In the second oasis, an Orgus tent city was found tucked in the cleft of the overhanging rock. The city itself looked to have at one point hosted at least a double dozen families, but it was completely deserted. Long streaks of dried blue-green blood told a tale of the Orgus being there, but no bodies were to be found anywhere.

Intermixed amongst the vegetation were corpses of giant wasps, each of them massive in size, fully half the size of a person with cruel hooked claws and massive, daggerlike stingers. Each of them looked to have been killed by thrown spears or arrows.

Audra went to work with her knives on one of them, carving out the stinger and poison sacs from the abdomen.

Daveth gave her a curious eye, and hunkered down near her while she worked.

“What’re you doing?” He asked.

“Shh.” Audra admonished him, not unkindly. She rummaged in her rucksack and brought out a wooden cup. She dumped out a bunch of sand from it and gave it a complicated frown, then tipped it upside down and gave it a few taps with the hilt of her knife to knock out any remaining sand.

She then shocked Daveth by cutting her hand and squeezing blood from her fist into the cup.

“What’re you doing?” He repeated, wondering if he should stop her.

“Mmm.” She growled in complaint, but then, “There’re three different types of toxins animals make: blood poisons, nerve poisons, and digestive poisons.” She explained as blood filled the cup. After a bit, she wrapped her bloody hand in a bandage and cinched it tight with her teeth.

“A digestive toxin basically turns your insides into a soft slurry so whatever’s stung or bitten you can simply suck out your insides.” She eyed Daveth. “But since we haven’t seen any bodies, even dessicated ones, we might be safe to rule that out.” She carefully punctured one of the venom sacs from the wasp she’d dissected, and added a dollop of the poison to the cup and swirled it around.

“Blood toxins turn your blood to jelly. It gets so thick it can’t flow properly. Eventually you die because blood clumps up too much.” She added, and then poured out the poisoned blood into the dirt.

“Nerve poisons paralyze. You can’t move. You can’t breathe. You can’t even think. Even your heart forgets how to beat.” She finished her explanation by cleaning her blade and tossing her cup away into the shrubbery. “I think these things use a paralytic. They sting you, paralyzing you, and then...” she gestured to the articulated legs with cruel barbed claws. “I think they haul you away.”

Daveth frowned at that. “Your reasoning?” He asked.

Audra gestured at the splat of blood on the ground. “It didn’t turn to jelly. Also, again, no bodies.” she emphasized.

“So what do we do?” He asked, and she gave him a curious look.

“You’re the commander. Shouldn’t that be my question to you?” She asked.

He rose from his squat and brushed sand from his legs. “Well, if these things are doing for the Orgus, that certainly clears up our mission.”

Audra raised an eyebrow at this as she rose to stand in front of him. “Permission to speak freely?” She asked, arms folded behind her back.

“The fuck does that mean? You’ve never needed-” he began, but she cut him off.

“These same bugs were at the Anglish installation, Commander.” She pointed out. “They’re not just after the Orgus.” She paused. “It could be reasoned that the ship we hijacked was so deserted because of them, too.” She toed the corpse with her foot briefly. “A few of these things latch onto you, and they could drag you anywhere.” She looked up at him. “If there’s no more Orgus, and there’s no more Anglish, where do you suppose their next target will be?”

Daveth sighed, and groaned in frustration. “I know exactly how Aldric is going to take this news.”

*****

Audra and Daveth finished their report to Aldric, who combed his straggly beard with his fingertips as he listened.

“So where’s the hive?”was the first question he asked.

Daveth looked to Audra, who shook her head. “No clue. It could be anywhere, really.” She offered. “Underground, in a cave somewhere, or even in an oasis like this one.” She finished.

