Searing, 72 122
The witch traveled a second time through the Mawoiden boglands, and this time she did not go to die.
Which is to say, she was in the body of an orkhan, wearing quite ordinary clothes, and not an awkward meat-suit draped over a skeleton, as she’d come a month prior. This wasn’t a matter of pride, per se; she was not in the least ashamed to have tricked the primal once and gotten away with her life. But to actually extract metal from the thing, she was going to need to fight it without obstruction.
She journeyed during the day this time, though how much that was worth in the Great Eclipse was a matter of opinion. The mythos of the Mawoiden spoke of people dying to the Kegumu Rekaka during both daylight and midnight hours, but she had a sneaking suspicion that it preferred some level of shadow. Those huge, round, featureless eyes practically demanded it. Probably not enough to actually blind it in the light, but Imogen would take any advantage she could swindle.
The monster-hunting Sunsinger trudged through the hills, scanning the dense undergrowth of the huge Ecithian forest and listening intently for the telltale silence which demarcated the primal’s haunts. Again, the tether in her soul made the job of hunting much easier- she wondered if the Kindred knew that trick? Angela’s sense of direction seemed worse than Carina’s had been, but they’d all been little more than children back in those days. Maybe the elders of the coven could have worked such a spell.
”Now don’t you come out in the middle of the fight.” she instructed her shadow, voice stern, ”I know you get worried for me, but even if it gets me bad, you don’t try anything, OK Kitty?”
Purple eyes blinked at her from the shadows, reproachful.
”You can help once you’re older. For now, you just watch.” Kitty had been getting bolder as he grew, more willing to wander outside of the shadows and more vocal about it when he thought she was in harm’s way. It was endearing–cute, even–but she needed to impress on him the importance of this. The Silent Fisher could crush the little familiar even by accident, whereas she didn’t think there was a single thing Kitty’s tiny fangs and claws could to do the ancient nightmare beast.
”I’ll be careful. And if anything goes wrong, I’ll call in backup.”
“Mrow.” Kitty said, sounding doubtful.
”Nonsense, I know just what I’m doing here. You just sit back and watch how a professional handles matters.”
This time, she found the Silent Fisher silently fishing on the bank of a small river. Too large to be a stream, she supposed, but you could clearly see to the bottom, and it was narrow enough that she ventured to bet a pole-vaulter could cross it.
On the river/stream’s sides were a veritable forest of orchids, bright orange and yellow and purple flowers, many shaped like cups, a vibrant riot despite the Great Eclipse. She supposed some plants had to appreciate the wan unlight of the dire sigil in the sky.
Actually, the whole of this part of the forest was intensely flowered. Not entirely odd for late Searing, but so thick and densely planted that one would have suspected a gardener must have placed the blooms. It would be a dramatic backdrop to her death, except she didn’t intend to have another.
As before, the Primal did not react to her approach, despite the fact that it must have heard her. When she cleared the underbrush and entered its direct line of sight on the other side of the river, it did not even shift. It gave no sign that it recognized the woman who had challenged it a month prior. As ever, the Kegumu Rekaka’s eyes were vast, empty white spheres.
When Imogen reached the far bank, across from the metal primal, she materialized her dagger and the Silent Fisher turned to look at her for the first time.
Metallabzieher was a long dagger, perhaps a foot in length. The hilt was dark and obsidian–an accident from her work forging it, but not one which ought to impede the weapon–and the pommel was capped with a deep red crystal sphere, from which thin veins of red light extended down into the leather-bound hilt and blade. The blade itself was a silvery-gold, brightly reflective, and surrounded by a narrow aura of light as it annihilated specks of airborne metal. The word “eiueh” was burned into the flat of the blade, as a reminder.
Master Gerhard had always said that it was a mistake to name Pact weapons. It imposed a separation which did not exist; it mythologized a part of yourself for no benefit. A tool was only as good as its master, and people who went around naming their daggers would come to expect magic out of them rather than putting it in themselves. But Metallabzieher was a spell, and spells worked if and only if you could convince yourself that they would. Besides, Imogen already didn’t quite understand the material she’d made the blade out of- wasn’t it more honest to admit that up front?
