Eshanai got the whole story out of Jiro. He had gone looking for her when she hadn’t returned that first night. He had been unable to find her, but the castle suddenly rising out of the lake to be situated on its own tiny island clued him into her location. He had barely had to help with driving away the Catfish’s guests, including the Troll, who had been more than happy to leave once they got the chance. He had more trouble with calming down a distraught Sikhez.

“She nearly caved my head in when she saw me, thinking that I was just another one of the great lake spirit’s minions. Luckily she is not as strong as you,” Jiro said with forced sheer that died as he watched Eshanai try to stand from the bead. She stumbled as she put weight on an arm that was no longer there and had to catch herself with her tail, her other arm waiving for balance. “Are you alright? Should you really be out of bed?” He eyed her side where the vines had grown over the hole in her chest.

“Me? Oh, I’ve had worse, trust me. It’s just something to get used to. It’s a bit of a pain in the ass, but my arm will grow back, eventually.” Eshanai was unsure how long it would take, but all wounds healed with time, and so would this one. She even had a spirit on her side, just like Jiro had. Could she even go on calling herself unfavoured anymore? She was unsure if the spirit would be any help in a situation like this, but it had stopped her from bleeding out. The Oni’s little flame hovered above his shoulder, lighting up the room.

“So you are telling me that you’re just going to shrug your shoulders and move on after nearly dying down there,” Jiro snorted in disbelief, and his spirit crackled where it floated in the air. Was it reacting to Jiro somehow, or did it act on its own? Either way, another advancement, to be sure.

“What can I say? Naga are durable. You should know that” Eshanai gave Jiro a significant look and the Oni nodded slightly as he swallowed audibly. “And even if I had died, it would have been a small price to pay to save Sikhez. Losing an arm is nothing.” Her plans would have to be changed, but Eshanai didn’t mind. This meant she would have more time to help the young Naga. She wouldn’t have been able just to sail away anyway while knowing that her tribe was dying. She would have to come up with a way to help them.

“You didn’t just lose an arm, but a whole chunk of your lungs,” he hesitated before continuing. “And I’m pretty sure your heart isn’t beating anymore. How are you alive?” Eshanai examined herself with her senses, and indeed the heart in her chest lay dormant, but the other two, located further down in her tail, were doing just fine.

“You don’t know much about Naga biology, do you?” Eshanai said as she pondered how much to reveal. According to the elders, Oni were enemies of the Naga, but she liked Jiro and wanted to trust him. Now that she was not as desperate for sex anymore, she could look at the Oni and their past interactions with clear eyes. Some of her actions had been entirely out of line. From any other Naga, her advances would have been welcomed and even encouraged. But that’s the thing, wasn’t it? Jiro was not a Naga. She might not understand his reluctance, she still wanted to fuck him, but she should still respect his wishes.

Eshanai had a hard time seeing things from his perspective, but if she were to make her wishes clear about something, not about sex, never that, and Jiro kept demanding that she do it anyway, she too would be a little annoyed at best. She would understand if he didn’t want anything to do with her, yet he had gone out to look for her. That, to Eshanai’s surprise, made her all warm and happy inside and, if anything, made her even more curious about the Oni.

“This isn’t some sort of weird attempt to get into my pants, is it?” He looked apprehensive. Hands instinctively grasped over his crotch area as he took a step away from her to make room.

“No, no, not this time,” Eshanai chuckled. She hadn’t meant for him to take it that way, but she supposed that Jiro was so used to things like that from her that he was always on his guard. That made her a little sad, it was surprising, but that is how she felt. “I mean about our insides, organs, and such,” she clarified, ensuring she couldn’t be misunderstood.

”None have ever stopped to give me a lecture on anatomy,” the Oni said sarcastically, but he couldn't help the curiosity that shone through.

”Naga have three hearts,” Eshanai said, taking the plunge as she held nothing back. ”Even if one of them is damaged, the others will pick up the slack while it heals.”

”But, wha, how?” Jiro sputtered as his eyes widened at the revelation.

”It’s to help pump blood through our long bodies,” Eshanai quoted one of her teachers from her youth. She remembered fondly the evenings spent with her fellow spawnlings learning to spot each other by heartbeats alone. The older Naga cheered them from the sidelines, making wagers on who would be found first. The memories were bitter-sweet. Many of her friends from those early days weren’t around anymore.

“So you can just be stabbed in the heart and be fine?” Jiro asked with a scoff. Then he straightened as if remembering something, growing still as his brow scrunched up in thought.

“I’ll be a bit more tired than usual, I suspect, but otherwise, yes. In my case, the spirit is also helping,” Eshanai raised her wounded side to Jiro for emphasis, where vines now grew to protect her.

“Anything else you wish to reveal while you’re at it?”

