The Mother of Monsters

The second time Teyva hit the ground through the Madcaller’s shuffling power she managed to tuck and roll, getting back to her feet with a bit more ease than before. She could still feel the fear permeating the minds of her Mockeries and was forced to dodge more than once as the tiny creatures fled this way and that. Watching the precious things scurry and panic was more than enough to put a cold lump of anger in her belly. How dare that thing do that to her children. She called out to them, her mind reaching through the room trying to calm their fears. The magical terror was locked in, though, and only waiting for it to wear off would give them any respite.

Instead, she raised her voice and called out to Nephral. To her relief, he had been shuffled close enough to catch up with her in short order. Settling down on her shoulder, the trembling Sphinx cursed the Madcaller in dark tones.

“Easy there, you’re fine,” Teyva cooed, taking in her surroundings. It was more of the same, hanging columns of wood interspaced with wide patches of dirt. Nephral shifted on her shoulder, turning his head around to keep an eye on her back while she treads through the room. Somewhere in the distance, she heard Azrael cursing in her native tongue. Teyva’s lip twitched as the meaning behind them filtered through her brain. It had been a while since she even remembered that she had the [Tongue of the Labyrinthian] trait.

“Where did it go?” She muttered, dipping beneath a hanging root and stepping out into the center of the chamber. A few Mockeries dove past her in their blind panic as the timer on the fear effect ticked down closer and closer to zero.

“Kreakkaarra, eeeaaiee?” The raspy shriek of the Madcaller broke her out of her thoughts as she looked to the right to see the beast standing near the opening where the two women had entered the room. It canted its head to the right; its bloodshot eyes boring down on Teyva. She turned to face it, a scowl crossing her features. It just stood there, motionless, tilting its head left and right as if trying to examine her from afar. She used her Journal to check and see if it was under some sort of debuff and… nothing.

“Mother! Behind you!” Nephral cried just as a blunt force bowled into Teyva’s back. She rolled forward, trying to catch herself but inevitably hit the far wall next to the false Madcaller. The illusion shrieked once before vanishing. Teyva looked up to see the real thing standing over her, opening its mouth and bearing rows of distorted, curved teeth.

“Shit!”

Teyva rolled, trying to get into a position to swing her right arm at the freakshow. Her sword cleaved through the air as the horrible thing vanished once again. She spat and struggled to her feet, reaching out with her mind to try to call to her Mockeries again. Several of them had begun to calm down and more were coming to by the second. She urged them to return to her bag for the moment and a fresh drone of swarming mockeries filled the air. Soon coins were landing in her satchel.

“Azrael? You alright?” She called, not bothering to hide her position. The Madcaller had the advantage of stealth.

There was a pause followed by Azrael letting out another curse; “Where the hell is this thing?”

“Watch your back, it likes to pop up from behind!” Teyva called, stepping back against the wall nearest to her and thinking hard. She needed to formulate a plan and fast. She checked her health, it was back down to thirty-five after that last attack and her stamina was beginning to dip a bit too. Fortunately, her mana was healthy thanks to Nephral’s continued presence. Running through her options she boiled them down to the best strategy she could come up with, turning her attention to the Mockeries. They mulled over her command before assenting, their chittering going quiet.

Azrael let out a shout nearby and Teyva heard the shriek of the creature as the two engaged each other. A ribbon of air crashed into the far wall, giving her an idea of Azrael’s position. “Back to the center Az!” She shouted, getting a good look around. She needed to find a place to draw its attention that was open enough that she could move if things went wrong. Her eyes fell on shallow the pit where the creature had been waiting from the beginning and she rushed over to it, sliding to a stop. Inside was a pile of wolf bones and what looked like something metallic buried beneath them.

Teyva didn’t have time to investigate, instead, she stepped into the pit and did a full turn, looking for where the creature would pop out from next. “Hey ugly! Show your face bird brain!” She shouted. Nearby she could hear Azrael’s boots heading in her direction, darting between obstacles. Then there was a moment of quiet, a stillness that fell over the area. She took a breath and dropped to her knees an instant before Nephral let out a shout of warning. Several things happened in that instant. Behind her, the Madcaller let out a shriek and swung its arm down at her body. Azrael darted into view, sword drawn and hand outstretched. And Teyva’s satchel burst open with the force of a small bomb, just over two dozen Mockeries hurling themselves at their hated enemy.

