Beneath

District of Artisans, Fourth Ring

Tharia was utterly disoriented. One moment, she had stood on the edge of the water, then something snatched her up by her legs and pulled her underwater. The impact on the icy water came as a shock and made her muscles tense up in a self-destructive reflex. She felt water rush past her spiraling body. Even with the shape of submerged houses around her, it was hard to gauge where exactly up was.

Panic had set in but Tharia forcefully relaxed her tensed up muscles. One of the upsides of dealing with convulsions on a daily basis was the calm of mind to deal with tensions and cramps. Good. She had stopped thrashing about. Her eyes didn’t see much. It was dark around her, what little light reached this far down only amounted to shapes, blurs, and shadows. Tharia closed her fingers around the handle of the Axe. She quickly untied it and then moved it to the side for a swing down onto her attacker. Yet, she had barely moved her arm to the side, when the sheer drag of water wrested the weapon from her fingers.

She felt the urge to breathe well up inside of her. Panic once more sneaked into her body and she tried hammering her fists into the thing around her legs but it wouldn’t budge. Calm down. What would Annie do? Look badass and cut the beast into pieces. With the image of her friend as inspiration, she reached for her second lifeline: The rapier that hadn’t seen too much action yet. Really it had just been a flight of fancy to move with the grace of a master swordswoman.

This time, she acted smarter. Once more, she unsheathed the weapon, but she moved her body in a way that it caught the brunt of the water drag. The weapon came free. She still felt a strong tug on her fingers, but with the smaller blade, she could manage. Twisting her torso to the other side, she then thrust the rapier downward. Once, twice and thrice cursed stabs found their target until something glowing hot washed over her body. Tharia quickly closed her eyes as to not get the blood into her eyes.

The creature finally let go. But the human girl continued spiraling through the water for a good bit longer. By now, her lungs were burning up with pain. She desperately needed air. Several moments ago. Worse still, the freezing cold water had started to drain her body temperature. It took a lot of concentration to prevent her body from reflexively breathing in. Subconsciously, she found her left hand clutching at her throat and chest.

Despair started to sink in as her chest burned up with the desperate plea for air. This was it. The final moment of Tharia. Her mind became sarcastic and entertained thoughts about what her epitaph would read. ‘She gave it her all, never amounted to much. A marked failure and abject example of human filth’. She drifted in complete darkness, pressure weighed with a dull pain on her inner ear.

Useless, you’d like that, wouldn’t you, Tharia thought to herself. Sudden anger burned brighter than any sun could hope to do. Stubborn as she was, the small woman started swimming. With no idea where to go, she still considered it a better option to go somewhere instead of nowhere at all. She felt drafts of water tug on her. They accelerated her towards a place she couldn’t see. Tharia gave it her all but she had never been a good swimmer. The biggest reason was that her lower half was useless when it came to the necessary motions.

This brought her a sudden desperate idea. She reached inside of her and firmly grasped the divine flame in her chest with her mind. A conscious thought removed it from her spine and her lower body went limp instantly. Instead, she set the spark to repair the damage caused by lack of air. This wouldn’t last but it would buy her some time.

She concentrated on her arms and made strong strokes with them. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed a faint light in the distance. Hope! The current dragged her along and when it came to change direction again, Tharia swam with all her might. The light belonged to one of those massive giant mushrooms. Didn’t matter. Her body struggled for every meter. There’s no part that didn’t hurt. Her brain started to misfire with random thoughts.

How often do people say to not go into the light?

Would she need another pair of clothes after this?

The sun up high had a funny scent, all things considered.

With walls green and bottles yellow, was the cutlery liquid?

Instinct overwhelmed her rationale, she suddenly swallowed water and her body started thrashing again. A painful impact brought her saving moment of clarity. There was a doorway in front of her. It was part of a massive tower that ended in the biggest mushroom she had ever seen, it’s glowing trunk reached far above. A light came from within the doorframe. Light meant spores, spores meant air. Somehow, barely conscious, she pulled herself inside and then towards the light. Her head bumped against something slimy and utterly disgusting, it gave a bit of resistance before it popped. Water rushed along with her, she found herself catapulted out of the water and onto a hard cellar ground, a fountain of icy water followed before it suddenly stopped. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a rapidly healing fungus membrane close and hold back the water where she had entered.

