They say you should never stare directly into the sun. Sound advice, however one had just exploded in our faces, so there was not much we could have done save stand there, blinking owlishly while what felt like the remains of our eyeballs dripped down our faces.
“Now that,” I said once I managed to find my voice again, “was a mean trap.”
“Bloody lethal be what that were.” Jax’s growl of irritation was a touch saltier than usual. “I thought ye said the traps was just little stuff. Arrows. Foot-catches and the like.”
“Mostly,” Lynnria croaked. The explosions had fortunately not extended beyond the plane of the stairs, so we had been spared everything save the sound and light. Still, that itself had easily been enough to crisp the ends of our hair. “The maze falling on our heads was pretty big, though.”
I grimaced. Then winced from the beginnings of heat-rash spreading across my face. “I have to take responsibility for that one. Dissolving support pillars is usually a bad idea.”
“How else were you supposed to free me?” Arx asked, most of her attention still focused on the room ahead. “And why have only the one holding up the entire maze? I can’t think of a reason unless it was meant to collapse.”
I had to give her that. “If I’d done the puzzle correctly, I’m sure that could have been prevented.”
“Maybe. One thing I can say, if you hadn’t bought me that skill just now…” The corners of her mouth tightened, and she glanced at me from the corner of her eye. She looked pissed. “That trap was meant to kill.”
“It’s the Dungeon, Arx. Isn’t that the idea?”
She did not answer at first, preferring to quietly seethe. Instead, she took a couple of steps up the stair to survey the damage. Curious myself, I followed.
The once well-appointed sitting room was now totally bare. The end-tables and their lamps had gone. No trace of the chairs or cushions remained. But more than that, the place looked almost suspiciously clean. One would have expected the nuclear fire from a moment ago to have left behind some ashes or scorch marks, but there was nothing. Not even a spec of dust. A team equipped with hazmat suits and chemical agents could not have done a better job.
I let out a low whistle. Now that’s a fireball.
It was regrettable, but I had come to accept that I would never be able to replicate a feat such as this. I was simply not that kind of mage. The closest I could achieve was with my Detonating Sap, but it produced more concussive force than heat. Certainly not the kind that could reduce a whole room to atoms.
Does that mean I’m breathing armchair right now?
“Every priest I’ve ever heard has said the Dungeon is only meant to push us,” Arx said quietly, her gaze turned inward. “Make us faster. Stronger. Smarter. Death happens, but it’s a consequence. The Dungeon doesn’t try to kill us. It doesn’t have to. We accomplish that just fine all on our own.”
She pulled in a deep breath as her eyes refocused, and for a moment, she scanned the room as though only now just seeing it.
“No.” She turned to me finally. “That second explosion was meant for you. I’m sure of it. You were the only one who couldn’t have heard the tell.”
I glanced at the others only to receive nods of confirmation. The ticking had been quite audible to them.
Damn. I was afraid of that.
I had already put together that the second explosion was to pick off stragglers—a cruel trick that no honest dungeon master would ever use unless they were dealing with a particularly savage bunch of murderhobos—but to target me specifically?
Come to think on it, that’s been the situation this whole time.
Close to every moment I had spent since setting foot in this place had been designed to single me out. I had been stranded and slowly starved through the constant traps. What food I had found had either turned to ashes in hand or been poisonous enough to kill a moose. And even after overcoming the hurdle being alone represented for a summoner, most of the challenges I had faced had been ones in which having allies was of no consequence.
The only exception had involved that painting—a puzzle which had required four people to solve… had in fact been undetectable until then. A puzzle which had been necessary to obtain the yellow crystals…
One of which had been needed before tackling the maze, had I ever expected to legitimately rescue Arx.
“She’s not playing fair,” I realized.
“Fair? Mate, she wants ye boiled in a stew!”
However, Lynnria began shaking her head. “She’s a goddess. If She really wanted you dead, you would be dead.”
“Then why aren’t I?”
