Tread Lightly – Among Monsters And Men

My eye twitches at the loud voice and the bellow of the giant Ogre-like creature that is before me. But as it doesn’t immediately attack, my focus turns back to my friends upon the crosses. Otto’s head is falling from the suspended position as his eyes begin to flutter. Johnny, on the other hand, is still unconscious, but for a moment I think I see his trigger finger twitch.

Their conditions run through my mind as I turn back to the Ogre. Did she do that to them? She had to of. Fuck.

I can’t give up already, though. Maybe Otto weakened her during their fight? Not that I see any of her blood anywhere. All the blood around is stained upon Otto’s crucifixion cross. Before I can do anything else other than analyze the situation, the Ogre speaks again.

“These your friends, little one? Sorry about that. I thought they were here for me. Y’know it’s not uncommon for Hunters to try and kill me. Tell me, how did you find me all the way out here? Did you find your father?”

Her voice is rough and loud, but her words sound like she can read my mind. How does she know they are my—

“Friends? Yes, I can read your mind. Haa… Let’s just get this whole thing over with. I can sense any active thoughts or emotions, no memories unless you're unconscious, though.”

What the fuck! She can read my mind? How am I supposed to fight? She will just anticipate everything I do!

The Ogre once more interrupts my thoughts and answers my question to myself in an almost bored fashion.

“Yeah, that’s kinda the point. And I’m not sure if you’ve noticed yet, but I don’t want to fight you, little one. You might have broken some of my pillars, but it’s not that big a deal. I’m here for Ewaki, the Jar of Extinguished Slumber. As long as you aren’t here to intrude on that specifically or to hurt me, you're free to pass.”

What the hell is happening?! Am I just getting a free pass? How? After all this?!

“Ah, I do apologize about the trip here. The Crossroads here is a… tad bit unstable. Some things slip through that shouldn’t, and I can sense you met Ewaki. Its taint lingers on you a tad. Hopefully, it leaves you alone, however. The Crossroads is artificial, after all. I made it to give me a good shot at Ewaki. The bastard isn’t in our realm, so he’s quite a hard bugger to reach without a Crossroads as a jumping point.”

What… Who… How? My brain basically short circuits with confusion as so much is being thrown at me at once. Who even is this person? What is Ewaki? Was it that thing that almost put me to sleep? How can you make a Crossroad?

At this point, I almost expect the Ogre to answer my mind’s questions and she does with a sigh.

“A lot of questions, I see. Well, we have plenty of time, or at least I do. You have quite a bit less. I am Aniwye Mhwee, surprised that you don’t remember it yet… It should all be clear by now... Oh, I see what happened. Interference... Anyway, Ewaki is a creature made of consciousness within one of the many spirit realms, and I seek the artifact that will be born from it once I slay it.”

She just continues to run me in circles so much that I don't even know what to ask, say, or think anymore. The Ogre takes a short pause to make a swirl with her hands in the air. Another thing I don’t understand.

“Making a Crossroads is simple if you are wise enough to learn the technique, yet incredibly difficult. I learned the technique from your father as payment for a job he had me do. Using the souls of those killed nearby, both human and inhuman, and forcing them to dream to reach the outer realms along with a wide variety of inscriptions made using Ether, you can create a storm of Ether and souls which can tear holes in reality. This opens up doors for other dimensions to come in as they please, or us them. There are also the rare instances that send you to other places in our world.”

At this point I believe that she won’t kill me, and if she wants to it’d be so easy for her, only a snap of the fingers. Because of that futility in my actions and how unlikely she is to kill me, I just walk over and bring down the two of my friends. She seemed to be apathetic to them, so I can probably help them without her drawing her ire. Thankfully, they were only tied to the cross, not nailed. Still don’t know why she did that, ope, there she goes again.

“Tied to the cross so I could eat them later. Gotta dry out my food before I chow down, y’know? Don't want the taste of iron in my food, but I would never eat your friends.”

I look at her, and she answers before I can even verbalize my thoughts.

“Yes. I am a demon. Is that a problem?”

I go to say something about how it is, but I immediately stop as I see the serious gaze of this giant woman. I don’t want to make her angry, even if I don’t know why she won’t just kill me.

“That’s simple, little one. It’d be a whole lot of wasted effort to kill you. Now take your friends and leave, either go to your destination or turn back. I have a Power to slay and you cannot be nearby while I do so for your own safety. Your mind would be ripped apart from our conflict.”

I want to follow her directions so that I don’t get us killed by her wrath or whatever the Ewaki is, but not only are not all of us here who entered the mist, I don’t know where to go. But just like every other time, I don’t even have to voice my concerns. They are already heard.

“There is a tunnel that goes down behind me. It leads to the cavern that is the center of all this swirling Ether. The Crossroad is beneath us. No need to worry about your other friends. If they are to make it then they will be here soon, otherwise, they will die. Just go and wait at the entrance, but leave immediately should you hear any rumbling. A great battle is short to begin. And the next time you see me, you better remember me or my feelings will be quite hurt.”

