Chapter Text
—-------------------------Anne POV—-------- -----------------
“Holy fucking god!” Anne instinctually ran forward, but one of Valeriana’s fingers unraveling forced her to stop. “Please do not do that, We can’t go home without that.”
“Home?”
“Yes!” Anne answered, slightly frantic. “We used the box to come here, from a different world, but I guess we did it wrong and the stuff from the gems got stuck in us, we’re not agents of the night or whatever!”
“Hmm.” Valeriana cocked her head. “I detect no lie.” Her hand receded slightly from the edge. “So, I recharge the gem, create a portal, you three leave and I keep the box?”
“Ah, well, Marcy, the girl with black hair, she wants to stay.” She stayed quiet, thinking of the best way to put this. “And we want to be able to visit her.”
To her surprise, Valeriana didn’t immediately shut it down, instead nodding slightly. “So you and the blonde one keep the box in a different dimension?”
“Well… no.” Anne’s throat went dry, with the immediate threat of never being able to return to earth having slightly subsided, Anne remembered how the mystic reacted to even hearing about the Core. “She wanted to keep it… here.” Anne said, trying to avoid the fact that the ‘abomination’ as she put it would be the one keeping the box.
The half-truth didn’t seem to work, as the previously venomous look Valeriana had returned, “With her ‘friend,’ with that thing?”
“Yes! Look lady I don’t like it either, the Core gives me the creeps, and I don’t know what problem you have with them, but Marcy re-”
“Problem? PROBLEM?” The newt’s voice had been kept relatively level and her tone civil until that very moment. “I have a problem with them? Creature, you are either flagrantly stupid or insultingly ignorant if you believe them to be the victim.”
“Alright!” Anne raised her hands, trying to look as friendly as she could. “Let’s go with me being insultingly ignorant then, I don’t know anything! I’ve only been here a few days dude! I just don’t want to be stuck here forever and never see my friend again.”
Valeriana’s anger seemed to mellow slightly, eyes looking to the side as she mulled over Anne’s words, after a tense minute of silence she finally spoke again. “What do you believe the Nigh- the Core, to be?”
“A creepy as hell robot who my friend is fiercely loyal to because they took her in when she went missing two years ago.” Anne spread her hands out for emphasis. “That’s it!”
“That’s it?” She repeated, eyes unbelieving yet confused.
“Yeah dude.”
Anne watched the newt as she stared at the ground, expression conflicted as she muttered to both herself and her bug-parrot. Eventually she looked back up at her. “Tell a lie.” She said, the sentence sounding like a demand.
“What?”
“Tell a lie, something personal but blatantly false.”
The question took Anne completely off guard.“Uh, I- I don’t have a girlfriend?” Anne answered, feeling slightly embarrassed that her relationship was the first thing that came to mind.
“Hm. So I can still tell.” She stepped away from the edge, tail hand rubbing her chin. “Did you punch one of your friend’s father in the face?”
That question took her even more off guard. “I- How the hell did you know that?”
Somehow, Anne’s answer seemed to unsettle the newt more than the newt’s question unsettled Anne. “By trees, so you really don’t know anything else about them?” She looked at her bird, stroking it under the neck. “Then you are left in quite the predicament, if your friend truly has been under the Core’s grasp for two years like you say, then she is either helping them to enslave your world or will soon be dead.”
“What.” Anne paused, not sure she heard her right. “No, seriously, what does that mean?”
“The meaning is literal, I don’t know what this Core or your friend told you, but I know it as the Night, and it is a malignant tumour on these lands, built by the old leadership to act as some kind of ‘perfect advisor’ for them.” Her voice grew more agitated as she spoke, “But why would it listen to less intelligent creatures? Why not just add them to its form? Becoming more and more close to whatever ‘perfection’ is?”
Anne struggled to keep up with the woman’s passionate but inconsistent ranting. “Dude, Valeriana, slow down, what are you trying to tell me?”
“It is evil.” Despite the threat of her words, Anne couldn’t help but feel slightly vindicated with her initial suspicions being confirmed. “It is committed, nay, hard-programmed to do nothing but to conquer and rule as large an empire as possible, and it does this through two primary ways, increasing its own intelligence and using the nigh-unlimited energy provided by the music box.”
“Increasing its own intelligence?” Anne experimentally stepped forward, trying to get closer without provoking the newt to throw the gem over the edge.
“Whenever it chances on a particularly capable person, it assimilates them, destroying their personality and sense of self and adding whatever is left to itself.” Valeriana waved her staff in a circle, forming a trail behind it similar to when she teleported Anne to the platform, another puff of smoke and an black metal object clattered to the ground, torn cable trailing behind it. “Using this.”
