Sorry everyone for such a long gap! We've been extremely busy and this wasn't a simple chapter to write and push out to y'all! We hope its' length (our longest so far) makes up for it!
That being said, this chapter is both the longest and takes up the longest period of time of any chapter so far. It is rather montage-esque in places, but its finale more than makes up for the whirlwind earlier sections in its level of detail. Enjoy!
We made it through the night, dear readers, though I'm sure you knew that. Someone had to live long enough to write this record, clearly. Though, it isn't wrong to say that I've seen stranger things than a dead man writing a tome on these travels of mine.
We made it through the night, Leotie and I, though the feeling in my joints and the pounding in my head made me wish we hadn't. The pain that had been pushed down and numbed by the potion had come barreling back, tempered only by time and whatever curative effects the elixir had had on the bloody gashes. Of course, I was grateful, but I found myself wishing Serina could focus some of her wild magic on me.
Smiling like sheepish first-time lovers but groaning and cursing like old soldiers, we disentangled ourselves and retrieved what was left of our clothes. Out we went, collecting Niknik where he'd slept at the cellar entrance, into pale sunlight. The matron was already awake, brewing root tea and frying dough on a flat stone beside the cooking fire. She grinned toothlessly at Leotie, rasping quick-fire questions at the huntress. Leotie blushed -- blushed, dear readers -- but responded quickly, securing us a plate and two warm mugs.
"She says the riot was over before the sun came up," Leotie kept her face level as she spoke.
"Is that all she said?" I grinned and got a soul-piercing glare and a jab of pain in my ribs for my trouble.
"She says if we want to go to the palace, then now is the time," Leotie continued, her blush somehow deepening until her already red-hued skin was practically maroon.
I decided to show mercy only because the renewed pain riddling my body made it difficult to focus on anything else. "Leotie, tell her thank you." I fumbled at my waist for whatever currency I still had.
The matron's wizened claw laid on my hand, as small as a child's in comparison. Her bright, intense eyes bored into mine, and she spoke directly to me even though Leotie still had to translate, "She says thank you, Kiravi, for killing five of those bastards and..." Leotie stopped, scoffed, and rolled her eyes, but the matron kicked her in the shins, "And for rescuing such a pretty young Bhakhuri maiden."
I laughed and laughed until my bruised ribs ached and I thought my barely closed wounds would burst back open. "Tell her that that was my favorite part."
Leotie's face was a rich purple by the time we left the hovel.
The color, though, left both of our faces in the cold air and the weak light of dawn. Blood still flowed, tacky and slow, in the cobbles and gutters. A few fires still burned, especially around the palace, delaying dawn's light with the uncounted columns of smoke. Families moved amongst the ruin, turning over the bodies in their endless search for loved ones and relations. A chariot smoldered on its side while children cut whatever meat was left from the dead camels that had pulled it. Rafts of bodies, like a grisly spring flood, sloshed against the bridge piles while we crossed over to the east bank. Charred boats bobbed in the blood-frothed water. Smoke curled from the spell-scarred walls of the Palace, but the Old Nobles had never managed to get inside.
The east bank was worse than the Bhakhuri slums, the carpet of bodies and scavengers' cawing both without end. It had taken we Anghoreti countless generations to learn how to tame the land, build cities, support thousands and thousands of mortals in one place. Then, in a single night, Tebis had been reduced to a half-dead state, a sickly corpse of a city that wouldn't recover for a generation.
We found Serina in the traveling house, huddled with our left-behind travel gear amongst a trembling mob of refugees. They parted before us like wind-blown grass, unsure which side a man dressed like an easterner but armed like an Old Noble had fought for. The oracle --
my
oracle -- shrieked with relief and glee and threw herself at me, wrapping my blood-streaked waist in her tiny arms.
Leotie made a face, one that was hard to read but neither obviously pleased or upset. That inscrutable emotion changed, though, when Serina peeled away from me and threw herself at Leotie, crushing the huntress in a hug just as sincere, "I was so worried about you, Leotie. I'm so happy you're safe!" Serina sniffled quietly, so short that she could bury her face in the hollow of Leotie's neck. A surprising flash of tenderness flicked over Leotie's face, and she hugged Serina back, gently at first, before truly wrapping up the smaller woman in her arms.