“Mmm.” Aldric muttered, and stroked his beard some more. “Daveth speaks true; if the Orgus have been getting hunted and killed off by these... things,” he grimaced, “then our contract is essentially fulfilled. No more Orgus; the Seventh Seal is fit to move onward.” He turned back to his folding desk and picked up a sheaf of papers and rattled them. “I’ve already got our next job lined up, too. It’ll be a relief and a half to get out of the desert. Hopefully forever.”

Audra opened her mouth, but shut itas Aldric swung back around to them.

“But the Nothians aren’t prepared for this sort of thing. And it could take years for the Anglish Empire to get word of this, and an even longer expenditure in retaking an entire country. It’ll likely be a repeat of the Eastern Marches, but with more monsters and less bureaucracy.” He let out a sigh. “I can just imagine what she’d say.” he muttered cryptically. He looked up at Daveth and Audra. “Do you have any idea how much I would give for just a single file of riflemen?” He asked, but waved his hand to indicate it was a rhetorical question.

“We’ll search each oasis the best we can. I’ll send Jasin from the scout file with one of the corpses back to Azsig-Noth while we have the chance. Report to the bureaucratic nancies as to what might be heading their way. They’re idiots, but since they’re paying for us, they’re our idiots. They deserve to know what might come at them if it gets through us. Hopefully they’ll muster some men and reinforce us.”

Daveth and Audra glanced at each other. It was well-known that there was simply no way that Azsig-Noth could effectively reinforce the Seventh Seal. They had a standing militia, but they were accustomed to drunks, shoulderthumpers, and alleybashers- common crooks and criminals. They didn’t have a standing military, which is why they hired the Seal.

“Should we send a message to the Anglish about this? Maybe they can get a head start in dispositioning troops-” Audra began, and Aldric barked a bitter laugh.

“You really have no idea what you’re talking about.” Aldric spat amazedly. “It’d take months for a messenger to reach Darnell, and then at least six months of going through the song and dance of nonsense to request aid, then the councils would begin, and even then, assuming a favorable response, they’d spend at least a year in deliberation deciding which forces, under which commander would be dispatched.” he shook his head. “The Anglish might simply wash their hands of this land out of expedience. Or not. The councils are fickle.” He shook his head. “We’re alone.”

*****

The city of Darnell had changed greatly since the War of Liberation. The religious iconography was torn down, and the Alstroemeria, the Grand Cathedral (and what lay beneath it) was leveled, and a palace was built in its place, the Palace of the Lily, where the Queen and her family and her various councils all collaborated in running the Anglish empire.

Many of the statues had been torn down; when the Grand Betrayal had been revealed, it didn’t take long for the citizens to deface, destroy, or tear down anything having to do with their patron Goddess and her army of celestials and saints.

The northeastern quarter, which had once been dedicated to merchant-nobility and their attendant stores, was now a crater that had eventually become a lake.

Outside the palace, amongst one of the many carefully cultivated and tended gardens, the ground bulged a little, as if something beneath the thick carpet of crass had shifted and pressed towards the surface.

Nobody was around to notice as the bulge grew larger, pushing out carefully tended grass and sending tricklets of dirt streaming away from the pinnacle of the bulge.

The bulge ruptured, and a hand, pale as milk, with what looked to be thin silver threading worked into the skin, broke through the earth and into the light of day.

*****

A careful quartering of the Oasis revealed nothing but a few more wasp corpses, and so, after a short debate, the Seventh Seal decided to move onto the third oasis.

The third oasis was a relic from an ancient empire; a large fountain surrounded by heavy blocks of stone paving seemed to indicate that at some point it had once belonged to a city proper. Jackal-headed men carved from obsidian poured water constantly from basins they clutched in their hands into a large stone fountain.

At some point the fountain itself had failed to drain properly; the oasis had sprung up around it. Another element that caught the attention of the Seventh Seal was that every three days, like clockwork, a Wandering Obelisk would come blasting through the dunes, orbit the fountain three times, and then zip off in a different direction.

Alysia was sparring with Daveth when one of them zipped by. She stepped back and dropped her weapon, indicating a break. Daveth nodded.