Looking closely, Anne quickly realised it was very familiar, the four weird fins on the sides, the cracked and lifeless eyes on the front. “I’ve seen this before.” Anne looked up at Valeriana. “The Core was fixing one a day or so ago.”
“You’ve seen one of them.” Valeriana kicked the relic, sending it clanging across the stone. “This has been in my possession for a few hundred years, abandoned in one of their compounds, still attached to the head of the lifeless husk of a prominent scientist.” Valeriana shook her staff again, another object falling out, this one a robotic head, very similar to Marcy’s. Rust had eaten the majority of the metal, but a knife still remained lodged in the top, the word ‘resist’ scraped into metal of the blade.
“Look dude, this is very interesting.” Anne closed the remaining distance, gently putting a hand on her staff before she could summon anymore trinkets. “But I don’t really know you, and I know Marcy, I kinda promised her I wouldn’t do this to her friend.” She shrugged, trying to relieve some of the tension while convincing herself not to believe what the newt was saying, “And I don’t really like to break my promises.”
“You said the Night was fixing one of those?” She asked with no hesitation, pointing to the helmet with her tail hand. “Tell me, has it requested that it and your friend have some time alone once you have recharged the box?” She paused. “A week, a day, gods, a few hours even?”
Anne furrowed her brow, the Core had been insistent on giving Marcy some time to recover from her illness, in all fairness, so had Marcy. “Somewhat.”
Valeriana responded by grabbing her shoulders with her hands, well, hand and tail, “If you leave, your friend is dead.” Her voice was level but harsh, not threatening, but incredibly serious. Her glare was so intense Anne was just barely able to resist the urge to look away. “Do you understand? Your friend is of the wit gem, isn’t she? If you leave her, her mind will be assimilated and her body will be discarded. You will return to find nothing of her remaining, do you understand?”
Anne wanted to speak, say something, tell her to prove it, or repeat that she couldn’t risk letting Marcy down, at very least step back or look away. But she couldn’t, the warning felt too intense, too strong, too real. Deep inside her, she felt that instinct she had occasionally gotten, normally when she felt it she could tell what the other person was feeling, or know exactly what to tell them.
But not this time, this time that instinct said only one thing.
She’s not lying.
Although it wasn’t clever, Anne trusted her gut on these sorts of things, her gut had told her that Marcy hadn’t been dead for these last two years, even as everyone around her gave up hope. If she hadn’t trusted her instincts, would she have ever found Marcy again?
Screw it, better a friend who hates you then a dead one.
“Say I believe you, which I might a little.” She admitted with a sigh. “What could I even do about it? Marcy loves the Core and she admitted last night that she doesn’t trust us. The first thing you did was antagonize her so you’re no help either.”
Valeriana considered her words for a moment, stroking her bird as she did. “Fine, let’s make a deal, I know of many of the Night’s compounds, relics from the collapse of the Newtopian empire, the many mass graves left behind when the provinces started to rebel.” She walked straight past Anne, slamming her staff into the centre of the platform. “If you and your group agree to let me show you, you can have the final gem to do with as you will.” She motioned for Anne to get closer, holding the gem close to the crook, seemingly to recharge it. “Deal?”
Damn… I really hope she’s not lying.
“Deal.”
—-------------------------Marcy POV—-------------------------
One-hundred and fifty seven, One-hundred and fifty eight, One hundred and fifty nine, On- Oh she stopped.
Sasha rummaged around in her pocket, pulling out her phone, sighing loudly at what the device told her. “It felt like it’s been longer.” She muttered, voice so quiet that Marcy had to guess half of what she said, before returning to pacing back and forth, allowing Marcy to return to counting how many times she did so.
Anne’s sudden disappearance/kidnapping didn’t sit well with any of them, but with Valeriana’s seemingly helpful intentions they had agreed to just sit and wait until she came back or until an hour passed, a time limit which Sasha had been paying close attention to with a stopwatch on her phone.
It was honestly kinda adorable, she kinda reminded Marcy of a sad dog right now, a comparison which she quickly decided to not mention out loud, but it was very un-Sasha behavior in her mind.
My ideas of what is Sasha-like is two years expired though. She’s clearly changed, we all have.
However, the thought of how much Sasha had changed or what she was like before were unproductive. So Marcy decided to simplify with one question, did she like this new Sasha more? And with her admittedly limited experience, she could say she did.
Thank god that dating Anne seems to have made Sasha better instead of Anne worse. Marcy giggled lightly, imagining what their first ‘date’ must have been like, what would have made it different from hanging out as friends? Marcy would ask them later. I wonder what Sasha’s parents think of the whole thing? Another thing to ask later I suppose.
