When she moved, the walls shifted along with her and kept a fair distance, which served in keeping Heria confined but comfortable. Contained but content. Initially, of course, she was anything aside from content; the sudden darkness twisted Heria’s guts and called upon her wild beast brain which promptly responded with fists full of essence, fear, rage, and confusion. Heria had gotten some new split knuckles as a result of her explosion of instinct, though not much else. Even as she cast to heal her fresh wounds, she cried, lamenting to herself.

“It is all too much. Too fucking much. I will die here, not because I have to but... Lords and Legends… because I want to. I want to die.” Heria listened to the words resound, heard the quiver in her own voice. “Or.. is it that I am not enough? Just too tired? Does it even matter? Do I-”

Heria nearly shat herself when a chuckle, very clearly not her own, bounded about her in the darkness. It was everywhere, traveling around with nothing more than a thwip of air or a pop of shadow, about her all at once- and gone in an instant.

“Hello?”

Heria sat up straight, peered into the darkness around her. No spots or shapes seemed to be thicker than the rest, but some shadows seemed to be swirling. If I can see them swirling… there had to be light coming from somewhere! A crack in her prison, perhaps? Heria yearned to hope for such luck... but she was no fool. No naive, young girl. Not anymore; not for a while now. Whoever had trapped her knew what they were doing. So why can I see the swirling? Where is the light source?

“There is no single source of light if that's what you’re thinking about. It's all essence, my darkness, the shadows that I ride, and all essence holds light, apparently.” The voice was willowy, scattered as if cutting through fierce winds from afar, though Heria swore she recognized it. “Stop thinking so hard, you’ll hurt yourself if your brow furrows any further. Listen now Heria, for I must leave soon. I have much to do and not much time to do it, so I will not explain anything. Just listen.”

Heria nodded. Whoever it was could definitely see her.

“Walk forward, slowly. Hold your arms out front and find the wall. Should only be about… hm… five good-sized steps for you.”

For all Heria knew she could be walking and straight into the stranger's blade, or worse. Plenty of things worse than death, but for some reason, she trusted them. It wasn’t as if she had much choice. Heria did as instructed and found the wall. What had felt like solid stone to her fist before fell soft and malleable beneath her gently laid palms.

“It reacts. It’s alive.”

“Yes! Exactly, and you just punched the ever-living shit out of it, so, what do you think your next move should be, Heria?” A soft chuckle followed and rode out of existence on the swirling shadows.

It's alive and you hit it, so… Apologize, you brute. Like any decent person would. Heria leaned forward, pressing her forehead against her living prison’s wall, and felt it push against her. It was pleasantly warm.

“I am so very sorry that I hurt you. Please forgive me for my fear and... impulses.”

As if in acceptance of her apology the wall before instantly lit up in a lovely golden glow that traveled from somewhere beneath the ground Heria stood on and traversed up the walls of her personal little prison in glittering gold veins that sent light to every last corner. She could now see that the space around her was crafted entirely of what looked like compacted mud, moss, and an interlocking maze-like mesh of thick white-green roots. Small winged creatures with humanoid bodies and heads like the petals of a lunarose bloom darted back and forth high above her, spilling out from the top of the glowing veins just before the ceiling of her mud dome, and rained down upon her.

“What.. what are they?”

She was talking to the voice from before. Heria got no response from the fading shadows, all but consumed by sparkling rays of light. It seemed that with the darkness, her unknown savior had absconded if there had been anyone there, to begin with. Without warning, the floating flecks of light with human-like bodies and insect wings buzzed around her ears and spoke in unison.

“We are servants of the great Mukeko.”

“Mukeko!” A small chorus repeated the name back before they resumed speaking in unison. “They call us Lumifaen, though most of us prefer to shorten that title to Lumi. The masters asked us to retrieve you, so we did. Then, they asked us to test you, and we have.” A little naked creature glowing pure gold with large, buoyant breasts, and an astonishingly oversized cock flew before her and spun around twice. “You passed! Much, much better than that other one, still raging like a madwoman, that one.”

