The great cores paradox.., p.29
The Great Cores Paradox 2: Book 2, page 29
Her hand drifted toward the quiver at her side, securing it as best she could. If the arrows fell loose, it would be a long time before she was able to retrieve them. One, however, she pulled free.
Unlike some of the others, the chosen arrow was—besides the fletching—made entirely of metal. More importantly, that same design choice allowed for the arrow to be enhanced beyond others. From end to end, it glowed with a radiant light. Even the arrowhead design itself was changed, flared out in a way to make sure whatever it pierced stayed pierced. The only way it would come out was shredding its way back through.
Placing the mana-infused shaft safely between her teeth, she shoved her free hand back to her pack, pulling something else free without looking. It was easy enough to find.
Coiled spidersilk had a very distinctive texture.
She looped it through the slot in the arrow in a hurry, ignored the nagging thought that the knot she made might not have been tight enough, nocked it and sent it flying. A glowing arrow pierced the mist. The coiled bits of spidersilk floated behind the arrow like a trailing ribbon, its dangling end disappearing into the mist just as fast as its metal counterpart.
Kala followed the mana’s glow with her eyes. The bridge shook and more pieces started to fall.
Kala fell with them, desperately trying to catch herself on the nearest hanging vine.
Her lungs burned, an animal part of her screaming with the need to breathe as Kala stumbled forward. Already, she could feel a twinging in her eyes, tears dripping from the corners as her body desperately tried to remove the spores infesting them. One hand held onto her bow, still in the same white-knuckled grip as before, while the other hung limp at the shoulder.
The way down had been less than kind.
Despite the tears, her eyes remained fixed in place. Focused on a single spot. A dim glow, just barely visible through the dense mist. Even with her vision as sharp as it was, Kala could hardly make it out. She didn’t dare look away. She might not find it again.
Finally, when her lungs couldn’t take it anymore, she was forced to breathe. The spores flooded in, eagerly hooking into vulnerable flesh. They found her lungs quickly, forcing her to breathe again. Time was running out, each breath coming faster than the last.
Then, finally, she found it.
Her arrow, light shining forth from where it buried itself above her. A long coil of spidersilk spilled from its end, knotted into a slot in the shaft and reaching Kala’s feet. She let her bow drop to the ground in a puff of dead spores, freeing both hands to knot the length securely to the bow as well as herself. Even with her dislocated shoulder nearly entirely recovered due to the healing of the necklace, it took more time than she’d have liked, Kala’s fingers already starting to twitch erratically as they fought against their rightful owner’s control. Before they could mutiny further, the injured archer took the coil in hand, starting to climb. The coil pulled taut, Kala’s weight bearing down on the glowing metal shaft it was attached to. Had it been a normal arrow, it would have snapped. Instead, it simply bore the weight, digging harder into its target.
The root started to lift, reacting to the touch. Though more concerned with the arrow digging into its top than the feet pressed against its side. Just as she’d hoped. Dangling from the rope, breathing in again and again, Kala was lifted free from the mists.
The [Little Guardian’s Totem] immediately made its presence known, gradually healing Kala of her spore infestation. Her hands twitched, nearly losing their grip on the coiled silk, but she managed to hold. Even if she hadn’t, she was already tied securely. There would be no falling.
Still, it was good she hadn’t. Kala still had to keep going. It would have been a pain to be forced to pull herself all the way up unassisted.
She looked up and took in another breath, sighing, and then got to work. Though the root didn’t seem to have much in the way of intelligence, it did eventually realize that simply rising wasn’t enough to end the piercing pain the arrow caused. It started to shake and sway, as if trying to dislodge something standing atop it. Kala shook with it, taking blow after blow as she bounced off the root’s side.