As time caught back up with Teyva’s senses, Azrael had already crossed the space and was driving her sword toward the monster’s back, shouting something over the din of the Mockeries’ rage. Teyva turned around and swung her weapon up and toward the monster’s shoulder, aiming at one of the exposed bones. It reared its head back to scream just as the blade struck, frost coating the bone and the shriek catching in its throat. Teyva snarled at the thing, bearing her pointed teeth as her eyes went wide with malice. “I’ve got you now!”

Azrael, behind the beast, hacked away at its back shouting again at Teyva; “Its spine is exposed!”

“Darlings! Attack the spine!” Teyva shouted, reaching out with her left hand to grasp at the monster’s waist with her [Grasp of the Mimic]. She held it still, the Madcaller flailing its arms in her direction. She drew her weapon back and drove it into the thing’s chest, pouring every ounce of mana she had into [Chilling Touch]. Each blow from the creature’s powerful arms knocked down a chunk of her health even as [Hungering Cold] restored it. Blood dripped from Teyva’s nose and mouth, she felt a tooth go loose and an eye cloud a little. Her knees buckled under the assault while Azrael and the Mockeries desperately fought to end the creature from behind.

Eventually, attrition won out, the combined attack overwhelming the unholy thing and bringing it to its knees. Teyva stepped back and watched as the Madcaller breathed its last, its body melting into nothing more than a pile of bones.

For a moment neither woman said anything, breathing hard and staring at the inert remains before them. The tone of a prompt waiting to be viewed nagged at the back of Teyva’s mind but she ignored them. She kicked one of the bones, wondering if it could be looted. No reaction. She figured. The other Wightlings hadn’t left anything behind to loot either. Azrael looked up at Teyva and grinned, spitting at the ground. “You look like shit,” She laughed.

“Screw you,” Teyva laughed, kneeling to start digging through the nest.

“What are you looking for?”

“There’s something under the bones here,” Teyva said, pushing aside the debris until she uncovered what she was looking for. Beneath the dirt was a single knife, the blade short and double-edged. The handle was long and at one end was a partial hook. Teyva picked it up and turned it over in her hands, her journal immediately reacting to its presence.

You have acquired: [Madcallers Blade] Ranged Weapon, Rare Rarity A throwing knife infused with madness beneath the Balthin Great Tree. Special Attribute: This weapon returns to the hand a few seconds after being thrown.

Teyva turned it over in her hand thoughtfully, no prompt appeared offering to memorize the weapon. She wondered if it was because it was intended to be a ranged weapon. She glanced over her shoulder at Azrael and flipped the blade over in her hand, gripping it from the edge before holding it out to her. Azrael looked at the weapon and blinked before looking up at Teyva.

“What are you doing?” Azrael asked.

“It’s yours, Az.”

Azrael took the weapon and examined it before turning to Teyva again, “What is it?”

“It returns to your hand when thrown. Magic weapon,” Teyva explained, getting to her feet and brushing the dirt off her knees.

Azrael choked and stared bug-eyed at the weapon before trying to hand it back to Teyva; “I can’t accept this! Do you understand how valuable it is?”

Teyva waved a hand; “Take it, it’s fine. You would make better use of it anyway,” Azrael hesitated and then brought the weapon close to her chest before dropping into a bow at the waist. Teyva rounded on her, surprised, “Hey! Stop that! You’ve got my back and I got yours, quit acting like you owe me.”

Azrael stood up straight and cleared her throat; “Thank you, Teyva,” she said, scratching the back of her neck.

“Let’s just finish this thing.”

Azrael nodded, “Right.”

After such a grueling fight, Teyva and Azrael stopped to take stock and recover. Nephral was still a little harried by the whole experience and spent much of their time resting in Teyva’s lap. The Mockeries returned to their mother, exhausted and hungry. They had gained no sustenance from the flesh of the monstrosities they had been fighting and were beginning to feel the strain. Among them, Teyva sensed, only two were from the original batch that she had created in the tomb. They were the largest among the little creatures and were easy enough to spot in the pile of gold coins writhing around the ration bars that Teyva had thrown to them.

“You sure you should be using those?” Azrael asked.

“I don’t have much of a choice. I figure normally I’d have them go hunt for themselves, that and I should have picked up something for them to eat while we were in the settlement. Hindsight and all that,” Teyva admitted, leaning back. As she said that, a thought occurred to her and she pulled out her [Old Satchel] drawing up her inventory and popping out the [Traveler’s Lunchboxes] that she’d acquired from the Signet Ring quest. They were no larger than a tin lunchbox one might take to school with them but they weighed enough that Teyva assumed they were stuffed with food.

