(Art source unknown)
Index: Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15
Chapter 8
Fiend
Aeriale looked at her arms and bit her lip.
Oven burns hurt a lot, yet the maid of Lady Thaliel who was getting married needed her cake. Today she had not one, but four of these and not even cold water or the ointment other maids treated her burns helped. The girl waited in the elaborate and surprisingly well supplied and equipped kitchen of “The Sonsy Maid” for somebody to ask her of another order.
Surprisingly, one never came since most of the maids had either joined the feast or were serving alcohol. The latter came from a seemingly endless supply located underneath the floor; a basement which most children weren’t usually allowed to enter. There were ancient dungeons underneath the megapolis of Krart which often spawned flesh hungry monstrosities and many other dangers.
Tired, but bored nonetheless, the girl once more strolled around, her eye marveling upon one wondrous kitchen implement after another.
The huge stove alone, forged from alchemical iron and capable of retaining heat for many hours, probably cost a small fortune. Stone-skin plates, perhaps not of the most elaborate kind, but definitely quite durable were stacked beside a magical faucet, so clean they squeaked when you served food. Cutlery, crafted from mildly enchanted steel so it would not catch rust, lay in wait inside the cozily padded drawers. Last but not least, amazed Aeriale still looked the pots, pans, and trays made from high grade copper and treated with a minor curse to accrue heat quicker. Polished to absolute perfection, they shone like a multitude of constellations upon their kitchen hanging rack.
There was a soft creak and the door opened. Not a maid, but the lady of the venue herself entered and in the girl’s eyes, she did not merely walk but glided over the floor. Thaliel smiled at her, canting her head with such grace, that the girl exclaimed as she bowed in greeting:
“My lady Thaliel, I promise you, one day I will become the same as you!”
“My dear child, even if we were both tutored under the same teacher, you would grow up to be your own, unique self.” – replied the lady and reached into the black ring purse on her elaborate belt.
The woman produced a simple in design ring, which had one of the most beautiful yellow stones Aeriale had ever seen and beckoned her – “Come, sit with me, for I will heal those oven burns of yours.”
“But, Lady... my fellow maids already treated me with ointment.” – meek protest uttered, nevertheless Aeriale obeyed and sat beside her smiling teacher.
Placing the ring on her index finger, the lady whispered a word Aeriale could not understand and her fingertips tingled when the ring emanated a whitish halo. Thaliel touched every oven burn, which, being shallow wounds, soon vanished without a trace.
“Now, about what you said earlier.” – said Lady Thaliel as she fixed Aeriale’s long braid and asked one of her many teaching questions – “What made you want to become the same as me?”
The maids here were all taught many things, one of which was being quick on their feet when wisdom was concerned. Puzzles and mind twisters, these Aeriale did not like much but this... yes, she did like theoretical reasoning. She leapt from the bench they sat at earlier and made her best attempt at a pirouette. Barely successful, the girl exclaimed:
“Because you have achieved much, Lady. I see you walk, dance, and even talk with such ethereal grace, I could not stop dreaming of achieving the same!”
“Ah! I do know that want, for I was once as you are.” – her teacher assured her and demonstrated a pirouette so graceful and lovely, Aeriale gasped.
“Though you see me as I am today, once in my youth, I erred terribly. Tell me, young maid, what is the difference between smart and daft adults?”
“Why, yes, teacher! Smart adults learned from the mistakes of their parents, the daft ones, they do not.”
Her teacher nodded approvingly and stroked her head. Though the lady was quite affectionate, she did this only when impressed by her pupil.
“I think it is time for you to learn my story. But first...” – announced Lady Thaliel and looked at the giant stove – “a cup of tea!”
It had gotten slightly chilly outside even though the Frost was two months away and every maid, Aeriale included, wore her new pair of warm socks. The girl dashed to the oven and returned with two mugs full of honey and herbal tea, a plate topped with fluffy buttered biscuits, balancing everything on a small tray.
“Oooh, the butter biscuits are to die for!” – praised her her teacher in between the tea slurping and the biscuit eating.
“I made the butter from delicious yak milk.” – giggled Aeriale, pointing her thumb at the kitchen pantry – “Honestly, not even the temple of Mara has a kitchen so well stocked!”
They finished their biscuits and tea in silence, and only then Lady Thaliel began her tale:
“A young daughter of rich merchants, I grew up arrogant in spite of my parents’ every try to learn me of life and hardship. At the age of thirteen Turns, I fell with the wrong crowd. Gambling on the dirty side streets, I foolishly wasted the lavish allowance my dear parents gave me. Quickly, I incurred no small obligations with several street hoodlums, which led to petty theft. Me being unskilled, I quickly got caught when I stole from a dignified old lady. Though the coin was squandered, said lady was lenient and asked that I should be freed without charge.”
