Interlude - Priestess of the Water
Baren was so thirsty he couldn’t think right. He hadn’t had anything to drink in a little over a day, hadn’t even seen another person in twice that, and he had no idea where it was he was going. The forest around him was all he’d known for close to four days, and even then, there were few animals nearby, save a lone comy that apparently didn’t even consider him a snack.
Apparently his fate was to die in that forest.
He stopped by a tree and tried to catch his breath. He’d been running, that much he remembered, running as fast as he could to find something to drink. Even the morning dew didn’t seem to collect on any of the trees or the ground. He didn’t understand anything around there. He simply kept moving, praying that he’d come upon something to drink or something to eat that wasn’t bark.
He looked up at the sky. The clouds were blocking the sun, but they didn’t seem to bring any rain. He needed rain. He needed any kind of liquid. He’d even drink his own piss at this point, but he seemed incapable of doing even that. He was starting to wonder if this forest was simply a sort of purgatory for him in some way.
He couldn’t think of that. He couldn’t run, either. He was too tired, too hungry, too thirsty. He knew he had nothing else to do in his life, so wandering through the forest trying to find something to drink was probably the best thing he could do right now. He needed something to take his mind off of the idea of dying alone in an empty forest.
For the first time since entering the forest, Baren smelled something. He couldn’t tell what it was, but it was nearby and it was the first new experience he’d had since coming upon that Comy. He broke into a run again, making for the source of the smell. He tripped over a log, but got up with a speed he didn’t realize he still had in him. The smell… It was almost intoxicating.
He had to find the source.
Baren fell to his knees as he saw the lake ahead of him. It was likely a trick of his eyes, but he believed it went on forever, more like an ocean than a lake, but he could see a waterfall in the distance, glistening brightly in a sunset he hadn’t seen in days. A rainbow peeked out from beyond the waterfall, and a trio of birds made soared past to complete the scene. It was the most beautiful thing he’d seen in his life.
He dipped his hands into the water and scooped up as much water as he possible could and brought it to his lips. It could have been his days of dehydration, but he didn’t think he’d tasted anything so good any day prior to this. He splashed some of it on his face and felt the sweat of his run washing away. He wondered what culture’s god had allowed him this chance.
Something moved. Baren looked up from the lake and watched something stand up from under the water. It was pure water, but shaped vaguely like a man wearing a cloak or a cape. The figure stood there, glaring at him with eyes that didn’t exist. The figure began to move, slowly, silently, across the water without making even the slightest hint of a wave or a wake or a ripple.
Baren didn’t know what to do. He had no sword, he had no dagger, no weapon of any kind. And even if he did, this figure was made of water, he would have no way of hurting it regardless, all he’d be able to do is slash or swipe against a creature without real form. As if to test his own theory, he picked up a rock and threw it as hard as he could at the figure.
The rock did not reach the figure.
He should have known that his weakened state would affect his throwing arm. The figure passed by the spot where the rock hit the water and simply kept on. It reached the edge of the lake and it finally grew a pair of arms. Using these arms, it pulled itself out of the lake, and suddenly Baren could see legs that it hadn’t had before. The figure was still pure water, but it looked more human than ever.
”Leave this place,” a voice said. Baren couldn’t see who was making it, unless it was coming from the water figure. He didn’t see a mouth on it, much as he still didn’t see any eyes. He was already backing away from it, one eye on the figure and one eye on the ground under his feet.
He was ready to break into a run. He’d gotten what he needed, he could find another way out of the forest, he didn’t need to keep to the lake, so all he had to do was turn around and break into a run. It couldn’t take him more than a day to get through the forest now, certainly.
But the figure stopped.
Baren stopped as well. The figure didn’t take its “eyes” off him, but it didn’t move. He took a step toward it, but still it didn’t move. Is it… Is it going to keep standing there? he questioned. He wanted to test it, but at the same time, he wanted as far away from it as possible.