Mukeko… why does that sound familiar? And what other one? “Uhm… thank you? May I leave this… place, now?” Heria was careful to raise her arms slowly, giving the Lumi that darted about her ample time to move, and made a gesture that encompassed her mud-cell-dome.

“This is one of our terrinhives. A home of ours that we freely move beneath the ground, generally only to follow the Mukeko or carry out an order that they’ve given. Sometimes, they have us use them as quarters for visitors, like yourself.”

Do they abduct all their visitors? “And… they decide when I get to leave, I assume?”

“No, no, that is up to you, and the Lumi, in a way. We tested you, we judged you, we deemed you worthy. You may leave whenever you please. The Mukeko will be waiting, however, all Lumi believe an encounter with them to be a holy event, so we recommend preparing yourself.”

For what? “Uh… prepare for what?”

“To witness your first true miracle, of course. To get a glimpse of paradise!”

The Lumi’s voices all melded into one as they reached her ears and despite the changes in tenor or volume from one spot or another, she could not tell a single one of them apart. They were everywhere. Heria could barely see the deep brown bud through the mass of their tiny bodies consuming all the space around her.

Too close, way too fucking close, little ones. She dared not disrespect any Wilder-race with her own anxieties and social conditioning, and once more filtered her response to sound much kinder, “I do believe I am ready now if you don’t mind. I was actually very… concerned with other matters when you all, uhm… arrived.”

“Yes! Waiting on your allies, correct? We saw them come out of that tunnel not too long ago! First was the wild buffoon who is not doing so well in the testing as you have, and then much more recently, perhaps a day ago now- or what you consider a day- three more emerged from the tunnels. We followed them to their next campsite, a few Lumi still float around them now.”

“What? Seriously?” The prospect of Korrin and the others being nearby made her heart race. “Can you- can the Lumi pass a message to them for me?”

“No.” Resolute. Resounding. Unified in tone, tenor, and purpose. Then the one floating before her spoke, alone. “We may only do such things at the request of our lovely lieges, the Mukeko!”

“The Mukeko!” All the other Lumi said on cue.

“We are very sorry, but perhaps the Mukeko will oblige your request! They seemed very eager to meet you. You are ready, yes?” The lone Lumi once more addressed Heria without the choir behind him.

“Absolutely. Yes. I would love to meet them now.” I need to get whoever else is here, Korrin or Amberosin based on the Lumifaen’s remarks, and get the hell out. Mezir said the ship would wait for two days and leave at the pinnacle of the second night. Tonight. When Luna rises highest. I need to work fast and smart. Don’t forget how you appear, you scary fuck.

“Please.” Heria decided it best not to smile as the sight may actually have an adverse effect on her miniature golden glowing captors and scare them all away. Opting to soften her eyes as much as possible. Is it racist of me to assume they’d scatter like insects? Well… if I have to ask…

“Of course! Lumi, unfurl the terrinhive! For the Mukeko!”

“The Mukeko!”

Mukeko? Where have I heard that word before? Or.. did I read about-

Heria almost had it, just at the tip of her tongue, the front of her mind, when a crack like that of oak splitting in a thunderstorm stopped all thought. She felt like she was inside of a tree felled by a grand strike of lightning from above and had to cover her ears with massive hands just to keep from falling to her knees. Then in perfect synchronization four great splits tore forth from the base of the terrinhive’s walls and opened the structure like a muddied rendition of a flower’s blooming petals. As they fell the impact shook all of the trees, plants, and poor creatures within a good sixty paces at least, and nearly tossed Heria to the ground; luckily some of the Lumi seemed to have expected as much and had flown behind her, holding Heria up on a wall of pleasant light.

“Thank you.”

“Not us, them!”

“Mukeko!”

Heria was fighting to see through the masses of dust and rubble that had taken flight when the terrinhive’s walls collapsed all around her, still trying to force her eyes to adjust to the bright reddened rays of Solas above, and could see no one around her. Though she could hear something, something close- something coming from all directions, hidden amongst the dirtied mist-like rubble ridden veil, groaning like a young sapling caught in Noctra’s gales.

