The Observatory Outskirts Middle of the Second Ring

“No, I’m not mocking you, Annie. If you want a bakery, then a bakery we will build, when this is over. It’s just a bit unexpected. You’ve got a surprisingly homely side to you”, said Tharia and slipped closer to Annabelle to give her a gentle nudge. She kept one eye on the path ahead – it was a long-winded spiral leading around the hill. The three domes of the observatory looked like bubbles in a soap bath.

“Personally, I’m happy with most things. As long as there is a large, totally over-sized bath with warm water and scented soaps”, Tharia kept musing.

“What do you want to do, Sisi?”

“Not play into your delusions. This world is done. No point in fantasizing about what’s to come”, the sprite answered and pulled close the curtains of her small home in the barrier-staff.

“Well, excuse me”, Tharia snapped. Anger flared up. She felt the urge to throw away the staff and bury the sprite under layers of snow. Her fingers wrapped hard enough around the staff until they grew numb. A soft touch on her shoulder calmed her down again. Annabelle smiled.

“I liked it. Yes, maybe I’m homely”, the goddess said and got a distant stare, “waking up in the morning with sweet bread and the scent of tea. Comfort”

That’s a word Tharia hadn’t heard in a long time. Her eyes wandered over the capital. From up here, there was little of it left. The once proud city was buried under piles of snow, ice and stubborn golden fields that encircled what was left. Comfort, Tharia mused and returned her attention to Annabelle. They would get out of bed together, Annie would wear a cute apron, embroidered with images of sheep. There’d be bed-hair and the dopey look of just having woken up. Tharia smiled.

“They say you fall in love with a person at their prime. But you know it’s love if you stick around after the low”, she said with quiet words.

“Where is that coming from, Fairy?”

“My heart, you pink fluffy cushion. What I’m saying is, our relationship is backward”, Tharia explained while running a hand over the icy handrail to her side. The surface melted under her short touch – and the magic of Sisi. Mostly the magic.

“Think about it. Normal couples inch closer by getting to know each other. We skipped that and went straight for the deep end. But really, Annie, we’ve seen our worst and we’re still there for each other. I didn’t even know I could find the idea of a bakery endearing – but with you, I’d be there every morning.“

Tharia was fully aware that she had started to babble again. The long way up to the observatory had reached its end and that meant they would soon be fighting again. She brushed her hair behind her ears. It still felt strange to have long hair again, thanks to some errant magic. It’s like she came to terms with being seen as a woman by Annabelle. Right, now her thoughts started to drift from the matter at hand as well.

“We’re here”, she said in an attempt to focus her mind. Like with the city, a lot of it was buried under smothering layers of white. The three metal domes housed the telescopes. It wasn’t so much a building as it was a large scale mechanism. Each dome was seated on its own metal disk that could be turned with the machine hidden away in the hill. Parts of it protruded out of the snow: Brass gears, long and complicated looking springs – all were exposed to the elements in what looked like the aftermath of an explosion.

“I can feel my essence inside”, said Annabelle and pointed to the largest dome. The dome was stuck in a half-rotation with part of the telescope sticking out of a thick cover of ice. Icicles hung off it. To Tharia they looked like the beard of a monster. Maybe she had a beard trauma. Her father had loved them. With surprise, the human girl realized her fingernails had dug into her hand. Runaway emotions again.

“Yeah, the large one is in that big dome alright. There are lots of smaller ones around him too. Movement is erratic”, Tharia added her personal insight, “They’re all around the big one, with some stragglers.”

She glanced at Annabelle and grew quiet. The goddess was examining the observatory while pressing her lips together.

“Entry, easy. We should capture a straggler, see what we’re dealing with”, she suggested. Tharia on the other side tapped a finger against the barrier-staff.

“Good idea”, she answered to Annabelle and then gently opened the curtain, “Sisi, would you mind having a look through the ice on top?”

The sprite spoke no word. It just shot an angry glare towards Tharia and then took off. The human girl gasped for air as the temperature got so cold, she could barely breathe anymore.

“Sisi is hurting”, whispered Annabelle once the sprite was out of earshot. Tharia nodded in agreement. That much was obvious.

“It’s the second time she lost what she thought was the last of her kind. We’ll be there if she needs help but Sisi strikes me as the type to chew through it on her own.”

The rest of her words was cut off when the sprite returned. It sat down on Tharia’s shoulder and dangled the legs while swaying back and forth. The warmth quickly returned with each of the words. She realized that without the sprite, this would be a whole lot harder.

“Not a lot to see from the outside, it’s entirely too dark. That said the big one is obviously a god-beast. Your luck, he’s too big to move around much. Couldn’t get a good look at the smaller ones.”

“We rest”, began Annabelle, “Couple of minutes at most. Then we kill one of the stragglers, test out what we’re up against. We do additional scouting inside.”