I began absently rubbing at my abdomen, lost in thought. What deities I had met thus far had been… well, I was not sure what word I was looking for. Capricious? Cagey? Arrogant? Cruel? Dismissive? All of those things and more. But mostly just powerful. An entity like that could have killed me with a wave their hand.
My own hand slowed as the realization of where I was scratching set in—right where Ahnbe had stabbed me.
Ah… so that’s it. Power was a matter of perspective, after all. And power respected power.
I jerked my head once, dismissing the matter, before turning to Arx. “What did you see up here before you jumped away?”
“What did I see?” Arx looked at me in disbelief. “Did you not hear what I just said? She wants to kill you!”
“I know,” I acknowledged, then turned toward the sun-drenched portal. “Ironically, in all the world, I think through there might be the safest place I could go.”
Far more difficult, after all, to justify our deaths if we were literally right under Her nose.
Arx’s chin lifted as she worked her way backward through my rationale. “I see… ‘stits, I hope you’re right about this.”
“Well…” I smiled, mostly just trying to put a brave face on it. “I seem to recall someone telling me that Wisdom was only applied Intelligence.”
“I doubt I phrased it that way.”
I shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. The point is, I can only act based on what precious-little information I have, and from I’ve gathered, She won’t stoop to killing us directly.”
“Don’t mean She ain’t got nothing else in mind,” Jax countered from one side. “Never take a roaster’s hand without checkin’ the trees.”
An unwilling puff of air escaped my nose. It was decent advice for all that it was bandit logic. Only a fool would think they could outmaneuver someone of Her age and experience.
Thinking back, all of Her correspondence toward us thus far had been polite and meticulously designed to set us at ease—directly counter to the Dungeon She had planned for us. Whether that was meant to coax us toward our eventual doom or as simple alibi toward the very-pissed-off sibling my death would leave behind, I did not know.
But it was best I be as prepared as I could.
“Well, I can’t argue with that. Arx, why don’t you and Jax work out the puzzle from here?”
Part of being a good leader was in knowing when to delegate, after all. Trying to do everything myself was not only draining on my own mental faculties, it was inefficient. The more our little band grew, the more I would need to keep that lesson in mind.
“Lynnria, come with me. We’re going to discuss the rest of those skill points Arx and I have saved up.”
“Me?” Lynnria glanced at her seniors apprehensively. “But I only know about—”
“Warrior builds. Yes, exactly,” I finished. “It’s the ‘build’ part I’m interested in.”
I might have been an ant flailing at the unfairness of the universe, but I had no intention of getting squashed without biting somebody.
“Have you ever heard of a concept called power-scaling?”
*****
I took a slow breath to steel myself against the quiet dread that had descended and balled my hands into fists in a futile effort to control their trembling. For all my preparations and admittedly-creaky logic, taking that first step toward the door was taking all the willpower I could muster. The solid bar of light cleaving the once solid barrier in twain was sending chills racing up and down my spine.
Once assigned, I had only given half an ear to my lovers’ task, so most of the puzzle’s finer details had escaped me. I only knew it had involved light refraction and mixing the resultant colors to unveil further clues. It had all sounded fascinating, and I had been quite tempted to lean over their shoulders, figuratively speaking. However, Jax had taken to the responsibility with such avid enthusiasm—both from the trust I had placed in her and its similarity to one of our first shared obstacles—I decided it best to leave them to it.
And the result spoke for itself.
On my end, I had already decided the direction Arx’s next skill should take, so hashing out the minutiae had been relatively painless. I only hoped it worked this time.
My own skill-point had been far more recalcitrant. Power-scaling ideas rely heavily on layering one skill atop another, our own Status-Effect-conversion chain being a prime example. By themselves, the individual skills making up the chain were not of great use, but taken together, they combined into something extremely powerful. Trying to get anything useful out of a single skill was much more challenging.
