[Womb of the Dark Mage]

Chapter 21 / 01

Intercourse Between Worlds

Geoff blinked in the pitch black. He swung his MGS aside so he could grab the flashlight from his belt. He clicked it on and flashed it at his surroundings. He appeared to be in Spring Station. The Martyrstone was enough to get them to Oval, then. Although from looking around, there was nothing to tell him he wasn’t on Earth.

He turned to see if his companions had made it with him. Rick was carrying Sparlyset on his back with a Martyrsmith harness Gunhilda had thrown together to support her legs. Sparlyset tapped his chest with her hand.

Lamet was already walking away, her tail swishing broad strokes through the air. Geoff stepped after her, but paused when he noticed Rick turn to stare solemnly into the empty tunnel.

“Good memories?” Geoff said jokingly.

Rick shrugged without turning. “Carried Sparlyset through this tunnel. Did the Rite of Vitality down there, hiding in a supply room.” He pointed down to the right. “It’s… so quiet now.”

Sparlyset looked at Geoff. “Never in my years have I witnessed such bravery as Richard displayed to bear me safely here against that monstrous machine.”

He nodded in understanding. “Oh I know that’s right. You should have seen him with Toy Guy that one time. Was it far?”

“I don’t know,” Rick said. “Four kilometres through the station, maybe. I showed up on the other side farther down the mountain with that Redcorner Apartments building.”

“Your adventure is starting to come together in my head.”

Rick nodded as he turned his own flashlight on and hurried after Lamet. “Tunnel may not have been coming down on us like it was with Toy Guy, but I was dying from something. Which reminds me, you’re going to want to do that Rite of Vitality.”

“I will,” Geoff said. He was looking forward to getting some magic for himself. “I guess it’s no wonder she likes you after all that.” He laughed, “Especially these stairs…” The broken escalator would normally have given him no trouble, but he was just sore enough that he felt like complaining.

“My affection did not blossom merely from being borne upon his back!” Sparlyset protested. She flicked her tail at him.

Geoff just laughed, but Rick looked embarrassed. Knowing Rick, he said some sweet things to her without even realising it.

“This place was actually still lit up when we arrived,” Rick said, changing the subject. “I guess there’s a generator down here somewhere, but it was out by the time we came back.” At the top of the escalator, they rounded a corner and he pointed out a busted-open vending machine. “That’s where I found Chrisk Bonnair.”

Geoff was fascinated by the pieces of Rick’s journey as they formed a more complete picture in his head. He wished he could see the start, though. He would bet that it was more fun than panic in the streets or Deilitus’s tripwire against his neck. And as scared as he knew Rick was of that train he’d probably take the relative safety of its roaring path over the monster and that blasted road any day.

Lamet was starting to get ahead of them so they hustled to keep up. She hesitated at the glass to the outside, but quickly figured out which large window was actually a door and pushed it open.

They caught up with her by the time she reached a plateau overlooking the valley. She stopped and held out a hand to bar the path.

The silhouette of Earth sat in the sky above a great valley of blue-green trees carpeting the mountain sides. A bright blue river ran between two peaks and out of sight. When he squinted, Geoff thought he could see the grey edges of cut stone structures right where he lost view of the river.

Lamet raised her finger and pointed down the path. “It is too quiet,” she said.

“I agree,” Sparlyset shifted on Richard’s back for a closer look. “But by what cause?”

“Can you really not see? The slingtails are agitated. The trees are full of them.”

Geoff looked over the trees ahead, peering between the branches and the curly leaves, but there was no way for him to know what would be out of the ordinary. Or what a ‘slingtail’ even was.

Lamet sighed. “Will I have to babysit the three of you for our entire journey? Pay close attention to the numerous holes in the spinewoods.” She held a hand up in front of her and walked forward carefully. As she approached the trees, nothing happened. A few more slow steps brought her past the line of trees and Geoff was beginning to wonder if they should follow.

She stopped. A hail of stones shot from the holes in the trees like bullets and bombarded an invisible force in a dome around her. Each of the countless stones sent ripples through the barrier. Geoff couldn’t even see through the shimmering orb until the barrage stopped and the air around her went still.