The Silent Fisher didn’t weigh in on the naming debate. It just watched her. She took it as a positive sign that it seemed compelled to pay attention to Metallabzieher, anyway. It had been totally contemptuous of all her weapons the last time, and it had been right.
”Well,” she tried to think of something relevant and cool to say to the primal, but it didn’t come to her, ”Let’s try not to die this time around.”
This time around, Imogen didn’t wait for the primal to attack- she’d already invoked the rune of Animus to alter her perception. She could see The Silent Fisher move as it left its perch, vaulting the little river in a single go. It was coming straight at her again, either not remembering the last time when her Pact shield had intervened or simply not recognizing her. She HAD been entirely coated in sausage, then.
Most of her pact weapons would do absolutely nothing when tested against the creature, but she summoned a hail of spears anyway, aiming them sideways. They took Kegumu Rekaka in midair on its side, a great torrent of flashing metal horizontal to the ground. Although the duplicates splintered against the primal’s hide, they could not help but alter its trajectory, causing it to miss the waiting Orkhan.
Imogen swung with the dagger, trying to strike one of the spikes lining the creature’s side. Alas, the primal’s velocity and her own inexperience with the short, light weapon came through, and the golden blade scythed wide.
The Ork didn’t curse, or dawdle in any way. She had to stay on the offensive with this thing. Instead, she pulled the oldest trick in the Traverser’s book, stepping forward into Slipspace and exiting a moment later behind the primal, already swinging the dagger down at it. As long as it hadn’t noticed-
Kegumu Rekaka spun to face her. She could only enhance her perceptions so much–she couldn’t hope to complete her task operating entirely off instinct–and so its motions were still a blur. It brought its wings up in a cross-cut, ready to quarter the surprised Ork, and forced Imogen to abandon her attack, rolling backwards. The wind of its wings rushed over her.
She didn’t wait for its follow-up, but Blinked again. This time, Imogen reappeared a hundred feet up. She had no wings at the ready, but she had a plan, and she needed to buy a few seconds to re-orient. Below, the Silent Fisher cocked its head, clearly listening for whatever telltale sounds allowed it to quickly pinpoint her location. It took it a moment before it looked directly upwards.
The witch recalled that it had been utterly unphased by her last use of her Arsenal, but Metallabzieher had attracted its attention. She spun a duplicate of the golden dagger out of the air and launched it downwards, following it up with a half-dozen more. It took more power to create such duplicates, as the mysterious energies she’d imbued the dagger with had to be recreated, but her efforts were rewarded as The Silent Fisher moved, sidestepping each attack. Confirmation that it did not want to touch the weapon.
Time for the second part of her plan. Imogen shattered the veil beneath her, spinning up a circular portal beneath her feet and moving the other end downwards, hundreds of meters away. After a moment, the top of a tree poked through the top, and the ork landed on it, swaying precipitously. Kegumu Rekaka watched, below, staring up at her.
This next part would depend a lot on a guess, but it was a pretty good guess.
After a moment, The Silent Fisher unfurled its arm-wings and shot from the earth, ascending upwards. She’d assumed the creature could fly, but had never actually seen it. Good to have confirmation.
It was slower in the air than it was on the ground; its invincible metal body meant that even supernatural strength could only generate so much lift. Still, it wasn’t slow. She had barely enough time to carry out her plan.
Imogen lifted her left arm up and clenched her fist, concentrating. It swelled to enormous size as the dracomorphosis hit, opalescent scales rushing down the length of her hand and past her elbow. Once it was large enough, the witch raked her claw through the air, leaving a set of five cracked gashes into Slipspace.
With the other arm, she struck, plunging the dagger repeatedly into the tear she’d just made. Below, similar tears opened up in the path of the approaching primal, one by one. It spun, dodging and weaving, to avoid her strikes. First one, then a second- then a third!
Her forth attack, however, hit.