She had done it! Alive! Poor joy flooded her body until she tried to breathe in properly. Water ran from her lips. Her mind went blank with pain and it was only thanks to the spark, that she somehow survived. When Tharia regained consciousness, a pool of water and less glamorous things had formed around her. The spark had unceremoniously purged everything. Her throat burned, but her lungs breathed sweet, ecstatic, impossibly delicious stale air. She crawled over towards a dry patch and flopped down with a defeated, “Ouch”.

Istsmann Road

District of Artisans, Fourth Ring

Annabelle was in a state she hadn’t known was possible. There was no physical sign of being wounded, but her chest hurt. Her mind was racing with despair and the open feeling of loss. It was a moment wrought with realization. Prince Cathrion, her later husband and part of the murder entourage, had never woken these feelings inside of her. What she had felt for him was rather a form of curiosity. Sure, on a physical level it had felt good to be desired and touched, but it was nothing more than that.

Tharia, however, instilled her with a sense of longing that tied up her every waking moment. Even now, she was convinced she could feel the presence of her love. It was like a subtle flicker tugged on her mind, telling her that even though Tharia was weakened, she was still alive somewhere. She clung to that idea until another realization struck. Her little fairy would call her a Numbskulls for this. Of course, she felt Tharia. The ability to do this had guided their path since they entered the capital. She could feel and locate divine essence, after all. Annabelle carefully tuned in to the sensation and felt her friend nearby. By her estimates, it was underwater and inside one of the giant mushrooms sticking out of the lake.

With a new goal in mind, she grabbed Tharia’s bag from the ground. At least they hadn’t lost the black powder again. That said, there was still some sunlight left today. That stuff was properly cursed and found the most curious of ways to disappear from their belongings. Sometimes in flames. Mostly in flames, actually.

She combined her own supply bag with that of Tharia and then swung it over her shoulder. She tied it with a small piece of cloth for ease of transport, then turned around and stared at the six-limbed beast that stood just outside the line between water and mushroom covered city.

“Right, you’re still here”, she commented and then locked eyes with the beast. It stared back with a dumb intelligence. After a while, the most curious thing happened. The six-limbed beast lowered its head and got down onto the ground. Annabelle kept the gaze locked and made her way back towards the mushroom covered roads. The moment her feet touched the strange mucus on the ground, the six-limbed beast perked up. That very moment, Annabelle brought out the glowing scythe. The weapon hadn’t yet fully manifested when the beast was already disappearing around the corner with panicked yelps and groans.

Annabelle didn’t feel like arguing. Maybe she did have a rather murderous expression at times. It did scratch her ego a bit that it had sent a monster running. She turned around and kept as close to the water as she could, without getting too close to it. Whatever had snatched up Tharia, could always catch her as well. Annabelle made efforts to stay as quiet as possible while keeping special attention on the various paintings. None of them showed signs of intelligence or the urge to suddenly leap out.

The mushrooms had completely conquered this part of the city. Tilted houses occasionally poked out from within thick webs of mucus and funghi. Nothing else really had any chance to grow or live here. She felt her eyes getting tired, the constant bright light was draining. At two times, she found another creature. One was another one of those six-limbed beasts. Like before, a simple stare proved surprisingly effective in making sure it never got close to her. The other was a rather long snake that crossed her path. She quietly stood by and waited several long breaths until it was gone.

Out of all the monsters in the capital, the snake looked curiously normal. That is until she saw it again on the nearby rooftop. The head suddenly split apart in four directions and peeled back to reveal a glistening skeleton held together by a thin mucous membrane. It then sprouted wings and flew off like it was nothing, the snake skin became its dangling tail. Perhaps normal was long gone. Whatever normal had been to begin with. Still, her senses were finely attuned to her lover and she felt joy at the mere suggestion that the spark had become normal again.

After what felt like an eternity, she reached a point where there was no more land to traverse. Instead, several of the houses had toppled over, their debris had then become the breeding ground for the ever-present mushroom colonies. Strong bridges of filament connected the various houses with Mushrooms in the water and last but not least, the big one that seemed to be her target. The feeling of Tharia was strongest from that direction.

Using the technique of summoning her soul weapons and carving edges out of stone, she created a makeshift climbing aid for herself and quickly made her way up the side of the building. This was made possible because really, the side had mostly become the new top. Once on top, she carefully tested the stability of the filaments. Some instantly gave in, yet others proved decidedly stable. Tharia would probably have a better idea, her girl was clever in ways she wasn’t. Annabelle, however, lacked the ingenuity for bullshit ideas that should not reasonably work. So she just started running along the filaments, crossing from one sunken house onto a mushroom, further onto another mushroom, back to a sunken house and then continued on until she reached the penultimate obstacle. It was then that her weight proved too much. The house gave in underneath her feet, she quickly wrapped her hands around the filament but only managed to tear it out along with her.

