Bel hoisted Flann’s small body onto her back and ran. Despair wrapped its tendrils around her heart the moment she entered the endless hallway.
“You got any movement abilities?” a voice asked.
Bel was surprised to see the whip-wielding delver woman running beside her. The woman laughed.
“I guess you really did forget about the rest of us.”
“Sorry,” Bel panted, “I’m sorry this was a disaster. I just don’t want him to die for it.”
“I gotcha,” the woman replied. “We got that Clark guy though, so it wasn’t all bad. Always hated the shit outta that guy. Pretty sure he skinned my grandad for a coat.”
Bel’s mouth opened, but she wasn’t sure how to respond.
“Look, I’ve got an ability that can take us to the end of the hallway. I’ll probably pass out after using it, but it’ll save you some time. Just have the other furry man look after me until I wake up.”
Bel slowed to a stop. “Sure. That sounds good.”
“You ready?”
“Any time.”
The woman gripped Bel’s wrist with one hand and unfurled her whip with the other.
“Don’t resist,” the woman warned her.
She snapped her whip forward and Bel felt a painful pull upon her core. Her instincts told her to fight it, but she forced herself to relax. Something weird happened, and she found herself sprawled across the ground at the end of the tunnel.
“What in the heavens! When’d you learn to become lightning?” Jan shouted.
She heard the soft scuffing of his feet upon the floor. His steps paused, and then the pace quickened.
“Flann! What happened!”
“I’m taking him to get healed,” Bel groaned.
“But what happened!”
“Technis kicked our ass,” she slurred. She was having a lot of trouble sorting out her limbs, and thinking wasn’t going great either. “I need to get up.”
“He’s got so many broken bones,” Jan wailed.
The sorrow in his voice cleared the fog from her mind. She sat up and looked around, finding the passed out delver on one side and Flann on the other. Jan had pulled him into a tender embrace, and Bel felt like the worst person in the world.
“Do you have enough energy to help get us to the top?” Bel asked.
Jan shook his head sadly.
“Then let me take him,” Bel said. “Everyone else was too injured to help.”
Jan hesitantly let Bel lift Jan back onto her shoulders. “Look after the delver,” Bel said, only then realizing that she’d never learned the woman’s name. “The others are still at the end of the hallway, and I’ll come back once I take Flann to a healer.”
She barely waited for Jan to nod – just a sad tilt of his whiskered face – before she turned and ran. She wanted to pounce, to skip straight to the top, but she worried that it would be too jarring for the injured fox.
Bel manipulated the armor on her back so that it would hold Flann in place as she went, and ran as smoothly as she could manage.
“Sorry Flann! If only I had wings,” she lamented once again.
If only I wasn’t such a disaster for everyone around me.
Bel emerged onto the surface sore and soaked with sweat. Before she could get her bearings, she instinctively manipulated her armor into a shield to block the venom-coated fangs of a giant spider. She had managed to forget the chaos she had left behind.
She pushed the spider upwards, keeping its flailing limbs away from her face and Flann. They were locked at an impasse until a flaming spirit leaped upon the spider’s back, and an inferno quickly spread across its hairy body. As it writhed in pain, Bel stepped back and kicked it, channeling a shockwave that nearly ripped it in half.
The spirit – a miniature woman who looked a little like Dutcha, but with four arms and the jaws of an alligator – cackled with pleasure and bounded off.
Right. How could I forgot about this mess.
She cast about, desperate for a quick and easy way out, but there was nothing. If it had just been her, she would have wind stepped, but she had never attempted it with another person. It could work like the delver’s lightning ability – or it could permanently turn Flann into a puff of air. That was a real possibility with Dutcha’s abilities.
Bel grit her teeth and resumed her run. Her path was quickly blocked by a giant, but he had his back to her. She hit it in the back of the knee and snapped his neck once he fell. That got her a spear, which she could use once she’d liquified it and pulled the too-long shaft in half.
She immediately put it to use, impaling a flying lizard that attempted to crush her in its talons. When she pulled the spear from the lizard’s body, she destabilized it and threw it into a group of three giants that charging at her.
The explosion killed the three of them, which was good, but the noise attracted a group of giant spiders, which was bad. The fire from the explosion also attracted a group of spirits, which was both good and bad. The spirits set the spiders on fire, but they also set the surrounding field of churned mud aflame too, in spite of the material’s usual lack of flammability. Bel was forced to take a long trip around, until she came upon the corpse of one of the tower worms. It lay like a bridge over the flames, offering Bel a safe path out of the battlefield.