Lamet made a gesture with her hand and the barrier appeared, glowing red hot. Her hands spread out and the sphere around her expanded rapidly, a paper-thin sheet of hot fire that broke against the trees and scorched some of the leaves. It nearly hit them as well. The heat against his arms was like holding a match almost too long.

Furry orbs suddenly burst from the holes in the trees and plopped with gentle thuds into the leafy underbrush. Lamet stomped her feet loudly and the critters curled up their arm-like tails and rolled off down the mountain with a chorus of quiet squeaks.

“I have a feeling we would have a very hard time on this journey without you, Lamet.” Rick said with an appreciative palm-up as he watched the swarm of slingtails disappear.

“You would not make it to Mount Flange without me,” she asserted, her tail flicking the air.

“I get the impression you’re ticked off about something.” Rick said. Sparlyset tapped him once.

They followed her as she stomped off through the woods. “I knew you would not be as experienced as me but it is disappointing to see the evidence firsthand.”

“We’ll learn.” Geoff said.

“I know. But until you have, it falls on my shoulders to carry the extra weight.” She stopped to look back at Sparlyset and Rick. “And on Richard to carry the rest.”

“Your words are unreasonably impolite!” Sparlyset protested.

“Then how would you stop a swarm of agitated slingtails? How do you know when they are poised to defend the woods?”

“I know!” she claimed, waving her hand so fiercely through the air she bumped Rick with the side of her arm. “The holes are replete with furry bums!”

Lamet sighed. “The holes of the spinewoods are deep; light will not reach the depths of the trees. If the holes appear shallow rather than black from shade, there are slingtails lurking within, and they are expecting trouble.”

“I said as much,” Sparlyset squeezed Rick and rested her chin on his shoulder.

Lamet bent down and picked up a handful of sharp-looking stones from the ground. Rick gave her a warning glare as she stepped close, but she ignored him and held the stones up under Sparlyset’s nose. “You would have let Richard carry you right into these. Because you know the dangers of the woods, but you do not look for them.”

“A half-decade has passed since last I witnessed such a belligerent gathering of slingtails,” Sparlyset said defensively.

“Your excuses would not sound so good, muttered from within a pool of Richard’s blood.”

Sparlyset growled her words. “You have forgotten your manners on your adventures!”

Lamet took an aggressive step forward. Rick’s hand shot up, palm down. “Stop,” he said. “Both of you.”

Lamet returned Sparlyset’s growl.

“Let me make this clear,” Rick said, wearing his fed-up look that was rare to see. “I’m not taking sides in this argument. We’re allies; there are no sides. Lamet is right to warn us of danger, and even to chastise us if we don’t take it seriously. At the same time, Lamet, I can’t blame Sparlyset for getting defensive when you speak down to her that way.”

Sparlyset and Lamet stared at each other. Geoff started to feel tense, waiting to see who would insult the other first. Really, he expected Lamet to turn and walk away. Both their tails flicked through the air.

“I think I understand why your patience is short with Sparlyset,” Geoff added, trying to back Rick up, “but it’s not her fault she can’t get out as much as you. And you have to remember Rick and I don’t know Oval. We’re counting on you to teach us.”

Lamet scoffed. “I had no such issues as a visitor to Earth.”

“There aren’t exactly dangerous critters stalking the streets of Hometoll. We just battled Warbinger.”

“Not true!” Lamet said. “Before I met you I faced a monster whose ferocity completely overshadows that of a mere slingtail.”

Geoff cocked an eyebrow, wondering what she could have seen. A dog? He hoped she hadn’t fought someone’s dog. Maybe she almost got hit by a bus.

“It was twice as large as a slingtail.” Lamet said with a shiver. “It curled its black-furred body menacingly towards me, baring fangs long and sharp, likely for gnawing through the bone of its victims. Its advance was unhindered by anything in its path as it used the sharp claws on its four limbs to clamber nimbly over everything. Worst was the enormous brushy tail. I suspect its purpose is to soak the blood of its prey to return with to feed its young and teach them the taste so they learn what to hunt.”