Another puff of blue smoke stopped Marcy’s count before it could reach three-hundred, Anne and the newt hermit appearing in the centre of it, before either had a chance to speak Sasha had already ran up, catching Anne in a strong embrace. “You’re back! Holy shit, fuck me, I don’t know what kinda space mystic shit that was but can we have an ETA of return next time? It’s freezing here!”
Anne laughed, returning the embrace, “Yeah, yeah, missed you too dude, must have been a tough twenty minutes without me looking after you, huh?”
“Hey!” Sasha broke the embrace to look Anne in the face, hands on her shoulders, whatever rebuttal that had seemingly been planned was swiftly forgotten by the sullen look on her girlfriend’s face, a look which included the occasional glance towards Marcy. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s… uh, we recharged the gem, but Valeriana wanted to tell us something first.” Anne gestured to the hermit, who held up the final jewel in her hand, letting the rest of them see its glowing blue color
But Anne’s tone made Marcy feel that the gem would not be easily earnt.
The hermit looked to her, as if expecting Marcy to speak first and sighing when it became clear she wouldn’t. “I know you are a servant of the Night, or the Core as you call it.” She slipped the blue gem into her pocket. “And that you desire to bring it the calamity box, I cannot allow that, not without showing you their true nature.”
True nature?
Marcy looked to Anne, who at least had the decency to look sheepish, “You can’t be serious!” She promised last night! Less than 24 hours ago! No way she already went back on it! “You actually cannot be serious!”
“Marcy, I-I’m not saying we have to believe her.” Anne raised her hands, akin to how one would approach a rapid animal, slowly walking to Marcy as if scared to startle her. “But the point is that she wouldn’t recharge the gem until I agreed to it, and she won’t give it to us until she shows us some places.”
“Places?” Marcy backed off, holding her satchel tight to her body, just in case Valeriana tried to grab the box. “Why?”
“Look, the Core- They-” Anne trailed off and turned to Valeriana, looking for some kind of help.
The newt nodded, “The Core once held dominion over this land, acting as its iron-grasped tyrant, they caused great suffering and death and only lost control when they lost that box.” She pointed to her satchel, “The box is dangerous, by gifting it to them you sign millions of lives away, including your own.”
Marcy laughed, what else could she do? She had just convinced her friends not to fight with each other, got them to all agree that once they recharged the gem it would be a fresh start. This was literally the earliest possible point for her to go back on that promise.
And she was doing it!
She was actually doing it! Even more shamelessly! Saying that the Core would kill me!
Marcy tried to shut it out, hands over her ears to physically block out the words. She glanced at Sasha, trying to see if anyone else was seeing the absurdity of the situation, but Sasha still stood by her girlfriend’s side. An uneasy expression on her face mirroring Anne’s, making no moves to go to Marcy’s assistance. Looking to her mother Marcy gained more hope, Olivia currently staring daggers at the other newt woman, Mother will help me, she always supported me.
“Hand over the gem.” Marcy was certain she interrupted someone, but she didn’t really care.
“Will you immediately ride over to the Core and give it to them?”
“YES!” Marcy shouted with nothing but pure exasperation, “Obviously!”
Valeriana frowned, but didn’t look even slightly surprised, as if she had expected Marcy to agree. “Then the gem will remain with me.”
Anger began to boil in Marcy, the frustration at this hermit and the feeling of betrayal she felt to her friends caused her hand to slide into her satchel, Anne still had her crossbow, but Marcy didn’t give away all her weaponry. “Don’t force me to do this.” Marcy brandished the bomb, the long glass cylinder was cool to the touch.
“Holy fuck! Marcy!” Sasha jumped in front of Valeriana, the newt’s face showing no emotion apart from a raised eyebrow as the human shielded her with her body. “That cannot be the right thing to do! She’s got fucking magic, you can’t be threatening her!” Marcy quickly wondered whether Sasha’s body-block was to protect Valeriana or to protect Marcy.
The thought was interrupted by Anne’s voice. “Marcy, please, all we have to do is hear her out, she’s probably wrong but what if she’s right?”
“SHE’S NOT RIGHT!” Marcy screamed, covering her head with her hands, pressing the bomb into her face. “The Core helped me, they saved me! They want what is best! They wouldn’t hurt anyone! They wouldn’t KILL ME!” She punctuated the last few words by swinging the bomb in the air towards Valeriana, drawing a scream from someone? Sasha? It was getting more difficult for Marcy to focus.
“They would and they have.” Valeriana used her crook to push Sasha past, their bird had taken flight, circling the air above. “Dozens of people, forcibly assimilated into their mass, you will become one of them the second you stop being useful.”
