Suiteonem Prime, Grail Beach, Suiteonem V, 20137

  Ryshellance The Pursuer dripped warm crimson on the cold gray floor as she traced a line underneath a human male’s second chin.

  “You useless. Which one is useful? That one lives.”

  The quivering human things could look her in the eyes even though her syarumen had forced them to their knees.

  She ambled down the line.

  “No you either.”

  She flicked a sharp nail with deceptive quickness.

  Another human male choked out his last, inarticulate prayers to some false god or another.

  It mattered not to her.

  The only thing that did was the path her Skill was trying to lead her down.

  “You lucky.” She flicked the next human male on the forehead. “Rest unlucky.”

  So said, her troop dispatched the rest of the black clad human males with efficiency.

  They weren’t the true enemy and thus didn’t need their deaths drawn out.

  The rage bubbling underneath the syarumen’s hairy surface was held in check by Ryshellance’s leadership. It was properly directed.

  “Lucky one,” she addressed the lone survivor. “You know path to this Grail Lake, yes?”

  He stammered something that might have been words had he not been terrified. Something about an ancestor that had drank from the grail-thing and had passed down the story.

  Indeed, he had already released his bowels.

  “The fear stink is good, human male. It tells me you obey good, yes?”

  Frantic nods.

  “Whatever you want! Just, please don’t kill me!”

  “Good. Tears are good. Tears are sincere. You live if you do what I say.”

  “Anything!”

  “You run there.” She pointed down the dimly-lit tunnel.

  So strange, all sharp angles, so unnatural.

  The stench of metal and poison lingered in the damp, stale air.

  She had him released from his bonds and ruffled his sweat-drenched hair.

  “Run and remember the lake of grail-thing. Don’t forget or we hunt you again. No second chance in that case. You end up like friends.” She gestured at the fleshy sacks leaking their warmth onto the cold gray. “Run run, human. Only chance. Last chance.”

  She grinned as she watched him disappear.

  “Faster than he looks for a fat one.” The white-tipped tail of her blademaster whipped in agitation.

  “Fast enough to fulfill purpose.”

  “What now, Pursuer?”

  “Hunt for black is done. Hunt for rainbow…”

  The path bent and twisted, doubling back on itself… almost.

  Ryshellance hooted with amusement.

  “Rainbow hunts us.”

  “Then let us move. The cursed children are escaping us,” her strongest magic-user snarled.

  “Children are weapons. Their father’s, ours… others I can only see to come… maybe…” She shrugged.

  “Then—”

  She hooted and snarled in his face, silencing him with her dominance.

  “Told you. Kill children? Then what? Suiteonem just makes more. One hundred alone on this world. How many thousands elsewhere? No. Kill children no matter. Only one death matter. I see it. Of course, you free to go chase children like old white hair and mad young ones.” She sighed. “No. We wait for next part of my plan.”

  …

  Grail Magistrate Gyrtroodes Mylofort bludgeoned the black-clad masked man with her simple wooden baton.

  He had the levels to resist her command to cease and desist and to get on his knees with his hands behind his head like the rest of his kill squad.

  He didn’t have the levels to resist a baton to the knees and face.

  In short order she had him and the rest in shackles.

  Their crimes were many and she didn’t doubt they’d face punishment.

  The problem was that the wealthy behind them would not.

  Perhaps, a fine, but that was not true justice.

  The system was a constant thorn underneath her fingernail.

  It was galling and offensive that the only reason that she was still alive and able to act was the personal power and prestige drinking from the Grail had granted her.

  She ripped their masks off and committed their faces to memory.

  “I Never Forget A Criminal.” They quailed beneath her rainbow aura. “For the rest of your lives justice will watch. I will watch.”

  Silence.

  Whether in fear of her or in faith of their rich employer, she didn’t know.

  She marked each for arrest.

  Even a corrupt captain couldn’t ignore a grail magistrate’s mark.

  She left them shackled in front of the house they had been about to break into and followed her Skills to more law breakers in the Ivy Oaks residential building.

  She found them deeper into the building crouching or hanging over black-clad bodies that she didn’t need any Skills to tell were deceased.