He looked behind him to make sure the path was clear, then gave one last glance at the water creature. The creature remained exactly where it was, doing exactly what it was doing. It didn’t even look capable of moving anymore. Why is it staring? Every part of him that wanted the answer was countered by the parts of him that wanted to escape. The parts that wanted to escape won.
Baren broke into a run. He didn’t stop running until he was positive he was nowhere near the lake, and then he came to a halt and dropped to the ground. His breathing was erratic, his chest was killing him and his nerves were shot. He tried to calm his breathing, but nothing seemed to help. He was glad to be away from that creature, but the look on its “face” was still burned into his memory.
He sat up and used a downed tree to help himself to his feet. His heart rate was slowing, but it was still higher than he wanted it to be. His nerves… That thing… He needed to be out of the forest, and he needed it sooner than later.
Baren couldn’t believe his eyes. The cabin before him looked as though it had been recently constructed, and yet had overgrowth surrounding it. The windows showed no hint of weather damage, nor did the wood look at all rotted. He walked up to it, touched it, and rejoiced in the fact that it wasn’t some illusion brought on by everything that had happened in the last hour.
He opened the door and stepped inside. To the left was a small kitchen, a window looking out at the forest. To the right was a similarly smaller bedroom, no windows and only a single lamp. The bed looked lived in, the sink had only a few dirty dishes, and the small closet directly ahead was left open. There was no bathroom to be found in the cabin, so how the owner relieved themselves or took a bath, he had no idea.
He opened the pantry and found a loaf of bread and some peanut spread. Clearly whoever owned the cabin wasn’t averse to traveling into town. Perhaps he would remain there until they returned and would then ask them the way out of the forest. Just the prospect of human companionship for a moment was enough to give him hope.
Of course, he had no idea if the owner was human. It could be a Changer, for all he knew. He’d seen one once, in a village called Paum. Crazy day, that had been, though all he’d been doing was passing through town. He hoped it wasn’t a Changer that lived there. He wasn’t all too keen on their tongue, and would have no idea if the Changer spoke his.
Baren ate his sandwich slowly, almost carefully. His thoughts drifted to the idea that the cabin owner might not be too happy that he was in their home, eating their food. He would, of course, pay them for the food he’d taken, but that may not satisfy them. If he was lucky, the owner would be of a friendly sort.
He looked outside the window and saw that the sun had finished its journey past the horizon, leaving a clear night’s sky overhead. What little light there was had gone completely, replaced only by the darkness that was a forest at night. Though he was now nervous about the owner of the cabin, he was very certain he’d rather take an angry humanoid than whatever he would face in the forest at night.
Baren did not touch the bed. He didn’t even attempt to get any sleep. He simply huddled in the corner of the kitchen and waited. For the first few hours, he had begun to think that maybe no one truly lived in the cabin, but the unexpired food and the recently used dishes told him he was wrong about that. He instead assumed the owner was a hunter, or at least someone who spent most of their time away from home. The bed, at least, seemed to agree with him. Lived in, but not for the past day or so.
If he was lucky, maybe the owner wouldn't show up all through the night. He could simply rest and return to his trek in the morning, hopefully never to see that creature from the lake again.
His hopes were shattered when the door opened and a figure stood there, a flashlight in hand. “You’re not from around here,” the person said. A woman, he could tell, likely young. He was proven right when she turned on the lamp. Younger than he, but not by much. “Get out.”
Baren nodded. “I will. I just needed a place to sleep for a little bit. I’ve been up for days, barely eaten, and some… Spirit or something drove me away from the lake nearby.”
Her cheeks twitched somewhat. “I’ve heard of the lake creature, but I’ve never seen it.” She sighed. “You can rest here for the night, but be gone by midday.”
“Thank you,” he said. He went to stand, but the woman waved him off.
“Just stay there.” She walked into the closet across from the front door, out of his sight. He figured she must need to get changed. The tunic she’d been wearing looked baggy on her, almost as if she'd found them on a larger person, probably a man.