“I’M NOT USEFUL.” Marcy screamed up into the air, some part of her brain told her that she could cause an avalanche with her screaming but every single other part of her brain was telling her different things. “I’m not useful! I’m not an asset! I’m a burden! I’m stupid and pathetic and evil and worthless and the Core didn’t care! They believed I could be better and helped me so much I couldn’t even imagine what I’d be if they hadn’t!” She couldn’t believe she was forced to lay her soul out bare to this random woman, but if it's what she had to do to get her friends to look past their preconceived notions of what the Core was, she would do it.
“Marcy…” Anne began to say, but Marcy cut her off. She didn’t need some useless placation, she needed her to understand.
“You promised!” She jabbed the alchemical grenade towards Anne, “You both promised you’d stop! You swore it and you are already breaking it! Why can’t you just believe me! Why can’t you just trust me!” Her vision was starting to get fuzzy, tears overwhelming her eyes that she didn’t even try to get in, for a split second she thought she saw four figures, one made of dripping oil and glowing green, and hastily covered her eyes to protect herself. “Why why why whywhywhywhywhy!”
The blood rushing to her ears prevented her from even hearing the reply, her breaths shallow and fast as she wept and screamed and laughed into her hands. Because how could they turn on their promise so fast?
A vague sensation of pain went through one of her hands and her face, but she didn’t even hiss in pain, the crying and laughing taking over and not allowing anything else to punch through, because wasn’t it so funny how quickly they broke such an important promise?
“Why are you laughing?” She couldn’t tell if it was Clarity or if it was her own inside voice, even her own mind couldn’t be trusted to have her back.
“BECAUSE IT’S A JOKE!” She screamed the loose thought, barely aware of how nonsensical it was, but with the loose thought came a brief reprieve from the overwhelming noise, allowing her to feel a firm but gentle grip grab both her arms and pull them from her face.
“Marcy. Daughter.” Olivia looked so calm, if she was calm, shouldn’t Marcy be calm as well?
“Yes mother?” She mumbled, she was on her knees, when did that happen?”
Olivia smiled, letting go of her hand and grabbing a handkerchief. “You squeezed your device too hard.” She calmly answered, using the fabric to carefully uncurl Marcy’s fingers from a crushed tube of glass, blood from her hand mixing with orange liquid, the sight finally allowed her to notice the sharp pain emanating from that hand, along with the similar pain in a side of her face.
“Oh.” Marcy paused, moving her other hand to her face, feeling a small shard of glass wedged in it. “Shouldn’t we all be dead then?” She asked, realizing afterwards she should have said it with more concern or urgency afterwards.
Olivia kept smiling regardless, slowly wrapping the tube in the handkerchief without disturbing it too much. “I’m not an expert, but only the orange liquid seeped out, the rest remained in the tube.”
“The blue is the explosive.” Marcy muttered, remembering the fact from her long nights spent designing the thing.
“I supposed, a sizable stroke of luck if I may say so.” Olivia handed the wrapped tube to the person standing on her left, with a sizable delay Marcy’s brain identified them as Anne, who quickly took the tube and very carefully but very quickly moved it away from the huddle.
The form on Olvia’s right crouched down, passing the newt a different piece of fabric. “Gotta say Mar-Mar, you really fucking scared me there.” She said as Olivia used the fabric to clean Marcy’s hand, trying to remove the orange liquid, Marcy remembered it was an irritant, her hand would probably have a rash soon.
“We’ll need to wash it.” Marcy mumbled. “Or the igniting fluid might poison me.” In response Sasha grabbed a bottle of water, unscrewing the cap and pouring the contents over while Olivia cleaned the wound. It wouldn’t do much for what had already entered her bloodstream through the cuts, she would have to meet the Core for that.
The Core.
Marcy suddenly shot her head up, first, her hand checked her bag, thankfully still finding the decorated lid of the music box, second, she looked around for the hooded newt women who had so angered her. Bloodshot eyes spotted their target, the women had yet to move, observing the scene with the same somewhat unimpressed expression, parrot-bug-thing still absent. “She’s still here?” Marcy tried to have a little more hatred in her words, but she felt too tired to really bother.
“Yeah.” Anne answered, dropping to one knee next to her, presumably having hidden the tube somewhere further away for some very unlucky forest critter to find. “Marcy, I want to say I am so sorry, I didn’t want to doubt you, I really didn’t, but it seemed like the easiest way to get the gem.”
“Okay.” Marcy stared down at the ground, not really finding the energy to express her feelings further as she contemplated the offer. Eventually she worked up the will to look over to Valeriana. “You show us what you want to show us, then we get the gem?” Marcy asked.