As the symphony of elastic saplings came closer, their shadows became clearer. The Mukeko… I haven’t heard that word! I’ve read it! In Argonia’s volumes… shit, what did he say? Heria refused to close her eyes and miss any movements from the settling dust but her mind was separated. A part of Helena still alive deep within her tried desperately to remember what her idol had said about the people of the Wilders. It had always been her favorite section, Logs 0457- 0700: People of The Wilders, Great and Small. Helena conjured up all the words from that reading that she could and played them before her; Heria didn’t feel she had the time to think for so long. In the end, she froze. Her mind was blank. Heria was without any semblance of a plan or understanding. Helena was buried once more.

Mukeko… Heria took a deep breath and closed her eyes. I am Heria, the animal brain that knows a threat when I see it. I am Helena, the vault, the prodigy. I am… I am all of me. I can remember. I can!

She could hear the wind slowing, knew that the dust must be settled, that they must be there, watching her. Heria couldn’t make out any creaking or groaning wood so she had to assume the Mukeko had stopped moving. Still, she kept her eyes sealed.

“Uhm… Miss? Are you alright?” Heria recognized the collective hum of the Lumifaen.

“I’m fine. I am simply… remembering.”

“Remembering what exactly?” Lumi was asking on their master’s behalf, surely.

Heria didn’t answer. Didn’t really hear the question. Her ears grasped the words and sent them straight to her brain, but she was too lost within her thoughts to understand the meaning. She wasn’t scared or worried, however, because she had remembered. She remembered everything. Heria could feel herself sobbing as the complete memories of Helena Seires tore through her mind. She wanted to revel in her findings, to pick apart who she truly was then and there, but Heria was looking for one specific memory.

Got it! Mukeko. A sentient, peaceable people, humanoid in shape and structure for the first two hundred years or so, though eventually, their skin does become more translucent than our own. They develop secondary eyelids that close vertically and very closely resemble the leaves of the Hubonari Sens tree found exclusively in Blancana. By their five-hundredth year, most have begun developing skin more akin to bark that creaks with every movement. If they choose to continue this path they will become a tree in the vast wilders within another four hundred years. They do have a choice to ‘reincarnate’ which is a highly interesting ritual but much of an aside at this point. The Mukeko also revere Alta, seeing them as deities of a sort, but that is also for another section. The most important thing to note for now is that their diet consists directly of materials and resources taken from Noctra. Soil, mud, rocks, bark, roots. Any and all things. Any. And. All.

Heria remembered it word for word as if the book was open right in front of her. She could feel her heart skittering and rushing as she realized that she felt whole for the first time since leaving for Stroma Labs. There was so much to explore. So much to mourn. It would have to wait, however, and Heria knew, she needed to open her eyes.

Wait, wait… what was that about Alta? They see Alta as-

“Blessed?”

***

The more she punched the wall the closer it seemed to get, the more rigid it became. It shrank around her like concrete darkness and poured all the blood from her bursting knuckles back down onto her face. Korrin’s heart began speeding against her own will the second Noctra rose to swallow her whole, as soon as darkness had enveloped her, she’d started swinging. Kicking. Jumping. Screaming. And for good reason.

Korrin heard Jorrick, laughing. Riding the shadows around her before he disappeared back into the recesses of her mind. His absence taunted her all the more because she knew he was there. She could feel him. She’d noticed it shrinking, hardening against her incessant blows, but Korrin could do nothing to stop herself. The pain did not slow her. Her blood did nothing to weaken the following blows. Korrin’s swinging fist did little to abate the panic that consumed her heart.

Everything he did…. Was me. I… oh, Legends… gods… no.

Jorrick’s memories had been seeping into her mind ever since Mezir saved her life and cleared White’s blockage from her mind. Or essence. She wasn’t really sure, though either way, it left and Jorrick’s memories flooded in to fill the void. Awful memories. Horrible things that she had done, on top of the terrible things that Korrin had knowingly done in service of Lord White… it was insufferable.

