Chapter 70 – A Curse of Deviance

  “Don’t touch me! Don’t look at me!” the bearded Thaler known as Koliko screeched. The volume of his voice increased unnaturally before diminishing to the sound of a whisper as if altered by some unnatural influence. In a radius of several feet around him, plants grew in twisted, mutated shapes and died off again. The colours of his skin kept changing, from pale green blots to angry red vein-like stripes.

  Out of sight from the Thalers, Adam and Emily hurried from bush to bush. Feeling his heartbeat all the way up his throat, he chased the skittering trilobites. Maybe I can take a couple in the chaos… Adam cursed internally when another Thaler used his staff to herd the arachnids, sending them after Koliko.

  A male Thaler rushed up behind Koliko and hit his head with a club. However, no matter how odd the sideways angle of Koliko’s head, it didn’t stop him from spinning around and grabbing the other Thaler’s face.

  “STAY AWAY FROM ME!” Koliko yelled. In his hands, the Thaler aged unnaturally fast. His skin hung in increasingly wrinkly flaps of skin and his limbs shrivelled. With round eyes of utter horror, Koliko pulled his hands off the man as if shocked at what he’d done.

  Other Thaler capitalised on Koliko’s distraction by firing their blowguns. Koliko dropped his former mate and hissed at the darts that stuck out from his arm. The wooden projectiles withered and fell apart.

  Koliko ran away between the trees. The grass died wherever he stepped. Twisted, mutated branches were growing from his back and his cheek. “Ysa? YSA!”

  The woman who had tried to calm Koliko earlier on paled as he ran up to her. She raised her staff and moved to block his way.

  “What?! Come on, help me!” Koliko screamed while his face appeared to soften. As if his skull was melting, his left eye sank lower in his face to the height of his nostrils. “We can finally escape, we can be together!” He laughed with more than a hint of desperation. “Just as we—”

  “NO, we didn’t!” Ysa shrieked as she swung her own staff at him. He caught it in his freshly grown, new hand, as his old right arm was hanging limply. Fresh new branches grew near the place where he was holding it. “I don’t know you!”

  Koliko’s eyes widened, shifting in colour. “But you… but we…”

  “SHUT UP!” Ysa shrieked with a shrill voice. “Get away from me!”

  Hands shaking, Koliko took a few steps back, distraught eyes fixed on Ysa. He never saw the trilobites coming. They jumped him, crawled up his legs, and soon swarmed all over his body. Koliko barely had time to wave his arms around and give a bone-chilling shriek, before his body crumbled into a pile of dust and ground.

  Ysa fumbled her staff and fell to her knees. Hands clasped before her mouth, her damp eyes stared unblinkingly at what remained of Koliko.

  Oof, brutal. Since the other Thaler quickly surrounded Ysa and the trilobites, Adam halted his chase and hid behind a tree. Maybe he could catch one of the critters during an unguarded moment. No sprite of Origin flew up from Koliko’s body, though. I guess those trilobites can truly absorb that stuff…

  “I didn’t know him!” Ysa stammered. Kneeling, she grabbed the masked man’s knees. “Well, I knew of him, but I didn’t… you know.”

  “I think you knew more than enough,” despite Jahecca’s weariness, the iron in his voice was plain to hear. “Shackle her and take her for investigation of Deviance.”

  “No! BELIEVE ME!” Ysa shrieked before she was gagged and taken away.

  “You do realise that, if you were innocent, you’d have nothing to fear?” Daeryn shook her bald head and turned to Jahecca. “Another heavy loss to endure. I’d hoped to never encounter Deviance in my lifetime, but these days, it has become more common than I’d like to admit.”

  With a pale face and trembling hands, Akao tore her eyes from Ysa and gave an unconvincing smile. “Well, new younglings are on—”

  Jahecca grunted, as if in pain. “Too few. Too late.”

  Daeryn laid a hand on Jahecca’s shoulder. “The time is nigh. Are you strong enough?”

  “Yes. Come close, everyone…” After Jahecca walked up to one of the Associations and sat on her haunches, touching the glowing surface, the trilobites and all the other Thaler huddled close around her. Those wounded in battle, including the man who had aged far faster than normal, were carried to the rest of the group.

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  Adam squinted, but between the throng of bodies, it was hard to follow what was happening. Soon, all the Thalers glowed in green light due to some Invocation.

  Adam’s eyes widened and he sprinted forward. He had seen a glow like that once before.

  The glow enveloped the bodies of the trilobites and the blue people until all of them seemed to be made of pure green light. Their shapes dissolved as the light seeped into the Association.

  “By the night!” Adam growled, kicking a stone and sending it flying. “NO!”

  Like a stretched luminous snake, the light travelled through the patterned trail at lightning speed and disappeared.

  Emily hurried after him. “Huh? What happened?”

  Adam pointed forward. “Look.”

  “Uh-huh.”

  “If you look really, really closely, right over there…” He peered in the distance.

