Fragment was speaking, that was all Kael could process, that and the words. The words, they pulled at his mind demanding all his attention. Fragment had told him to focus on them but there wasn’t a point to that, Kael found himself increasingly unable to think of anything else. Word after word of some strange alien tongue, only they weren’t so strange, for the briefest of moments Kael felt as if he knew what they meant, like he had spoken them his entire life. Then the meaning would leave, the word itself would be forgotten, and a thick haze would cloud Kael’s mind. He’d be consumed by the feeling of loss and a faint recollection that got fainter the harder he tried to grasp it. Mercifully or perhaps cruelly Fragment would speak again. A new word, the last one would be completely forgotten as he spent a flash consumed by the word and it’s meaning then he would forget again, the loss and the nostalgia would return. For him each time was the first until it wasn’t, until it never happened and there was only the word of the moment. Slowly the space between each word got smaller and smaller, until there was no space between the words and they became a blurred unintelligible string of vowels and consonants.

An unknown amount of time passed this way, only stopping when the words became a steady hum in the background and they lost their power to command attention. Kael suddenly became aware of his surroundings, they stretched on an endless mess of lines, an elaborate maze of tunnels that went in ways that shouldn’t have been possible. The garbled labyrinth was alive, alive and in motion constantly changing, slowing accelerating and then decelerating, stopping even but only for periods so brief Kael was never aware when it happened. The labyrinth extended all around him, he seemed to be within it and yet outside of it. The feeling was not unlike the black mental space where he kept track of his powers. Only it was vastly more confusing and elaborate, and in the mental space he had no ‘senses’ he simply knew where as here he saw everything like he would with eyes but in every direction stretching out to infinite.   

‘We can only progress when you begin to understand it.’

Kael didn’t bother replying, the task was impossible, even as he watched it all he felt powerless to its unpredictability.

 

@_@

 

Carl stared up at the moon, his mind was empty of thoughts. For a moment he stared like that without seeing anything then motion from his sides jolted him to his senses. He chastised himself for getting distracted, there wasn’t supposed to be any immediate danger but outside in the Despair safety was a fool’s illusion. He turned to face the person beside him and in some ways the reason they were all out here today, Blinks.

Carl didn’t trust the two timing snake in fact he’d ordered the man killed when he suspected there where spies so it was telling that Blinks was not dead. An ordinary man did not survive being targeted by a deviant especially when he was unaware. That was over now, there was very little chance Blinks had been working with Avin and even if he had then that was all the more reason to leave old grievances behind. Most importantly though Blinks had paid Carl all that he owed, they were… square and his continued living promised Carl even more. He was more than a little curious though, if Blinks had been a spy who did he work for? And why? Carl wasn’t foolish enough to think that the bug eyed man served anyone but himself so it wouldn’t be loyalty or some grand ideal. It seemed he would never find out though, tonight it all ended, the era of the three forces of Tenlight would come to a close and the reign of young Avin Crow would begin in earnest.

Carl just had to survive this night and one of his most elusive goals would come to fruition. Granted not in the way he’d first envisioned or hoped but it was no less of an intoxicating victory. Blinks performed another knife trick, easy on the eyes but useless in a fight, Carl dismissed it without a second glance. Mind you Carl was in no way dismissing the man behind the trick himself, after all today’s auspicious prospects were his by design. Though in typical Blinks fashion the honour for it all would fall elsewhere, in this case Carl’s own shoulders. It was in this way that Blinks successfully paid his debt and bought his life.  

The plan like all good plans was fairly simple and resembled more a system of approach than an actual itinerary of things to do.

After dealing with the human relations issues that cropped up when you took two rival gangs that had been warring for decades and meshed them into a single force, Avin was faced with the thorny problem of uprooting Tenlight’s oldest and most powerful force, the Tenlight family. Tenlight’s founding family were not consigned to a quiet end and Carl was quite certain become puppets did not appeal to them. To their credit, their reaction to Avin’s takeover was quick and adequate. They pulled back their men, barricaded themselves in their manor and strapped explosives to the building’s foundational pillars. Then they sent a messenger to explain that they would only leave behind rubble if they were pressed. Another commander would have used long range artillery and deviants to set off the explosion themselves and then mopped up the remainders but for Avin extra people were not a burden to managed and seen to  but a resource to be sought and fought for. Few others could so easily absorb enemy forces without internal friction.