For the first time in the whole interaction, the newt seemed surprised. “Yes.” To emphasize her point, she removed the gem from her pocket, showing it to Marcy. “If you wish to have a less qualitative offer, give me eight hours to change your mind and you will receive the gem at the end.”
I mean, that’s not too hard. Marcy thought, staring at the glass shards in her hand as Olivia started to pick the bigger bits out and drop them in the snow nearby. I listen to a bunch of nonsense and then we get the final gem, no trial or boss room. She lightly laughed, thinking of the new Vagabondia Chronicles game that Anne had shown her, it didn’t end up working on her broken switch, but Anne promised that she would bring her something to play it on next time.
I really was looking forward to it, to spending time with them.
She slowly rose to her feet, feeling jolts of pain from her numerous cuts when she did, and faced Valeriana head-on, making a conscious effort to maintain eye contact. “Fine, I accept.” She glanced away, “I guess that’s easier than what the other temples wanted, right?”
“Yeah dude.” Anne placed her hand on her shoulder, the other hand hovering awkwardly in what Marcy supposed was meant to be an offer for a hug. “Way easier than that gravity golem.”
She took the hug, trying not to impale her hand any more as they embraced. “I guess.” Her voice was growing quieter, an odd sense of relief growing in her chest.
“Hey, about that stuff you said… earlier, I just want you to kn-” Marcy stopped listening to Anne, as her ears caught thrusters kicking into motion, she quickly thought that she had accidentally pushed the buttons of her controller into Anne’s back, but she had taken it off earlier while waiting for Anne to return.
Before she had the chance to check who had picked it up, she watched Big Battery’s form ram into Valeriana at full speed, the old newt just barely reacting in time to brace herself and skid back. The gem that was in her hands was sent flying into the air, swiftly being grabbed by one of the robot’s claws.
In a panic, Marcy quickly turned to where she left her controller, it was completely untouched.
“Marcy!” Anne broke the hug as the shepherd’s crook hooked round the arm of the robot, pulling the heart gem back into Valeriana’s possession. “What are you doing?”
“That’s not me!” Marcy leapt over to her controller, desperately smashing the stop button without bothering to attach it to her wrist. “It won’t stop remotely! Quick! There’s a manual shut down in the-”
Big Battery’s head turned to her, a brief recess from the combat it was having with the temple guardian.“Marcy.” The voice was so familiar it made Marcy freeze, dropping the controller into the snow. She wasn’t even sure it was real, she hadn’t added any speakers to the robot.
“Core?” She answered, voice almost a whisper, her stupefaction was shared by the rest of her companions, only Valeriana seemed unaffected, shaping the end of her crook into a hammer mid-swing and crushing the weapon into the head of the robot.
The bot was sent reeling, barely able to catch the follow up swing, one eye’s glass now shattered, the other eye focused on Marcy. “Do not heed a single word of this woman.”
“I knew your servant’s leashes would be short.” Valeriana snarled, barely avoiding a focused blast from one of the robot's cannons, despite the absurdity of the situation, Marcy couldn’t help but feel a little pride in how well her robot was performing. Valeriana used the brief respite to turn towards Anne, tail hand pointing at her. “Retrieve the box!”
“What!?!” Anne’s gaze flicked back and forth between her and Marcy. “WHAT?”
“They turn on you!”
“No I am not!”
“You must! The Core cannot be allowed possession of the calamity box!” Valeriana spun her staff, the following after effect creating another one of those watercolor portals just as the robot's claw attempted to strike her, the claw punching into the portal. Before it could be pulled back the newt mage dismissed the portal, the entire robotic hand disappearing in an instant, leaving nothing but a sparking stump.
The Core is losing.
The realization hit Marcy at the same time it hit the Core, the robot immediately sparking its thrusters to make distance between itself and the mage, turning back to Marcy. “Marcy, you have to assist.”
“I-I don’t want to.”
“Marcy. They would not let you leave with the gem no matter what. They prey on your sympathy and understanding.” The words were interrupted by Valeriana jumping forward, hastily swinging her staff to cut the Core off, the move was expected by the machine however, quickly dodged and ruthlessly counterattacked by a slash connecting with the newts torso. “They hate us for what we are, they will hate you too. Do. Not. Trust. Them.”
Hate me?
Valeriana attempted to back off, but the opening she had left was too great, allowing the Core to knock the staff out of her hands and grab her head with the remaining intact hand. The newt struggled as the robot started to squeeze her skull, blood trickling down from where the claws embedded themselves.