A moment later, she returned, dressed in evening clothes that accentuated… Just how plain she was. Thin, short, large glasses. She was the epitome of a librarian, Baren realized. How had a woman such as this survived in the wilderness?
He put the thought out of his mind. He needed to rest, to gather his strength back after days of nothing but movement. He huddled in the corner again and closed his eyes as the woman turned off her lamp.
Wake up, a voice said, somewhere, though Baren couldn't place where. He struggled to open his eyes, likely a result of the days he spent without sleep. Wake up, now, the voice said again. I mean it, get up.
Then he was kicked in the stomach.
His eyes shot open, his hands went to his gut and his mouth came open in a cough that hurt him almost as much as the kick had. He looked up and saw the woman standing over him, her glasses almost reflective. She was still wearing the evening gown she’d worn to bed, and in her hand was a coffee cup.
“I said wake up,” she spat at him. Almost literally, too, he swore he felt saliva hit his face. She walked over to her bed and sat down. “It’s almost midday, I think I asked you to be gone by then.”
Baren stood, his gut still in an enormous amount of pain. “Did ya need to kick me?”
She shook her head. “No, but nothing else was working. Dreaming something interesting?”
He shook his head. “I rarely dream. I’d just spent days running through the woods, that's all. More exhausted than I’d ever been before.”
She took a sip of her coffee. “Why?”
He glared at her. “What’s it matter to you?”
She pointed at him with her cup. “I let you stay for the evening, and I see you ate a little of my food, you owe me an explanation.”
He sighed. “Fine.” He leaned against the kitchen counter. “I murdered a royal for the Empire.”
She didn’t move, didn't show any sort of emotion. “Murder.”
He nodded. “I didn't call it that before now. Not before this kill. I’m generally hired by people like that. Royals, businessmen, city governments. I’ve killed countless people over my life, even a dragon or two. But this one was different. Most of those I kill are killers, or else they're corrupt or hideous in some other way.
“But this wasn't any of those. The Emperor of Dorenden hired me for my services, as he had a thousand times before, but he didn't tell me who my target was until the day of the kill. I arrived in a small village on the border between the nations, one of the few neutral zones before you get into the Seles Plains. The Emperor's messenger crow met me at the inn, I took the message and I memorized the target.
“Tribe Lord Haisu. Twelve years old, his father hadn't even begun to groom him as a successor yet. He wasn’t even with his father at the time, he was visiting villages and decided to visit the neutral areas. How the Emperor even knew Haisu would be there, I didn’t know, but I looked at the payment, I let that decide for me.”
She said, “And then you killed him.” It wasn't a question.
Baren shook his head. “No. That happened, but I hadn't planned on it. I wrote to the Emperor that if he wanted a child to die, it wouldn’t be my hands that took that life. I was about to leave the village when the boy died. His guard had recognized me, knew I was a mercenary, and attacked me.
“I defended myself. I killed one of them with a knife, another with his partner’s sword. The third was where the accident occurred. I took the dead guard’s sword again and threw it, but the guard was quick. He deflected the sword with his own and the pointy end landed in the carriage the boy was riding in.
“It landed in the boy’s face. I killed the remaining guards and left the village as soon as possible. More guards had arrived at some point, began to chase me. I made it to this forest, and I just kept running. That was five days ago. The guards kept chasing me for a day, maybe two. I ran out of food on the first day, water as well.”
“And then you found the lake.” Again, a statement rather than a question.
Baren nodded. “And that creature. You said you'd heard of it?”
She took a sip of coffee. “Yes. It's been a myth for centuries, that there's an order of priestesses nearby who protect the lake, believing it to be the last holy site that hasn't been tainted by modern religion. I don’t go by the lake, myself. There's a small river nearby that I use for water, since the local water company won't service me out here.” She stood and took her cup to the sink. “Which reminds me, I need to go get some water for my dishes. Used the last of what I had stored for my coffee this morning.”
Baren took a step toward her. “Let me help.”