By the time she had made it up to the top of the root, it had lifted much higher than she expected. With Kala’s weight no longer pulling on the obscenely sharp arrow, the root ceased most of its struggles, giving her a moment to catch her breath. As far as she could tell, it was adjusting to her standing atop it, treating her continued presence as something more and more natural with each moment. She understood why. If she hadn’t been tied down, there was no way she could have remained there through its struggles. Still, she tried to move as little as possible just in case. She would need to get off eventually, though not before making sure the root set itself somewhere free of the mist.
From where she rested, the entirety of Verdant Grove was laid before her, barring the spots where crop-towers and the giant darkwood tree rose high enough to obstruct her view. With her vision, even the edges of the cavern weren’t terribly difficult to make out. The illumination of faraway glow-caps enough that a portion of the details came through.
One particular section drew her eye. Not due to the presence of illumination, but rather due to the lack of it. A zone of darkness where there shouldn’t have been any, where Kala knew there hadn’t been any. That area was brighter before. She recognized it.
It was where Tiamat’s monsters had been gathering. She was certain there had been more than enough glow-caps there. They were gone for some reason, and she doubted that reason was good. Not all monsters were as stupid as the root on which she stood. Some, like humanity’s own Little Guardian, could think.
Kala squinted, trying her best to pierce the darkness. After a while, more details came into focus. Ruptured glow-caps, just barely managing to cast their dying light. Upturned earth and broken stone, strewn about the area like forgotten detritus. A tunnel, descending downward at a steep angle where only smooth ground had existed before.
A flicker of movement. The faint hint of almost nonexistent light glinting off of many bladed limbs, caught her eye. They disappeared into the tunnel, reflected light winking out as the darkness swallowed it. Kala’s throat went dry.
She looked down at Verdant Grove, the former city of green built atop an island of stone. Protected by null-water at its edges, but directly below…
Directly below there was only stone.
And something had made that tunnel. With the visible size and how quickly—far, far too quickly—it had been made, it might not be long until one came up. Depending on where, it could easily avoid the protective null-water entirely.
The city wasn’t safe anymore. Not that it ever really had been.
She needed to find the others before it was too late.
Kala looked to where the root was slowly drifting closer to a nearby crop-tower outside of the mists. Close, but not close enough. She decided to give it a subtle nudge.
Moments later, an arrow pierced the root’s side. It swerved toward the threat in an unthinking retaliation, meeting the nearby tower in a battle of silent giants. By the time it won, Kala was already sprinting down ruined streets.
It might take a while, but she’d eventually find a safe path back to the others.
Hopefully she wouldn’t be too late.
Chapter 61
Kill Them All
Needle’s message—whatever it had been—sent a spike of [worry] through the nearest [Little Guardian’s Totem]s, eliciting a flurry of conversation that left me as lost as always. The once-corrupted that we gathered made noises of their own, a mix of confusion and chaos that only added to my confusion.
The disciples managed to calm down the gathered once-corrupted, ushering them to the side where they could rest against a ruined nest. A few of the younger ones, barely more than tiny Coreless in size, wiped at the fluids running from their eyes. The youngest of them all—a tiny Coreless in truth—simply stared into the distance, arms tightly clasped around a larger Coreless.
“…are we going to do?” Needle finished saying, speaking in hushed tones to the other disciples. There was a clatter of darkwood as one of the nearby nests shifted, bits of debris collapsing in a dilapidated clump. She turned toward the sound, then back to the ground with a look of [nervousness]. “There’s no telling when or where they might turn up.”
The male Coreless pushed his chin up toward the sitting crowd of once-corrupted in some sort of incomprehensible gesture. The others followed the motion, eyeing the group. “They’ll need to be brought back to the statue. It’s not safe here, especially with what we know now. You and I should take them back. Valera and Doran are still somewhere in the mist, and we won’t be of any help in getting them out. Not without…”
He trailed off, motioning to where my gold and blue protector stood behind the Grateful One, and then shrugged his shoulders.
“Erik may have agreed to do it, but I’m not so eager. Besides, I’m sure the three of them can handle it,” he said, his lips turning up at one corner despite his continued [worry]. “Elara here sure handled me. Even if I wasn’t controlling my own body, it’s still a little embarrassing. Imagine, getting your ass handed to you by a fresh-faced Seeker. My pride still hurts a little bit.”