  “Yeah?” she whispered.

  “You can see that all those Thalers and their trilobites are... no longer there.”

  Emily’s shoulders slumped and she let her head fall back. Quite as if she had to count to three to calm herself. “You truly are a master of observation.”

  “And I thank you for the sincerity of the compliment. Anyway, remember my story about the battle in the Ziecherhein Node? On top of the pyramid, Thalers popped into existence with a very similar glow so they could fight the Roots.”

  “Ah… seems like they can use the network of Associations as a fast way to travel. I can imagine Nodes are good travelling spots since there are so many different tunnels with Associations there. Neat. Sure would’ve saved us a bunch of time walking around.”

  “Yeah, although by the sound of it, it does cost Origin to do so. Didn’t know the Thalers could do such fancy tricks with Associations, like pulling a memory from a distant Node to this cave.” Adam walked up to an Association and laid his hands on the glowing surface, trying to make some sort of connection. It felt… wrong to do so. Obscene. As if he, an intruder, was touching someone’s nervous system directly, with his bare unwashed fingers. Almost forced by the overwhelming sensation of being unwelcome, Adam quickly pulled his hands away. “This isn’t gonna help.”

  “Hmm…” Emily pressed her fists into her hips and looked at the various openings of tunnels around them. “Well, too bad for the Origin. But we do have intel on where these good ol’, freshly maintained Associations are leading towards!”

  “Exactly!” Adam stood up quickly. As he’d forgotten how weary he was, he had to wait a second for his vision to return. “So, which Node would be suitable to learn Reminiscence and the Invocation to get out of the Realm? Hmm, the Thalers mentioned the Node of Gotterburg, but I’m not sure if Caine would truly associate that with Reminiscence…”

  “Right, and there are frequent fights with a Thuraum going on there. The Roots have been active as well. Knowing them, I wouldn’t be surprised if they’ve edited memories there so not an ideal choice. Oh!” She clapped her hands. “Caine would definitely associate Gotterburg with you! So, we could travel from the Gotterburg Node to the Node about you, which definitely has memories about Reminiscence since you taught him the stuff, perfect!” She turned around and immediately paced towards the tunnel in question.

  Adam raised an eyebrow. “Uhm, you do remember how we tried that before? Back in the Node of Eulenschloss, we could literally see myself in Caine’s memories. But we didn’t see any image or hieroglyph of me on those pedestals which indicated the destinations of the tunnels.”

  Emily stopped in her tracks and turned around again. “Ha, of course! Just, err… kidding.”

  Adam rubbed his beard. Hmm, even with our new knowledge of the Realm, that still isn’t making sense… “That ‘Safety’ the Thalers mentioned sounds inviting. But, whatever that is, it doesn’t seem related to Reminiscence. Or… maybe Caine is using its Invocations to protect others?” he asked doubtfully.

  Emily shook her head. “Too far-fetched. And although I’d adore having to go to another cosy reunion again in the family Node.” She made a gesture as if sticking her finger down her throat to vomit. “I doubt it will be useful. Maybe Caine has taught our dad Reminiscence as well, though. And in that earlier cave, with the statues and all that Reminiscence nonsense, dad’s statue was there.”

  “Along with a lot of others, though.” Adam rubbed the scars on his wrist; this would be a more sensitive subject for her. “Interesting option, but I had the notion Caine’s bond with your dad was rather strained. Caine is a Pendulum and kind of on the opposing side of a war. Would Caine know what your dad knows about Reminiscence?”

  Emily tutted her mouth. “Fair. Oh, oh! There’s the Node about Agatha! Not sure if Caine has taught her, but those two used to be lovers…” She gave a small smile as if hearing a nice piece of gossip.

  Adam sourly scrunched up his nose. “Do we really want to see those memories?” After years and years of hearing Caine bragging stories about his conquests in the ‘battlefield of love’, Adam had had quite enough.

  “Just saying…” she said innocently, holding up her hands. “Caine was so in love with her, Agatha was all idealised and stuff in the memory of Ziecherhein. Might be interesting to see from an academic point of view.

  “ ‘Academic.’ ” Adam snorted. “Just another silly romance story with the leader of your…” Adam snapped his fingers. “Oh, the Penduli! The Oberians! There’s a Node about Utenanga nearby!” He beamed at her.

  “Ehm, yay? I guess? Not following.”

  “Back when we were in the Memory Space of Ziecherhein, we saw Caine and myself talk in my office, during the War of the Prophet. We spoke about Reminiscence for the first time and I took him in as my ‘pubescent pupil’. That was right before Julienne, Caine, and I were stationed in Utenanga Fortress to help the Oberians.”

  Emily’s expression brightened. “Oh! And if you explained all about Reminiscence in Utenanga, we can just hitchhike on your beginner-level introduction lessons. That’s way more useful than seeing these higher-level Invocations with their random written-down jibberish!”

  With a wide grin, Adam walked up to the right Association and followed it the way the elderly Thaler had pointed.