“As a way of clearing your conscience for what you did?” She laughed. “A good deed toward a woman won't absolve you, y’know.”
He nodded. “More as payment for the food I ate. When I get out of here, I’ll find a way to get absolution, somehow.”
She sighed. She looked him up and down and nodded her head. “I suppose you can help. But then you be on your way, understand?”
Baren filled a pair of buckets and set them on the ground by the river’s edge. The woman then picked them up and took them back to her cabin, poured them into the pair of barrels she had in the back yard. He had to admit that it didn’t seem to be a system that would work, but she swore by it.
Maybe if he decided to move to a cabin in the woods, he’d give it a try.
But he tossed that thought aside and realized neither he nor the woman had introduced themselves. He supposed there was a good reason for that. He’d told her his story. If she were to come into contact with Tribesmen, knowing his name could lead them to him. And then what need did he have to know her name? He’d never see her again after she got all the water she needed. No point in even bothering to ask, really.
He pulled himself out of the river and dried his upper body off with the towel she’d provided him. He looked around to see if she was on her way, but he was alone. It was a good fifteen minute walk between the cabin and the river, leaving him by himself for a half an hour at a time.
There was a sound to his left. Baren turned to find the source of the sound and his blood froze in his body. He didn't want to believe it, but it was right in front of him, glaring at him with those eyes that didn’t exist.
The water creature was standing in the river.
It couldn’t be, it simply couldn't. The woman had said she stayed away from the lake, which suggested to him that the lake and the river weren't connected. How had the creature manifested itself there?
Then he realized exactly how. He cursed that he had no weapons. The woman lived in this forest and somehow hadn't come across the creature or someone who’d seen it? There was only one way that could be true.
“Show yourself!” he shouted. “You’re one of the priestesses, aren’t you?”
The creature stepped out of the river and took slow steps toward him. When it reached him, the woman finally came into view. Her clothing now made her resemble a witch or a sorceress, with a long dark dress open from neck to belly button, creating a healthy amount of cleavage but still mostly covering her. Her hair was loose, flowing. He realized it resembled waves on water now, something he hadn't seen before. If not for the large, almost reflective glasses, he wouldn't have recognized her in any way.
The creature put its “hand” around his neck.
“That didn't take you long, Baren,” she said. He should have been surprised that she knew his name, but he wasn’t. “Yes, I am the Priestess. And once you told me everything, I decided I couldn't let you leave.”
“Why wait until now?” he growled. “You’ve had plenty of time since I told you. You could have just let me go and ambushed me.”
She shook her head. “I needed you near water. I considered taking you to the lake myself, but this was better, less hassle.”
“So get it over with.”
She laughed. “Oh, Baren, you misunderstand. You’re not going to die here.”
“Then what are you going to do to me?”
She walked over to him and ran her hand through her water creature. “This was once a man, Baren. A man like you. A murderer who sought penance for what he’d done, but unlike you, he sought it here, among the lake.”
She touched Baren now, on the left shoulder. He lost feeling there, but not down the rest of his arm. He knew why when he looked. His left shoulder was now sporting a small puddle, no bigger than a fingerprint at first, but it began to spread. As it spread, he lost feeling to each centimeter it reached.
She continued: “He killed his wife in a drunken rage, crushed her skull with a hammer. He came to the lake because it washes away all sin. He wasn’t wrong, he just didn’t know our methods.”
Baren lost feeling in his entire left arm now. He felt the loss crawling across his chest now. He asked, “Did he find out this way?”
She shook her head. “I converted him in his sleep. He murdered his wife, you murdered a child indirectly. A killer who causes collateral damage is worse to me.”
Baren growled again. “You’re no less a monster than I am.”
She tsked. “On the contrary, dear, I serve a higher power than you’ll ever know. Everything I do is exactly what I was put on this Earth to do.” She gripped his chin. “You’ll make a good servant to the water, Baren.”
He reached out and grabbed her by the neck, his right arm still halfway capable of being used. “Undo this!”