This was a plan that took his greatest strengths and used them against the young master. Carl nodded in agreement, it was a well-tailored response. Avin couldn’t bring himself to just write off the loss but he had few other options besides calling their bluff. He tried using Genneris and her dimension shunt ability to sneak in an elite force and crack the villa open from the inside but the Tenlights had a deviant with clairvoyance ability that made sneaking in impossible. Starving them would take at least a year but most importantly a force like the Tenlights that had been fighting for territory always had more than one escape plan, waiting too long was like opening the door for them and asking them to have a nice trip. The longer they waited the more likely they were to go poof and disappear for good. That was not to say the Tenlight family were in a good spot. The deviants amongst them mostly came from the family itself or at least married into it but the bulk of their forces came from ordinary men and some women from households in Tenlight. They didn’t have the resolve blow themselves up and frankly they had very little reason to. Odds were even if the Tenlights lost they would only be looking at a new boss and perhaps some demotions. Furthermore they had no escape tunnels, they had been forced to collapse them all years ago when a deviant amongst the Demolishers discovered he could use his vibration related deviation to detect them all. The first attempt at attacking through them had been foiled by the same deviant who thwarted Avin’s own attempts at infiltration. Carl however was too petty to let it go and took to releasing dangerous mutant beasts that may or may not have been carrying deadly diseases and timed explosives into the tunnels. Besides there was little point to an escape tunnel when everyone knew where it led.

So for a week or two the two remaining forces stared each other down waiting to see who would blink first. Then Blinks shared his solution with Carl pacifying the big man and earning himself a powerful protector in one move. Instead of focusing on how they would leave Blinks turned his cunning mind to where they would go. The world was an ever-changing death trap with a handful of safe spots even a team of mature deviants would feel uncomfortable staying in the Despair for too long. The Tenlights would be in no position to attack even the weakest of outposts as group that had not even been the sole owners of one in decades and even if they did they would suffer heavy losses. That meant they would almost certainly go and join their allies and pledge allegiance or ask for support. With intermarriages and by parceling out some important secrets like unique deviant artes they would be able to continue existing as subsidiary force at least in name. Even if they were absorbed completely compared to being controlled by Avin it was a total win.

What came next was simpler, the name Crow was a powerful thing and actual power was no less potent. All Avin needed to do was send Cleaves to neighbouring safe zones with a message anyone who helped subdue the Tenlights would be rewarded and anyone who harboured them would and the Crow. It was enough, stark destruction and hitherto inaccessible treasures, several forces had contributed deviants of their own stopping anyone who still had funny ideas from acting out and finally one force revealed that they had agreed to help the Tenlights if the ever lost their town by town by providing them with an escape route.

Even as he admired the stars, the Tenlights where being led to their end and he was surrounded by the largest gathering of armed deviants he had ever witnessed and he, Carl with no last name, was commander of all of them. The feeling was intoxicating, the fear and envy he saw in their eyes, these giants amongst men, it was so sweet that it was all too easy to forget that he was given the command position by someone else, to stare at the skies and lose yourself in the beauty of the stars, to think yourself safe and untouchable. A lie!

 

@_@

Kevesh Belmoth was filled with grief, he tried to quiet it but his chest ached with pain. The Beowulf’s howl had reopened what little scabs had begun to form over the wound that was his son loss. His pain was raw again, he saw his sons form amongst all the younglings before him. He had only been a year older than they were and they themselves had only known light for a year.

His back was straight, though his expression relaxed. Already many had forgotten that the young kuni that died in the pit trap had been his spawn. It was the way of the hunt, to let go of anything that would burden you unnecessarily, to move ever forward, it was right. The Kevesh hadn’t forgotten, it was too soon, too fresh but he could pretend he had, he could look at the year old hatchlings and pretend he didn’t see his son in all of them. He was no stranger to pretending, do it long enough and you began to believe it was real, soon he thought the wound would heal. If it didn’t… whatever festers dies… it wouldn’t though he was a hunter, hunters let go, hunters forgot, he would pretend, until it was true.