Wind soared past her as she swung over the water underneath. The end came quickly in sight and it wouldn’t be pretty. She disappeared into a cloud of glowing spores, her body tore through the outer shell of the massive mushroom. When she reached solid ground inside, she found herself glowing from head to toe. The spark within Tharia had grown weaker again, however. Annabelle tried to brush off the spores as she made her way down the staircase inside this weird tower and mushroom symbiont.

Beyond

District of Artisans, Fourth Ring

Tharia was in constant motion. The pale blue lips and the chalk-white skin betrayed how far her body temperature had fallen. The woman was in a bit of a pickle. Her clothes were soaking wet. She was freezing up inside and out. The room she was in turned out to be some sort of entrance hall. The metal placards called it a historical monument called traversal tower. Tharia had never heard of such a thing, but it being a tower certainly explained the hole in the ceiling.

Looking up, she saw an intricate wooden interior with various rooms leading away at fixed intervals. Spore colonies had reached up there, just as much as they had found their place down here. A slimy membrane, identical to the one she had passed through on her way inside, blocked the hole up top. That and the fact that the ladder was upstairs, just in sight of her eyes, along with the wardrobe that promised dry blankets. She saw the edge of it, but no matter how much she bounced and jumped, she just couldn’t reach it. At least it got her blood pumping and served to warm her up. On the upside, with how wet her body was, not a single spore had any interest in getting near her. The few that did, dripped off to the ground. She felt woozy and had trouble keeping her mind focused.

Perhaps she could start the fire. Naturally not with the black powder but perhaps the pyrite could serve in that function. She quickly pulled out her pistol and pushed the powder lid aside. The wet black powder ran out like an oozy smudge that gave her flashbacks to the early days of travel. She carefully spun up the firing mechanism to get to the pyrite, when she saw something that instantly soured her mood. The Pyrite had started to rust away not only itself but the metal around it as well. This wasn’t a recent thing either. Worse, the firing mechanism was in such a sorry state that it was a wonder she had been able to use it at all recently. The general humidity owed to weeks of non-stop raining had gotten to the weapon.

“I should have read books on weapon maintenance”, Tharia spoke with a strange inflection to her voice. That tone was owed to her teeth clattering from the cold. She spun up the wheel mechanism until it snapped in place and pressed the trigger. It snapped back with a click but instead of sparks, pieces of metal came flying out of the lid. She threw the weapon away in a fit of anger. For the next minutes, the small woman was stomping about, screaming obscenities at the floor, the ceiling, the world itself and anyone. What little furniture the room once had, now lay in shambles. But she felt better already. Once she was done, she noticed that it had suddenly gotten brighter.

“You’re loud”, a familiar voice echoed from above. Tharia looked up and had to close her eyes when a roughly humanoid shaped sun peaked down through the hole in the ceiling.

“You’re radiant today, my love”, Tharia snarked. Annabelle rubbed away some spores and revealed her face. She still looked like a walking sun but one Tharia could come to terms with.

“How did you even find me?” Tharia asked while Annabelle hooked the ladder in place. The goddess didn’t answer immediately. Instead, she lowered their supply bags down, followed by two blankets from the wardrobe upstairs. Only then did she follow.

“With the power of love”, Annabelle said.

Tharia groaned in reply. She already regretted exposing Annabelle to all the sarcasm, banter and cheeky irony Tharia called her normal day procedure. The goddess had learned it with lightning fast speed and now she could no longer be sure whether she meant what she said or was pulling her leg instead. This was just plain unfair, Tharia considered playful irritation her domain.

“Actually, I followed the essence”

Annabelle finally explained. She stepped closer to Tharia who still stood frozen with arms wrapped around her chest, hugging the light armor around it. The small human woman had trouble forming coherent thoughts. When Annabelle pushed a blanket into her hands, she gave it a strange look. Only once her love started to rub Tharia’s arms and face did she understand.

They worked together to get Tharia dry again, using the time to tell each other of their respective adventures. When it came to the fact that their way was now cut off, Tharia sighed.