She shook her head. “No. This is your penance, Baren, your punishment.” She knocked his hand away, completely transforming it into water. “For a thousand generations has my sisterhood defended the lake, but we haven’t done so alone. We take in broken souls, those who have committed heinous acts, and we turn them into Agath.” Baren saw the look in her eyes. Almost amorous.
She continued: “There have been a thousand Agath. A thousand broken souls.” she stroked the creature’s chin. The water crawling down Baren’s body reached his waist. “And they’ve been put to better use as guardians of the lake than they ever were human. They don’t hurt innocents, they only harm those who deserve pain.”
The water had completely overtaken his body, only his head remained. Baren was glimpsing his final moments, he knew. He watched her closely, hoping to find something he could use, perhaps to reverse what was happening…
But he saw nothing. He was about to die, clearly. He made peace with that, he always knew that was the end of his journey. He just didn’t want to die by becoming some bastard creation of a water witch. He attempted to exert control over his body, but nothing happened. Or, well, he couldn'tfeel anything moving.
She smiled that disgusting smile. “It’s been a pleasure knowing you, Baren. You weren’t overly evil, unlike some of the monsters that have happened upon the lake. Perhaps as your mind devolves into the single minded desire to protect the lake, I’ll tell you about some of them. The sisterhood has extensive records on all of them.”
With what he assumed was the last of his free will, Baren said, “There’s nothing I ever want you to tell me, witch.”
She sighed, then patted his cheek. “We could have been friends, perhaps even lovers if not for your lifestyle. You could have enjoyed me, had me all to yourself.” She let out a seductive growl. “You would have been quite the catch, quite the treat. We would have good together.”
Baren’s true final words were full of as much venom as he could muster as the water passed his mouth. “You disgust me.”
She nodded. “Lucky for the both of us, you’ll be gone in just about…” She looked up at him and saw that he was completely overtaken by her wet touch. An Agath stood before her now, not a man. “Right about now, it seems.” She smiled. “Thank you for being so cooperative, Baren. We really could have been something special if you hadn’t killed that child.”
Another man entered the forest that afternoon. He was tall, light-skinned, wearing a long shirt. His nose was like the beak of a hawk and his eyes were dark and small. Upon his head was a large dressing, made of feathers and leaves. He was not muscular, in fact he looked rather bony. His long shirt was open at the chest, revealing a tattoo that still wasn’t completely visible.
He arrived at the priestess’ cabin and knocked on the door with the head of the longstaff he carried. The priestess opened the door and then led him to the lake.
“You’ll be happy to know, Chieftain Ravncla, that the man responsible for your son's death is no longer among the living,” the priestess said as she knelt by the water. She plunged her hand into the lake and created a swirl.
Ravncla nodded. “He is now one of your Agaths.”
“The proper plural is simply Agath.”
His lip curled. “I do not care for such things. Your form of sorcery is an abomination to me.” He spoke an enchantment, and the swirl she had created grew into the shape of a man, into an Agath. The creature looked forward, but not at anything in particular. “This one looks even more soulless than the guard I sent you that had failed to protect my son.”
She stepped onto the water and caressed the Agath. “Though Baren was a heartless sort, I’d not call him soulless.”
Ravncla glared at the creature. “Does he remember anything?”
She shook her head. “Not anymore. Agath become mindless within moments of their transformation. Baren fought bravely, but in the end, no one is incapable of being changed.”
“No one,” he echoed. “None but a powerful sort.” He pointed his longstaff at the priestess. “And that number includes me, priestess. Your sorcery will not entrap me as it did this fool, and my power eclipses you own.”
She sent the Agath away and bowed to him. “Of course, Chieftain. I remember my road here.”
He nodded. “I would hate to think I lost my daughter to a fool sisterhood to be betrayed by her.” Ravncla turned and left the forest as soundlessly as he entered.
And his daughter, the priestess, silently cursed her father for his contempt of her beliefs.