There was more to do. This was what had him moving, helped him pretend, the future in his mind, the dream that could be real but never had been. If every hunter was a mighty tree, tall and immortal, then hatchlings were seeds, small and easily crushed. It was a different kind of hunt, raising young, the key characteristics remained the same though, the seed died and the tree was born, they killed their weaknesses and in so doing fed their strengths. Like in the way of the hunt those who failed to kill died because they were starved of strength.  His job was to be the blade that pruned, excising rot and weakness in the same motion, providing room for strength to grow. So every time he looked at the title less hatchlings, his eyes became harsh and cold things, spotting deficiencies and weaknesses and planning how to eliminate them but now the image of his son was superimposed on them all. It was him the weakness failed, it was he who failed to clear the rot.

All around the solitary Kevesh, voth chittered and bustled, oblivious to the battle he waged within. They were filled with restless energy. This was the last night till the mother’s eye began to close, more importantly it signalled the end of the annual blood moon. Tonight the young male voth would earn their titles and their actions would determine how they would to serve the tribe from this night forth. It was a very important and hence bloody exciting night. Nobody wanted to miss it, for those whose duties meant the most action they ever partake in was gang piling stray underworld spiders these events provided much needed entertainment and an opportunity to blow some steam. Others watched wondering how different their lives would be if they had done something differently, if they had fought harder, if somehow they had won.

A hatchling walked into the centre ring, much like the sacrificial ceremony the night before, the arena was really just a wide circular pit, with rows of elevated ledges serving as stands for the spectators. Unlike the night before however there was only one female amongst the spectators, she was a great warrior considered second to only the queen mother and tonight she served as the mortal mother’s own eyes. The other females were somewhere else, doing something else, where? The males could not say, what they did? The males did not know, only that once it was over some hatchlings all a year old would be considered adults and members of the warrior caste.

A spider with silver bladed forelimbs was released from it’s cage. It dashed forward eagerly then stopped, it chittered and wheeled around, confused by the excited noise making of the spectators. Kevesh’s cold eyes gazed calmly, what is your measure?

 

@_@

Kael sighed with relief when the landscape of endless chaos disappeared before his eyes. Trying to predict the unpredictable was… tiring. Being a deviant was proving a lot more convoluted than he’d anticipated. There was the voice in his head that claimed that it would give all kinds him of wondrous benefits if he did what it said and helped him fight something so powerful it could split souls from their bodies and shove them elsewhere and it definitely wasn’t trying to steal his body. The overwhelming urge to kill that only came every other time he drained his victims of their blood, every time would have made sense, it would have been dependable, predictable, but sometimes…, sometimes yanked the rug from under your feet every time it happened and hanged a sword of Damocles above your head every time it didn’t. Of course the non-body snatching voice said the murderous urges were a good sign so no worries. His superpower was becoming the people he killed… well an amalgamation of all the best bits.

Sometimes he wondered if he was being punished for something or perhaps he was already insane, maybe the voice, the meditation technique were all in just in his head. Panic should have set in at the thought but Kael was strangely detached from it all, like he was considering another person’s troubles. Perhaps he was more tired than he’d thought, too tired to care.  Strangely enough the voice and the endless landscape were his best bet, it was true that there was a decent chance he was mentally unbalanced, an even higher chance that the voice was real and was after his body but what choice did he really have? He had no idea where he was, in the middle of a forest filled with Despair, and enemies were right behind him. His allies were either too weak or they were treacherous bastards. Finally he honestly wasn’t strong or resourceful or anything at all. He had to take that one percent chance that the voice was telling the truth… some of it.

He dusted himself off and joined the others in their march into the unknown.

‘Fragment had better come through!’

“What do I do now? Keep trying?”

“Yes. You should develop an instinct or sixth sense for it as you get used to your ability”

Kael tried to ignore how that sounded vague and undefined, like saying you’ll get stronger when you get stronger.