Metallabzieher gleamed, pulsing with the heat of Koid’s forge and the otherworldly light of the metal-hating stone, and described a great golden crescent through the air as the edge cut cleanly towards one of the spikes decorating The Silent Fisher’s body… and skidded right off.
Imogen blinked in confusion as Kegumu Rekaka slammed into the tree just below her, tearing her perch to shreds and sending her toppling towards the forest floor below.
As the witch fell, her mind ran desperately over the words of the spell. What had gone wrong? Why had Metallabzieher failed? The molten heat of the earth, she’d trapped within. It was forged from the otherworldly metal that hated metal, made by no god…
No, there was only one possible flaw.
In retrospect, it was a little ridiculous. She’d needed “a heart that is humble before the divine”, so she’d asked an Arbiter to beat the shit out of her. Sure, she’d been sore for a few days, but had that actually taught her humility? This entire project had been to create a weapon to strike down a god (of sorts); did she think any of that was humble? Surely, by that logic, Kaitos Diregon had been the most humble man to ever live.
Darkness surged above her as she fell- The Silent Fisher was repositioning itself to ensure it could land on top of her. It had sensed the shift in its foe, her quiet confidence crushed by the revelation of its continued invulnerability.
Unfortunately for the primal, Imogen Ward was a professional. She’d hoped desperately not to use it, but she had brought a Plan B.
The Ork spread her hands to her sides as she fell, tearing two more rifts into Slipspace on either side. As the Kegumu Rekaka descended above, intent on spearing her, it failed to notice the twinned portals- or what emerged therefrom.
“Attack!” screamed Halftail, tumbling out of the middle of space. A hundred golden sifaka lemurs followed, their tiny, furry bodies plummeting out of Imogen’s spell and taking hold of The Silent Fisher.
If Imogen had expected the primal to panic, when suddenly covered in monkeys, she would have been disappointed. The Silent Fisher did not react at all to the many clever fingers suddenly clutching at every feather. And why should it? It wasn’t as though lemurs could hurt a primal.
…until the lemurs began to scrabble at the two white circles of its eyes, anyway. Evidently they couldn’t hurt even those famously vulnerable organs, but they could block its view. The Silent Fisher twisted as it fell, unable to dislodge the monkeys and unable to ensure that the falling Sunsinger was properly positioned to be speared. It flapped a few times in irritation, flinging scores of lemurs harmlessly into the surrounding trees, but simply could not keep its prey in view.
The Ork fell backwards into the shallow river below, disappearing from sight, and Kegumu Rekaka flapped a few more times as it landed, righting itself so that its wicked, clawed feet could touch down on the river below.
It was something of a conundrum for the Primal. Its wicked-sharp wings and jutting armor of spikes were totally useless against the tiny creatures clinging to it now. It could, perhaps, scrape some off against the trees, but that would be a slower process than the beast wanted. It shook itself vigorously, but did not manage to dislodge any additional sifakas.
After a moment, the clever primal arrived at a solution. It stalked–still silent–through the shallow river, descending as it entered deeper waters. As the water rose around it, the lemurs shimmied upwards, trying to avoid the current as best they could.
The Silent Fisher descended into the river, and the lemurs were forced upwards, until there simply wasn’t enough room. The remaining lemurs began to jump into the river which, thankfully, was sufficiently shallow and full of plants to permit a hasty escape towards shore. Kegumu Rekaka did not attempt to pursue them, clearly uninterested in eating tiny monkey while it had better prey to chase.
Speaking of which…
The Silent Fisher surveyed the river slowly, unblinking as ever. There was no immediate sign of the Ork it had knocked down here, either alive or as a broken, drowned corpse. The primal lowered its cruel beak into the surface of the water, focusing to see the bottom. If she left the water, it would hear her splash. If she tried to escape, it would see her. As long as-
The river rose up suddenly around Kegumu Rekaka, as serpentine coils erupted from the water around it. Though the primal was fast, it was still waterbound, unable to move at the blurring speed it had achieved on land. It managed only a few steps across the river floor before the coils around it tightened.