“I guess that only leaves the way further down. There’s another staircase. They tried to hide it with a rotten carpet but well, turns out this glowing fungus loves eating carpets”

The friction of two people rubbing a blanket over her shape quickly brought warmth back to her body and with each passing moment, she felt her faculties return. She had said and thought some utterly ludicrous things when her brain was deprived of oxygen. The only reason she still existed was the spark inside of her. Following a sudden impulse, she slung herself at Annabelle and buried her face in her soft chest.

“Thank you for the divine essence”, Tharia said with a cough. The sentence ended in a coughing fit as her mouth filled with spores. When she moved away from her lover, a Tharia shaped face imprint showed on Annabelle’s clothes.

“I’m willing to forget this happened if you are”, Tharia said and pointed towards the imprint. Annabelle looked down and then back up at Tharia again.

“I’m not”

“I hate you”, Tharia said with a pout and earned herself a playful pat from her love.

“Why, fairy, you’re just positively beaming with love today”

“I really hate you”, the human woman said with a tone that made it obvious she didn’t mean it.

“Aye aye”, Annabelle said and patted Tharia’s hair.

It had taken them a while but her clothes were mostly dry now. Much to Tharia’s surprise, she found that she still had the rapier along with her. She didn’t exactly question fate, especially not after she had lost her trusty pistol. They made their way down the staircase. Everything about this spelled clandestine, including a variety of fake walls along the way. The mushroom had made short work of them while also providing a source of light. The staircase itself seemed to be an extension of the tower, however, it led down instead of up. A moldy scent hung in the air and every few steps Annabelle had to use to the scythe to cut away filaments and membranes that for some weird screwed up mushroom reason grew straight across the stairs.

After what felt like an eternity, they entered a larger room. A subtle blue hue illuminated the spherical hall. Primitive altars lingered in each cardinal direction. Tharia recognized neither symbol nor lettering on them and the devotionals had been withered by time until little remained but oddly shaped lumps of stone. Annabelle had walked outside and Tharia quickly followed her. Her eyes took a moment to adjust from the bright light of the mushroom to the subtle blue inside the massive cavern. Tharia suddenly snapped for air.

“Halrans pimply arse sticking out the window, what the shite is that?”

The dome had opened up into a several kilometer long cavern. Down here the light also came from mushrooms, but these ones looked ancient. Their colorful luster had turned into the everpresent blue. Up above them, they saw a shimmering ceiling. Mushroom colonies in various places plugged up what seemed like holes in the ceiling. Tharia knelt down and picked up a piece of stone that had fallen from the ceiling.

“Obsidian, I think. Do you know it?” Tharia asked and Annabelle simply nodded.

“Why however is there a ceiling made of obsidian above us? More importantly, why, oh why is there a second bloody city down here with what looks like parts of the golden palace sticking out of it?”

Three distinct structures had battled for dominance in this weird cavern. There was an initial construction that had used ancient and massive bones to build rickety hanging villages between them. They looked many centuries old with wood that had withered away and stone that was smooth from the endless dripping water. The second set of structures was part of the city above. The tell-tale sign of buttresses and vault ribs, along with ugly painted walls had smashed directly into the city below. Third and most confusing was the presence of the golden palace. It was just a singular wing of the once home of gods. Somehow, it hovered just a smidge above the city beneath but the sputtering lights said enough about how long this would last. Still, the black stone with glowing golden lights looked majestic, not least of all the circular dome above gave off a gentle golden glow.

“Are you feeling alright, love?” Tharia asked her friend. The goddess had a strange look on her face.

“Yes, It’s just odd to something of it left standing”

Tharia nodded. It was that moment when the last remnant of the golden palace came crashing down. Loud rumble and thunderous noise roared through the cave. Dust was thrown up as the black and golden walls dug their way into the two mixed cities underneath. The dome had cracked open from the impact and allowed a look deep inside the belly of the crashed palace. A giant statue of a winged serpent served as the central place inside the golden dome.

“Dreamreaper”, Tharia spoke with a whisper.

“How do you know?”

Tharia bit her lower lip. Lies had a way to come back and quickly gestate out of control. She was once more at a crossroad. One path led her down a path of ever more complex lies, but Annabelle might be better off for it. The other was brutal honesty and threatened to not only damage her lover but also plunge the world further towards the end of all days.

No pressure, really.

End: Places beneath obsidian skies | Coming up: The Understadt (+Bonus)