Seeing Annabelle take charge gave the walking pervert encyclopedia a momentary shiver. It was an alluring fantasy that blended in with the idea of Annie in an apron. As time went by, her idea of it magically lost more pieces of clothing. With a sneeze, she shoved the dirty thoughts aside and showed the world an innocent grin.

The Observatory Middle of the Second Ring

Tharia could hardly believe it. They had actually used the main entrance like normal people! She stepped into the observatory with a huge grin on her lips. Her first impression was one of pomp. The floor was made of dark parquet. Carpets covered most of it and were laid out in an attempt to guide visitors down certain paths. Around them, the walls were covered by red fabric that gradually darkened into the pitch black of the ceiling. The inset gems shimmered like stars.

“No one here – but one down that corridor”, Tharia said. Her vision picked up a flame a good distance away.

“We ready?” asked Annabelle. The human girl nodded her reply. With a golden flash of light, the goddess had donned the armor and brought out her tell-tale scythe. Tharia, on the other hand, loaded her crossbow. She had bound the staff to her bag – with Sisi once more out in the open, there was no point to wielding it.

“Ready as can be”, she finally said. Annabelle quickly took charge. She stepped through the door and into the corridor with Tharia close by. Sisi was floating above them, quiet and grumpy. The sprite had dimmed the light – which also meant more of the cold had an effect on the girls. Once they got closer to the singular small flame, Tharia waved towards Annabelle and the goddess acknowledged it and then gestured to be quiet.

The thick carpet swallowed the sounds of her their steps. If it weren’t for the heavy bags on their back, they’d be completely silent. Given past experiences, she was no longer willing to leave their supplies behind though.

Her heart drummed in her chest. A few steps and another door separated them from the monster. Annabelle leaned against the frame of the door and waited for Tharia to get into position. The human girl moved into a slightly offset spot and raised the crossbow. She aimed it directly at the slowly moving flame.

Thumbs up. Everything started moving at once. Annabelle bashed open the door with her Scythe and stormed inside. Sisi followed and sparked intense light to drown out the shadows. Tharia was the last one to duck into the room. In the bright light, nothing could hide from her view. Yet there was nothing there to threaten them.

“What the...”, started Tharia. It was a room like any other in the observatory. There was a row of furniture to the side, couches with soft cushions for the visitors. She saw a large globe in the center of the room. A smaller bubble covered the top quarter of it. Tharia nodded. That was one of the recent scientific ideas: The world was really a sphere and it was just that the livable space was limited to a small bubble on top. Still, no monster.

She concentrated on the flame and sure enough, it was just five steps in front of them. The flame flickered with anticipation. It couldn’t be, could it?

“Sisi, increase the light”, she shouted up.

“The only kind of enlightenment you’ll get”, it snapped back. A moment later, the small room was as bright as day. Tharia started to sweat from the intense heat of the living flame, but she had no eyes for that. She saw her own shadow and that of Annabelle, they overlapped some distance away. Sisi above had no shadow on the floor since it was the source of light.

“It’s there, I can feel it but...”, Tharia said and shifted her weight onto the other foot. Her shadow followed along, yet it remained connected to Annabelle. That was odd. Following her instinct, she hopped to the side until their shadows couldn’t possibly connect anymore. That’s when the creature leaped at her. It moved through her shadow with absurd speed. She tried to swivel her crossbow but it was too fast – until Sisi above changed position.

The sprite moved so that Tharia’s shadow pointed in one direction and the creature in the other. It smacked into the barrier of light and for the first time, she saw their opponent. The beast was a gelatinous black sludge in a state of constant change. Maws formed inside of it with long rows of teeth, milky eyes stared at Tharia before collapsing into long fangs. It reminded her of the shapeshifter from when they had set out.

That is until the creature propped up two large claws from within the shadow and then pulled itself out. Its true body was a quadrupedal creature. Strong legs held up a sturdy torso, the shapeshifting sludge was merely one of its eyes. She had seen enough and so had Annabelle. The goddess was so fast, she looked like she was flying. Her shape came to a stop with one foot in front, the Scythe angled to the side and then cut upwards. The long blade pierced through the joint of one leg.

Tharia, on the other hand, aimed her crossbow directly at the flame again. She let loose the bolt and watched it hammer into the thick outer layer of the creature. Neither attack had any considerable effect. The moment Annabelle stepped back for another swipe, the cut in the limb had already healed again. Undeterred, Tharia loaded the next bolt.

The beast roared and stretched in Annie’s direction. Two of the legs lifted up and then jabbed towards the goddess. She deflected the main thrust of the first limb with her scythe, dodged the other and regained her balance in one fluid motion. While Annabelle defended herself, Tharia noticed an oddity. The lower half of the monster was still connected to the shadow.

“Sisi? Fly lower please”, she suddenly commanded. The sprite answered with a barrage of obscenities that centered around how she wasn’t a lamp. She obliged though. With it, the light composition in the room changed. The shadows grew longer. With it, the beast accelerated in speed. The front end was still cumbersome but the back end, bathed in shadows, moved with absurd speed. More of the muscle trunk slipped out of the shadow and the beast lurched forward.