An enormous serpent reared out of the river, its body nearly as wide as the water itself, and long enough to have looped around the primal a half dozen times. Hydra were not native to Ecith, but certain species were found as far south as the marshes of Sangen, and Imogen had carefully changed the totem’s bone-white scales to brown, to better disguise herself as she changed shape and moved into position below.
From an outsider’s perspective, it might have seemed like the great hydra had caught its prey, but the disparity in strength between the two combatants remained. The Silent Fisher brought a wing down on one of the hydra coils constricting it, slicing it neatly in twain- only to find, a moment later, that it had immediately begun regrowing.
The primal sliced and pecked and tore, easily ripping through thick scales and flesh and muscle, but the hydra’s magic kept it pinned- the primal was like a man digging a hole in the sand, only to find it refilled with more sand.
Still, Imogen could feel her aether running out as the primal tore into the totem. This stalemate wasn’t going to end in her favor. Not unless…
“Halftail!” the hydra cried, its surprisingly contralto voice booming through the jungle, “Now! Get a spike!”
The little half-tailed lemur lord scrabbled up one of Imogen’s coils, bearing Metallabzieher in one hand. He darted across the yards of mythic snakeflesh, little lemur hands trembling as the heat of the pact dagger threatened to burn through the grip, and struck one of the metal spikes in Kegumu Rekaka’s side.
Metallabzieher sliced cleanly through the spike, as though through warm butter, and the metal chunk fell from the primal. The spike rolled onto Imogen’s hide and into the shadow a nearby tree was casting on it- and there it vanished, stolen away by the vigilant little Kitty.
The Silent Fisher screamed in rage.
With a single burst of effort, the primal tore free from Imogen’s coils, its huge eyes fixed on Halftail.
The lemur ran, but there wasn’t much chance of escape. He leaped from Imogen’s hydra-flesh, trying to get as much of the way to the bank as possible, but still splashed into the water several feet from the bank. The primal stalked behind Halftail, no longer even interested in the fate of its orkhan-cum-hydra foe.
However, she did not return the favor. With an effort of will, Imogen lifted Metallabzieher from the water with her mind, Halftail still clinging to it, and hurled it and the monkey to the bank. Halftail rolled, dropping the Pact dagger (which hissed for a moment as it flash-converted the water around it to steam, then dematerialized), and darting towards a tree. The monkey started to race up it, seeking safety from the primal in the higher branches.
But there was no safety to be found. Kegumu Rekaka cut through the entire tree’s trunk in a single movement, sending the ancient plant toppling into the river. Halftail found himself once again bound for the water, with the enraged metal primal in close pursuit.
Once again, Imogen tried to intervene. The end of the hydra’s tail came up out of the water, hitting the falling body of Halftail like a bat striking a ball and sending him back up towards the canopy. A moment later, the tree fell on the huge serpent, pinning Imogen to the river.
Halftail landed up amidst the high boughs and began to scurry, taking no time to catch his bearings. If he could just-
The Silent Fisher’s talon smashed through the branch, grabbing the lemur and pinning him to the wood. Halftail whimpered as the cold metal claw pressed against his little body, splinters digging through his fur and into his skin.
Kegumu Rekaka dragged Halftail up the bark of the tree and leaned in, its huge eye dwarfing the sobbing lemur in its grip. Its eye was no longer a white circle, but swirling red, rage and bloodlust overcoming the viscous creature. It regarded Halftail for a moment, as though deciding how best to murder him. Then, it drew its head back, angling its beak for the back of the monkey’s skull. Halftail closed his eyes as it lunged forward, driving it’s sharp beak-
-directly into the side of the tree.
Halftail opened his eyes, finding himself being held by the scruff of the neck by a large black cat. Kitty blinked a few times at the Primal, then jumped deftly back into the tree’s shadow, taking the monkey with it.
The Silent Fisher pulled its beak out of the tree and turned just in time to see the hydra Imogen free herself from the river. She cocked her head at it, then sank back into the water, which should have been much too shallow for her. She did not reappear.
Silence filled the world once more, but it felt a little different than it had.
The witch traveled a second time through the Mawoiden boglands, and this time she did not go to die.