I just nod dumbly as I see her face curl into faux hurt, then I drag Johnny and Otto with me past her, my eyes constantly watching her in case she decides to attack even though I know it is pointless. That cleaver of hers could cut me in half easily, she wouldn’t even need to use Ether with how weak I am right now.

Half of me wants to stay and figure out what the hell is happening, but I’m not one to look a gift horse in the mouth. I’ll take my free pass and move on, that’s for damn sure.

All I hear is a hearty chuckle from her as I move past her and find the stone staircase that leads down behind her. I take a moment to rearrange the two with my single arm, putting Otto on my shoulders with a juggle and dragging Johnny. The staircase is roughly made with bits of jagged stone jutting out here or there as the steps abruptly start in the middle of the island behind Aniwye.

The second we go under the rocks and can no longer be seen by Aniwye, Otto wakes up in a hurry from a fake sleep. He whispers to me with frantic panic.

“Shit shit shit shit shit shit. We need to get out of here right now, Wyatt!”

I try to calm him down and explain why we can’t.

“We can’t! We gotta wait for Blake and Dakota!”

I see his face distort as we move down the stairs in anger.

“I don’t care about your fox or that woman! Do you know what that is up there?”

I shake my head, it doesn’t matter. They let us live for now. Seems as though we are but bugs to them. No reason for them to kill us.

“No, and I don’t care. They let us live. We should wait for Blake and Dakota. If it wasn’t for them I’d be dead, and you’d be dead too. I’m sure she can still hear us. If she can read minds, she can surely sense where we are.”

Otto takes a deep breath as he stops his movement with another curse.

“Fuck. She probably knew I woke up a while ago… Why didn’t she kill us? Surely it’d be easy.”

I reply to him as we move down the dark staircase made of stone downward.

“I think it’d be too much of a hassle. It sounded like she has something important to do and we were only annoying her at most. Do have to admit, though, after all that through the swamp it was quite… underwhelming, to say the least of an interaction.”

Otto scoffs as he almost trips down the stairs. The man wobbles a bit as he walks, showing severe weakness. I do the same, but that’s from exhaustion. His is from obvious bruises and possible broke bones all over.

“Uh-huh. You only say that because you weren’t picked up like a chicken leg and tossed fifty feet into unconsciousness. I’ve never felt so fucking weak before. It was like I was a child. That Ogre is definitely a 7th Sigil. Devil seems to wager us in the Red Court today. Let's not do anything to have him place judgement early, eh?”

Soon our discussion pauses as we make it to the bottom of the staircase with a set of double doors at the bottom with a small flat area to rest in. We both immediately slump over on opposite walls as I take my first true rest since I entered this damn swamp.

Otto pulls out some food and tosses me some as he starts drinking water like a madman. I take the jerky and tear it into it, giving my desperate body the food it’s been craving for. While I do so, Otto finishes drinking and with a gasp laughs out loud.

‘Haa… I still can’t believe you thought that was anticlimactic. I’ve never been so terrified in my whole fucking life. Watching you somehow stumble into safety was frustrating yet relieving. Don’t know how you know that Ogre, though.”

In between bites and shoveling the food into my mouth, I tell him how little I know.

“I… don’t… know… who… the… hell… she… is…”

He scoffs again with a head shake before looking up at the rocky ceiling above us.

“Uh-huh. So many secrets… Sometimes I just wish life was simpler. Shit’s only about to get crazier though once we step through this door. Then, you’ll see anticlimactic.”

I raise an eyebrow at him and take a short break from eating to speak.

“What do you mean? Behind this door is the Crossroad, right? That’s where we need to go.”

Otto laughs once more with a head shake. The man then sprawls out and puts his legs up on the stairs to relax. Legs that go over the unconscious Johnny. He won’t know, though. He’s asleep.

“No, dumbass. I can’t believe how slow you are sometimes. I’ll give you some slack, though, ‘cuz you're just a little one.”

I interrupt Otto as I hate being called little, young, or anything like that. It just doesn't feel right. Feels like someone is calling me useless.

“I’m not little! Just tell me what’s behind this door.”

“Haha… Yeah, not to me, but to that Ogre you sure are. Anyway, that’s enough bullying of a little child. Behind here, yes is the Crossroads, but have you misremembered? We need to go to the Gate Of Death. This is only a way there. A highly dangerous one at that. I would rather be in there than up there with that Ogre.”

I ignore Otto's second joking jab, he's just taking out his stress on me, nothing more. My eyes move over to the door as I use Nightvision to see more clearly in the dark. Some light still comes from above, but the mist isn’t the brightest light source, so the skill helps me see the door. And when I look at it, I see inscriptions similar to the ones on the rocks previously, only these are far more numerous, smaller, and more intricate in their writing.