However, after a meticulous and conspiratorial—one never knew who or what might be listening—review of the skills and abilities we had amassed, we managed to cobble together something of a plan. It was tenuous and heavily dependent upon the Demon Queen’s own approach to the situation. If She decided to just kill us all… well, there was not much we could have ever done to prevent that, but if She at least decided to talk a little first, we might have a chance now to run for it.
Might.
And there was still the outside chance that all of our assumptions were wrong. That She just wanted to sit down and chat over a polite meal. I doubted it, but if it had ever been apropos for me to be wrong, now was the time.
The floor rumbled again, and I cast an uneasy glance toward the ceiling. For a brief moment, I had felt… unsettled. Like I was on the verge of breaking into a cold sweat, however it had gone before I could identify the source of it. But then, I was already clenching my fists hard enough to shatter glass, so it was tough to separate one cold sweat from another.
“Funny,” Jax commented. “That one were late.”
“Weaker, too,” Arx agreed. “Maybe that was the last few blocks of maze finally collapsing?”
“Maybe.”
Still… there had been that feeling. The echo of it still itched at the back of my mind, begging to be caught yet flitting just out of reach.
“Are we going in or not?” Lynnria prompted.
My lips pressed together as second and third thoughts clashed through my brain. Had I considered all the angles? Should I take another day to rest? Accrue as many skill-points as possible? Would they matter?
I took another breath in a vain attempt to soothe myself. As close to panic as I was, it did not help to know how many eyes were centered between my shoulders. That for all the outward calm I projected, they knew my inner turmoil. They could sense the depth of the precipice upon which I gazed.
If only there was some way to step back from it…
“You don’t have to,” I replied finally, my voice quiet.
I did not look at her. The admission alone was almost more than I could bear, but I owed her this choice. Hour by hour, her destiny had slowly become ever more enmeshed with my own. But not inextricably so. Not yet.
“The front door is open. Always has been. You can collect your first Word and escape any time you like. There’ll be survivors, I’m sure. They can take you in.”
My heart sank steadily as I waited for her reply, though I honestly could not say what answer I hoped for. Even if we had not been traipsing into a lion’s den, the prospect of going into the presence of another goddess—and of my own free will—was nearly enough to send me gibbering into a corner.
None of my companions were prepared to handle this, least of all, Lynnria. They had felt the faintest brush of Her gaze, true. But to stand before Her? Endure Her anger?
I swallowed roughly. Fuck… I hope this works.
“You’re afraid?”
I almost laughed, the question was so absurd. What kind of courage would a person need not to be? But I did not say that.
Just nodding was difficult enough.
“Then… why don’t you leave?” she asked. “If the door is already unlocked, why don’t we just go?”
Now that was a fair question. But one with an answer that had not changed since I had first set foot in this place.
“Unending disappointment.”
Even I did not fully appreciate the implications of that phrase. What did it truly mean to provoke an eternal grudge from a goddess? The only conclusion I could come to was that simply leaving would damn us even more thoroughly than walking directly into Her jaws.
Might delay things a while…
But Lynnria did not let that faze her.
With a snarl, she proclaimed, “Your enemies are my enemies. If it’s courage you need, you have mine!”
“That’s a way, lassie,” Jax said with a resounding swat to the girl’s backside—provoking an indignant squawk in return. “We’ll make a proper Dolilim of ye yet.”
Arx nodded along, though she was much more subdued. I could see the effect my internal struggle was having on her. “We have your back, Master. No harm will come to you while we live.”
I almost smiled. I had never done anything to deserve such loyalty. Such stalwart faithfulness.
Still. I knew. No amount of bluster could break the rocks of the mountain before us. Fill the void beyond which we had to traverse.
One by one, I gathered their gazes.
“We’ll see.”
Then, I turned. And steadily, taking up a rhythm every bit as slow and heavy as a march of death, my feet began to move.
“I wish I could help you more here,” Mia whispered as the light from the door loomed closer. “I can guard against some fraction of her presence, but beyond that, I am helpless.”
I nodded in silent acknowledgment. I would take anything I could get.