She passed one over to Azrael and the two opened them to reveal one hell of a packed feast. Rice, chopped meat, and vegetables, all of the food hot and ready to eat. Nephral took bites here and there from both women as they settled in, a short respite before what more was to come. As they ate, Teyva checked the notification that had been pestering her since the end of the fight.

LEVEL UP! You are now Level 3 You have 15 (3 Base + 12 Racial) attribute points to spend. You must rest for at least one hour to use your attribute points. An Aspect Shard has been added to your inventory. You may unlock one ability per aspect at this level. Your [Worn Compass] has improved! Its accuracy has increased to Capable. Your control limit for [Create Mockery] has increased to 40.

Teyva nearly choked, ever since they’d started this quest she had leveled up twice! Was gaining experience really that easy? Even with her experience debuff, it seemed like she was gaining a lot. She looked up at Azrael and informed her that she would have to rest for an hour again. This time Azrael didn’t question it and instead, they set up near the exit of the room, Azrael on watch, as Teyva settled in and tried to fall to sleep.

Unlike before she didn’t spend a lot of time appreciating the strangeness of the void, more focused on spending her points as quickly as possible. Her recent fights had imparted upon her the need to get more health. She needed to last longer before she had to retreat. She dropped nine points into endurance, bringing it up to twenty and her HP up to one hundred ten. That left six points to play with. She split them between Willpower and Influence, bringing them both up to twenty-seven.

Satisfied, she confirmed her changes and resurfaced.

When she woke she found Azrael and Nephral talking, the cat sitting across from the Azar with its wings fluttering now and then as the conversation grew heated.

“So your father is the King of Demons?” Nephral asked.

“For the last time, Azar are not Demons, it’s something the humans call us,” She said, waving her hands for emphasis, “Basically a slur if you ask me.”

“But is that not the title?” Nephral insisted.

“No one uses that name anymore,” Azrael said, “You shouldn’t either.”

“Having fun you two?” Teyva asked, stretching. She pulled out her satchel and dropped the pair of Aspect Shards she had left into her lap.

“A simple debate on how time dilutes the meaning behind words,” Nephral insisted.

“He’s obsessed with anachronisms,” Azrael shot back.

“Glad to see you two are becoming friends finally,” Teyva commented, holding up one and squeezing it. She pulled up the list for the Facsimile tree and selected [Animate Object]. She’d been thinking about picking this one for a while now and with her larger pool of mana, a whopping one hundred thirty-one, she didn’t dare skip it.

Animate Object [Facsimile] Pathetic Active Utility | MP Cost Varies

You breathe life into a single, contiguous, non-magical, inanimate object. The object takes on the traits of a mimic. Its health, cost, power, and other abilities are based on the traits of the object itself and your Influence.

As the shard dissolved, Azrael and Nephral shot one another aggressive looks.

“Hardly,” Nephral said, “I still question her fitness to serve you as a guardian.”

“I am not her servant you insolent little furball,” Azrael snapped.

Teyva glanced up at the two of them with an amused smile, both of them glared at her and snapped simultaneously; “What?”

She chuckled and shook her head, squeezing the second stone and selecting the Labyrinthian tree. She found [Create Wall] and selected it.

Create Wall [Labyrinthian] Pathetic Crowd Control (Summoning) | MP Cost Varies

You create a wall out of available materials in a designated area within your range. The wall is considered a non-magical, inanimate object. The wall’s health, cost, and defensive power are based on the materials you use and your Influence. The wall persists until destroyed.

An almost foolish grin crossed her lips as she visualized an angry-looking slab of rock grunting now and then as it leaped into the air and bodyslammed her enemies. Like a certain monster in a certain game from back home. The thought brought a delighted chuckle and a concerned look from Azrael.

“You have a very unsettling look on your face,” Azrael said, “What abilities did you pick?”

“Create Wall and Animate Object,” Teyva said, rubbing her hands together.

“And that is amusing, why?” Azrael pressed.

Teyva just grinned and got to her feet, brushing herself off and doing a few stretches. She checked her stats as well as Azrael’s. She wasn’t sure if the meal itself had healing properties or not but Azrael was at ninety-six percent health while Teyva had filled out with her level up.

“Alright, let’s see what else this place has in store for us,” Teyva said only to stop as something flashed over her status bars. Her blood went cold.

“What? What happened?” Azrael asked.

“My Starlight Sorceress trait just triggered,” Teyva said hesitantly.

“Is that not a good thing?”

“That means its night time, we need to move, now!”