The Grateful One’s [Little Guardian’s Totem] flashed with a mixture of [embarrassment] and [pride], the combination of emotions appearing in tandem with a sudden reddening of her cheeks.
“She’s blushing!” the male Coreless crowed, a bit of [amusement] peeking past the [worry] that had all but solidified within his [Little Guardian’s Totem].
The redness disappeared in an instant, though the [embarrassment] spiked itself for a brief moment longer.
“No I’m not,” she said.
The other two disciples stared. Will stared too, but that’s because I hadn’t given him anything else to do. Staring was all he was doing. That and breathing, I supposed.
“Rowan, is this really the time?” Needle asked, a spurt of [annoyance] appearing in our connection.
“You’re right, you’re right. You know how I get when I’m nervous,” the male disciple replied, waving his hand and taking in a deep breath. He let it out slowly, tension bleeding visibly from his ore-flesh-covered shoulders. His expression flattened.
“We should get moving. Elara, just to make sure—will you be okay? I know this is asking a lot of you,” he said, making noises at the Grateful One.
The Grateful One nodded, her emotions going entirely flat. “I’ll be okay,” she said, motioning to me and Will. “It’s not as if I’m alone. The Little Guardian was able to find Erik, so he may be able to do the same with the others. It could save some time if I can figure out how to ask him to show me where they are.”
The other Coreless made a few more noises at one another before they split apart. Needle and the male disciple gathered the once-corrupted and started to lead them through the many-nest. Meanwhile, the Grateful One started making noises at me.
Just like the rest of the noises they make, I had no idea what it was about.
Will’s body plodded through the mist ahead of us, the gold and blue lines dotting his flesh a stark contrast against the disgusting green of the spore-mist itself.
After the other two disciples had taken the once-corrupted with them, the Grateful One spent a while hissing unintelligibly at me. While it wasn’t as grating as the-female-who-was-not-Needle’s horrible attempts, the repeated efforts drained me. The Grateful One’s attempts were like hearing an idiot hatchling trying to hiss for the first time rather than an idiot Coreless. Maybe not quite as bad as the alternative, but that didn’t mean I enjoyed the experience.
After a time, I gave up on it all. A few thought-hisses caused Will’s body to gesture at her in the way I’d seen the Coreless do before, beckoning her to follow. Then, with little more than that, he started walking toward the Lesser Core’s lair. If I could have, I might have tried to force him to speak. Unfortunately, the result would have been just as incomprehensible to the Grateful One as she was to me.
While I respected her occasional efforts to speak a proper language of hisses rather than Coreless babble, the Grateful One’s tendency to stifle her own emotions made understanding her a daunting challenge. There wasn’t time for it. Already, countless corrupted had gathered at the Lesser Core. With two of the Great Core’s stolen disciples among them. They were already a dangerous threat. If we waited any longer, it was possible that more would gather.
More than that, I’d suffered the Lesser Core’s existence for far too long. Its scent-taste had become a constant presence in my mind. A tantalizing taste that would have driven a younger me to distraction. Now, I knew better than to rush in. Moving too quickly led to my death against the Lesser Core of flame. I’d bided my time, making sure to weaken the Lesser Core’s forces and strengthen my own.
And then, when it was weaker than it had ever been and Tiamat’s minions forced me to move faster than I originally wanted, it had stolen from me.
It had stolen from the Great Core.
That changed things. The Coreless disciples were strong, dangerously powerful even when reduced to a Lesser Core’s puppets. The-female-who-was-not-Needle, especially if the spore-roots infesting her were willing to push her body to its limits, would likely move far faster than my protectors could. She would certainly move faster than I could. Meanwhile, the Unrepentant One was a simpler matter. He was strong, with blows that landed far more powerfully than the others’ did. He wasn’t any less dangerous for that simplicity. If the Grateful One and I faced him instead of Will earlier, we might not have made it out alive.