Aeriale’s eyes wide with surprise, the girl gasped – “But... why?!”
“I believed that everything I was so far given was actually owed to me. Yes, and I rebelled when my brokenhearted parents told me to work my gambling debts off... by running away from home. Oh, the first months I rolled with a gaggle of miscreants, idiots and grifters, stealing and cheating for food and lodging. The reality, and let me tell you, I was oh-so-stubborn to deny reality, caught up with me when Frost approached. Suddenly, these so called friends that I thought would stick with me through thick and thin, they all vanished like a mist under the sun.”
“Lady, you returned home and asked forgiveness? ”
Lady Thaliel’s immaculate face darkened, her eyebrows rose and eyes became emanated with a sad memory.
“Aeriale, Joel told me that you and your sister were sold to a slaver’s den, made orphans by your silly excuse of a mother. Me?! I made myself an orphan by my own stupidity. See, my parents had suffered wounds in an accidental house fire while I was running carefree on the streets. Without me to help nurse them back to health, by the time I returned a few months later, they were dead and gone. The house I was born into? It was sold to creditors to cover our familial dues. Disgusted, every single one of our neighbors shooed me away and with good reason. I was then a parasite.”
Confused and saddened, Aeriale threw Lady Thaliel looks as if she could not believe what her teacher just said.
“Remember that old lady I stole from?” – the lady asked and her young pupil nodded urging Thaliel to continue – “As it turned out, she was called Lady Sorena, a great matchmaker and the owner of this very establishment.”
“Were you able to find something, a temporary job before the Frost came? I know there are many a family who hire orphans or the worse off to help them secure their home and stock on supplies before the cold.” – inquired Aeriale and yet her teacher sighed, canting a no with her head right before she continued her tale.
“In my dazed state I wandered the streets, dark thoughts of joining a group of Doomers when Frost was around the corner swirling in my mind. Party, drink, get high on alchemical ingredients or potions and then, when the deathly snowflakes fell, die in blissful lethe. I could see nothing in the future which necessitated my continuous survival, for I had always been thinking of me... me first, and never about others.”
Lady Thaliel graced her pupil with another sad smile, yet her eyes were no longer full of sorrow when she said – “Somehow, my feet carried me back to the street I snatched Lady Sorena’s coin purse. Standing before her establishment for what could’ve been hours, I listened to her maids laugh and the patrons cheer. I realized that I had to, at the very least, pay my own dues before looking Father Kan in the face. Therefore, when the lady walked through the door, I fell on my knees and begged her to give me a chance. Take me in for just as long as I could work off my debt to her.”
“The statue, young Aeriale, this is exactly where I knelt. For three days and nights I waited, with each passing hour my understanding of the doom I’ve brought upon my own head grew. Either she would take me in and I work to pay her coin back or I’d freeze on the street an icy statue, to be found when Warmth came. On the fourth day, Lady Sorena beckoned me inside and as I stumbled through the door, gusts of chill wind screeched across the pavement and the roofs became white with snow.”
Her teacher became distant with memory, yet it was a good one this time since her eyes livened. Aeriale refilled their tea mugs and sliced an apple, a couple of figs, and one pear, drizzling them over with some fisher’s honey. Giant forest bees were usually kept by fishermen since they could entice the buzzing critters with slices of their fresh catch.
The two ate in silence, listening to the partying coming from the tavern floor.
“Teacher, how long did it take you to,” – asked the young maid a slice of pear in hand – “you know... grow and become as you are now?”
“At first I was a closet Doomer; I only aimed to work at The Sonsy Maid until I could repay Lady Sorena. Then, the memories of all things foul I did hit me. Not only had I stolen from my teacher, but I grifted, I lied, and pick-pocketed many others. They too had to be reimbursed! One Turn became two, the two stretched into five... until I had grown so skilled in my work that everyone I once slighted was compensated.”
Aeriale’s imagination sprinted forwards into a future trip of her own, as Lady Thaliel continued:
“However, the longer I stayed at The Sonsy Maid, the more my desire to do for others what they did for me, deepened. Maids helped me a lot since, in my own youthful foolishness, I had denied all lessons my poor parents attempted to each me. Though they learned me things for my own good, my own survival and prosperity, I thought their wisdom stupidity and my own obnoxious imbecility, supreme knowledge.”
The lady spread her arms in a gesture which encompassed the entirety of The Sonsy Maid. Thaliel dangled her owner’s key chain and patted the ring purse, before she would continue – “All of this, it came to me many Turns later and only when I had finally learned what were the best things in life. Why it was that some had seemingly been given more and others withered, living off the backs of their fake friends. Screeching in impotent rage, their sick, bloated ego making them commit vile crimes, so they could cope with ill-understood reality.”