  The congealing blood puddles around them were sign enough that even a rookie magistrate could see.

  “You’re All Under A—”

  “No.”

  Her heart stopped.

  The little monkey-like woman was the size of a human child, but her aura seemed to engulf the entire hallway, penetrating to the floors above and below in an unending storm.

  Indeed, it was like that one time she had been caught out in a tornado in pursuit of the Shadow Rapist.

  That depraved man had died hard.

  Watching him beg for mercy was one of her most secret and happiest memories.

  He had been one of the wealthiest men in the city-state and true justice wouldn’t have been achieved in a proper trial.

  So, she had dealt it out herself.

  The fact that she was still a grail magistrate proved that her decision had been correct.

  “No fight, rainbow woman. Just talk.”

  “You are standing over dead bodies. I see the blood under your nail.”

  The beastfolk peered at the offending nail.

  “Is good eyes. I cleaned well.”

  “The stain of murder cannot be easily wiped away.”

  “Is true.”

  “Then I must arrest you.”

  “Why? You speak words on speaking boxes.” She gestured at one in the ceiling. “These human males not supposed to be here. Out hunting their own kind for… reasons.” She shrugged. “Your own kind. We solve problem. Save human families.” She pointed at the ugly door behind her. “Strange. Human males like animal males. Killing other males and raping females. Big, fancy city, but still animals inside, yes?”

  “I cannot refute your words. Nonetheless, the law is the law. You are all under arrest. Place your weapons on the floor and put your hands behind your head.”

  “Fancy rainbow power strong, but not that strong. We fight. You kill few weaker ones. We kill you. No more ‘Grail Magistrate Gyrtroodes Mylofort’. Is what justice wants? What grail people in lake wants? I know what wants. What all wants in end on this planet.” She waggled her bushy eyebrows. “Do you want to know?”

  “You are going to tell me regardless.”

  Gyrtroodes was at a loss.

  She saw the truth in the beastfolk’s words.

  This wasn’t a fight she had a chance of winning.

  “Dead god!”

  The beastfolk hooted and slapped their hands and feet on the floor, raising a cacophony that sounded like a violent lightning storm in the enclosed space.

  Gyrtroodes had to recalculate the situation.

  The beastfolk threat wasn’t only to her and the kill squads roaming the building for their employers’ gentrification plans.

  They could easily break down doors and reap a bloody toll on the citizens of Grail Beach.

  In the end, the grail magistrate’s greatest and final obligation was to said citizens. Both in her personal code and the oaths of her position.

  “What will it take for me to secure the safety of every single resident of Ivy Oaks?”

  “This Ivy Oaks?” the beastfolk pointed at the floor.

  “Yes.”

  “They in no danger from us… on purpose.” She shrugged. “Accidents happen. That’s why accidents.”

  “I will have an oath that you will ensure their safety.”

  “Sure. Swear to not hurt humans living in Ivy Oaks.”

  The other beastfolk followed suit.

  “These black clothes ones don’t live here, yes?”

  “They do not.”

  “Unlucky them.”

  “What do you want in return? Since it’s obvious you want something from me.”

  “Is easy Quest.” The beastfolk grinned sharp canines. “You go to your special lake, wait and convince grail people to let five kids drink rainbow water. That all you do. Oh. Then leave stupid kids alone.”

  It took her a long moment to process the request.

  The wording was important.

  She could try her hardest to convince the Keepers of the Grail, but they couldn’t be compelled.

  Not even Suiteonem had tried.

  Their continued independent existence was proof enough.

  “We swear oath, so you swear oath. So… swear oath on my request.”

  “Why?”

  “Is plan kill angry fake god we all hate.”

  “How?”

  “Dunno. Is at end of long path. Probably years and lots of different things happen. I pursue Suiteonem’s death. I shown this way. No guarantee. Need many people.”

  “I swear an oath to fulfill your request. So long as it doesn’t directly lead to harm for the citizens of Grail Beach.”

  “Eh… looks hazy. Swear oath only on citizens of Ivy Oaks. Grail Beach too many.”

  “Very well. I swear it.”