I couldn’t afford to make a mistake here.
I let my perspective swap to the stolen disciples, ignoring the accumulated mental fatigue from constantly using the [Little Guardian’s Totem]s in such a draining way. Every so often, I’d been forcing my perspective to flicker, throwing my vision into their own. While it meant I wasn’t as focused on my surroundings as I could have been, I trusted in the uncorrupted disciples to guard me from any attacks. Keeping an eye on the lost disciples was far more important.
The-female-who-was-not-Needle was still wandering about. A few more corrupted Coreless had gathered around her, close enough that I could pick them out despite the cloying spore-mist. Her eyes were unnaturally still, focused directly ahead. That, more than anything else, made her corruption apparent.
The real not-Needle was far more alert than that, despite her flaws.
The Unrepentant One wasn’t far from her, standing near another root fragment. While I was curious about what managed to damage the darkwood tree’s roots so severely, I put that thought aside. Whatever it had been, it hadn’t won. The Lesser Core was still alive.
I pulled back into my own body, content with the fact we were still undetected. As if sensing my return, the Grateful One’s hand came up to scratch at my scale-flesh. At the same time, the ground shuddered. The small tremors, almost imperceptible with the heavy coating of spore-flesh that muffled every vibration, ran up the Grateful One’s form and rubbed gently against my scale-flesh alongside the disciple’s gentle scratches. A bit of [tension] flickered at the edge of our connection, aborted almost instantly by the Grateful One’s strange self-control.
She sighed, letting out a long exhale, and leaned a bit closer to me so that I could hear her through the mist’s sound-swallowing effect. Her mouth worked, forming sounds I had no real hope of interpreting.
“It’s like this city can’t catch a break,” she hissed, letting a bit of [despondency] flow through her [Little Guardian’s Totem] before she crushed it as mercilessly as she had all of her other emotions. There was a small laugh at the edge of my hearing, though it sounded sad more than anything else. “Just when we were making steps toward improving things, everything starts to fall apart. It’s kind of funny, isn’t it?”
Lacking any other response to whatever had been said, I simply hissed. She bared her teeth slightly, looking to Will. Lines of gold and blue glinted at the base of his neck, catching bits of light given off by the Coreless’ ore-flesh.
Her expression hardened.
“This has to end. This city has dealt with enough. You and me, we’re gonna find the Core, alright? Smash it, eat it, whatever it takes. And then whatever comes next, whatever’s rumbling underneath us…” She trailed off for a brief moment.
“We’ll kill that, too.”
Chapter 62
A Duel of Idiots
Doran’s gaze held steady, focused on the mist. A few of the others stepped through his vision, their skeletal figures wraithlike and waiflike, battered by the effects of slow starvation. He’d seen a few shove fistfuls of dead spores into their mouths on occasion, mechanically chewing and swallowing the grimy substance. Doran had his doubts regarding the nutrition it provided. And more doubts about the taste.
Luckily, his own captors hadn’t yet forced him to eat. Based on the state of the others, they would likely only do it if his body started to die. Hopefully, that meant it would never happen.
Surely, someone was coming. If not for him, then for Valera. The snake liked her, right? It would come. It had to.
Valera was somewhere nearby. Doran had caught sight of her once or twice, each time sending a wave of relief rushing through his limbs. Just seeing her didn’t mean much. Try as he might, Doran couldn’t get his body to obey his commands. There would be no rescue coming from him. Still, it was good to see she was nearby. Somewhere where he could know that she was safe, even if she wasn’t free.
His body turned, walking past the strange Seeker’s corpse for a third time. It was crushed underneath a giant fragment of darkwood, plated armor crumpled below the overwhelming weight. The man—by the size of the corpse, he was sure it was a man, even fully enclosed within a fancy suit of armor—was a bit of a mystery. As far as Doran could remember, Verdant Grove only had a Nature Core. The armor the corpse wore bore the mana of at least two separate Cores. One of which was something he’d only heard about.