“Those things are unnatural.” She muttered.

“Hmm.” Daveth offered indifferently. She gave him a guarded look.

“What?” She immediately disputed.

Daveth shook his head. He knew a little of the Wolf Sisters from what Aurene had been willing to tell him. What little he was able to glean from her; the average person would consider them to be “unnatural”.

“I just wonder if perhaps you and I hold different ideas on what is ‘natural’.” He offered.

She eyed him carefully, intently, as if he was trying to pull a fast one on her. “I am not certain what you mean.” She finally offered reluctantly.

“Water?” He offered, proffering his waterskin. She eyed it and him several times, and then took the skin and took a couple of swallows before handing it back with a blink of surprise.

“It’s cold.” She murmured wonderingly, touching her lips.

“Thanks to Eirawen.” He replied. He gave her a small smile. “Don’t tell Aldric. I’d prefer to keep this secret a bit longer.”

She nodded reluctantly.

“The Seal has many types of people in it. Elves, humans, mages,” he tipped her a nod, “beast-blooded warriors.” He bit off a swallow from the waterskin. “So when you say that something is ‘unnatural’ I dunno what the fuck you’re talking about.” He offered wryly. Her eyebrows twitched at this, and he picked up his sword again. “Shall we-” He began, but stopped, eyes shooting past Alysia and fixating on something else.

“The fuck is that?”

Alysia spun about, searching, trying to follow his gaze.

After a moment she caught what he’d spotted; a Wandering Obelisk, heading towards the fountain. This was wholly unexpected. Weren’t they supposed to come in three-day intervals?

This one looked to have been caught on something, it was wrapped up in some form of netting.

“It seems someone attempted to capture it.” Alysia muttered.

“Yerah well, they did a piss-poor job it it walked through their nets like that.” Daveth offered, and Alysia nodded.

“What should we do?” She asked.

“Not much we can do, I’d think. As far as I know there’s nothing that can be done.” Daveth replied, eyeing the spire of crystal that was wrapped in layers of netting.

As the thing approached, the two of them watched it with unfeigned curiosity.

“There’s someone on it.” Alysia murmured.

“Are you sure?” Daveth asked, squinting.

“Yes, I’m sure.” She replied dryly.

Daveth considered several different responses, but settled on something else. “They alive?”

Alysia eyed the thing as it rushed towards the fountain. “I believe so.”

Daveth pickled up his sword, hefted it, and waited until he could pick out the person caught in the netting, pressed against the side of the obelisk.

He judged distance, speed, and hoped that the spire speeding across the sands didn’t change direction or rotate, then hurled his sword as if it were a dagger, end over end. Alysia goggled at him in shock and surprise for a second, but then refocused her attention on the obelisk.

Just as she picked out the person- it appeared to be a man, and either very slight, or an elf- Daveth’s sword hit the thin crystal spire, slashing through several of the ropes in the netting. The man peeled away from the monolith and fell onto one of the dunes, rolling over and over as the obelisk sped onward, shedding the netting like snakeskin.

Daveth trotted over and sprinkled a little water on the man’s lips, which were swollen, dry, and cracked. He pulled the man’s shirt open, revealing a stack of malnourished ribs. Whoever the man was, he hadn’t eaten in some time.

The man coughed a few times and blinked, eyes rolling at Daveth and Alysia, who peered down at him.

Daveth splashed a little more water on the man’s lips and the man licked them greedily.

“A little at a time, man.” Daveth encouraged, and dribbled a little more.

“Why?” Alysia asked. “Should we not give him as much as he can take?” She asked.

Daveth shook his head. “He probably hasn’t had anything to drink for weeks. He’s dehydrated. I give him all the water he can drink and he’ll just puke it right back up. That’s just a waste of water. You have to ease him into it, give him a little at a time, let his body get used to it.”

He dribbled a little more for the man, who sucked greedily at the trickle of water.