“Make certain not to speak my name,” she cautioned the rest of the group. “Xhinn may yet be unaware of my existence, but even if she is, it would be best not to remind her. She may react… poorly. And whatever else you do, do not look at her. Understood?”
No one spoke. The atmosphere was too thick for words. Besides, we had discussed this already. Made our plans. Either they worked or they did not. There was nothing left to say.
Well… maybe one thing.
“Leeroy Jenkins.”
The softly murmured name drew looks of curiosity, but I did not bother to explain. It was a silly joke, but sometimes courage comes from silly places.
And I was a very great fool.
As the door swept aside, we had to shield our eyes from the light beyond. However, once they had adjusted, what we beheld…
It was like stepping into another world.
Yes, there was the cerulean dome of the sky stretching above, the sun glowing softly for all its brilliance. Around us, there were all the verdant trees and beautiful flowers one might expect from a manicured garden.
But it was stained glass. Every bit of it. The sun, the sky, the flowers. All glass. But alive. Moving. Swaying. Random depictions of birds swooping by and gone. Strange beasts frolicking in apparently distant fields. Clouds rolling by. Yet all of it was contained in one, single dome of glass.
“It’s like a church,” I breathed in awe.
“A shrine… actually.”
Startled, it took me a moment to find the source of the new voice. The light cast over our surroundings was too disorienting to make sense of the world on ground level. Everything was broken up and strangely colored, as though by a projector. However, eventually, I became aware of a long, rectangular table, set with the table cloth, cutlery, candles, and all the other fine trappings one might associate with a king’s banquet. Save the food.
And behind it, standing with the stiffly formal air of a butler, there was a woman. Or more accurately, a lilim.
I could not say how I knew that for certain. From everything I had heard, they were not supposed to conform to any set description. I could just feel it somehow. In my gut.
This particular specimen was of middling height. Thick, golden locks framed and curled gently about her face, and bizarrely, she seemed to be wearing an eyepatch. But beyond that?
Far from the demonic mien I had been expecting, this being was… well, the closest I could say was that she was more like a dragon given human form. Black scales mottled her otherwise pale skin in random patches but gathered mainly about her limbs and torso in an artful mimicry of clothing. A reptilian tail curled about her leg, unmoving save for the very tip which flicked about like a tapping toe. And from her head, a pair of bone-yellow horns jutted forward and up, almost like those of a bull.
She was also quite nude. But then, I would have been more surprised in finding a lilim otherwise. For the rest, I only noted that she was both curvaceous and every bit as bare as Jax before averting my eyes. I could tell the hunger radiating off of her as readily as I could her species. And I did not even have that ability.
Jax and Arx instantly moved forward, shielding me from her, but she gave them no notice.
“You have the honor of standing within the very spot my Lady began her grand design, not an hour’s walk from her resting place, the Fifth Creation itself,” she intoned grandly. Yet her voice maintained a soft and sensual quality, as if she were not so much speaking as cooing at her pets. “You can just see it there.”
She pointed behind herself toward some sort of black smear out beyond the tapestry of living glass. From its tall and narrow shape, I assumed it was a stele much the same as the Fourth had been. However, assume was all I could do. For all that the dome was depicting a scenic view, the actual scenery beyond was all but totally obscured.
“The Fifth Creation?” Arx parroted. “I’ve never heard of any Fifth Creation. Where is that?”
The woman did look at her then, and she pointed a second time, more exaggeratedly and with a spark of amusement twinkling in her eye. “There.”
I placed my hand on Arx’s shoulder to forestall the disgruntled hiss I knew was coming.
“Um… hello. My name is Donum… of the uh… the Clan Donum.” It was an awkward introduction, but one works with what one has. One day, I might even be able to say that without flinching. “This is Arx and Jax. And behind me is Lynnria.”
Thankfully, the gorgeous creature before me did not seem to mind my discomfort.
“Oh, I’m very well aware of who you are, darling,” she purred, sauntering forward.