They’re gonna kill her! Marcy took a step forward, to do what, she wasn’t sure. Any possible idea died when a pink blade sliced into the robot’s arm, not enough to sever it completely, but enough to get it to drop Valeriana. Her eyes followed the sword’s length to its owner, being none other than Sasha, already rearing her sword back for another strike.
“I don’t really-” Her blade sliced thin air as the Core was once again forced to retreat. “-Fucking know what’s going on.-” Swinging her sword back, she slashed it into one of the cannons Marcy had attached to the wrist, interrupting the Core’s attempt to aim at her by sending its shattered components flying into the air. “But I’ll be fucked if I’m letting this bastard kill anyone.”
“You know nothing, you have no clue who this woman is, what she’s done.” The robot was struggling to keep pace, the aged thrusters were already overexerted from the fly to the temple, and the constant sudden movements and dodges were taking a massive toll. The robot was down one and a half hands and one side weapon, the second side weapon opened up as they backed up, extending into a long steel blade. “You take her side and spit in Marcy’s face.”
Marcy couldn’t focus on Sasha’s reply, it was too overwhelming, she didn’t know who to trust or what to do, there were too many demands and accusations and not enough explanations. She- She would never turn on the Core, but they just tried to kill the newt hermit, they might try to kill Sasha for helping.
I can’t let Sasha die, I-
Her thoughts were interrupted by a firm tug on her satchel, the bag nearly flying right off her shoulder, looking up she saw that Valeriana’s parrot had hooked its talons around the strap and was trying to fly away with it. Firmly grabbing the strap, she tried to pull it back to herself, the tug-of-war proved to be too much for the thin, strained leather, snapping and spilling the contents into the snow.
Sketchbooks, old pens and loose tools spread in the snow, but Marcy didn’t care about them, what she did care about was the loose glass bombs that fell to the ground, and the music box.
A music box which was swiftly scooped up by a shepherd’s crook.
She had worked too hard, years of toil and nights where she was too scared of nightmares to sleep and hours upon hours trapped in that throne of suffering all in service of that one box, that one stupid box, and it was slipping away.
Marcy followed instinct, swinging her functional fist up blindly and catching Valeriana in the jaw, her head snapping backwards as the music box was sent back to the ground, allowing Marcy to grab it and scramble back from the now bloody-lipped newt, her disinterested expression transformed into a near-snarl.
“I’m not giving up this box.”
She shook her head, giving her the same disdainful look as she reared the staff back for another strike. “Brainwashed servant.” Her intent to swing at her was clear, but her weapon was stopped by someone grabbing it from behind.
Anne pulled on the staff, dragging Valeriana back a few feet. “Don’t hit my friends.” To the side the brutal melee between Sasha and the Core was broken off, both of the combatants backing away with a few new shallow cuts after being unable to break the stalemate.
Lady Olivia tried to get in the middle of everything, sword still at her waist. “Will everyone just calm down!” Her shout went ignored as both sides went back to fighting.
Sides? What are the sides? It was too confusing, the Core was protecting Marcy while fighting Valeriana and Sasha, Marcy was fighting Valeriana, Anne was stopping Valeriana from hitting Marcy, did that mean that Anne was against Sasha?
She clutched her head, the pain from the broken glass completely unnoticeable over the splitting headache forming, looking over she saw the Core attempting to shove some loose cabling back into a large slash while Sasha leant against a tree, struggling to get her breath back. Valeriana and Anne were in a heated argument which Marcy couldn’t hear the words to.
Because they were behind them, the sludge had now dripped off to the point where almost the whole left of their body was exposed, green glowing flesh visible. Its usual grin was absent, but that didn’t stop it from speaking.
“Calm down, think, who are your friends?”
The Core. She immediately thought.
“No, who are your actu-”
“Marcy!” Her head whipped back to the Core, the black sludge she saw was now pouring out of the cuts and slashes all along the robot's form, almost eating away at it. “We are outnumbered, you must retreat!”
“Who am I retreating from?!?” Marcy yelled back, screaming in shock as someone grabbed her shoulder from behind.
Looking back around she saw it was her mother, her human mother, her eyes were gone, a downpour of the black sludge having replaced them. It was just like the helmet all over again, she couldn’t face that, not again. Shoving the figure away, head spinning as she ran backwards, box still clutched firmly in her grasp, black sludge dripping from under the lid. That wasn’t possible, was she back in the helmet?
I’m not there anymore, I’m not! I’m not I’m not I’mnotimnotimnotimnotimnot-
“You’re not, focus, this isn’t real!” Clarity was closer, raising their hands placating, the black sludge was starting to grow back over the green flesh, but that didn’t make her feel any better.