She used her nails to pull herself up the side of the slain beast and hurried along its body. The long corpse spanned the dessicated moat as well as the conflagration, and Bel was just thinking that she had made it past the mayhem when the belly of the worm split open in front of her, disgorging a writhing mass of baby towers.
“Oh, come on!” Bel screamed.
The worms were born hungry and evil, apparently. They turned upon her with vile glee. Their miniature crenelations snapped hungrily as they wiggled towards her. Bel attempted to end the fight quickly with liberate essence, but, even newborn, their cores were too strong for the attack. She was compelled to put Flann down for safety before she engaged the dozen human-length monsters.
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Bel manipulated most of her armor into a large hammer and dashed towards the nearest one. She planted her heel and put all of her anger and frustration into a body-bending blow to what she presumed was its skull. It cracked open in a satisfying manner, splattering its gray blood and goopy innards all around. Her satisfaction was short-lived though, and the remaining worms didn’t even slow their assault. Bel dodged the snaps of the first one, but the second painfully clamped its face around her leg. She reflexively slammed a liquid shockwave into it, shattering its face into pieces, and limped away to gain more space.
Her hammer was effective, but she decided that swinging it left her too vulnerable. She manipulated it, skimming off a third of the weight into protection for her arms and legs and another third for a shield large enough to occupy the worm’s mouths. That left the hammer considerably lighter and only as long as her arm.
She blocked the next attack with her shield and bashed the face of her next foe. The weak strike wasn’t enough to instantly kill the worm, but it knocked the creature back and left it stunned. That gave her the space to step back and repeat her one-two combination. The worms didn’t die instantly, but they died eventually. As she fought, fatigue slowed her swings and weighed upon her legs.
The fight became one of endurance and patience. She frequently looked at Flann, checking that nothing looked worse, but she had no other choice than to slowly wear the baby towers down, one by one. Finally, with just a single worm left, Bel reformed her large hammer and smashed it into a gray paste.
Then she hurried back to Flann, pulled him back into her arms, and ran. As she moved up the slope and into the surrounding ridge the chaos of the fighting finally fell behind her, but now she was faced with a new problem. There were hardly any landmarks on the ridge, and Bel only had a vague sense of her destination.
She began to panic, nearly tripping over every rock in her path as she turned her head to look in every direction but the way she was moving. Her foot finally slipped on a wet rock and she fell face-first onto the ground.
Her snakes writhed angrily, hissing at the heavens, and she screamed. Then she pulled herself together. Screaming wasn’t helping her friend, and neither was falling on her face.
She closed her eyes, took a few deep breaths, and clicked her fingers with sudden inspiration. She kept her eyes closed, but turned her head and carefully looked around. Her spirit eye’s sight didn’t work like a regular eye. She had noticed that if her metal eyepatch wasn’t in the way she could still see wisps of the rainbow patterns from the third dynasty’s teleporters. With her eyes closed, those would be the only things she would see – and sure enough, after a minute of careful scanning, Bel saw a few dancing flickers of light.
She eagerly got to her feet and jogged in that direction, this time careful to avoid tripping on more hazards. Within a minute, she reached the hole in the ground that Jan had left behind. She dropped down and was immediately confronted with the tip of Orseis’ divine spear. Orseis herself was impressively blended in with the dimly lit cavern wall.
“It’s me,” Bel said, barely glancing at the cuttle girl as she shoved the spear out of her way.
Bel pushed towards a small fire the warmed the cavern. The people who had been injured earlier – Oculaire and the pair of delvers – were resting near it.
“Priest Toll!”
The priest and Manipule had been deep in conversation about something, but they both shot to their feet at her entrance. Manipule started saying something, and Orseis was continually babbling, but Bel ignored them as she gently swung Flann from her back and brought him to the priest.
“He’s hurt really bad. Can you save him?”
The priest hummed and put his hand on Flann’ forehead. He closed his eyes and went quiet, and Bel could feel the pressure building like a flood within her. She was ready to leap out of her own skin by the time the priest answered her.
“I can get him into a stable state with a bit of work. I’ll start by sedating him like I did with the others.” He gently lifted Flann from Bel’s arms and carried him to a clear area near the fire.
“Do I need to conserve my essence for anyone else?”
The priest’s calm voice soothed Bel’s nerves slightly, but his question reminded her that she was a terrible leader. “Other people are hurt too, but nowhere near as badly as Flann. It’ll probably be safest for them to wait for the monsters and the spirits to finish fighting.”