The stiff formality from before melted away the moment she moved, as though she were a being somehow composed of both ice and water in superposition. Whether through training or willpower, she could hold herself still. But to move, she was the very essence of sensuality.
Naturally, Jax and Arx bristled, but she paid them no regard.
“We’ve met many times.”
“Then…” I shook my head to clear it. Don’t go there, man. Just keep looking at her face. “You have the advantage of me.”
The faint spark of amusement returned to her face, and her gaze drifted downward. Whatever difficulties I had been experiencing, she seemed to regard as mild inconveniences. If at all. For all that I was wearing about the drabbest felt smock imaginable, she was staring at me so frankly, I might as well have been naked.
“The advantage, you say?” she replied finally, then laid her palm against her chin like some sort of madame. “In some ways. But in others? I didn’t believe the effect would be so profound, but now that I’m enrobed… Mmm~ Lady forefend, but your voice is like silk on my skin.”
By that point, even Lynnria was starting to growl, never mind her elders, and I had to quickly step in front of them lest they take the Conan approach to diplomacy, brusquely set aside this talking business, and start chucking swords.
Chebs, is it getting humid in here or is it just me? And why do I smell cinnamon rolls?
Realization set in, and I quickly started breathing through my mouth.
“Uh, right… no.” Oh, hell! I can taste it, too. “I meant that I don’t know your name. We’re supposed to be meeting your, um… well, your Lady, I suppose. Is She not here?”
Right. Good. Don’t acknowledge it. Just stay on target.
Although, that only brought to mind what the target actually was, and I experienced a moment of regret at being so hasty. If only I could develop the skills to spar with a femme fatale like this with a cool head. I did alright with my own girls, but I knew them. Outsiders made me fumble over myself like a newborn calf, weirdly mirroring the Dolilim’s own predilections.
Still, I was not sure whether I was relieved or frustrated not to find the Demon Queen waiting for us. For all the grandeur of our designated meeting place, I could detect no sign of Her presence, and the absence had thrown me off-balance. I had been expecting fire and lightning. Not this.
The lilim tilted her head to one side coquettishly, still allowing her good eye to rove about me. “Oh, she’ll be along. We’ve had a great many guests recently, and there are only so many Faen to manage them all. One guest in particular has been… disruptive, requiring my Lady’s personal attention.”
I narrowed my eyes, both at the reminder of the tragedy that had filled so many vacancies and out of disbelief. “I can’t imagine any mortal powerful enough to keep Her on Her toes.”
“I’ll bet it’s Grandfather,” Lynnria whispered at my back. “He’ll have been beside himself trying to find me.”
That was worrisome, if for no other reason than the idea of what he might do when he actually did. Especially if he was as powerful as Lynnria seemed to believe. Yet another meeting I’m not looking forward to.
However, from the secretive little smile blooming across this lilim’s face, she did not appear keen on elaborating.
“Until our host arrives, I have been tasked with seeing to your entertainment… and I suppose you’re right. We’ve never been formally introduced.” She bowed at the waist, setting certain parts of her anatomy into pendulous motion. “My name is Xyn, the eldest.”
“Oh, no…”
My eyebrow twitched before I could stop myself. The lilim had pronounced her name, ‘Zen,’ rather than the ‘Zhin’ of her goddess—and likely namesake. But never mind the similarity. It did not fill me with a great deal of confidence to hear that utterance from my own Faen.
“Please, have a seat. Dinner will be along shortly. I’m sure you must be,” she rose just enough to smirk at me, “starving.”
With that, she spun and headed toward a side door I had only just noticed. I might have wondered how it could possibly connect to the rest of the mansion… if this place followed any sort of logic.
Jax spat in disgust once she had gone—then, with a guilty start, hastily smeared the result into the ground. “What a thundering cunt. Never seen such a gaggin’ hole in all me life, and I be one. Then to taunt ye fer suffering? If’n I weren’t so polite-like, I’d show her the broad of me ax, I would.”