Which is to say, she was in the body of an orkhan, wearing quite ordinary clothes, and not an awkward meat-suit draped over a skeleton, as she’d come a month prior. This wasn’t a matter of pride, per se; she was not in the least ashamed to have tricked the primal once and gotten away with her life. But to actually extract metal from the thing, she was going to need to fight it without obstruction.
She journeyed during the day this time, though how much that was worth in the Great Eclipse was a matter of opinion. The mythos of the Mawoiden spoke of people dying to the Kegumu Rekaka during both daylight and midnight hours, but she had a sneaking suspicion that it preferred some level of shadow. Those huge, round, featureless eyes practically demanded it. Probably not enough to actually blind it in the light, but Imogen would take any advantage she could swindle.
The monster-hunting Sunsinger trudged through the hills, scanning the dense undergrowth of the huge Ecithian forest and listening intently for the telltale silence which demarcated the primal’s haunts. Again, the tether in her soul made the job of hunting much easier- she wondered if the Kindred knew that trick? Angela’s sense of direction seemed worse than Carina’s had been, but they’d all been little more than children back in those days. Maybe the elders of the coven could have worked such a spell.
”Now don’t you come out in the middle of the fight.” she instructed her shadow, voice stern, ”I know you get worried for me, but even if it gets me bad, you don’t try anything, OK Kitty?”
Purple eyes blinked at her from the shadows, reproachful.
”You can help once you’re older. For now, you just watch.” Kitty had been getting bolder as he grew, more willing to wander outside of the shadows and more vocal about it when he thought she was in harm’s way. It was endearing–cute, even–but she needed to impress on him the importance of this. The Silent Fisher could crush the little familiar even by accident, whereas she didn’t think there was a single thing Kitty’s tiny fangs and claws could to do the ancient nightmare beast.
”I’ll be careful. And if anything goes wrong, I’ll call in backup.”
“Mrow.” Kitty said, sounding doubtful.
”Nonsense, I know just what I’m doing here. You just sit back and watch how a professional handles matters.”
~~~
This time, she found the Silent Fisher silently fishing on the bank of a small river. Too large to be a stream, she supposed, but you could clearly see to the bottom, and it was narrow enough that she ventured to bet a pole-vaulter could cross it.
On the river/stream’s sides were a veritable forest of orchids, bright orange and yellow and purple flowers, many shaped like cups, a vibrant riot despite the Great Eclipse. She supposed some plants had to appreciate the wan unlight of the dire sigil in the sky.
Actually, the whole of this part of the forest was intensely flowered. Not entirely odd for late Searing, but so thick and densely planted that one would have suspected a gardener must have placed the blooms. It would be a dramatic backdrop to her death, except she didn’t intend to have another.
As before, the Primal did not react to her approach, despite the fact that it must have heard her. When she cleared the underbrush and entered its direct line of sight on the other side of the river, it did not even shift. It gave no sign that it recognized the woman who had challenged it a month prior. As ever, the Kegumu Rekaka’s eyes were vast, empty white spheres.
When Imogen reached the far bank, across from the metal primal, she materialized her dagger and the Silent Fisher turned to look at her for the first time.
Metallabzieher was a long dagger, perhaps a foot in length. The hilt was dark and obsidian–an accident from her work forging it, but not one which ought to impede the weapon–and the pommel was capped with a deep red crystal sphere, from which thin veins of red light extended down into the leather-bound hilt and blade. The blade itself was a silvery-gold, brightly reflective, and surrounded by a narrow aura of light as it annihilated specks of airborne metal. The word “eiueh” was burned into the flat of the blade, as a reminder.
Master Gerhard had always said that it was a mistake to name Pact weapons. It imposed a separation which did not exist; it mythologized a part of yourself for no benefit. A tool was only as good as its master, and people who went around naming their daggers would come to expect magic out of them rather than putting it in themselves. But Metallabzieher was a spell, and spells worked if and only if you could convince yourself that they would. Besides, Imogen already didn’t quite understand the material she’d made the blade out of- wasn’t it more honest to admit that up front?