Unlike some of the others, the chosen arrow was—besides the fletching—made entirely of metal. More importantly, that same design choice allowed for the arrow to be enhanced beyond others. From end to end, it glowed with a radiant light. Even the arrowhead design itself was changed, flared out in a way to make sure whatever it pierced stayed pierced. The only way it would come out was shredding its way back through.
Placing the mana-infused shaft safely between her teeth, she shoved her free hand back to her pack, pulling something else free without looking. It was easy enough to find.
Coiled spidersilk had a very distinctive texture.
She looped it through the slot in the arrow in a hurry, ignored the nagging thought that the knot she made might not have been tight enough, nocked it and sent it flying. A glowing arrow pierced the mist. The coiled bits of spidersilk floated behind the arrow like a trailing ribbon, its dangling end disappearing into the mist just as fast as its metal counterpart.
Kala followed the mana’s glow with her eyes. The bridge shook and more pieces started to fall.
Kala fell with them, desperately trying to catch herself on the nearest hanging vine.
Her lungs burned, an animal part of her screaming with the need to breathe as Kala stumbled forward. Already, she could feel a twinging in her eyes, tears dripping from the corners as her body desperately tried to remove the spores infesting them. One hand held onto her bow, still in the same white-knuckled grip as before, while the other hung limp at the shoulder.
The way down had been less than kind.
Despite the tears, her eyes remained fixed in place. Focused on a single spot. A dim glow, just barely visible through the dense mist. Even with her vision as sharp as it was, Kala could hardly make it out. She didn’t dare look away. She might not find it again.
Finally, when her lungs couldn’t take it anymore, she was forced to breathe. The spores flooded in, eagerly hooking into vulnerable flesh. They found her lungs quickly, forcing her to breathe again. Time was running out, each breath coming faster than the last.
Then, finally, she found it.
Her arrow, light shining forth from where it buried itself above her. A long coil of spidersilk spilled from its end, knotted into a slot in the shaft and reaching Kala’s feet. She let her bow drop to the ground in a puff of dead spores, freeing both hands to knot the length securely to the bow as well as herself. Even with her dislocated shoulder nearly entirely recovered due to the healing of the necklace, it took more time than she’d have liked, Kala’s fingers already starting to twitch erratically as they fought against their rightful owner’s control. Before they could mutiny further, the injured archer took the coil in hand, starting to climb. The coil pulled taut, Kala’s weight bearing down on the glowing metal shaft it was attached to. Had it been a normal arrow, it would have snapped. Instead, it simply bore the weight, digging harder into its target.
The root started to lift, reacting to the touch. Though more concerned with the arrow digging into its top than the feet pressed against its side. Just as she’d hoped. Dangling from the rope, breathing in again and again, Kala was lifted free from the mists.
The [Little Guardian’s Totem] immediately made its presence known, gradually healing Kala of her spore infestation. Her hands twitched, nearly losing their grip on the coiled silk, but she managed to hold. Even if she hadn’t, she was already tied securely. There would be no falling.
Still, it was good she hadn’t. Kala still had to keep going. It would have been a pain to be forced to pull herself all the way up unassisted.
She looked up and took in another breath, sighing, and then got to work. Though the root didn’t seem to have much in the way of intelligence, it did eventually realize that simply rising wasn’t enough to end the piercing pain the arrow caused. It started to shake and sway, as if trying to dislodge something standing atop it. Kala shook with it, taking blow after blow as she bounced off the root’s side.
By the time she had made it up to the top of the root, it had lifted much higher than she expected. With Kala’s weight no longer pulling on the obscenely sharp arrow, the root ceased most of its struggles, giving her a moment to catch her breath. As far as she could tell, it was adjusting to her standing atop it, treating her continued presence as something more and more natural with each moment. She understood why. If she hadn’t been tied down, there was no way she could have remained there through its struggles. Still, she tried to move as little as possible just in case. She would need to get off eventually, though not before making sure the root set itself somewhere free of the mist.