So many dead. So many. And why? Because he asked me to. So… didn’t some part of me want to? I mean I did choose to ignore Jorricks… tendencies so long as he directed them correctly. My tendencies, I suppose. In a way…. I accepted this, didn’t I?

Korrin felt a new torrent of scorching tears building and had no means of stopping them from flooding over. She was still punching. She heard screaming that sounded distant; it could have been her, or it could have been a ghost from her haunted memories. Korrin had no way of knowing. She wasn’t sure she cared.

Whether it was from the loss of too much blood or the ever-present darkness that suffocated and froze her mind, Korrin was not sure. She thought she was dizzy, light-headed, but when she sat still, the swaying stopped. Her heart raced incessantly no matter what she did and Korrin’s body was attempting to lead a mutiny in her muscles once more. Every punch required more force, more intent, more purpose behind each individual blow. Every impact of skin on what felt like solid stone left her hands feeling more numb. Cold.

The only burning or warmth of any type Korrin felt throughout her being spilled forth from her mismatched eyes and splattered against the ground at her feet. Splat is what she expected to hear when the teardrops landed, at least. In reality, it was more of a soft, nearly imperceivable, thump that met each drop of Korrin’s downpour. Korrin’s prison encroached on her so close now she could barely draw back her fist or stumped arm.

Thump, thump, thumpety, thump. Her heart danced in her ears.

Thumpety-thump-thump-thump. It sped and tried to drown out her thoughts.

Thu-thu-thump-thumpety-thump-thump-thump. Korrin had already honed in.

Her mind was waking the senses dulled by panic and fear, rousing the blood in her body to rush to the brain, not the heart- damn the heart! Korrin knew what she was hearing, despite her racing heart's best attempts to cover up the outside world. If I’ve got to fight my own fucking body, myself, to get out of this place, so fucking be it. She closed her eyes and welcomed the intimate darkness, the familiar nothingness every person can find behind their own eyelids. Korrin waded through the incessant beating in her ears and found the thumping she was looking for.

Thump. Thump-thump. Thump. Thump-thump. Low like a beechwood snare.

Thump. Thump-thump. Thump. Thump-thump. Rhythmic and metered.

Thump. Thump-thump. Thump. Thump-thump. Korrin’s heart matched the pace.

Her hand only just stopped punching as she locked onto the rhythmic, metered, low-toned falls of her tears. Not a splat one would hear on marble, concrete, stone, or any other hardy material. No thud that revealed a flooring of oak or pine absorbing some shock upon impact. But a thump. A sound that spoke to Korrin of dirt, grass, natural ground, of things solid, but malleable. Breakable stuff that Korrin could easily manipulate; or could have manipulated if she’d not wrecked her one good hand and stump on the walls of her confinement. She imagined she would have ample time though. She could cast and heal within a few hours. Then she could dig. Then she could get out and find Heria.

Then?! It didn’t matter. Korrin’s panic wouldn’t get to her now. She had a plan. A foreseeable way out. A chance. She tried to feel around her feet with her aforementioned devastated hand and stump but neither was able to feel a thing so she set about healing them, reveling in the light blue-red glow emitting beneath her skin. While the essence worked through her wounds Korrin slipped off her shoes to confirm her suspicions with bare feet. She sobbed in relief when soft soil and grass relented beneath her toes.

A chance. She slowly laid down, wary of the walls that had been so close before. Not as close as I thought, huh? Korrin stretched out so long as her limbs allowed and met no resistance. Maybe… I really am losing my mind. Though maybe… maybe I’m finding it. Or piecing it together, at least. I guess healing does hurt sometimes. Her stump still ached on a good day from time to time.

The thought brought Korrin enough solace that she nearly found herself drifting off into a sublime slumber. Drool was pooling at the corner of her mouth. She even heard herself snore! Alas, her mind would not relent. Korrin dug her toes into the ground for warmth, hoping to lull her consciousness away with further comfort, but found herself more awake and aware than ever before.