It was a sign of the stress we were all under that no one called her on it.
Now that our opponent had gone, I felt like I had been abandoned in a doctor’s office while some undisclosed test was being conducted. There was no leaving and nothing much to do save stare at the walls until the—likely—horrific news came back.
At least the room is nice.
“I guess… let’s do what she asked,” I suggested, heading for the table.
Jax nodded and quickly went to pull out the chair at the head of the table for me, but I shook my head. “That should be for the host, I think.”
“Obviously,” Lynnria confirmed with a trace of condescension. “Guests would be seated to one side.”
Jax puffed out her chest. “I knowed that. Just did nay like the idea of some sweltering cunt taking a better seat, be all.”
I almost chuckled. Whether through grit or the sheer weight of her own uncouth nature, Jax seemed unbowed by the situation. I was grateful for that.
Still… “Let’s cool it on the colorful language for now, Jax,” I advised, my eyes tracing the path of a bird slipping through the welded glass overhead. It was looking at me funny. “You never know who might be listening.”
I myself badly wanted to ask Mia what she had meant earlier, but that would have called attention to her existence. Then again, ‘oh, no’ already said plenty.
“Yes, Master,” Jax agreed, scanning the rest of the seats consideringly. “Then, I suppose ye’d sit next to the cun—er… host?”
“Traditionally, to the left and in descending order of importance as you go down,” Lynnria affirmed.
I was pretty sure it was the other way around, but I was hardly an expert on the etiquette of this culture, much less my own. Nor did I much care. I was still so nervous, the idea of eating something was making me nauseas. I felt like a prisoner on death row being offered his last meal, giving me a rather intimate look at what a cruel joke the whole idea was.
My ears felt hot, and there was a sharp ringing threatening to overwhelm me. I barely took notice of the barbed comments the lilim traded as they sorted themselves out, and only vacantly noted the slightly-too-thin-to-be-comfortable cushion of the seat I had plopped into. My thoughts had started crashing into one another like the froth of the ocean in a storm, and my mind became clouded and dull.
After a moment, my eyes caught upon someone else’s, and I had to blink a few times as confusion slowly pushed through the fog. My own mirrored reflection was staring out at me from within a silver place setting on the table. The platter was not so polished as to deliver a perfect likeness, but even so, I looked… intense. Angry. Frightening, almost. A man teetering on the edge.
Black started to encroach along the edges of my vision, and my eyes squeezed shut of their own accord.
“They have to know we don’t eat, right?” Arx said suddenly, and my head jerked up. “What exactly are they going to be serving us?”
“I uh…” I realized my lungs had begun to burn from the lack of air, and I sucked in a cooling breath. Pull your head out of your ass, Donum! We’ve barely even started, and you’re freaking out? “I don’t know.”
I glanced down the table toward Arx. And then Jax. They had been staring at me.
“Sorry. I guess I, uh…” I licked my lips. “The waiting kind of sucks, huh?”
“It be a piss wank, mate,” Jax agreed. Probably. “But try not swallow it, eh?”
My jaw worked for a moment, but I honestly could not think of what to say. Jax’s expressions remained as colorful as ever—despite my earlier admonishment—and for once, I was glad of it. Working out what she was actually trying to say gave my mind something to chew on besides doubts and worry.
Fortunately, I was saved from either by the arrival of our refreshments. Several lilim entered through the same door Xyn had left from, all in a line and carrying silvered trays with those fancy cloches over top that you never see save in movies. Each of them filed in behind our chairs before serving us in one, synchronized motion.
Truthfully, I did not know where to look. All of these women were beautiful in their own way. Like the laoi race, their hair seemed to come in an assortment of unnatural colors, and they all sported horns of various descriptions.
However, unlike my own much-more-feline-in-character Dolilim, these seemed to favor reptiles for their chimeric additions. All of them had scales wrapping various parts of their bodies, though only two in the the same color as their hair. Some had spikes or ridges running down their spines or coming from their shoulders. But curiously, none but Xyn bore a tail.