Annabelle was on her toes though. She danced back with two steps and then countered with a wide swipe of her Scythe. When the beast deflected that hit, she used the long wooden part to create an opening. With her hands flat against the limb, golden light penetrated straight through and manifested into a war-fan. More of the beast slipped out of the shadow. This thing was surprisingly long and all-ugly. The sight of glistening bare muscle was an odd sight. Once they split apart to reveal the inner workings, Tharia choked. Ugh. Disgusting.

By sheer instinct, she shot a bold straight through it. The shadow creature thrashed about, sending vibrations through the floor as the long body flopped hard onto the parquet. Annabelle barely dodged another of the limbs. The goddess changed her approach. Now that the beast had stretched so much, she went for the weird black smudge instead. First, Annie jammed her Scythe between two limbs and then spun the weapon to lock up the legs.

Tharia winced. That looked bloody painful, she thought in a moment of empathy for the monster. It quickly stopped the moment Tharia had loaded the next bolt. She was starting to feel the drain of constantly winding up the weapon. The small girl aimed the crossbow at the muscle stalk and waited for Annabelle’s next move.

With her silver-hair flowing, Annabelle jumped back and then began rotating both arms. Golden light gave form in the shape of two war-fans that were quickly spun up to speed. First, she let loose the right one by allowing her upper body to follow the motion just a bit – and then in one fluid step, she moved forward the other foot and turned her body around to throw the second one as well. Both found their mark. With an ugly squelch, they dove into the black smudge. The shadow-creature reared up – Tharia had waited for this moment. Her bolt dove straight through the muscles and pierced the very core of the monster.

The ground started to shudder in response and a moment later, as the shadow-beast died with some last convulsions, the ground suddenly spit out the rest of the monster. Tharia had a premonition the smell would be horrible but no amount of panicked foresight could have prepared just for how much like rotten eggs and decaying flesh this seemed.

All of that had hidden in the shadows. Curiously, the parquet was intact, safe for the battle damage. Seems like more beasts were learning to use domains for their purposes. With her hand in front of her mouth, Tharia quickly stumbled out of the room, closely followed by Annabelle and Sisi.

“Gods be cursed, that stench”, Tharia groaned. They had walked fifty meters but in her mind, everything now smelled like that thing.

“I suggest we call it the shadow-stinker, silent but deadly”, Tharia snarked and then sighed, “Let’s check for damage.”

The small girl sat down on the fluffy carpet and patted a spot next to her. Annabelle quickly walked over. Her armor momentarily disappeared as she sat down next to Tharia. The human girl placed her soft hands on the body of her love and allowed her magic to flow into her.

“Looking good. That armor is a gift”, Tharia said and poured a bit of healing essence into her friend. A shiver ran down her spine. Being close to Annie and touching her was always an intimate moment, but exchanging magical essence – even if for the purpose of healing – was a whole different aspect. Yet, when she saw Sisi’s grumpy tiny face, Tharia quickly pushed those thoughts aside.

“Alright, what have we learned?” asked Tharia while letting her magic work.

“It lives in the shadows”, said Annie.

“The shadow-stinker visibly slows down outside of it, I agree”, added Sisi, “I’m not looking forward to playing the lamp.”

Tharia rubbed her nose and then once more concentrated on transferring a bit more energy into Annabelle. She washed away some of the exhaustion so that their front-line fighter was in peak condition for the upcoming fights.

“Let’s cut it down to the core. Any damage we do up top is more or less pointless. It just heals instantly”, mused Tharia, “We can constrict and steer its motion with light. That’s the main advantage for us. One well-aimed shot at the core can end it instantly. Hm, Sisi?”

“What?” came Sisi’s reply. It sounded so quintessentially like Annie, that Tharia replied by instinct.

“Complete sentences please!”

“Nope, not happening”, came the answer of Annabelle. All three looked at each other in a moment of confusion. A second later, laughter broke the awkwardness.

“Yeah that was a failure of a sentence”, Tharia finally said with a grin, “Let me try again. Sisi, can you imbue my bolts with the golden dust? That way, we can increase our chances to take them out. We use your light to constrict them, Annie lures them out, I shoot the bolt into the core and you explode it.”

“Admit it, you just love watching stuff explode”, said Annabelle with a sigh.

“Yes, Annie. Obviously. But, I mean that plan could work, no?”

“Sounds good to me”, added Sisi with a squeaky voice.

Tharia nodded. That would be their plan then until they met the big one in the large dome. In the meantime, she would keep her eyes out for something else. For a while now, she had felt subtle vibrations in the floor. That could mean the large machine was still working. Something powerful enough to essentially turn around the top of a hill – well it might just be another half-cocked, bloody insane and stupid but awesome trick up their sleeve in the upcoming battle against the big one.

End: Trick of Light | Coming up: Eppur Si Muove