One of the older maids rushed inside carrying an empty tray and grabbed a full one, stacked three rows up, heavy with their venue’s favorite hors d’oeuvre—crispy, baked fish cutlets smothered in crème cheese. The young woman giggled, giving lady Thaliel a hand sign which made her teacher grin. Aeriale knew enough to understand it; everything was going well with the wedding party, that was what the older maid meant.
“One early Warmth a day came, when I saw my husband to be.” – said the teacher and this time with a fond smirk, wrapping her tale – “Unbeknownst to me, by diligently working, learning, and paying my dues, I grew into the me you see now. Lady Sorena retired, giving me the keys and the ring purse, when I became his betrothed. By then, I had learned what my teacher’s duty was and her Seat of Safety became mine. Not because I coveted it, but because I had earned it.”
Pupil and teacher sat in silence for yet another minute, listening to groom and bride loudly exchange their vows, following a torrent of booming cheer. For a moment the tavern felt as if alive; her tables polished by thousands of hands whispered blessings with happy wooden creaks, and walls, and plates, and cutlery, they all felt warm with good wishes. The blissful, godly moment came and went, leaving Aeriale tranquil.
“All maids who train under me receive the boon of truth. Just as my wise old mistress learned me then, I offer it to you, now.” – said Lady Thaliel as she stood up and reached for her key chain, eyes aiming for the locked, reinforced basement door.
“Lady, I gladly accept your lesson!” – Aeriale agreed with a curtsy, which she performed to the best of her current ability.
“Every child knows of monsters.” – began the lady, her eyes once more filled with sorrow when her pupil agreed – “Those who live deep within the labyrinthine dungeons underneath our city, they look and act the part. Among buildings of stone and wood, here too there be monstrosities, but of another kind.”
“W-what do you mean, Lady?” – the girl mumbled, a weird, heavy and rather unpleasant gut feeling telling her that Thaliel was about to say something frightful.
“Look like me and you they do, yet their minds and hearts are hollow.” – said Lady Thaliel and, as she embraced Aeriale with tears in her eyes, whispered – “I am so sorry my child... sorry for your loss.”
Aeriale suddenly felt as if someone grabbed her heart and violently squeezed it. The lady gave her a uniquely crooked white hair ribbon, one which the girl immediately recognized. A birthday present, it was she who seamed it from her own rag doll and with fumbling childish fingers. The odd number of tiny reddish spots not of dye, but her own blood.
Her sister’s ribbon...
Lady Thaliel held her pupil until she could sob no more. Making a step towards the basement door, her teacher reached for a big, iron key, and said:
“Men slay their monsters without relent. We women, we too have fiends to remove.”
With a soft creak the reinforced door opened wide, unveiling a stone staircase going deep down into the dark. Lady Thaliel touched her bronze-forged hairband and it became alit with soft, blueish light, as she led Aeriale down the stairs. It was a long trek that lasted over three minutes but when they reached the staircase’s end, a broad room, its ceiling held with tall brick columns opened before them.
Most of it was occupied with supplies. Bales upon bales of fuel ready for the Frost; large barrels filled to their brim with wines, mead, beer, and oils, crates padded with waxed paper stuffed full of cured meats, shelves lined with jars of pickled foods. Yet at the furthest end of this room, there stood a cage and it was not empty.
“What... who’s in there?” – asked Aeriale and she couldn’t recognize her own voice.
“A fiend.” – replied Lady Thaliel and gave her pupil another hug, whispering – “The one who took your sister away.”
They approached the cage where a tall human woman was chained to the floor. Dressed in expensive garments, her olive skin smooth and perfect face covered with elaborate makeup, this lady’s jewelry alone could buy a fully furnished tall house. Beautiful, yet there was a weird glint in her brown eyes when she lifted up her head, her long brunette hair glistening with hair oils like a polished mirror.
“Please, someone! I was kidnapped! Heeeelp meee!” – wallowed she, yet because of the chains the woman was unable to move her limbs nor her neck.
Lady Thaliel made another step towards the cage and, iron in her voice, said – “Let me introduce you to boss Sarkss’ian. Three no longer brazenly stinking underlings of hers once told me that all my girls, my precious pupils, they apparently belonged to her.”
“What girls and who is this boss?! I don’t know anything about anyone called Sark... or whatever!” – the caged woman once more cried out, fear and confusion felt in her voice.
Aeriale looked at her teacher who produced a small scroll from her ring purse. Held by a seal of golden wax, for one such as she, an orphan growing up in the temple of Mara, this was a sealed prayer.
“Had I known what I do now, I would’ve never asked Joel to write it.” – said Thaliel and broke the seal with shaking hand.
Unfolding itself, the magical parchment revealed glowing hot red letters, which to the girl looked written in blood.
She clenched her fists.