  “Good! One last thing.”

  The beastfolk held out a hair-covered arm.

  “Golden-eyed scum put magic gem inside. Next to bone. Make pain and death if we disobey or try to escape. You take out with rainbow powers. I think it work without killing.”

  “Why would I do that?”

  “We no criminals. We slaves. Taken from homeworlds after false god conquer and destroy. Is against law, yes?”

  “Grail Beach law doesn’t extend to other worlds.”

  “Then why you follow Suiteonem law? Besides, we help you later. In secret.”

  “Again, why?”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

  “You deaf? I said already. Future path is twisty and bendy like tangled branches of infinity trees. Need lots of people and things to find path where we kill false god at end. Not enough to destroy false gods, you know? More than body. Spirit has to be destroyed so it can’t come back in new, younger body. Is pretty standard for such things.”

  “I have no idea, but. You speak the truth. At least of the nature of your enslavement. I cannot ignore that even if I risk the eidolons and— I drank from the grail and as such, I must risk Wrath to uphold my ideals and oaths.”

  “Good! Good!” The beastfolk ambled over with her upraised hand. “Magic pain gem near bigger arm bone. You can see with rainbow powers, yes?”

  “Yes. Just try not to move. I don’t have anesthesia.”

  “Pain is no problem. Lots of years in false god’s control. Lots of pain.”

  …

  “Rraarrgh! Rapist murderer! I’ll kill you!” Eighty carved a groove into the concrete wall just above the black-clad Grail Beach man.

  Seven had just managed to tackled the wide-eyed fat man out of the way.

  “Stop! Eighty! Stop!” He raised his blade to parry, but the follow up stroke never fell.

  Eighty towered over them with blazing red-gold eyes.

  “Why the fuck not, Seven!” Fifteen snapped.

  The tip of her wand glowed with its readied attack spell.

  “Do I even have to explain? Gods damn it! Try to control yourselves!”

  Fifteen thrust her other arm out at him.

  It hung limply at the elbow, flopping like a noodle, bending the wrong way.

  “These common trash are why I am hurt!”

  “Fifteen, please put your arm back in its sling. We’ve been over this. Control the rage, try to push it into your healing. Please.” Seven lifted up the fat man by his collar. “We are going to question this man. He will give us directions. He will tell us where the others of his kind are, so that we avoid or ambush them. Is that understood?”

  Sixty-eight regarded the fat man.

  “He peed and pooped himself.”

  “Thank you for bringing that to my attention, Sixty-eight. So, Grail Beachian. You were part of a squad breaking into homes and killing the occupants.”

  “I— I— It’s just my job!” he wailed.

  “Tell us something we don’t know, fat trash!” Fifteen lunged, stabbing the tip of her wand under his fleshy chin. “Tell us something valuable or I will explode your head!”

  Seven pushed her away and glanced at Sixty-eight and Thirty-two.

  The latter had healed quite well from the battle with the syarumen and was no longer walking dead. He was merely in a manageable amount of pain, so he listlessly reached out to restrain Fifteen.

  As for Sixty-eight?

  She was mostly good in regards to the burns.

  The new skin was tender and itched, but it was skin, which was an improvement on the lack of skin.

  One eye socket was still empty, but that could be handled later when they were done with the test.

  She grabbed Fifteen’s arm.

  “Hey! What are you two— I’ll—”

  She reached up and put her older half-sister in a chokehold.

  Sixty-eight might’ve been smaller, but Fifteen really needed to put more effort into her physical exercises.

  “Thank you,” Seven said. “Now, you will tell us what we want or I’ll let one of them give it a try. You can pick which one, Eighty or Fifteen. Where—”

  “I know how to get to Grail Lake!” the fat man blurted.

  “You—” Seven glanced at Sixty-eight.

  She shrugged despite Fifteen’s flailing.

  “Convenient.”

  “Yes. Very.” Seven pressed a finger on the man’s sweat-stained forehead. “Now, why would that be the first thing you spewed out of your mouth.”

  The man told a rambling, terrified story of the syarumen.

  “Trap?” Eighty said.

  “Trap.” Thirty-two agreed.