Geoff choked down his laughter. “That sounds like a squirrel.”

She leaned her head towards him. The Rite of Tongues wouldn’t translate ‘squirrel’. “A… squirrel? Was my assessment of it correct?”

Geoff shook his head. “They eat nuts.”

She glared at him, her eyes filled with suspicion. “Nuts? Those horrible little things eat nuts? For what purpose? To fire them as they slingtails do?”

He failed to hold his laughter this time and buckled over. Rick was smirking at him but Lamet looked confused. “Squirrels eat nuts.” he repeated through gasps for air. “That’s all they do. They just like nuts.”

“Sometimes they chase each other.” Rick chuckled

“They are cannibalistic?” Lamet asked.

Now Rick burst out laughing while Geoff tried to stifle his own.

“Do you mock me?” Lamet growled. She frowned at Sparlyset who Geoff assumed was only laughing because they were.

Rick straightened his back and took a deep breath. “Oh, no. Sorry Lamet. Squirrels just chase each other for fun. All they do is eat nuts and play together. I guess sometimes they bury nuts to save them for later, but they’re kind of dumb so they forget where they are.”

“They’re completely harmless,” Geoff squeaked between breaths.

“We’re not laughing at you Lamet…” Rick said. “It’s just… clearly there’s a difference between Earth creatures and Oval ones. That makes it even more crucial to have your guidance.”

Lamet just stared silently at them while Geoff choked down the last of his laughter and caught his breath.

Sparlyset broke the silence by speaking first. “Lamet the Riteweaver, you possess tremendous respect across our mountains, owing to your immense power and depth of knowledge beyond your years. Grace and fortune bless us with your company.”

“How uncharacteristically mature of you,” Lamet said. Her face was the image of chagrin, but she hid it behind a cold tone. “Richard seems to be a good influence. Very well, I accept your apology and offer my own in accord. I will remember that you lack my experience, and try to remain patient.”

Geoff let out his breath as Lamet walked away. He was relieved to have Rick’s talent for cooling hot tempers, but they would need more than that if the arguments became a regular issue. He squeezed his friend’s shoulder and continued after the blue-haired woman, watching her tail flick back and forth.

Deeper into the forest, where the tall spinewoods towered in every direction, Lamet stopped again. She turned to look over her shoulder at Sparlyset.

“Deal with this.” She crossed her arms and stared expectantly.

A test, Geoff assumed. Lamet had a keen eye and picked up on details quickly. She clearly expected the rest of them to hone their perception tool, and this time she was picking on Sparlyset. He decided he would look around himself, and spot what he could.

It was as forest-y as forest got, by his first impression. Things that stood out as different from Earth caught his attention first, and that meant the purple grasses, overly prickly underbrush, and curly-bluish leaves. He’d been staring at bushes and swishing tails for so long he wasn’t even sure he could think outside the box of those few stand-out details.

Then he remembered the holes in the trees and scanned them quickly, but he saw no sign of any ‘furry bums’ within them; they were dark. As he stared into the canopy he noticed a bright glint of orange, but as the leaves shifted in the breeze he lost sight of it. It couldn’t be the sun, though, Oval—Mount Flange, at least—was six hours ahead of Hometoll, so it was already close to sundown.

He didn’t figure it out before Sparlyset waved her arm around in the air and a flash of pure white light engulfed the forest. Startled squawks sounded like a chorus of off-key trumpets and a flock of dazed cannon raptors tumbled from the trees. The fortunate ones landed roughly on the ground and stumbled away, or their copper-scaled bellies protected them from the bushes. An unfortunate few fell backs-up in the thorns and ceased moving.

“Give me the Bearing Bag,” Lamet told her with an outstretched hand.

“It is overfull,” Sparlyset replied.

“And the other?” Lamet was undeniably still in a sour mood.

“Upon my shelf a—”

“Nevermind,” she scoffed. “Geoff, I need your help to carry the dead birds, if you please.”