The very act of helping with a prayer, she was told, oft required the priest or paladin to suffer the pain of others. Eyes darting between Lady Thaliel, the scroll, and the chained woman, Aeriale noticed the latter emote with quite a lot of fear. If she was a sap, the girl would’ve even felt a tiny bit of pity...
“Here, hold the scroll as I read it, so she could not lie to you.” – instructed her teacher and the girl grabbed the parchment’s edge.
“Eife doth wyrde est foelse, beiest braethe noeh!” – Thaliel read the first lines, her free hand placed over the captive’s forehead.
“Stop ensorcelling me!” – wallowed the chained woman and cried her eyes out, yet the lady elf finished her chant without delay or second thought – “Foelse doth seayei angd beiest souan daath!”
Eyes wide, Aeriale witnessed the red letters transmogrified. Blood ran across Lady Thaliel’s arms and through her fingertips, flowed inside the captured woman’s eyes. This one screeched and gnashed her teeth, yet could not resist. The elven lady had to grab ahold of the cage or risk stumbling to the floor. Though her nose and ears began to drip blood, she was seemingly prepared and pressed the yellow gemmed ring to her lips.
“Only the bleeding stops...” – in much pain she hissed through her clenched teeth, lamenting – “Joel, oh Joel, how could you even live with this?!”
Aeriale felt the scroll turn into crumpled paper, soon nary a spec of dust in her hand.
“Why my sister?” – she mumbled her hesitant question and immediately recoiled in terror, one cursory glance into the chained woman’s eyes.
Under the effect of Mother Mara’s prayer the monster could no longer hide its true face.
“Slaving is good business. Yet there is nothing sweeter than the pain and torturous desperation of fathers, husbands, sons, and brothers. The helpless terror in their eyes, knowing that their sweet little girl, their beloved wife, mother or sister, they are being used and abused, and that they can do nothing to save them.” – uttered the captive and in such hate-filled voice, that Aeriale wondered if she was indeed a human being and not some olden horror which crawled up from the dungeon’s deepest of depths.
“Were you slighted then, hurt, despoiled? Is that why...” – asked Lady Thaliel still fighting the pain, yet was herself startled by the immediate reply, preceded by a bout of heartless laughter which echoed throughout the basement.
“I was refused. Me, Countess Mileana, a beauty of legend! Men denied me en masse and only because I toyed with them and stole their money. Lying to get them hurt and killed only worked for so long. Therefore, the women in their lives had to suffer in their stead.”
“Just to satisfy your debased wants, you hurt innocent people like my sister?!” – cried out Aeriale and grabbed the cage bars, yelling at the top of her lungs – “Monster! Fiend!”
“Innocent you say? Not true, for all of these women, yes even the little girls when they grew up, all of them were or would’ve eventually been guilty of stealing my man toys by marrying them!” – yet another bout of hateful laughter followed, before the caged one spoke – “You call me a monster and a fiend? No, the men who denied me, it was them who were the monsters, them who were the fiends!”
“Insane...” – was barely able to whisper Aeriale, yet the caged one heard and cackled, blood dripping from her ears and nose.
“I am perfectly sane. To not punish them, oh... that would be pure madness.”
“Yet you could not.” – said Lady Thaliel with pride in her voice – “For my people, they found all your slaver dens, your dungeon-like whore houses and they freed everyone!”
The caged fiend spat blood and teeth as she let loose an inhuman shriek – “You dare!”
“All of them are safe and sound, the tortured memories of family, loved ones, and victims wiped clean with forgetfulness spells. Their scars erased by paladins’ healing prayers.” – stated the elven lady as she finally bested the pain in Joel’s prayer and placed one hand on Aeriale’s shoulder.
The gargling, monstrous woman attempted to scream, but choked on her own bodily fluids—she was dying. This prompted Lady Thaliel to put a black ring and point her finger at the captive.
Thaliel promised with sepulchral voice – “You are not going to go, not yet. Each second of pain shall become a day, the day a month, and the month... many Turns.” – and the bleeding human became paralyzed, her inevitable, agonizing death slowed down beyond a snail’s crawl.
Mid gargle, the woman’s twisted face a mask of revilement, she could not even finish her painful last twitch.
Aeriale gasped when her teacher instructed – “Now, look deep into the eyes of that fiend.”
“But... why?! It is but a pit of deceitful vileness and murderous hatred.”
“Because one day you will grow up and mother men.” – said the elven lady as she walked away, leaving Aeriale alone with the cage and its fiendish occupant.
[Ninth] — Krartian weeks are nine days.
[Turn] — This is a planetary rotation numbering seventeen thirty five day months.
[MWF] — The greatest magical wrestling federation ever!
This was a really heavy episode. Very moving.
A brutal, but well-deserved comeuppance. I like the prodigal daughter element of it, too. And once again I am impressed by the quotidian and very human use of minor magic.