From where she rested, the entirety of Verdant Grove was laid before her, barring the spots where crop-towers and the giant darkwood tree rose high enough to obstruct her view. With her vision, even the edges of the cavern weren’t terribly difficult to make out. The illumination of faraway glow-caps enough that a portion of the details came through.
One particular section drew her eye. Not due to the presence of illumination, but rather due to the lack of it. A zone of darkness where there shouldn’t have been any, where Kala knew there hadn’t been any. That area was brighter before. She recognized it.
It was where Tiamat’s monsters had been gathering. She was certain there had been more than enough glow-caps there. They were gone for some reason, and she doubted that reason was good. Not all monsters were as stupid as the root on which she stood. Some, like humanity’s own Little Guardian, could think.
Kala squinted, trying her best to pierce the darkness. After a while, more details came into focus. Ruptured glow-caps, just barely managing to cast their dying light. Upturned earth and broken stone, strewn about the area like forgotten detritus. A tunnel, descending downward at a steep angle where only smooth ground had existed before.
A flicker of movement. The faint hint of almost nonexistent light glinting off of many bladed limbs, caught her eye. They disappeared into the tunnel, reflected light winking out as the darkness swallowed it. Kala’s throat went dry.
She looked down at Verdant Grove, the former city of green built atop an island of stone. Protected by null-water at its edges, but directly below…
Directly below there was only stone.
And something had made that tunnel. With the visible size and how quickly—far, far too quickly—it had been made, it might not be long until one came up. Depending on where, it could easily avoid the protective null-water entirely.
The city wasn’t safe anymore. Not that it ever really had been.
She needed to find the others before it was too late.
Kala looked to where the root was slowly drifting closer to a nearby crop-tower outside of the mists. Close, but not close enough. She decided to give it a subtle nudge.
Moments later, an arrow pierced the root’s side. It swerved toward the threat in an unthinking retaliation, meeting the nearby tower in a battle of silent giants. By the time it won, Kala was already sprinting down ruined streets.
It might take a while, but she’d eventually find a safe path back to the others.
Hopefully she wouldn’t be too late.
Chapter 61
Kill Them All
Needle’s message—whatever it had been—sent a spike of [worry] through the nearest [Little Guardian’s Totem]s, eliciting a flurry of conversation that left me as lost as always. The once-corrupted that we gathered made noises of their own, a mix of confusion and chaos that only added to my confusion.
The disciples managed to calm down the gathered once-corrupted, ushering them to the side where they could rest against a ruined nest. A few of the younger ones, barely more than tiny Coreless in size, wiped at the fluids running from their eyes. The youngest of them all—a tiny Coreless in truth—simply stared into the distance, arms tightly clasped around a larger Coreless.
“…are we going to do?” Needle finished saying, speaking in hushed tones to the other disciples. There was a clatter of darkwood as one of the nearby nests shifted, bits of debris collapsing in a dilapidated clump. She turned toward the sound, then back to the ground with a look of [nervousness]. “There’s no telling when or where they might turn up.”
The male Coreless pushed his chin up toward the sitting crowd of once-corrupted in some sort of incomprehensible gesture. The others followed the motion, eyeing the group. “They’ll need to be brought back to the statue. It’s not safe here, especially with what we know now. You and I should take them back. Valera and Doran are still somewhere in the mist, and we won’t be of any help in getting them out. Not without…”
He trailed off, motioning to where my gold and blue protector stood behind the Grateful One, and then shrugged his shoulders.
“Erik may have agreed to do it, but I’m not so eager. Besides, I’m sure the three of them can handle it,” he said, his lips turning up at one corner despite his continued [worry]. “Elara here sure handled me. Even if I wasn’t controlling my own body, it’s still a little embarrassing. Imagine, getting your ass handed to you by a fresh-faced Seeker. My pride still hurts a little bit.”
