The Mother of Monsters

The path out from the field of cleared trees was wide enough for a wagon. Tracks on either side of the path made the conclusion easy as to how the settlers were transporting the lumber. The path itself was simply packed dirt, divots had been filled in with a mixture of leaves, sticks, and rocks and then packed with more dirt. The result was a mishmash of pathing stretching out further than they could see and framed by trees on either side.

“They’ve been at it for a while,” Teyva said, filling the silence. Azrael had been quiet for a time since they had left the clearing, and it had begun to grate a little bit on Teyva. It wasn’t that she didn’t like silence, okay, well, she didn’t like silence. The truth was she was starting to like Azrael and it seemed like she was holding something back.

Azrael glanced over at her and cocked an eyebrow. Her expression was as hard as usual.

“What? Something on your mind?” Teyva asked.

“Do you have any more surprises you’d like to share?”

“Surprises?”

“Your arm, Teyva,” She gestured at Teyva’s right arm. Teyva looked at it, clenching and unclenching her hand. She grimaced and looked away; she had intentionally hidden her discovery of the new power from Azrael because the woman had already seemed so overwhelmed. Now Azrael didn’t trust that there weren’t more secrets up her sleeves. Teyva huffed, it wasn’t exactly fair now that she thought of it.

“Hold on a sec, you’ve already seen a lot of my ‘surprises’ but I barely know a thing about you,” She countered. Azrael paused and looked toward the road again, her stony face going still as she thought. After a few heartbeats, she nodded.

“Very well, what do you want to know?”

“How about that magic stuff you do, with the poems and all that,” Teyva said, wiggling her fingers as if she were casting a spell.

“Wind magic, the ‘poems’ you are referring to are incantations.”

“I thought your Aspect was the ‘Warden’,” Teyva said, “And that you can only have one aspect.”

“That’s right, only normal people can have one aspect,” Azrael said, giving her a sideways look. Teyva grunted and crossed her arms, waiting for further explanation. Azrael cleared her throat; “With enough time, anyone can learn to use magic. It is a skill, not a power derived from an aspect. Magic exists by the very fact that the aspects do.”

Now that got Teyva’s attention. Magic. Real magic. Spells and incantations and magic circles! She could just learn it, no special painful magic stone required. Now that was something she could get behind. She turned a greedy pair of eyes to Azrael but found a hand raised with Azrael shaking her head.

“I am not qualified to teach you, before you ask, I am sorry. Perhaps when we return to my home there will be someone willing to instruct you. I am sure the magi will find you fascinating, to say the least,” Azrael said, crushing Teyva’s hopes in one fell swoop. “Your turn, Teyva.”

Teyva clicked her tongue and smirked; “Going back and forth are we?”

“Teyva,” Azrael growled.

“Okay! Fine, fine,” She held out her arm; “It lets me change my body parts into something I’ve seen before. Or into a weapon I have memorized. But to memorize the weapon I have to destroy it,” She shrugged; “It's a trade-off. But since it's part of my body my touch abilities work with it, like Chill Touch.”

“The ability that burned that man’s face,” Azrael confirmed.

Teyva fell silent, turning back to the path ahead of them. She still had mixed feelings about what had happened back there, even if it had been a moment of desperation. Even worse was the wolf she had finished off in the clearing.

“You are still struggling with causing death?” Azrael asked.

“Well, yeah, should I not be? I mean, I killed a person, and that wolf, he was beaten already,” Teyva said, rubbing her arms.

Azrael grabbed Teyva’s shoulder and stopped her, turning Teyva to face her. “Look at me.”

Teyva hesitated, then looked up. Azrael’s eyes were so green they almost looked like they were on fire. Azrael squeezed Teyva’s shoulders and then reached for the sword at her hip. “Hold this,

Teyva looked down at the weapon, then at Azrael, and took it not knowing where this was going. It was heavier than she expected, cold too. The grip was made of thick leather that seemed to mold to the shape of her hand. A prompt quickly appeared.

Teyva dismissed the invasive prompt and returned her focus to the weapon. She turned it over and then looked at Azrael; “What-”

Azrael cut her off with a hard look; “How does it feel?”

“Heavy, cold,” Teyva said slowly.

Azrael let out a breath and smiled, patting Teyva on the shoulders. “You still have your soul, then. That is the weight of a life, Teyva. Don’t forget it. Killing should never be easy,” Azrael said.

Teyva felt a chill rock through her body, the words hitting at her core. She looked down at the weapon and hefted it again, smiling at the weight. This wasn’t like home. She was going to have to fight to survive and she was going to have to do difficult things. She wasn't over it, she doubted she would ever just get used to killing people; arguably that was the point Azrael was trying to make. It relieved her a little to know that Azrael felt the same way. Teyva let out a breath and nodded; “Thanks, Az.”