The Silent Fisher didn’t weigh in on the naming debate. It just watched her. She took it as a positive sign that it seemed compelled to pay attention to Metallabzieher, anyway. It had been totally contemptuous of all her weapons the last time, and it had been right.
”Well,” she tried to think of something relevant and cool to say to the primal, but it didn’t come to her, ”Let’s try not to die this time around.”
~~~ A Singular Weakness It Has By Design ~~~
This time around, Imogen didn’t wait for the primal to attack- she’d already invoked the rune of Animus to alter her perception. She could see The Silent Fisher move as it left its perch, vaulting the little river in a single go. It was coming straight at her again, either not remembering the last time when her Pact shield had intervened or simply not recognizing her. She HAD been entirely coated in sausage, then.
Most of her pact weapons would do absolutely nothing when tested against the creature, but she summoned a hail of spears anyway, aiming them sideways. They took Kegumu Rekaka in midair on its side, a great torrent of flashing metal horizontal to the ground. Although the duplicates splintered against the primal’s hide, they could not help but alter its trajectory, causing it to miss the waiting Orkhan.
Imogen swung with the dagger, trying to strike one of the spikes lining the creature’s side. Alas, the primal’s velocity and her own inexperience with the short, light weapon came through, and the golden blade scythed wide.
The Ork didn’t curse, or dawdle in any way. She had to stay on the offensive with this thing. Instead, she pulled the oldest trick in the Traverser’s book, stepping forward into Slipspace and exiting a moment later behind the primal, already swinging the dagger down at it. As long as it hadn’t noticed-
Kegumu Rekaka spun to face her. She could only enhance her perceptions so much–she couldn’t hope to complete her task operating entirely off instinct–and so its motions were still a blur. It brought its wings up in a cross-cut, ready to quarter the surprised Ork, and forced Imogen to abandon her attack, rolling backwards. The wind of its wings rushed over her.
She didn’t wait for its follow-up, but Blinked again. This time, Imogen reappeared a hundred feet up. She had no wings at the ready, but she had a plan, and she needed to buy a few seconds to re-orient. Below, the Silent Fisher cocked its head, clearly listening for whatever telltale sounds allowed it to quickly pinpoint her location. It took it a moment before it looked directly upwards.
The witch recalled that it had been utterly unphased by her last use of her Arsenal, but Metallabzieher had attracted its attention. She spun a duplicate of the golden dagger out of the air and launched it downwards, following it up with a half-dozen more. It took more power to create such duplicates, as the mysterious energies she’d imbued the dagger with had to be recreated, but her efforts were rewarded as The Silent Fisher moved, sidestepping each attack. Confirmation that it did not want to touch the weapon.
Time for the second part of her plan. Imogen shattered the veil beneath her, spinning up a circular portal beneath her feet and moving the other end downwards, hundreds of meters away. After a moment, the top of a tree poked through the top, and the ork landed on it, swaying precipitously. Kegumu Rekaka watched, below, staring up at her.
This next part would depend a lot on a guess, but it was a pretty good guess.
After a moment, The Silent Fisher unfurled its arm-wings and shot from the earth, ascending upwards. She’d assumed the creature could fly, but had never actually seen it. Good to have confirmation.
It was slower in the air than it was on the ground; its invincible metal body meant that even supernatural strength could only generate so much lift. Still, it wasn’t slow. She had barely enough time to carry out her plan.
Imogen lifted her left arm up and clenched her fist, concentrating. It swelled to enormous size as the dracomorphosis hit, opalescent scales rushing down the length of her hand and past her elbow. Once it was large enough, the witch raked her claw through the air, leaving a set of five cracked gashes into Slipspace.
With the other arm, she struck, plunging the dagger repeatedly into the tear she’d just made. Below, similar tears opened up in the path of the approaching primal, one by one. It spun, dodging and weaving, to avoid her strikes. First one, then a second- then a third!
Her forth attack, however, hit.
Metallabzieher gleamed, pulsing with the heat of Koid’s forge and the otherworldly light of the metal-hating stone, and described a great golden crescent through the air as the edge cut cleanly towards one of the spikes decorating The Silent Fisher’s body… and skidded right off.