Geoff took two birds in each hand, while Lamet carried the last three.

“We do not typically hunt these things for meat,” she explained, “but their meat is edible and their feathers and bones have their uses. It would be an insult to the creatures to leave them unused.”

He held them away from his body to keep the bloodied feathers from touching him. When they finally reached Mount Flange, a town of small rounded buildings spread across the side of the mountain, he was relieved when an old green puren relieved them of the birds. After a silent exchange of gestures from Lamet.

The purens they passed all exchanged palm-ups with Lamet and Sparlyset. Geoff offered his own but the villagers seemed to want to ignore his presence.

“Welcome to Mount Flange,” Sparlyset said. There was no excitement or pride in her voice. Just dull matter-of-factness.

Some more attentive villagers recognized that their presence meant Lamet had returned safely from Earth, but there was a general attitude of amusement about it. Something about her always being ‘elsewhere’.

Geoff leaned into the group. “Is it weird to anyone else that no one seems surprised to see us?” he asked.

“Some of our guardsmen returned while you were getting your toys from Gunhilda.” Lamet said, clearly irritated by the delay. She wouldn’t be complaining when she saw the new pepper the MGS was packing, though. She continued with a glance over her shoulder. “While the others remained to be pampered by Bonnair under the guise of maintaining relations.”

“Mount Flange is boring,” Sparlyset offered as a counterpoint. “It is no mystery why they prefer to indulge in Bonnair’s hospitality and bask in the inflated sense of significance offered by the coddling humans of Earth.”

“True,” Lamet said, “though I doubt the elders will accept that excuse.”

“We will not,” said Coremet, crossing her arms as she stepped in front of them.

Lamet turned even paler than she already was. “Grandmother.”

Coremet wore a deep frown. Her back was slightly hunched and her face was covered in tiny scales around her nose and under her eyes. They gave a blue tint to her face that was otherwise as pale as all the others. Her skin had no wrinkles, so Geoff wondered if it was the scales that marked her advanced age.

“Lamet,” she said sternly. “Go and find your brother. He has yet to return with the Lightweavers from Nook Valley.”

“Dorshemet can mind himself, grandmother,” Lamet sighed. “And if the Lightweavers are not here they are either not coming or so late that I am not sure they have the integrity to be of any use.”

The old woman’s hand turned palm down. “Your brother would not shirk his duty so completely, not with the amount of pride the task gave him. A prime opportunity to show the village his worth while you were elsewhere. So he may have become distracted, but he will have sent the Lightweavers.”

Lamet returned the palm-down. “Sparlyset already banished Warbinger. If those Lightweavers insist on taking their time then let them, and scold them for the full extent of their tardiness when they arrive. And if they die in the woods they were useless to us anyway.”

“You lack compassion, Lamet.” Coremet said sternly. “The young Lightweavers are little Sparlyset’s age and younger. They are not as experienced as you.”

“Sparlyset braves the woods and she manages to survive. She cannot even walk.”

Coremet sighed. “Enough of this.” She turned her attention to Sparlyset.

“Sparlyset, we are all very grateful for your role in keeping Warbinger at bay. Welcome home and thank you.” Her tone was softer when addressing the Lightweaver. “And good to see you as well, Ser Richard. To see you all safe warms my heart.”

For Geoff she offered a palm-up, which he returned, and then turned an impatient stare back at Lamet. “We are not surprised that he is elsewhere when he should be here, he has always imitated you after all, but had Sparlyset not succeeded we would be desperate to know his whereabouts and I see no reason to slack in our search simply because the Lightweaver bought us some time.”

“Fine,” Lamet said. “I will go save him again. I trust you will be here forcing riteseeds down Geoff’s gullet until I return?”

Geoff started at the mention of his name. Down his gullet? Suddenly the jealousy he’d felt over Rick having magic turned to nerves. He remembered that Rick said they tasted even worse than his own bulbsprout dish.

“Of course,” Coremet said with a wide grin of sharp teeth. “We have never had such fun as watching these humans cry. They are unexpectedly resilient for apes.”