The Grateful One’s [Little Guardian’s Totem] flashed with a mixture of [embarrassment] and [pride], the combination of emotions appearing in tandem with a sudden reddening of her cheeks.
“She’s blushing!” the male Coreless crowed, a bit of [amusement] peeking past the [worry] that had all but solidified within his [Little Guardian’s Totem].
The redness disappeared in an instant, though the [embarrassment] spiked itself for a brief moment longer.
“No I’m not,” she said.
The other two disciples stared. Will stared too, but that’s because I hadn’t given him anything else to do. Staring was all he was doing. That and breathing, I supposed.
“Rowan, is this really the time?” Needle asked, a spurt of [annoyance] appearing in our connection.
“You’re right, you’re right. You know how I get when I’m nervous,” the male disciple replied, waving his hand and taking in a deep breath. He let it out slowly, tension bleeding visibly from his ore-flesh-covered shoulders. His expression flattened.
“We should get moving. Elara, just to make sure—will you be okay? I know this is asking a lot of you,” he said, making noises at the Grateful One.
The Grateful One nodded, her emotions going entirely flat. “I’ll be okay,” she said, motioning to me and Will. “It’s not as if I’m alone. The Little Guardian was able to find Erik, so he may be able to do the same with the others. It could save some time if I can figure out how to ask him to show me where they are.”
The other Coreless made a few more noises at one another before they split apart. Needle and the male disciple gathered the once-corrupted and started to lead them through the many-nest. Meanwhile, the Grateful One started making noises at me.
Just like the rest of the noises they make, I had no idea what it was about.
Will’s body plodded through the mist ahead of us, the gold and blue lines dotting his flesh a stark contrast against the disgusting green of the spore-mist itself.
After the other two disciples had taken the once-corrupted with them, the Grateful One spent a while hissing unintelligibly at me. While it wasn’t as grating as the-female-who-was-not-Needle’s horrible attempts, the repeated efforts drained me. The Grateful One’s attempts were like hearing an idiot hatchling trying to hiss for the first time rather than an idiot Coreless. Maybe not quite as bad as the alternative, but that didn’t mean I enjoyed the experience.
After a time, I gave up on it all. A few thought-hisses caused Will’s body to gesture at her in the way I’d seen the Coreless do before, beckoning her to follow. Then, with little more than that, he started walking toward the Lesser Core’s lair. If I could have, I might have tried to force him to speak. Unfortunately, the result would have been just as incomprehensible to the Grateful One as she was to me.
While I respected her occasional efforts to speak a proper language of hisses rather than Coreless babble, the Grateful One’s tendency to stifle her own emotions made understanding her a daunting challenge. There wasn’t time for it. Already, countless corrupted had gathered at the Lesser Core. With two of the Great Core’s stolen disciples among them. They were already a dangerous threat. If we waited any longer, it was possible that more would gather.
More than that, I’d suffered the Lesser Core’s existence for far too long. Its scent-taste had become a constant presence in my mind. A tantalizing taste that would have driven a younger me to distraction. Now, I knew better than to rush in. Moving too quickly led to my death against the Lesser Core of flame. I’d bided my time, making sure to weaken the Lesser Core’s forces and strengthen my own.
And then, when it was weaker than it had ever been and Tiamat’s minions forced me to move faster than I originally wanted, it had stolen from me.
It had stolen from the Great Core.
That changed things. The Coreless disciples were strong, dangerously powerful even when reduced to a Lesser Core’s puppets. The-female-who-was-not-Needle, especially if the spore-roots infesting her were willing to push her body to its limits, would likely move far faster than my protectors could. She would certainly move faster than I could. Meanwhile, the Unrepentant One was a simpler matter. He was strong, with blows that landed far more powerfully than the others’ did. He wasn’t any less dangerous for that simplicity. If the Grateful One and I faced him instead of Will earlier, we might not have made it out alive.