Imogen blinked in confusion as Kegumu Rekaka slammed into the tree just below her, tearing her perch to shreds and sending her toppling towards the forest floor below.
~~~ A Heart That Is Humble Before The Divine ~~~
As the witch fell, her mind ran desperately over the words of the spell. What had gone wrong? Why had Metallabzieher failed? The molten heat of the earth, she’d trapped within. It was forged from the otherworldly metal that hated metal, made by no god…
No, there was only one possible flaw.
In retrospect, it was a little ridiculous. She’d needed “a heart that is humble before the divine”, so she’d asked an Arbiter to beat the shit out of her. Sure, she’d been sore for a few days, but had that actually taught her humility? This entire project had been to create a weapon to strike down a god (of sorts); did she think any of that was humble? Surely, by that logic, Kaitos Diregon had been the most humble man to ever live.
Darkness surged above her as she fell- The Silent Fisher was repositioning itself to ensure it could land on top of her. It had sensed the shift in its foe, her quiet confidence crushed by the revelation of its continued invulnerability.
Unfortunately for the primal, Imogen Ward was a professional. She’d hoped desperately not to use it, but she had brought a Plan B.
The Ork spread her hands to her sides as she fell, tearing two more rifts into Slipspace on either side. As the Kegumu Rekaka descended above, intent on spearing her, it failed to notice the twinned portals- or what emerged therefrom.
“Attack!” screamed Halftail, tumbling out of the middle of space. A hundred golden sifaka lemurs followed, their tiny, furry bodies plummeting out of Imogen’s spell and taking hold of The Silent Fisher.
If Imogen had expected the primal to panic, when suddenly covered in monkeys, she would have been disappointed. The Silent Fisher did not react at all to the many clever fingers suddenly clutching at every feather. And why should it? It wasn’t as though lemurs could hurt a primal.
…until the lemurs began to scrabble at the two white circles of its eyes, anyway. Evidently they couldn’t hurt even those famously vulnerable organs, but they could block its view. The Silent Fisher twisted as it fell, unable to dislodge the monkeys and unable to ensure that the falling Sunsinger was properly positioned to be speared. It flapped a few times in irritation, flinging scores of lemurs harmlessly into the surrounding trees, but simply could not keep its prey in view.
~~~ The Hand That Can Leave Any Cleft In Its Hide ~~~
The Ork fell backwards into the shallow river below, disappearing from sight, and Kegumu Rekaka flapped a few more times as it landed, righting itself so that its wicked, clawed feet could touch down on the river below.
It was something of a conundrum for the Primal. Its wicked-sharp wings and jutting armor of spikes were totally useless against the tiny creatures clinging to it now. It could, perhaps, scrape some off against the trees, but that would be a slower process than the beast wanted. It shook itself vigorously, but did not manage to dislodge any additional sifakas.
After a moment, the clever primal arrived at a solution. It stalked–still silent–through the shallow river, descending as it entered deeper waters. As the water rose around it, the lemurs shimmied upwards, trying to avoid the current as best they could.
The Silent Fisher descended into the river, and the lemurs were forced upwards, until there simply wasn’t enough room. The remaining lemurs began to jump into the river which, thankfully, was sufficiently shallow and full of plants to permit a hasty escape towards shore. Kegumu Rekaka did not attempt to pursue them, clearly uninterested in eating tiny monkey while it had better prey to chase.
Speaking of which…
The Silent Fisher surveyed the river slowly, unblinking as ever. There was no immediate sign of the Ork it had knocked down here, either alive or as a broken, drowned corpse. The primal lowered its cruel beak into the surface of the water, focusing to see the bottom. If she left the water, it would hear her splash. If she tried to escape, it would see her. As long as-
The river rose up suddenly around Kegumu Rekaka, as serpentine coils erupted from the water around it. Though the primal was fast, it was still waterbound, unable to move at the blurring speed it had achieved on land. It managed only a few steps across the river floor before the coils around it tightened.