“No, I suspect you know about my venom and tremor sense. Oh, and I can also sense body heat,” Eshanai grinned at Jiro’s open-mouthed astonishment as she brushed past him on her way out of the room to look for Sikhez. She had subsidiary versions of all her organs, not just her heart, but Eshanai didn’t think Jiro needed to know that. It would just overwhelm him at this point. She had also neglected to mention how her tail could flatten to catch the wind more easily, slowing her down in case of a fall, or the fact that she could dislocate her jaw to swallow smaller prey whole. She didn’t do that much anymore. Butchering an animal was much easier and didn’t leave her bloated and vulnerable, and it was very uncomfortable.

“Wait,” the Oni said, stopping her in her tracks as she turned to look at him with a raised eyebrow.

“Yes?” She said, and Jiro hesitated.

“So it’s dead then, the great lake spirit?”

“Yes,” Eshanai answered but paused as she took the time to think about the question. “Or at least as much as a spirit can be killed. Turned into a bunch of smaller spirits that scattered in all directions. Didn’t Sikhez tell you this?”

“Yes, well, it is a bit hard to believe, and she was not in the most coherent of states.” The Oni seemed apprehensive with his arms folded protectively over his chest. His little flame darted back and forth in erratic patterns over his shoulder. Eshanai wondered what it was supposed to mean when Jiro noticed her looking, and with a deep breath, the flame stilled. “Damn spirit does whatever it wants.” He muttered to himself.

“Believe what you will, Jiro. The result is the same.” Eshanai grinned as she remembered why she had come here in the first place. “The spirit will take no more goblins. So you will teach me how to read,” she ignored the Oni’s mutterings.

“Bah, and I should just ignore the fact that you killed more goblins down here than the spirit ever did?” Jiro grumbled, but Eshanai suspected he only protested out of principle.

“Yes, you only asked me to stop the Catfish from drowning any more goblins.”

“I thought you would convince it, not kill it,” Jiro burst out.

“Nonetheless, the results are the same. You should have been more specific.”

“More specific, more specific? It is common sense. Your recklessness has upset the whole balance of the island. Who knows what will fill this vacuum? It might be even worse than the Catfish.” Ok, so maybe it wasn’t just the principal of the matter, and Jiro had some actual valid concerns. But what was she supposed to do? She couldn’t just leave Sikhez to die.

“Then we kill that too until what reforms here is a little more reasonable. Or we make sure it is from the start,” the words would have had Jiro going off on another rant, but he stopped himself and gave her a considering look.

“How do you suppose we do that?”

“I don’t know why destroying and changing the castle made the Catfish go boom. It’s like you said, isn’t it? Spirits react to and are affected by their environment. If we do a little redecorating and invite new guests to live in the castle, how do you suppose that will affect the Catfish? Will a new spirit form to take its place?”

“I don’t know, but it is intriguing,” Jiro said after a long time spent considering her words. “Fine then, come to the ziggurat, and we’ll plan our reading sessions. And bring that book you found.”

“Woohoo,” Eshanai began to celebrate but paused as the words sunk in. “Wait, the ziggurat. Why there?”

“I’m moving there along with the tribe.” Eshanai frowned at first but then shrugged. She supposed it was better than the caves now that the Collective was gone. It would need to be cleared of traps, but the walking corpses were no longer a problem.

“Alright then,” she brushed past Jiro and out the door.

They were still in the castle, as it turned out. Eshanai emerged into the stairwell, observing its sorry state. Cracks lined every surface, and fallen stone even lay shattered on the steps that looked like it had fallen from the walls and ceiling. All the lights had faded or were gone entirely. Only a few still flickering weakly in the corners, but the windows still let in the light of day. Tracking down Sikhez was easy enough. The young Naga was situated by the castle gate leading into an entrance hall and was just sitting there staring out at the world outside. Eshanai approached slowly, not wanting to startle the girl.

“It’s silly, really,” she turned her head to glance at Eshanai, making her jade jewelry glimmer in the sun shining in on her through the entrance. “I wanted you to wake up so badly, but then when you did, I felt such shame. I couldn’t bare your gaze, so I fled. I didn’t get very far.” She chuckled to herself as she turned back to face the open gate and breathed deeply of the fresh air. “It’s nice to feel the sun on my face again though.”

“That is pretty silly,” Eshanai gave her own chuckle as she, too, moved into the light to sit beside the young Naga. She turned her face to bask in the golden rays of light and gave a contented sigh. “If you blame yourself for my current lack of an arm, don’t. It was well worth it.” There was silence as they both were content to soak up the sun's warmth. Eshanai didn’t mind. It was nice just sitting there with her sister for company. The young Naga had a lot on her mind. It would come out in time.