The writing hypnotizes me for a few moments before I’m able to pull back, but when I do, for some reason a blurry image of thousands of roads leading into every direction that converge at one central point comes to mind. Like when this door is opened, we will be able to enter that central point and go to any of those roads. The only difficulty will be finding the right one.

My attention goes back to Otto as I ask him one last question.

“What kind of danger will be behind this door? Will it be like the mist? Or something different?”

Otto shrugs as he closes his eyes to sleep.

“Dunno. I’d imagine it’d be pretty similar, though, if only worse. The things that reached us in the mist were only outliers. Soon, we’ll meet the rest.”

The thought of meeting innumerable spirits, most of which will want to either kill me, dissect me, or investigate my innards is not a pleasant one. Although, based on the specters that spoke to me while I was walking, not all will be malevolent. Some seemed to be eager to help, if only in their weird ways.

Without much else to do after I finish eating the remainder of our rations and a sigh from Otto at that discovery when he reaches for some, I lean back to fall asleep. But as my eyes close and my body wants to sleep, that instance where I almost fell asleep earlier keeps coming to mind. The pressing darkness and the irresistible slumber.

The feeling that if I let the candle extinguish, it will never reignite.

This feeling makes it nigh impossible for me to close my eyes fully. I don’t know what it is, but it just feels uncomfortable. Like something inside of me is resisting sleep. I try to look deeper to realize what is happening when I feel a small pulse from the Bloody Palm. Almost like it’s telling me to not sleep.

Something is wrong. And maybe it doesn’t even have anything to do with that Ogre or Otto. Something tells me it is from when slumber almost claimed me. Slumber… The Jar of Slumber! I don’t remember the second part, but I can only assume it has two Absolutions because of it having two fixes on its name. Although, I thought that Absolutions were only for people… At least that’s how the First put it.

Maybe it’s a more metaphorical thing… I don’t know. This isn’t my type of thing to think about. I pull out the book from the man and try to find anything else about Absolutions because of my distraction, and I find the page from before after a few short minutes. I reread and find a line that I had forgotten about.

Any can achieve one, but only us, the weak, the hopeful, have the advantage in acquiring them.

 

The First said that anything can gain an Absolution, it’s just that it’s easiest for humans to do so. I guess I have met a lot more people with one than monsters or demons with one. Only that Ogre has had one, or at least I assume she does as it is required to reach the 7th Sigil. But what is all this distraction leading to? Oh right, Ewaki, the Slumbering… something.

It’s getting hard to clearly remember things as I grow more and more tired. It’s also getting harder and harder to focus.

Right. Right. Right. That Angel. I think it got me somehow. Either infected me with Ether from it or did something else. Even the Bloody Palm which has put me on the silent treatment gave me a small nudge. And I’m unsure if that’s because of the level of the threat or because the palm is slowly warming back up to me. It did start to get a bit close to me before Johnny ruined that connection by forcing us together. The Ogre also said something about it leaving me with its taint. I wonder if this is what it's talking about.

It’s just getting so hard to stay awake, though. With a full belly and this warm door, it’s just… so… hard.

NO! Another blade goes into my leg as I sit up in a panic. I can’t fall asleep. The wounds do not matter. I need to stay awake. But… No!

I sit up and slowly make my way to a standing position as I continue to twist the knife in my leg. Standing alone is incredibly difficult and I almost fall. My vision wanes, but I’m unsure if it’s from the massive amount of blood I’ve lost recently or the tiredness. I push through the exhaustion once more with a shot of Indefatigable. Then, I start to walk over to Otto to wake him up to help me, but as I do, I hear footsteps on the rocks above me.

My focus falters for just a split second as I see a figure at the top of the stairs with my blurry vision. Because of this distraction, I lose balance and fall with my wobbly legs.

As I fall and the ground becomes increasingly less blurry to my vision, I try to force Ether through my body to make me move fast enough to catch myself, but I don’t. I'm not fast enough. All I hear before everything goes black is a high-pitched yell.

Then emptiness emerges. The great darkness with a single candlelight illuminating the void. The flame is flickering and feeble in front of me, almost as if a simple breeze could extinguish it. I feel the need to protect the flame, so I stand slowly in the dark to get closer to it. I only am able to take a single step before the flame flickers and turns to a barely a cinder as another chuckle rings out, the chuckle of Aniwye. The second her voice reaches me, the flame reignites fully and starts to grow in intensity beyond the normal capacity of a candle.

“You ignorant child. Well… I guess you are my work of art. Can’t blame anyone but myself, eh? Don’t draw the attention of a Power near the edge of Virtuism if you don’t want to die, little one. I’ll see you when you resurface, Wy. We got a lot to talk about. Have fun in the Underworld, I quite miss its atmosphere. Say hi to your father if he’s there. He owes me. Oh, and if Iva sees you don't mention me.”

As my mind spins in circles of confusion at her words, the dark rapidly turns to light and I hear the sound of leathery wings being cut by a cleaver followed by a horrible screech.