  Fifteen gurgled and gasped, but it sounded like ‘trap’.

  “Trap. So what?” Sixty-eight said. “You wanted to go there anyways.”

  “Yeah! Let’s go! It’ll save us having to hunt the rest of the monkeys down!” Eighty brandished her battle-worn axe.

  Seven pondered the choice for several long, silent minutes.

  While he did that Fifteen managed to get her teeth around Sixty-eight’s arm.

  “Ouch! Stupid—”

  “Stop choking me! I was trying to say that I’m back in control now! Although, you’re making me mad again, you stupid little misanthrope.”

  She pushed her older half-sister away and before either of them could brawl, Thirty-two stepped his tall, scarecrow-like body between them.

  Sixty-eight looked up at him with a question.

  Thirty-two shrugged with a faraway stare in his eyes.

  “Getting punched by you two won’t add to the pain I’m in now.”

  “You’re in pain?” Fifteen scoffed. “Look at my arm!”

  “Oh, you broke an arm and dislocated an elbow? Poor Fifteen!” Thirty-two snapped. “I was set on fire! Sixty-eight was set on fire and is missing an eye! Broken bones are nothing!”

  “Hmph! I am a mage. It is tactically unwise to expose me to physical threats.”

  The bubbling verbal smackdown was turned to a simmer by Seven.

  “Okay. We’re going to follow this guy to Grail Lake.”

  “Yes!” Eighty pumped the fist. “We’re going to take their power and make it our own! We will be the strongest lochos!”

  …

  It was convenient that the underground cave system where Grail Lake was located beneath the city-state could be accessed from many locations.

  They were all kept under lock and key with significant guard presence.

  It was a long walk through the sub-levels of Ivy Oaks, then through the sewer system.

  The entire way was suspiciously devoid of guards or patrols.

  Sixty-eight didn’t once think that their stinky guide was some kind of high value person that had cleared the path for them.

  “This is such a trap,” Fifteen muttered.

  They came to an access point.

  “Is it normally empty?” Seven said.

  Their guide shook his head like a frantic pig desperately hoping that this wasn’t the walk to the slaughterhouse.

  “Look around for signs of a fight.”

  Sixty-eight saw nothing out of the ordinary, nor did she smell the acrid smoke from primitive guns.

  Fifteen cast a spell of glowing glasses that made her eyes look comically large and she, too, found nothing out of the ordinary.

  “Agreed,” Seven said. “It looks like the guards just walked away.”

  “Shift change? Patrol?” Eighty said.

  “In either case, their replacements would be here.” Seven shoved their malodorous guide toward the access point. “Lead on.”

  The quivering man hesitated.

  “Well?”

  “Um… the gate is open…”

  “Then walk.”

  “But what if it’s monsters?”

  “We’ll kill them.”

  He gulped and continued forward after catching a glance of Eighty and her axe.

  The accusations of it being a trap weren’t helped by the fact that the entire walk through the cave system was devoid of monsters.

  “There should be monsters,” Seven whispered.

  “I’m smelling blood and, like, piss and shit,” Eighty said.

  Fifteen scanned around with her conjured glasses.

  “There are signs of battle. Spell residue and such.”

  “I could do more if I had my real artifacts,” Thirty-two muttered.

  “Adventurers or delvers would’ve left monster corpses,” Seven said. “It’s almost like someone is clearing the way. We keep going, but be ready for anything.”

  Sixty-eight had the keenest eyes and she used them on a hunch to scan the deepest darkest crevices. And not just those at ground level but on the ceiling.

  A time or two, she almost thought she caught glimpses of quick, shifty movement.

  Cave rat monsters, perhaps? Or small, agile and quick syarumen with a gift for climbing on any surface faster than she could run across flat ground?

  “It’s this way.” Their guide pointed down a spiraling staircase that almost appeared to have formed naturally around one of those stone-things that stabbed out of the ceiling like an ice cream cone.

  Sixty-eight forgot its technical name.

  “How exactly are you able to remember this?” Seven said as he halted the guide.