“I do blame myself. If it weren’t for my weakness, you wouldn’t have had to save me.” Eshanai turned to protest, but Sikhez stopped her. “I know, I know. I am young, and weakness is inherent to the young. I have heard it all before, but it’s still irksome.”

“A desire for growth is never a bad thing, but I worry you are taking things too fast,” oh how she worried. You would think that she would grow calmer with age, but no, her worries only seemed to grow as Eshanai’s experiences compounded on themselves.

“I don’t want Naga to suffer because of my mistakes, my weakness. If I could grow stronger faster, I could protect everyone as you did me,” Sikhez said and eyed the vines covering Eshanai’s wound. “That’s a spirit, right? You’ve bonded with it somehow. That weird red lady had one too. If I could get my own spirit, it would almost be like I was favored again, if only a little bit.” Eshanai looked at Sikhez’s eager expression and sighed. The young Naga shouldn’t have to make such decisions.

“You will grow stronger whether you want to or not. It is in our nature. I only wish you had time to enjoy your youth before you become jaded like me. It is a time you will never get to experience again. But I grant you that strength might be needed now more than ever.”

“So you’ll help me?” Sikhez exclaimed, ecstatic.

“Bah, we Naga aren’t supposed to live like this. Scattered to be hunted down one by one like rats. We are supposed to be a community, where the weak are nurtured, slowly, by the strong.” Eshanai sighed as her sister’s face fell in disappointment. “But yes, I'll help you get stronger, but I’m no expert on spirits. You’d be better off asking the Oni about that,” Sikhez squealed and threw herself at Eshanai, kissing her deeply in gratitude.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you,” she finally said as she leaned back to take a breath, and Eshanai laughed. Then she paused as what Eshanai had said sunk in. “Wait, an Oni?” Her brow furrowed as she put the pieces together before her eyes widened. “That weird woman back there was an Oni?”

“Yes,” Eshanai answered, still amused.

“And you know it, him? By the mountain, a man. He’s a man, and you know him.” This seemed to be a harder revelation for Sikhez to process than the fact that Eshanai had a spirit living in her gut.

“Yes.”

“A man, an Oni that you know, came to help us. But the elders say.”

“The elders say a lot of things. I have found it best to take their decrees as suggestions and make my own opinions.” Eshanai interrupted, and Sikhez gaped at her. She closed her mouth, suddenly looking hesitant as she backed away from Eshanai.

“You shouldn’t say things like that. You’ll get us both in trouble.”

“And how are they going to find out? Without the spirits, they have no power over us.” Sikhez gasped at Eshanai’s daring words and slithered further away.

“They are still our venerated elders, with vast experiences most of us couldn’t fathom.”

“You are right in saying that they have experiences and knowledge that we should learn from and respect, but the elders aren’t the infallible beings they make themselves out to be.” Sikhez frowned at the unusual words. No one spoke of the elders in anything but a positive light. But she didn’t look as aghast as before, simply thoughtful. “Take this latest disaster, for example. It could be argued that it was more caused by the elders than anything the spirits did or didn’t do.”

“The elders protect us, and they have our best interests at heart.”

“Yes, but in this case, ordering our tribe to flee and isolate ourselves was the wrong move. We should be working together, not letting our younglings fend for themselves when they don’t have the spirit's protection.”

“I-I, I’m not,” Sikhez hesitated as her worldview was shaken. Having been told something your whole life only to find out that it wasn’t true was never an easy thing, and Sikhez was handling it admirably. Her experiences out in the jungle and with the Catfish likely acting as prime examples. “You have given me a lot to think about.”

“Good, you don’t have to listen to me, but make sure you make up your own mind.” Sikhez nodded at that, and a tension in the air that Eshanai hadn’t even noticed seemed to lift. “Let’s get out of here. You can come with me when I go to visit the Oni.” Eshanai moved to exit the castle but stopped when Sikhez didn’t follow her.

“When I said it was silly, my weakness isn’t what I meant.” The young Naga said as Eshanai turned to look at her.

“Then what did you mean?” Eshanai asked, and Sikhez glanced outside before she lowered her head in shame and sighed.

“I keep thinking that he’ll come back, that he’ll be angry at me if I leave.”

“Oh, it most certainly would be,” Eshanai agreed and watched as Sikhez’s head snapped up with horror in her eyes. “But I will protect you, and I have a plan for the Catfish, but first, we will have to find my flute.” She had searched for it, but her senses, now able to reach the whole castle, told Eshanai that it wasn’t nearby.

“Your flute?”

“Yes. now take my hand, and we’ll go out together.” Eshanai held out her hand for Sikhez to take. “Do you trust me?” She asked, and Sikhez met her eyes before closing them tight as she screwed up her courage.

“Yes,” she said and quickly grabbed Eshanai’s offered hand before she could change her mind.

“Good, then let’s go,” they both left the castle hand in hand, bathed in rays of warming sunlight.