“Normally we use psychedelics to ease the process but with none available you can only depend on yourself. Your unique physiology would calculating a dosage fairly difficult, you might react in unexpected ways.”

Kael flexed his fingers, it didn’t seem like he had lost any motor skills and while he wasn’t any stronger he was not any weaker too. The thought of cancelling his deal with Fragment resurfaced but that would only leave him right where he started with no solution in sight.

As if sensing his weakened resolve Fragment did something out of character for him/it and suggested a solution.

“If a sudden noticeable increase survivability is what you desire I might have a solution’

‘What is it this time eh?’ Kael replied crossly.

“Have you considered growing an exoskeleton?”

‘I can’t do that! You said I need a safe place and time to make any changes.’

“I was referring to the complete body enhancements you suggested at the time. Internal organs are far more delicate and important than an exoskeleton. There is no real danger if you do damage the external skeleton due to excessive movement, certain changes to your internals however are less forgiving.”

Kael took in that information, it made sense, was obvious even, the only reason he hadn’t known this was because he had gone through absolute torture the first time, the feeling of his entire anatomy rearranging itself was so painful and strong that it was all he could remember about the event, so he had no idea how it worked what its limitations were and so on. So when the voice told him he couldn’t he simply accepted the fact, it was helped along by his subconscious fear of the process after all it felt so horrible when it went right he couldn’t bear to think what it would feel like if it went wrong. That the fact that he woke up in an egg and lost all awareness of his surroundings made him accept the limitation without much thought.

Now though he felt stupid for not attempting a small scale test, furthermore there was a fear, a fear that Fragment intentionally mislead him, to ensure that he was weak and scared enough to accept its bargain. Could he go back now? No, if Fragment was really that crazy then what would stop it from putting Kael in even greater danger till he surrendered or maybe it was really just miscommunication and he blew away his best shot due to paranoia. No he would delay confronting Fragment, improve his power and understanding of it, study Fragment for strengths and weakness, deal with the Voth and make it out with the remains of his slapdash team intact. The sheer impossibility of it all threatened to overwhelm him but by reminding himself that was in no immediate danger he managed to achieve a semblance of calm.

The revelation that he could grow an armour of chitin, led him to a possible solution to their water shortage, then he had another idea and then another. None of them where game changers but like a drowning man who glimpsed shore, Kael felt his determination double. He scrunched his brow and got work on refining and realizing his solutions. He was the boy who escaped Avin when all of Tenlight failed, he wasn’t going to let some over grown lizards and a disembodied voice decide his fate.

@_@

Reminded that absolute power was an illusion believed by the weak Carl, began to go over all the ways the operation might go wrong. The true gain with this plan was not absorbing the Tenlights family’s men, no it was the deviants that hid and sprawled all around him. Their fear, respect and subservience, it was the story of a young lord who could not be defied. They saw the force of near a hundred deviants and marvelled, it was the kind of might that had not been gathered in these parts since the days of the fallen empire. They knew –because of consistent reminders both subtle and not– that this was all because of Avin Crow and so it became a symbol of his power forget how any of the forces here contributed more men than Avin.

Since that was the true prize to be gained the manner in which they won was important and if they failed to catch the Tenlights tonight? Well that was only a temporary apparent loss, in truth it would be a greater victory than any other, this was why Blinks was far too useful to dispose of, because even in loss he could present victory and with this plan he had presented Carl with a way to win through his own loss truly delicious.  

You see if things went smoothly and according to plan the Tenlights would emerge from an underground tunnel completely surrounded by an army of deviants! They would wisely surrender or be slaughtered for the most part in the first exchange. The survivors would become Avin’s thrall. It was straightforward offered the most short term gains and least risk but paled when it came to long term overall gains in comparison to the other scenarios. Still the forces gathered here would respect and fear Avin a little more after the victory.

If things went ‘horribly wrong’ the Tenlights would miraculously escape or perhaps actually blow themselves up. Avin would lose some respect and fear but after a while ‘investigations’ would bear ‘fruit’ and he would learn that one of the forces was a ‘traitor’ who leaked information about the attack and facilitated. The poor gang or family would then absorbed for the crime of being just right size (small enough to beat with slight casualties big enough to bolster their force significantly). This was important because without a good excuse the other gangs would band together to prevent themselves from being swallowed. This scenario offered decent long term gains, little to no short term gains with possible losses and fair but manageable risk.