“You show me you can hold that down long enough for us to get back to camp, and I’ll give you some more.” Daveth promised, and then scooped the man up and tossed him over his shoulder as if he were baggage.

“Lord Commander, exactly how strong are you?” Alysia asked, eyeing the giant speculatively.

“Strong enough. And I’m no lord.” He corrected automatically.

“You threw a donkey at my sister and I.” She remarked, and he nodded. “I apologized for that.” He reminded her.

Actually, he hadn’t, as far as Alysia was concerned. However he was titanic and ridiculously strong, so she didn’t want to argue the point, lest he pick her up and throw her again.

“Aurene was strong.” Alysia began, and he nodded. “She was.”

“Was she as strong as you?” She asked, curious. Daveth barked a laugh. “Was she as strong as me? I wonder myself, from time to time.” he replied. “We dueled only once.”

“You dueled?” Alysia repeated, and he nodded. “A sparring session. I wanted to see what she was capable of.”

“And?” Alysia asked.

“She was formidable.” He replied, eyeing the path across the dunes to the small grove of trees and grasses that’d grown up in the swampy pools around the fountain.

“I asked who won, Lord Commander.” Alysia pressed.

“I did. I even tried to goad her into waking the two of you up to sort of level the playing field in her favor, but that just pissed her off.”

Alysia immediately frowned and turned away. He’d just casually and indifferently stated that he could have bested Aurene, herself and Lynnabel in combat by himself. How? What was the source of his strength, his power, his confidence in his ability to defeat them?

Daveth glanced at her, reading her sour expression like a book.

“It’s skill, not strength. You and your sisters all have a critical weakness that is ridiculously easy to exploit. I could fight all three of you at the same time and pound you into the dirt every time.”

He knew she’d ask, so instead he interrupted her. “Run ahead and alert the medical tent. Have them ready for when I arrive.” He commanded, and gestured imperiously towards their camp. She increased her speed and overtook him easily.

In a contest of strength, he was reasonably certain Aurene could best him if he wasn’t on guard. In a contest of skill, the two Silvers might be able to drag the fight out into a battle of attrition if they were truly capable of stratagem as they claimed. However, he had two cards he could play that he was reasonably certain would overwhelm them every time, unless they overcame that critical flaw that kept them from being a serious threat.

*****

The man they’d rescued was in fact an elf. Once past the critical phase where he could drink water without worry of sicking it up, they fed him and allowed him to drink as much as he liked. Then came the debriefing, which became nigh impossible when he was discovered to speak some incomprehensible jib-jabber that nobody understood.

After a bried attempt to interrogate him, the man simply passed out from exhaustion.

Aldric called it a day afterwards. The man might have valuable information; he might have been driven mad by the constant exposure to the searing sun and lack of food and water for who-knew-how-long.

The next day, he was relatively comprehensible. His name was Deede, and he was a mage-scholar from Innsmouth. He really wanted to attend the Miskatonik, but Anglish sentiments about elves kept him in the Merchant Cities.

He’d set out on an expedition to study the Wandering Obelisks, and had attempted to capture one. He was climbing around the nets that were stretched across scaffolding when an Obelisk barreled through, tangling him up in layers of netting.

“And then my head exploded.” He remarked with a laugh. Apparently the crystal plinths channeled power directly from the magical ley lines that criss-crossed the world in incomprehensible ways, and that magic had blasted through his body when he attempted to study the arcane glyphs on the obelisk he was attached to.

He lost track of himself easily. He seemed only loosely attached to his wits, and would often slip into some incomprehensible rambling at the drop of a hat. He had only a fingernail’s grip on sanity, and a passing familiarity with the lay of the land, as he drifted in and out of lucidity.

Aldric ordered him tossed into one of the wagons that made up their Tross, and they moved on towards their next oasis, ordering the archery and scout files to keep a wary eye out for giant wasps.