You aren’t real! YOU AREN’T REAL! She swung at the monster, fist passing through nothing, she felt a tug on the box and she swung again. Her fist slammed into a different sludge monster, knocking the thing backwards, but the brief respite was no consolidation.
She was surrounded by them, ichorous liquid seeping from their body onto the ground, forming large puddles which more of the creatures crawled out of, all of their disgusting oily limbs reaching for her, wanting, needing, to drag her down with them. Looking down at the box, trying to reassure herself that she still had it, she saw that the liquid dripping from the lid had started to climb up her arm, the cold liquid biting into her skin as the sludge threatened to consume her.
The sight invigorated the creatures, many of them surging forward as Marcy became increasingly sure that if they grabbed her she would never escape, in her desperation she grabbed one of the loose bombs..
“STOP! Calm down! None of this is real!” Clarity’s form reappeared close to Marcy, she didn’t hesitate, wheeling around and hucking the grenade directly at the monster.
It hit the mark, the glass shattering right on the oily skin, over a split second the escaped liquids mixed, reacting and releasing a powerful explosion that ripped the sludge-demon to bits.
The display cowed the others into backing up, now was her chance to escape, it had become clear who the Core had told her to escape from. Scanning around her, she saw that one of the sparrows was flying away, likely frightened by the explosion, black sludge dripping away behind them like smoke from a show plane. But the other sparrow, Joe, had remained brave as ever, the oily liquid dripped from his beak and crawled up his talons, but Marcy took her chances.
Rushing past one of the sludge monsters, Marcy quickly jumped onto the bird, kicking away at Clarity as the monster grew out of the sparrow’s wings while desperately spurring the bird into action to take her anywhere, anywhere but here with the creatures of oil and green.
The bird obeyed, beating its wings into action and lifting her out of the tundra, the white snow having been completely covered by a wave of black and green, the huge spots of the gem’s glowing colour appearing almost as unblinking eyes of some great beast. But they were far, being airborne gave her distance, the sludge travelling up her arm having receded somewhat.
I need to find Core. They can fix this, they can stop these things.
Whipping the reins forward, she turned towards Newtopia. Not looking back as the sludge was covered by an avalanche of white snow.
—------------------------- Lady Justine POV—-------------------------
Justine didn’t like this level of stress, she wasn’t built for it.
Her family had always wanted her to take a more active role in the family, ‘Help be a part of the change’ her mother would always tell her. But she couldn’t handle it, it involved far too many meetings, arguments if you were feeling less charitable. All of these with influential people who were like sharks, waiting to see any weakness, any drop of blood, that they could jump on to get what they wanted.
It’s why she became a simple courtier, her mother disapproved but accepted it. She now just delivered other people’s messages and recorded meetings on paper, rather than playing an active role.
Which is why she didn’t understand why she had to be here.
Andrias had called the majority of noble families for a meeting, including her. Normally a lot of people, like Justine, wouldn’t show up, despite the king's orders. Lots of people were either busy or lacked interest.
But for an abdication of a thousand year long reign, there shouldn’t be a single empty seat.
Justine would have still rather not appeared, but her mother insisted, this was far too big a day to miss. It was silly that, despite only being here for her mother, she wasn’t even seated next to her. Instead on the other side of the atrium sandwiched in between a wealthy snail baron and, strangely, an empty seat reserved for a “Jane Shallow.”
There is no way that is a real name. She mused to herself as she inched closer towards the empty seat, the snail baron’s complaining to his friend starting to grate at her ears. Distracting herself, she decided to see who she recognised in the small auditorium.
Her mother and father were seated on the other side, discussing something with some other merchant family Justine couldn’t remember the names of, she also noticed several military officials seated at the front, a few generals she recognised from her attended meetings. Strangely, General Yunan seemed to be absent, leaving one empty seat.
She must be late, that wouldn’t be surprising. She couldn’t imagine a world where the gloryhound general would miss such an important event.
Before she could ponder it further, movement to her left distracted her. Looking over she saw that it was a tall, newt woman, head partially hidden under a hood to only reveal a scarred snout. “Scuse me.” The woman asked, a heavy accent on her tongue as she sat down in the reserved seat.
“Are you Jane Shallow?” Justine asked, as she understood it, this was a meeting where the powerful nobles and high ranking officials discussed the best way to facilitate the transfer of power to whoever the king designated his heir.
This cloaked woman did not look like a noble.
‘Jane’ looked over, smiled widely with those unnerving sharp teeth that some newts had. “That I am, little lady.” She leaned in a little closer, empathising the height difference even further. “Why d’ya ask?”
“Oh…uh…Just making…sure.” Justine pointed vaguely towards where the piece of paper was attached.