Thump, thump, thump, thump. Her heart matched pace with something new.

Thump, thump, thump, thump. She felt it thrumming against her toes.

Thump, thump, thump, thump. Korrin finally understood. The walls had moved. They’d reacted to her touch and responded to her emotions.

Holy fuck… It’s alive!

***

Heria opened her eyes and found a thin-framed creature with translucent skin that had lines throughout it like the veins of a leaf. It’s body curved to show wide hips and the large breasts that typically belonged to females; humans and Alta females at least. Heria was in no position to be assuming the creature's sex, gender, or, most importantly to her at the time, intent.

“Blessed?” The Mukeko asked once more.

Heria looked at the woman-esque creature with as much sincere joy and compassion as she could muster. No smile. Do not smile, they may think the Alta are ‘Blessed’, but that doesn’t mean they won’t lash out in fear at your ugly mug. “My name is Heria, thank you.”

“Blessed Heria!”

The Mukeko around her exploded in unison, much like the Lumifaen had when first speaking to her in their transportable abode. Differing from the Lumi, however, almost none of the Mukeko looked the same; or rather, their appearances were so diverse that she couldn’t spot two that looked alike.

The Mukeko that addressed Heria looked nearly human, nearly normal. Beautiful and breathtaking enough that with the right clothing she would look like a womanizer’s wet dream come true. It would just appear to be a pale foreigner from some unknown lands beyond the Shardlands. Even Heria stood out more than that on a daily basis in Blancana.

Behind that lovely, woman-like Mukeko, however, there were thousands of creatures ranging from pale to translucent toned humanoids to what appeared to be trees in the making. At least two seemed to be gigantic wilder oaks in totality aside from the knotted roots at the base of their legs that they shuffled on. Birds and bugs alike came to live when that one shifted at all. Bark for skin here, moss for hair there, some looked to be made of stone, while others appeared to be living sculptures of mud. The only unifying features of the Mukeko seemed to be their affinity for green, gold, and pretty flowers. Lots of pretty flowers. That, and the fact they all of them over a certain age had the second set of vertical eyelids.

Good ole’ Argonia. Never known him to be wrong. Heria smiled and slit her cheek. Shit.

The Mukeko before her noticed Heria scanning the diverse crowd and gave a soft smile of it’s own before it reached out with a tender hand, five fingers and a palm that felt like human skin to Heria, and healed the cut on Heria’s cheek.

“We Mukeko are vast in number and variety. Unified by our beliefs, and largely, our diet.” The Wilder-folk chuckled and stood tall, took two large steps back, away from Heria, and bowed. All Mukeko behind it followed suit.

Heria caught her breath at the sight, unable to accept the reality before her. They bowed to her. Some lay entirely flat on the ground, arms extended outward in full reverence. When Heria’s leathery hand clasped over her mouth she could feel that the cut was gone. There had been no glow or sign of casting, but the Mukeko healed her cheek, and had given Heria one of the most sincere smiles she’d ever received. No fear or revulsion to be seen.

“Ah, Blessed Heria?” It was Lumi. Just the lone, busty, very well-endowed one.

She couldn’t bring herself to look away from the image before her. It was as if all of the Grand Wilder’s lay prostrate before Heria. “Yes, Lumifaen?”

“ I thought you would like to know that your friend, the buffoon, is about to be let out!”

That snapped Heria to attention immediately. She turned towards the tiny golden being with wide eyes. “Right now? Please take me to them.”

“Of course! Of course!” A swarm of Lumifaen circled the well-endowed one and lit the sky with a glittering gold cloud of fluttering wings and excited chatter. “Follow us!” Millions shouted as one. Heria could hear the Mukeko stand behind her, their creaks and groans orchestrated every slight movement. It sounded as if Noctra had given birth to a tempest behind her. Heria refused to look back, to be distracted or enchanted by the vast unknown before her. She needed to find her friend. Or Amberosin. Heria followed the Luminfaen and kept her eyes forward.