Finally, the scenario were the Tenlights were alerted but still captured. Once they were absorbed investigations into the ‘traitor’ would commence and eventually a second force would pay the price for their sins. It was the riskiest and most rewarding if successfully performed.

The best part of all was that when that second force was attacked it wouldn’t be just the fear of the distant threat of Crow retribution that would stop the others from banding together to stop Avin, it would be the fear of tonight, a fear of the above hundred deviants that came when Avin Crow called, a fear that standing up would only make them the next target of their very own neighbours.

They didn’t come for the name either or for fear, it was power that was the true motivation. They came because Avin promised to teach a single martial arte to any force that heeded his call. So gang leaders and family lords who had been fighting one another longer than their children had hairs, gathered the most impressive of their men and prostrated themselves like dogs to a master. It never changed ordinary men braved the deadly deviation filled woods claiming ancestors long dead to have been GodMarked or plain deviants, risking life and madness for power. In that same way these little lords were here too, all too aware that artes were tailored to specific deviations and took months to learn and longer to put in use, yet they could not let the others grow a little more powerful and in so doing make them a little less so. Instead they would all learn it and the state of things would remain largely unchanged. This was why it didn’t matter that the Crows where too far to lend a hand or that Avin’s own forces would not be superior to full might of the most powerful forces in the area. Not when smaller forces whose fates had always been to be swallowed would willingly offer themselves in exchange for the secrets to greater power.   

Would it be enough? Would the power to turn conquered foes into allies allow him to conquer them all and become the second living human warlord? Unlikely but Carl didn’t care all he craved was a chance to kill, a chance to feed his perk on death, he didn’t know what would happen once it was full but he craved it instinctively and he’d been a deviant long enough to know to lean into his instincts.

Of course he did not believe the plan was so flawless that there would be no chance of utter failure, and not just because he’d always had shitty luck. No plan was flawless, only power could be absolute, a lesson he’d learned well and that was why the gods took delight in shitting on the plans of mortals. A reminder to seek strength, always.  It was why for all he was wary of Blinks he didn’t fear him and why for all he appreciated the thoroughness of the plan he was wary of failure. Even know wondered how best to react if a powerful monster decided that the multitude of deviants gathered there would make a nice snack. Or that word would come that Avin had been captured, preferably killed. He tapped the pointed claw of one of his heavy gauntlets against the other in a beat that helped him calm his errant thoughts and focus on the productive ones.

Things went largely according to plan after that making Carl wonder if his luck had finally turned around. The Tenlights showed up exactly where they were meant to lead by the deviant who could manipulate earth. With so many deviants in the same place the Despair in the atmosphere had begun to move in swirls and with enough time perhaps it would have formed a vortex. As if that was not enough of a those experienced amongst the ambushers stirred the Despair within themselves in a peculiar manner that allowed them to project crude auras that could be felt by those who were not sensitive enough to sense the unusual movements in the Despair or too inexperienced to understand what it meant.

Almost immediately the older members of the Tenlights deflated whilst the younger ones cowered and withdrew. One particularly valiant youngster tried to hold the earth manipulating deviant who deceived them hostage but Carl’s mocking explanation as why he didn’t whether the man lived or died beyond compensating the leader he belonged to and punishing the source of his losses and the lack of spirit in his elders made disabused him of soundness of that plan. Carl had actually hopped for some resistance, an excuse to kill one or two of them but it seemed his luck whilst not awful was not good either. That was okay he could wait.

 

@_@

 

Kevesh Belmoth’s eyes were cold and indifferent as he watched the first hatchling begin the ceremony into adulthood. Tonight the hatchlings actions would decide his place in the tribe, his future, Belmoth should have been paying attention but he watched without seeing. It was easier that way.