So, instead, I decided to focus on the covered tray passing in front of me, only taking a moment to glance at the green-haired beauty who was serving me.
“Thank you, Hwx,” I murmured distractedly.
“Yes, sir, Lieutenant.”
The words had barely left the woman’s mouth that she jerked back like she had just stuck her hand into a bed of live coals and the tray clattered to the table. A moment passed while we stared at one another, me in surprise and shock and her with both hands covering her mouth in horror.
“No…” she breathed and began shaking her head fervently. “No, no, no. I can’t… I can’t…”
Then, like the gazelle her horns so closely resembled, she fled.
Scarcely had the door slammed shut behind her than a burbling torrent of secretive whispers began. The servant lilim seemed no less confused than the rest of us, and most of them were casting glances, ranging from speculative to hostile, my way.
The one exception was Mia. But from all the exuberant hooting and carrying on, it was hard to tell whether she was reacting to the situation or celebrating a goal at a gameball match.
“Master,” Jax whispered, leaning close. “What be a luten’ent?”
“What? Oh, it’s a… it’s a military rank,” I explained. “Back where I come from.”
Her eyes widened briefly, and she leaned back. I could almost see the gears beginning to whir in her head.
“Oh. Oh, no, no! Jax, I’ve never—”
But it was too late. Before I could say anything more, she had already leaned over to Arx, doubtlessly expanding upon their fictional account of my backstory.
Damn it. And of course, that lilim had reacted about as suspiciously as possible.
Xyn clapped her hands together smartly, putting an abrupt end to the turmoil. “Enough!” she shouted. “Serve our guests and begone!”
The servants—if they could even be described such—replied with a mix of curtsies, nods, and sarcastic jeers, but they obeyed. Shifting so as to compensate for the loss of one of their number, they synchronized themselves once more and swept the covers from our plates. Then they turned and filed out the door.
As for what had been revealed… I had thought I had prepared myself for just about anything, but I still managed to be surprised.
“A gold coin?” I asked finally.
“Naturally,” Xyn replied. “What else would a bunch of lilim eat? Even if they are… polluted.”
Arx fixed the woman with a penetrating glare. “If this is some strange idea of a joke, it’s not funny. It’s perfectly obvious you feed exactly the same way we do. I can taste how delighted you are in our discomfort.”
Xyn sneered at her. “I am delighted to be able to feed at all… mutt. Not all of us get to be so picky. Now be a good little girl, and eat what you are given.”
“Watch your tone, snake,” Arx hissed. “I will not tolerate insults to what my master has made me.”
“And what has your master made you?” the other replied, leaning down. “But an ungrateful little bitch?”
From the look in her eye, it was clear this Xyn was goading Arx into a fight—was eager for it, in fact. But Arx was sensible enough not to rise to it. That would have only implicated me, and jeopardized any semblance of the diplomatic immunity I could have claimed.
Lynnria seemed collected as well, for all that she was looking rather sharp-eyed, but with her background, she was probably used to situations like this.
Then… there was Jax.
“Ye tell us to chew rocks when we been starved fit to stave in our ribs and got the stones to call us ungrateful, ye maggot-eaten fud?” she growled, rising.
The other straightened, delighted to have found an easy target.
“Oh, I think we both know which of us has the stones.” Her grin turned malicious. “Or had, I should say.”
A vicious, animal-like snarl instantly ripped from Jax’s throat, and she began positively vibrating with the need for violence. “If yer so keen of shovin’ metal down our gullets,” her ax slowly materialized in her hand while black, viscous smoke began rising from her shoulders, “I got some o’ me own right here.”
Just as I was about to stand in some futile hope of calming the rapidly degrading situation, a sudden, monstrous pressure descended over the room. Whatever anger had built. Whatever fear or confusion. All was swept away in the wake of that horrifying weight. The simple act of breathing had consumed all our thoughts.
And then She came.
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