An enormous serpent reared out of the river, its body nearly as wide as the water itself, and long enough to have looped around the primal a half dozen times. Hydra were not native to Ecith, but certain species were found as far south as the marshes of Sangen, and Imogen had carefully changed the totem’s bone-white scales to brown, to better disguise herself as she changed shape and moved into position below.
From an outsider’s perspective, it might have seemed like the great hydra had caught its prey, but the disparity in strength between the two combatants remained. The Silent Fisher brought a wing down on one of the hydra coils constricting it, slicing it neatly in twain- only to find, a moment later, that it had immediately begun regrowing.
The primal sliced and pecked and tore, easily ripping through thick scales and flesh and muscle, but the hydra’s magic kept it pinned- the primal was like a man digging a hole in the sand, only to find it refilled with more sand.
Still, Imogen could feel her aether running out as the primal tore into the totem. This stalemate wasn’t going to end in her favor. Not unless…
“Halftail!” the hydra cried, its surprisingly contralto voice booming through the jungle, “Now! Get a spike!”
The little half-tailed lemur lord scrabbled up one of Imogen’s coils, bearing Metallabzieher in one hand. He darted across the yards of mythic snakeflesh, little lemur hands trembling as the heat of the pact dagger threatened to burn through the grip, and struck one of the metal spikes in Kegumu Rekaka’s side.
Metallabzieher sliced cleanly through the spike, as though through warm butter, and the metal chunk fell from the primal. The spike rolled onto Imogen’s hide and into the shadow a nearby tree was casting on it- and there it vanished, stolen away by the vigilant little Kitty.
The Silent Fisher screamed in rage.
~~~ Has No Expectation Of Leaving Alive ~~~
With a single burst of effort, the primal tore free from Imogen’s coils, its huge eyes fixed on Halftail.
The lemur ran, but there wasn’t much chance of escape. He leaped from Imogen’s hydra-flesh, trying to get as much of the way to the bank as possible, but still splashed into the water several feet from the bank. The primal stalked behind Halftail, no longer even interested in the fate of its orkhan-cum-hydra foe.
However, she did not return the favor. With an effort of will, Imogen lifted Metallabzieher from the water with her mind, Halftail still clinging to it, and hurled it and the monkey to the bank. Halftail rolled, dropping the Pact dagger (which hissed for a moment as it flash-converted the water around it to steam, then dematerialized), and darting towards a tree. The monkey started to race up it, seeking safety from the primal in the higher branches.
But there was no safety to be found. Kegumu Rekaka cut through the entire tree’s trunk in a single movement, sending the ancient plant toppling into the river. Halftail found himself once again bound for the water, with the enraged metal primal in close pursuit.
Once again, Imogen tried to intervene. The end of the hydra’s tail came up out of the water, hitting the falling body of Halftail like a bat striking a ball and sending him back up towards the canopy. A moment later, the tree fell on the huge serpent, pinning Imogen to the river.
Halftail landed up amidst the high boughs and began to scurry, taking no time to catch his bearings. If he could just-
The Silent Fisher’s talon smashed through the branch, grabbing the lemur and pinning him to the wood. Halftail whimpered as the cold metal claw pressed against his little body, splinters digging through his fur and into his skin.
Kegumu Rekaka dragged Halftail up the bark of the tree and leaned in, its huge eye dwarfing the sobbing lemur in its grip. Its eye was no longer a white circle, but swirling red, rage and bloodlust overcoming the viscous creature. It regarded Halftail for a moment, as though deciding how best to murder him. Then, it drew its head back, angling its beak for the back of the monkey’s skull. Halftail closed his eyes as it lunged forward, driving it’s sharp beak-
-directly into the side of the tree.
Halftail opened his eyes, finding himself being held by the scruff of the neck by a large black cat. Kitty blinked a few times at the Primal, then jumped deftly back into the tree’s shadow, taking the monkey with it.
The Silent Fisher pulled its beak out of the tree and turned just in time to see the hydra Imogen free herself from the river. She cocked her head at it, then sank back into the water, which should have been much too shallow for her. She did not reappear.
Silence filled the world once more, but it felt a little different than it had.