"We were worried about you too, little one." She pulled back slightly to look down at Serina, "And hey, why were you only worried about me? Bad things can happen to him too, you know," Leotie responded with false indignation.
I couldn't help but laugh even with the daggers of pain that shot through my wounds. "Bad things
did
happen to me, Leotie."
Serina seemed to notice for the first time the dark, reddish-brown stains covering my kit and my bloody bandages that needed changing. She gasped, rushing over to me and fussing over the dirty and stiff dressings. Then, before I could stop her, she was tearing more strips from the bottom of her already raggedly shortened dress to change the bandages.
"What happened?! Who did this to you?"
I obligingly remained as still as possible while she worked, and we both gave the short version of the massacre in the street, as well as all the other anarchy we'd witnessed through the night. Of course, we again left out what exactly had occurred in that old matron's cellar.
"What about you?" Leotie asked, "Why are you here instead of the temple?"
Serina scowled. Usually, when she was upset, her face still held an adorable and child-like quality. There was no hint of a girlish pout this time; her scowl would be more at home on Leotie's face than hers. "They tried to trap me there," she spat the words, hands shaking as she fastened the bandage around my stomach wound. "They were arrogant, and they lied. They didn't want to help me, just use my power."
"Lied? What did they lie about, darling?" I asked her, trying to keep my voice soft even while wincing.
"It's...hard to explain. I can try to tell you later? Both of you?" She muttered, her eyes searching mine and Leotie's face with an earnest need to share her story with us.
"Of course, darling," I said earnestly. I glanced at Leotie when I called Serina darling and embraced her. The huntress made another hard-to-read face but smiled when she caught me looking.
We left as quickly as we'd entered, though I soon needed to borrow the staff we'd looted the night before to help me navigate back down Temple Hill. The women spoke more about the night before while I sweated and swore and winced with each difficult step. I overheard snippets of Leotie describing the palace and the Mayor and of Serina tiptoeing her way through the story of some ritual that she would also tell us about later.
"Kiravi hasn't told you yet, but he's going to be a Mayor soon," Leotie said, and the venom in her voice made me wince. Despite what we'd shared the night before, the promises we'd made to each other, I could still sense her fear and hurt. We hadn't had time to discuss it before passing out in the cramped cellar or after waking up that morning, but I'd made up my mind. As slumber had wrapped me up in its soft embrace, I'd thought of a single option I'd hoped would satisfy honor and spare my lovers' hearts.
"That's not certain," I countered even as Serina gasped with girlish excitement. "We'll see when we arrive at the Palace, alright?" I paused and took the minor risk of embracing first Leotie and then a confused Serina in the middle of the empty street. The girl hadn't thought through the implications as Leotie had, not yet. "The Mayor left it up to me to decide what to do with the title. And, haven't we done the Mayor yet another service?" I smiled to break the tension and pointed at the bundle of swords under Leotie's arm.
We continued on our arduous trek to the palace. The stink of unclaimed bodies, sewage, and smoke hung thick around us. Stray dogs clustered around some of the bodies, growling at us when we passed but staying near the spoils they'd claimed.
Both women were ahead of me, still chattering much more amicably than I'd expected them to do when they suddenly stopped. I nearly bowled them over but soon realized why they'd paused. We still had little grasp of the city's layout and had simply been feeling our way back down to the river.
The aftermath of our battle spread out in front of us, untouched by the roving bands of gravediggers. Dogs and ravens hopped and picked through the bodies, each corpse draped precisely where I remembered it falling. The stench of stale blood, voided bowels, and scorched flesh was an almost physical thing. My conduit flinched away from the place, reacting to the stain my powerful magic had left on the cobbles.
"This," Serina whispered, swallowing nervously, "This was you?"
"Yes," I grumbled, moving past them to pick through the massacre. I spent enough time seeing the faces and bodies of those I'd killed when I slept and dreamt; I didn't need to revisit them in my waking hours.