  “Every one in my family knows,” the guide said. “My great, great, great-grandfather drank from the Grail. He left a map and directions. All the kids— all of us thought we’re going to go on the Grail Quest one day. But not really. A few try it and fail or never come back. The rest of us get smart and forget it. I never thought I’d be down here. You guys wouldn’t happen to know why there aren’t any monsters, do you?”

  “No.” Seven shoved him to continue.

  Hours passed in the damp and dark.

  Some sections were lit by torches, some by glowing crystals and veins in the rock, some by strange plants that shined like street lamps. Some sections were pitch black and required Fifteen’s light spell.

  They all shared a suspicious lack of monsters.

  “It should be just through that.” Their guide pointed down a gentle slope that led to a dark void that closely-resembled a woman’s open mouth.

  “Ugh, of course, nymphs,” Fifteen huffed.

  Their guide tried to sneak away, but Seven caught him and shoved him toward the mouth.

  “It’s all just caves and shit. Thought there’d be more rainbows,” Eighty said.

  Sixty-eight’s gut twisted after about a dozen steps past the threshold.

  It occurred to her that she hadn’t noticed that it had been a black void. As though the world had just stopped right inside the mouth.

  One moment there was nothing in sight, sound and feel.

  Then she blinked and there was a bright cavern.

  Too large.

  Indeed, she couldn’t see a ceiling.

  “There are clouds,” Eighty said.

  “Some caves are so large that weather-like systems form,” Fifteen said.

  “Rain? In a cave?” Eighty scoffed. “That’s stupid. You sure your head is okay, Fifteen?”

  “No,” Thirty-two chimed. “She’s correct.”

  “Weird, but whatever.”

  “Well, I wouldn’t say any of this is natural.” Fifteen blinked comically large eyes behind her spell-conjured glasses. “Highly magical everywhere I look. Particularly the water.”

  The famed Grail Lake stretched out past the horizon, which was another impossibility.

  They were underground inside a cave.

  No matter how large, it didn’t look and feel right to Sixty-eight.

  It was more like she stood on a beach and looked out into an ocean.

  Scattered pools all around them shimmered, casting hazy rainbows that arced up and vanished into the clouds.

  Their guide cleared his throat.

  “I brought you here. Can I go now?”

  “What? Really? You don’t want to drink from the Grail?” Eighty sneered. “Isn’t that, like, the greatest thing ever for you people?”

  “You don’t just drink from it. You have to prove worthy.”

  “How did your ancestor do that?” Seven said.

  “I don’t know. He couldn’t remember. No one can. It’s part of the test.”

  “Very well,” Seven shoved their guide toward Grail Lake. “Go. Take it.”

  The guide quivered.

  He stammered.

  The lake and the surrounding pools rippled as though a giant stomped nearby.

  One close to them erupted with water tinged all the colors of the rainbow, coalescing into perfection.

  Blue with skin like the surface of the water and light refracting from within and without in all those colors.

  Naked.

  “Ugh… nymph,” Fifteen sneered. “Your wiles might work on weak-minded normal human men, but it won’t with us. For we have the blood of a God running through our veins!”

  “Unbelievable,” the nymph rolled her eyes, “why did I volunteer for this? Bleh.” She shook her head radiating yet another rainbow in the halo of droplets that briefly, artistically, hung in the air. “Greetings!” she smiled fakely. “Welcome, supplicants to The Grail Lake. Do you desire to drink from the Grail? Please say ‘no’.”

  “Yes,” Seven said.

  “Okay, everyone has to say it.”

  Sixty-eight joined the others in affirming their desire.

  Who wouldn’t want to get stronger like that grail magistrate woman just by drinking some lake water?

  She figured that since it was magical there probably weren’t any parasites or bacteria in it like regular lake water. Plus, she was a demigod and those things wouldn’t trouble her like it would normal people anyways.

  “No,” their guide said. “Please let me leave.”

  “I’m sorry. There are rules and since you led them here you are included.” The nymph smiled primly.

  Sixty-eight only noticed then that her teeth were rather sharp and pointed.

  “Now, there are several ways to prove your worthiness,” she continued.

  “May we select,” Seven said.