The young hatchling held a throwing spear in one hand, there was little hesitation in him as he backed the large spider against the walls of the pit. The spider on the other hand was all hesitation. It was outnumbered and horrendously so, even if only one the enemies was before it now. Its animalistic mind and instincts begged it to flee and hide but trapped in the pit none of those were options.

It raised its bladed limbs and screeched, clacking its mandibles in a failing attempt to scare of the young voth. Instead of backing of the voth charged forward with an explosive leap, the spiders many legs moved in ripples like cloth carried by the wind. It managed to avoid the blow with a motion that could be described as similar to swimming on the ground. Incensed by the attack, it darted in behind the reach of the spear and then leapt for the skill. The young voths reaction was quick and fluid, he flicked the spear so that the spider was knocked away by the blunt end. Then he charged again aiming to skewer it whilst it was down upon hitting the spider immediately hopped of it and unto the wall avoid a second stab but it didn’t rest there, just as soon as its many legs found unnatural purchase on the smooth pit wall it leapt again at the voth hatchling. Not to be outdone by the display of dexterity the voth swat the spider away in mid-air with enough force that some of its legs bent at odd angles upon impact with the ground.

The rest of the fight was much the same. Both sides worked away at each other slowly whittling away at it each other. The spider would make leaps or dart in from below occasionally scoring some light cuts and constantly keeping the voth on his toes lest he lose them. On the other hand the voth smacked the spider around occasionally burying his spearhead beneath its chitin. The spider was in much worse shape than the boy but he was tiring more quickly. Having lost a few of its legs the spider’s movements were no longer nimble and the young voths stride was not quite as quick owing to exhaustion. The fight was reaching a close. Sensing this the onlookers slammed their tails into the ground at a climaxing rhythm, a wordless cheer for their hero below.

The hero himself was too lost into rhythm of the bloodlust inducing Song to notice or care. Sensing the approaching demise of his enemy he swung his spear faster and faster burying it in deluge of attacks. With a desperate shriek the spider leapt through the attacks and barrelled the voth into the ground, clawing at him and trying to bite of his face. The pain from the attacks cleared the voths head some but too late, the tables had turned. Had he been a member of the hunt the voth would have had a large dagger that he could gut enemy so close with instead all he had was a spear that he had managed to place in the joints of the spiders forelimbs and by raising it as far as his arms would allow him he was preventing it from bringing those deadly silver blades down on him and punching him full of holes. It did not however stop the spider from tearing away at his flesh with its mandibles or from hammering him brutally with its less deadly legs. The tail thumping ceased and the crowd watched with quiet grimness.  Yet the young one was not done he wrapped his tail around one of the spiders many legs and by pulling at the leg and pushing the spider away all at the same with all his might he managed to free himself from the spiders embrace. Then with a burst of strength reserved for desperate creatures an edge from death whacked the spider even further away breaking of another of its legs in the process. The spider landed flipped over on its back, the time had come all it would take was a single thrust and things would be done but the voth did not thrust. Instead he clawed out his right eye, swayed unsteadily both from the sudden pain and from all the blood he’d lost, his passive regeneration was too slow to stem it all. The spider righted itself then chittered delighted when it realised its enemy had been weakened. It made a bee line for the voth. The voth raised his spear and stared intently but his vision swam and he saw in doubles. With the terrible pain it was hard to tell what was real and what wasn’t and worse there was no time to think the spider was upon him. Shunk! The spider flailed desperately as if by sheer grit and effort it could un-impale itself and heal the lethal wound to its thorax. The young voth raised his spear and brought it down again, shunk! the spider stilled.

“Well fought young Himoth, you are now Kas Himoth and a member of the Great Mother’s priesthood” a voice that voth would associate with the feminine rang out.

The young voth was much too tired and injured to do little more than lean on his staff but his teeth chattered in obvious excitement. He was not alone, almost everyone else chattered too from fellow hatchlings to third stage hunters sharing in his hard earned victory, and there were other sounds mixed in too but the chattering drowned it all. With so many doing it the individual sounds became indistinguishable and sounded like a powerful buzz or drone that the light headed Kas Himoth felt was rather intoxicating. Kevesh Belmoth watched the young boys accent to power with his eyes but his mind was distant.