Azrael smiled; “Simply passing wise words from one soul to another.”

Teyva raised an eyebrow; “And where did you hear them from?”

Azrael looked back toward the path, taking her weapon back from Teyva and sheathing it; “The King.”

“You said he took you in, right?” Teyva asked.

“Yes, raised me like his own. Taught me everything he knew,” Azrael said, a little wistfully, “Taught me to fight, brutal instructor,” She said, cracking one of those rare genuine smiles.

Teyva thought about it; “Doesn’t that make you like… a princess or something? Heir to the throne?”

Azrael let out a harsh laugh; “Hardly! Azar society doesn’t work that way. No, I’m simply another warden in the service of my King, I have no interest in challenging him either,” she paused and returned a look to Teyva; “I’ve answered enough questions and you have more to tell me, don’t you?”

Teyva sighed; that was all she was going to get she supposed, “Might as well tell you everything I remember, I guess.”

Teyva swallowed, she wasn’t sure if it was a good idea to tell Azrael about respawning, but at this point, she had nothing else to lose and the last thing she wanted was to hide anything else from her. It felt wrong for the first person she came to like in this whole world to not trust her. So she took a breath and dove into it, she told her everything.

She told Azrael about how she woke up, what little she remembered at that point, she told her about dying over and over to the Tomb Guardian, she told her about looting the Aspect Stones, about pulling herself together. The words on the wall she could barely understand. The Queen of the Labyrinthians. She told her about the Heart Stone and the Aspect Shards in her inventory, everything. She even pulled them out to show Azrael as proof. The Azar woman ogling the shards and looking confounded at the Heart Stone. When she was done, she scratched the back of her head; “And that’s pretty much it. You came running in like some sort of superhero and I’ve been with you ever since.”

Azrael remained staring at the path for a long time. She ran her fingers through her hair and let out a breath; processing all the information. “That is… a lot to take in,” Azrael said; “If you hadn’t shown me the Shards I wouldn’t have believed you. So many in one place,” She shook her head. “You died so many times, I can’t even imagine. How are you still sane?” Azrael asked.

“A few hours ago I disarmed myself and talked down a giant monster wolf; hardly seems sane to me,” Teyva said, reaching into her gambeson to pet the Mockeries as they began to squirm.

Azrael snorted; “I thought that was a calculated risk.”

“Your words not mine,” Teyva shot back.

The two grinned at each other before bursting into laughter. As it died down, Azrael looked much more relaxed; “Do you think you can still come back if you die?”

“Not sure, not really looking to test it out, it may have only worked inside the tomb," She thought back about completing the tutorial quest. The prompt had implied that the protections were no longer in effect. Was it that simple though?

Azrael nodded; “Makes sense. I still have a lot of questions but I suppose I have only one pressing.”

“Fire away.”

“Are you going to use the Aspect Stone of the Labyrinthian?”

Teyva frowned, after what she had heard about the source of Aspect Stones she had been hesitant, to say the least. What if this thing changed her body even more? What if it affected her mind? What if she became someone completely different? There were so many doubts now. At the same time, though, she needed all the advantages she could get. Was it worth the risk? She didn’t feel much different now than she had when she woke in the tomb; at least not mentally. Or maybe that was the point.

“I don’t know. If I do I want to be somewhere safe; it takes a lot out of me. I just,” She fumbled, “I don’t want to lose myself to it, is all.”

Azrael put a hand on her shoulder, “All I can say is that I will be there this time and that if you were born with this incredible ability; it would be a shame not to use it. That stone can only be used by you. Ultimately it is your decision, but if I were you I would be loathe not to take the chance.”

Teyva called the stone out and into her hand; looking it over. “Right. As soon as we find a place to rest, then.”

“Fair enough.”

They fell back into an easy silence after that, the discomfort of the earlier quiet gone between them. Teyva was relieved, it was a lot to get off her chest and to have someone in the know helped. She wasn’t sure how much of it Azrael believed or could accept, but she seemed genuine enough at the very least. In the end, she knew she had at least one person in this huge, scary, strange world to rely on. She felt a distant thrum of discontent from her Mockeries and stifled a small chuckle; okay, she had them too. As ease washed over her she glanced up in time to spot a pair of figures standing at either side of an enormous wooden gate.

“Hey Az,” Teyva said, reaching to poke her companion.

“I see it. I think we’ve found our settlement,” Azrael said, “Let’s see if they’re friendly.”