Guess they’ll be coming the whole way too? Right. No easy out for the ‘Blessed’ I suppose.

The lone Lumi that had addressed her directly before flew out of the swarm and dropped in beside Heria, speaking almost directly into her ear. “I feel since you are the Blessed, a demi-divine being to the great Mukeko race, I should offer you fair warning. Your… friend is not in such great shape as you were upon leaving the terrinhive. She still made it out in tremendous time, but not so, uhm, gracefully as yourself.”

Demi-divinity could come in handy… did this little lewd sprite just feed me information on purpose? Without the knowledge of the Mukeko? If so…

“Thank you very much for the warning, Lumi. I will try to prepare my nerves... though, may I ask… are they in danger of dying?” Heria felt a lump coil in her throat as the question came out.

“Hmmm… this Lumifaen thinks not. Scouts in their terrinhive reported signs of apparent casting to heal some of the wounds…. But your ally did pass out before the Lumi could open it.” The little creature's nakedness actually calmed Heria’s nerves a little, watching the tiny-massive cock flop-flop-flopping in the wind had a fairly uplifting effect, though her heart did race at the mention of casting. Amberosin couldn’t do that!

It has to be Korrin.

Heria wanted to sprint forward ahead of all the Mukeko and Lumifaen around her, scoop up her dear friend, and run away. From everything. Everyone. No war, no vengeance was worth losing Korrin over. Not for good. It took a lot of resolve to keep her legs moving at a steady pace, just behind the Lumifaen swarm, and only fifteen paces or so ahead of the nearest Mukeko. They stayed far enough away to be respectful but Heria wasn’t quite so sure it was a distance one gave to someone they revered; she felt more akin to a prisoner than royalty, though, from what she had witnessed of royalty and nobility, there may not be much of a difference. One is simply confined by bars or walls while the other is stuck beneath the gaze of their subjects and vassals.

Heria didn’t run. Didn’t sprint as she wholeheartedly desired. She kept her pace beside the lone Lumi. “Do- uh, sorry- is your name Lumifaen? All of you?” Heria hoped the walk to find Korrin would be more bearable with a distraction of sorts. As of now, it was feeling like quite the long trek.

“Heh. Lumifaen is the name of our people, our species. The Mukeko call us all Lumifaen in the same way a master may refer to slaves or servants by their race, without disdain or insult, but in a way that unifies them all. They subjugated our people long, long ago- do not misunderstand, they are very easy masters, haven’t witnessed them commit an act of violence for thousands of years- but I believe they refer to us this way to help make us… ‘other’. Easier to command and such as it is. Ah, apologies, I ramble on; No that is not my name, it is our people and our title. My name, which no one aside from Lumi has ever asked of me, is Ji’lon Hutum. Ji-Hu to friends.”

Heria felt like she’d been slapped with a block of ice. Ji’lon Hutum gave her a lot to process in his long-winded answer and she could not have been more grateful for it. After a momentary silence, she nodded her head.

“Thank you, Ji-Hu.”

The little Lumifaen made a sound like a small ringing bell and seemed to shed some of its gold glimmer into the air as it quivered. Ji-Hu’s buoyant bosoms and extravagant floppy meat stick suddenly appeared much more buoyant and floppy. Heria tried not to stare, or laugh. “It is my pleasure, Blessed Heria. Now- I do believe we have arrived and from the buzz of things ahead it sounds as if your ally has awoken! How splendid! Such impeccable timing must be the product of divinity!”

Heria smiled without restraint, slicing her cheeks on either side and bleeding freely, without worry of scaring the Lumi. Ji’lon responded with another bell-like twinkle and shot through the mass of Lumifaen ahead of them, splitting the others like a golden sea amidst the air. She felt her smile drop dead in it’s wake when the path cleared and her eyeline landed on Korrin.

“Oh no. Oh, shit Kori that’s a lot of blood.”

Korrin sat still on her knees, both arms to her side spilling forth waves of crimson.