I couldn’t afford to make a mistake here.
I let my perspective swap to the stolen disciples, ignoring the accumulated mental fatigue from constantly using the [Little Guardian’s Totem]s in such a draining way. Every so often, I’d been forcing my perspective to flicker, throwing my vision into their own. While it meant I wasn’t as focused on my surroundings as I could have been, I trusted in the uncorrupted disciples to guard me from any attacks. Keeping an eye on the lost disciples was far more important.
The-female-who-was-not-Needle was still wandering about. A few more corrupted Coreless had gathered around her, close enough that I could pick them out despite the cloying spore-mist. Her eyes were unnaturally still, focused directly ahead. That, more than anything else, made her corruption apparent.
The real not-Needle was far more alert than that, despite her flaws.
The Unrepentant One wasn’t far from her, standing near another root fragment. While I was curious about what managed to damage the darkwood tree’s roots so severely, I put that thought aside. Whatever it had been, it hadn’t won. The Lesser Core was still alive.
I pulled back into my own body, content with the fact we were still undetected. As if sensing my return, the Grateful One’s hand came up to scratch at my scale-flesh. At the same time, the ground shuddered. The small tremors, almost imperceptible with the heavy coating of spore-flesh that muffled every vibration, ran up the Grateful One’s form and rubbed gently against my scale-flesh alongside the disciple’s gentle scratches. A bit of [tension] flickered at the edge of our connection, aborted almost instantly by the Grateful One’s strange self-control.
She sighed, letting out a long exhale, and leaned a bit closer to me so that I could hear her through the mist’s sound-swallowing effect. Her mouth worked, forming sounds I had no real hope of interpreting.
“It’s like this city can’t catch a break,” she hissed, letting a bit of [despondency] flow through her [Little Guardian’s Totem] before she crushed it as mercilessly as she had all of her other emotions. There was a small laugh at the edge of my hearing, though it sounded sad more than anything else. “Just when we were making steps toward improving things, everything starts to fall apart. It’s kind of funny, isn’t it?”
Lacking any other response to whatever had been said, I simply hissed. She bared her teeth slightly, looking to Will. Lines of gold and blue glinted at the base of his neck, catching bits of light given off by the Coreless’ ore-flesh.
Her expression hardened.
“This has to end. This city has dealt with enough. You and me, we’re gonna find the Core, alright? Smash it, eat it, whatever it takes. And then whatever comes next, whatever’s rumbling underneath us…” She trailed off for a brief moment.
“We’ll kill that, too.”
Chapter 62
A Duel of Idiots
Doran’s gaze held steady, focused on the mist. A few of the others stepped through his vision, their skeletal figures wraithlike and waiflike, battered by the effects of slow starvation. He’d seen a few shove fistfuls of dead spores into their mouths on occasion, mechanically chewing and swallowing the grimy substance. Doran had his doubts regarding the nutrition it provided. And more doubts about the taste.
Luckily, his own captors hadn’t yet forced him to eat. Based on the state of the others, they would likely only do it if his body started to die. Hopefully, that meant it would never happen.
Surely, someone was coming. If not for him, then for Valera. The snake liked her, right? It would come. It had to.
Valera was somewhere nearby. Doran had caught sight of her once or twice, each time sending a wave of relief rushing through his limbs. Just seeing her didn’t mean much. Try as he might, Doran couldn’t get his body to obey his commands. There would be no rescue coming from him. Still, it was good to see she was nearby. Somewhere where he could know that she was safe, even if she wasn’t free.
His body turned, walking past the strange Seeker’s corpse for a third time. It was crushed underneath a giant fragment of darkwood, plated armor crumpled below the overwhelming weight. The man—by the size of the corpse, he was sure it was a man, even fully enclosed within a fancy suit of armor—was a bit of a mystery. As far as Doran could remember, Verdant Grove only had a Nature Core. The armor the corpse wore bore the mana of at least two separate Cores. One of which was something he’d only heard about.