“Finish?” Manipule asked. “It is still happening?”
Bel glanced at the injured. Oculaire’s eyelids were fluttering as though she were slightly conscious, but the two delvers were sleeping soundly, despite all of the yelling.
“We went into the Citadel, but we were too late.”
“Too late? What about my portal to the Old World?” Orseis complained. “The gods promised me that.”
Bel winced. “I probably messed that up. Beth managed to kill Clark, but Technis and his army had already left. Dutcha said that we won’t be able to open another portal without a key, and Technis took the one he made.”
Manipule’s snakes flicked their tongues with frustration. “What is happening, exactly? How are the others?”
Bel shrank back before the questions. “Crecerelle hurt her wing, and maybe her ankle. The whip-woman is the only delver still alive.”
“Chrissy?” Manipule replied brightly. “I like her. She is very industrious.”
“Uh, yeah, Chrissy. She’s great.”
Orseis threw down Bel’s travel box with a large thump. Then she pulled it open and began to rummage through the contents.
“What the hell are you doing, Ori?” Bel demanded. “I hope you aren’t after a snack.”
“What? No, I wouldn’t – oh, hey, you’ve got dried fish! That’s not what I’m after though.”
The young girl said that, but Bel still saw one of her tentacles sneaking away with a neatly wrapped filet.
“I’m looking for that thing we got from the cat girls.”
Bel frowned. “The pyramid?”
Orseis nodded. “Yeah. Didn’t Seth say their riddle meant it was a key?”
Bel’s face turned sour. “I don’t know if I want to take what they said seriously.”
Manipule pouted. “You need a key to use a portal, though, right? Isn’t that what you said Dutcha told you?”
The girl pulled the small pyramid out with a triumphant flourish. “Besides, the gods promised I could go.”
Bel went stiff as her mind raced. Was Orseis right? What, exactly, had Dutcha told her?
Bel couldn’t remember – the spirit had said she was running out of strength to keep the portal open, but Bel had other things on her mind at the time. Would the spirit have the strength to open a new portal, even with the key? Was she holding the other one open, wasting her energy as she waited for Bel to return?
Orseis prodded her in the stomach. “Do we need to rush? Your snakes look like they think we should be rushing.”
Orseis shoved the pyramid back into Bel’s travel box and hoisted it above her head. Bel reached up and soothed her agitated serpents, her mind still spinning in circles. The young girl took a step towards the exit, but Bel remained rooted to the spot. Things were moving too quickly – she wasn’t prepared for anything.
She looked at Flann and tears formed in her eyes. Orseis opened her mouth to yell, but Manipule put a calming hand on her shoulder.
“Bel?” the other gorgon said quietly. “No one will think badly of you if you need to follow Technis. You have already warned everyone that this could happen.”
Bel’s lip twitched. “I didn’t take it seriously though. I don’t know if I’m ready to leave everyone.”
“Hey,” Orseis complained. “I’m coming too.”
“I will also come,” Manipule said with a smile. “I am very interested in the Old World.”
Bel stared at the gorgon. She blinked a few times as she replayed Manipule’s words. “Why in the world would you want to come? The Old World is probably dangerous. Everyone has a gun.”
Manipule smiled. “Your brother seems like a gentle person, and he came from there.”
Bel shook her head. “I have to rush. I’m sorry Manipule, but I don’t think I can wait.”
Manipule grinned. “You think you can get back faster than I can? You just need to go downhill to the Citadel, correct?”
Bel nodded. “And then down a long ramp.”
Manipule laughed. “That’s perfect. Come on you two. I’ll show you why I was the fastest sledder in my district for five years running.”
Bel looked at Orseis, confused, but Orseis shrugged back.
Is this one of those things that I would know more about if I were better with people? Bel wondered.
“Wait a minute.”
She ran to Flann and the priest and knelt beside them.
“Can he hear me?”
The priest shook his head. “I’ve put him into a deep sleep.”
Bel chewed on her lip. “Tell him that I’m sorry, then. And that I’ll always be grateful for his help. And that if I can find a way to open up a portal from the other side I’ll do it so he and Jan can take a vacation in the Old World.”
Priest Toll smiled gently, the corners of his eyes crinkling up. “I will tell him. And I always be grateful for this chance to meet my goddess’ beloved daughter.”
He put his hands on a small idol hanging from his neck. “Go forth and change the world,” he said.
The weight of his expectations made Bel’s snakes squirm.