The newt chuckled, looking away and leaning back in her seat, seemingly done with the conversation. Something Justine breathed a sigh of relief for. Still, it was like the beginning of a bad joke, a short frog nestled in between a massive bullfrog and a tall newt, maybe they should all walk into a bar.
Just as she considered going outside for some air, the auditorium silenced. Looking to the front, she saw the reason, the King had arrived.
Walking out from the massive double doors, the man made an intimidating figure, his massive size was normally offset by his jovial nature and broad smile. It made him feel friendly despite being built like a brick house.
He was not smiling this time.
Justine suddenly got the feeling that something very bad was about to happen.
“My courtiers, my friends.” He started, raising up his hands, one of his hands still missing from that accident he had mentioned. Despite the joviality of his words, he was still not smiling. “You all know why I am here, I am tendering my resignation as the constitutional monarch of these lands. As you all know, I have served this role for over a thousand years, so you must all be confused as to why I have decided to abdicate now.”
She heard a heavy clunk behind her, most turning around, she saw that some robed figures, similar to ‘Jane’ had situated themselves at the doorways. They had just locked them, a heavy beam of wood placed across, preventing them from being opened.
They’re going to kill the king! Justine immediately went to stand, but a hand on her shoulder pushed her back down, looking to her side she saw that ‘Jane’ was holding her down with one hand, a vicious-looking dagger in her other pointed squarely into Justine’s side.
“Best keep quiet.” Jane whispered, barely audible over the king’s speech. “You’re gonna wanna hear this.” She nodded her head towards the king. For a moment, Justine considered screaming out about what she saw anyway, knowing that this newt lady would kill her if she did.
But Justine just wasn’t that brave, she sat back down, listening to the king once more.
“-and this worthy heir, is a dear friend, a dear relative, of mine. You do not know of them, but I am ceding power to them.” He paused, “All power, including yours.”
The air in the room immediately became heavier, the silence dragging on for only a few seconds before a complete uproar filled the air. The king was declaring absolutionism?
You can’t do this!
Some of our families have existed for as long as you have reigned!
You will cause a rebellion!
The king nodded slowly at the last cry, causing Justine to instantly understand. These people weren’t here to kill the king. She turned her head to ‘Jane’, shaking like a leaf as she did, the newt had pulled down her hood, revealing burnt skin and wild eyes. She looked like one of the cultists that Master Marcy had apparently wiped out. Shouldn't they be in jail?
‘Jane’ simply smiled. “Nothin’ personal, I swear, but…” She gestured towards the king once more.
“I would have caused a rebellion.” He put particular emphasis on the ‘would’, pointing into the crowd, he then moved his hand to his belt, grasping something attached to it which looked like an intricate coral decoration. “Ladies and Gentlemen, everyone except the whitelist.”
Instant pandemonium, dozens of the cloaked individuals brandished weapons and leapt into the crowd, cutting through swathes of attendees, some of the nobles started fleeing to the doors, only now realizing they had been locked. Others pulled out their own weapons and began attempting to fight back against the assassins.
Justine couldn’t really pay attention to that, too focused on her own assassin. “You ain’t on the whitelist, girl.” She said, moving the dagger towards Justine’s jugular as the frog was too scared to react. “Sorry ‘bout that.”
Before ‘Jane’ could cut it, a massive form rammed into her, the snail baron, a massive mountain of a bullfrog, grabbed the newt with his bare hands as if making to rip her in half. Justine hit the floor and started crawling under the seats, not looking back as the bullfrog roared in pain, also not looking back as something heavy hit the floor behind her.
Under the chairs, she couldn’t see much, dozens of shoes all either fleeing or fighting, dozens of corpses lying on the floor as well, covered in fine clothing soaked in blood. Justine just kept crawling, no particular goal, maybe she could play dead for long enough to escape, maybe-
The thought was interrupted by a tug on the back of her dress, this tug then massively increased in strength as a massive hand pulled her up. Going from crawling on the floor to hanging in the air, she came face to face with the king.
“Oh, I hoped I wouldn’t have to deal with you.” A flash of something crossed the king's face, Justine could almost convince herself it was sadness before he looked to his side. “Mr Talvier?” He asked, throwing Justine down to hit the floor hard, landing right in front of a withered looking newt, also dressed in a large robe.
“Yes, my king.” He said, looking down at Justine as he pulled an intricate sword from its scabbard.
She tried to find words to say, but her brain came up with nothing, nothing she could say. The only thing on her tongue was a quick scream as the withered newt brought down the sword onto her head.
The sword sliced straight through her skull, her brain wasn’t even able to process the pain before she was dead.