  “No,” she said flatly. “We don’t deem you worthy, so that’s out. We would not charge you with a series of increasingly difficult Quests because you are not citizens of our Grail Beach being that you are Suiteonem’s spawn. That leaves—”

  “You’re afraid of our father!” Fifteen sneered.

  “Sure, who isn’t? But don’t think he can save you here. Not even a god can inflict his will upon this place and us easily, especially during a test. Now, shut up cow-girl! An ancient being is speaking. Ahem, where was I before I was rudely interrupted? Ah! The test. It is very simple. One of might and skill. Slay our champion and we shall grant you the highest honor! We shall allow you to drink from our Grail!”

  The grail nymph posed for a moment before disappearing in a splash of rainbow-tinged water.

  “Nononononono!”

  Their guide assumed the fetal position.

  He was properly ignored except for Eighty, who pointed at him and mimed holding a shield.

  “Standard defensive formation facing the lake!” Seven barked.

  Their only warning was a faint ripple on the lake’s surface.

  Water erupted, splashing them.

  Their guide screamed.

  Boiling hot water scalded and blistered exposed flesh.

  Steam blanketed the shore.

  A huge shaped moved through it slowly like a whale through the ocean.

  Sixty-eight fired into the center of the mass and didn’t wait to see if she hit anything before breaking the primitive rifle open to eject the spent casing and reload a new one.

  She fired as fast as she could, definitely faster than any of the usual wielders of the substandard weapon.

  “Clear the steam!” Seven said.

  Fifteen threw her arms out wide, spreading a powerful gust of wind down across the cavern floor to reveal their test.

  It was larger than Eighty by the same proportion that Eighty was larger than Sixty-eight, but even wider.

  A shambling mound of wet earth, roots, leaves and other plant matter in the vague shape of a man.

  “Fire spells, Fifteen! The rest of us fall back. Eighty, watch for root-based attacks coming up from underground!”

  “Ground’s rock,” Eighty grunted. “Except for the little beach. Looks sandy.”

  “Just watch out for it.” Seven said. “Sixty-eight, look for a core. If you see it take it out.”

  She didn’t see one as of yet, but she had already started looking.

  “What are we looking at?”

  “You want me to attack it or study it, Seven? I can’t do both at the same time,” Fifteen said through grit teeth as she blasted a ball of fire into its center mass.

  “Attack. Thirty-two?”

  “Sorry, Seven.” Thirty-two shot at the creature. “I don’t have my normal equipment to analyze it.”

  “Just give me your big-brained hypothesis.”

  “Some kind of elemental. Judging by its composition, some kind of swamp-thing? Without instruments one can’t determine whether it’s summoned or naturally occurring.”

  “What difference does that make?” Eighty grunted as she chopped her axe through a twisted spear of wood the elemental extended from one of its many waving arms.

  “Summoned ones require a supply of mana to remain in our world. This is why they only last a set amount of time depending on the level of the summoner. More powerful and skilled summoners can forgo this time limit by continuously feeding mana. Naturally occurring ones typically contain a mana-generating core of some kind, perhaps multiple cores for larger, more powerful ones.”

  “Right. Perfect. Thanks, Thirty-two,” Seven said. “We have something to aim for.”

  Sixty-eight got it.

  She kept her eye on the inside of the shifting mass of plant and tree matter.

  Another spear-arm shot out, but she shot it to pieces before it even got halfway to Eighty.

  Reload. Shoot. Reload. Shoot. Reload. Shoot.

  She was proving faster than the elemental.

  Until, it suddenly opened up like one of those giant meat-eating plants in the warm jungles of her homeworld that she only knew about by reputation.

  Their Grail Beach guide yelped, but none of them were fast enough to react to the vines that snaked out around the fat man to pull him into the shifting mass.

  “Oh no!” Fifteen said.

  Sixty-eight shot her half-sister a glance from the side of her one eye.

  “What? He was growing on me. Kind of like the strays in Mathogopolis’ spell district.”

  The elemental sealed up and began to churn.

  The guide’s screams were short-lived.

  There was nothing visible left when it opened up once again to shoot dripping vines.

  This time at all of them.