’ right here, scale tits~!”