Chapter 15: Dolores

We were forced to leave the giant where he fell, as we had no means of either moving, burying, or burning such a large corpse. I would have lamented it, but after being forced to leave Anassa in the same way this seemed trivial. The Vandals were tired as well as injured, and all were shaken by the attack of the gargoyles, so we kept a minimal watch and let people sleep. Kobb found some edible fungus and seeds to supplement our rations. Fortunately... sadly, we had plenty to go around. But as you have seen already, one does not take chances in the wilds of Tarthas without being punished.

The wounded were laid up near the wall where our hapless protector once lay in wait of death. Dolores and I had an unconscious boy between us, and as I looked at him I wondered how such a young thing could be called upon to fight. Kendra was next to him, holding his hand and singing softly about a healing silver light. Though the boy was not awake, he seemed to smile.

"You were kept safe from a great deal of things in your sanctum," Dolores said.

I looked at her through the gloom. The faint greenish light I saw before was gone, and we had softly tuned prisms generating a small, safe amount of light that did not creep beyond a set field. I nodded, having too many things to say at once.

She looked down at the boy. "We have no time, out there in the less and unprotected lands. We must learn to work and fight and hide and farm as soon as we are strong enough to hold the implements for each, and once born we begin developing that strength. Spending time in the shelter of the Dolomites, waned as they were, was a privilege, because I got to see true children. Look back on those days fondly, Victor Thirty Nine. They were precious."

I did not say so, but I shuddered to think how menacing Tarthas must be, if the Dolomites were such highly regarded protectors. For all the safety they provided, they were a dangerous lot. Many mighty creatures fell prey to their snares, and they seemed able to do what they wished with whomever they wished.

"Will you speak openly with me?", asked Dolores. I remember looking at her, wanting my confusion to be seen on my face, as I thought we'd been doing just that from the moment we met. She reached to her right, where her load bearing vest and armored coat were folded next to her, and took a pair of small devices from one of her vest's many pouches. She winced as she reached over the boy to Kendra, who dutifully handed one of the devices to me. It was small and smooth, and had a dull red glow. There was a small emblem etched on its underside, and I recognised its function, though not its make.

"Subrosa," I said, surprised.

"Yes. Your masters used such arts?"

I nodded. "They didn't use such small contraptions, but I recognise the technology.". The Dolomites had employed many cymatic mechanisms, but speaking 'under the rose' was saved for their most secretive meetings in which only they were allowed. I knew when they had so convened by the red glow the seeped through the cracks around their meeting hall doors.

"Hold it tight until it feels hot, then loosen your grip, but keep it in your hand."

I did, and the heat was much hotter than I'd expected. I held in a sharp hiss. When I loosened my grip, the device not only cooled, but also soothed my seared skin. More memorable though was the change to my hearing. My ears felt as if they had been submerged under water, and all sound became soft and dull, quiet and echoless, and half removed from my awareness. Only Kendra's singing seemed unaffected, but when Dolores spoke, her voice rang so clear it sounded as if I were hearing her words within my mind.

"Tell me of Kendra," she said. "Your thoughts of her are riddled with pain. If I'm to help you and her, which I deeply wish to do, I need to know why you are so evasive of your early memories of her."

My words came as soon as they were bidden, though I managed to steer them a little after they sprang from the slip. I felt like a jockey vaulting onto his horse after it began the race. "Her parents left her, and were never seen again. I suppose it hurts because... I have no parents, and I was so sad to see her become an orphan like me."

Dolores looked at me searchingly for a long time. I endeavored to not show how uncomfortable her stare made me feel.

"Where did they go?", she asked at length. Her voice was gentle, but her gaze was intent. I sensed that she did not suspect me of any willful deception, and wanted to help me uncover some hidden thought. I wracked my brain, but the past was darker than the sky over our heads.

"You feel a dreadful pain over Kendra," Dolores was leaning towards me now, though the act of sitting up against the wall of the cave was clearly agonizing her. "This pain will lock you in place, Victor. There is much a boy like you can accomplish, for the good of all Tarthas, but only if you can become whole. I want to help you."

I felt suddenly suspicious, though I was simultaneously finding comfort in Dolores's interest in me. I asked her why.

"Is there anything you would like to know about me?", she asked, instead of giving me an answer.

Without thinking, I asked her to tell me about Oscar and Tyr. To my surprise, she smiled, broadly.

"I miss them, and no one mentions them in my presence. I understand why, but I miss them, and have been wanting to talk about them."

I noticed then, more than ever before, how beautiful Dolores was. She was not strikingly so, as her face was lined with weariness, and she was often dirty. Also, her facial features were not ostensibly pretty. Her mouth was more prominent than other women's, and her eyes both seemed to sag a little around her bony nose. But in spite of her roughness, she was lithe and strong, and exuded a depth of thinking and feeling that not most people either avoided or simply lacked. I wondered if Tyr was a thinking man, and so I asked. She laughed, a sweet sound that brightened the rosy field we spoke within. Kendra looked at her sharply and beamed. She likely felt Dolores stirring in her bedroll.

"I was so worried about the problems besetting our people. So few Vandal settlements have been left standing by Lord V, and Jadus too was becoming more and more troublesome. Our small township was well equipped for the life of nomads, and all of us were fighters, but Lord V was pursuing us ruthlessly wherever we went."

"Why?" I blurted. "And who's Lord V?".

Dolores's eyebrow nearly shot straight into the air. "You've never heard of Lord V? Well, the Dolomites truly have kept you sheltered. He's a terrible man, Victor. Terrible, and powerful. He was an orphan, like you, and was raised in one of the early Dolomite laboratoriums. Don't look so surprised. The Dolomites have walked the ashen dunes of Tarthas for a very long time. I doubt the Adepts of your sanctum are all that's left of their cult, or even all dead. The especially mad one..."

"Rouge Adept," I said.

"The red robed one? Yes. He had an uncanny field of power about him. I doubt a few tarrasquin could do him any lasting harm. I suspect he may have been one of the Adepts involved in Lord V's rearing, though that's only a guess. Lord V has the wraithkin mark, just as you do. I've never met him, so I can't vouch for the things said about him, but I know the damage he had done. His servants have shed an ocean of blood, and thwarted many efforts to heal our world."

"How can we heal our world?". That was then, and always has been my strongest desire, but I'd never before heard of an attempt being made, and the thought that it could even be done struck the chords of my mind with orchestral force.

Dolores's eyes opened wide. "There is a way, and there are still very wise people searching for it tirelessly. But you asked me about my husband."

My head sank a little, then rose again, though not as high as it was at the mention of healing Tarthas. I desperately wanted to know what that would entail, or what it would even mean? Would healing our world involve clearing away the crust of soot and rubble covering the sky? Or was Tarthas always a dark world, with problems I had yet to fully discover? Surely the air would be cleansed, and creatures like the tyflochs and giants and lucians would no longer be plagued from birth.

"So," Dolores continued, "my husband. When I met Tyr I didn't even notice him or remember his name. Oscar had met with a remnant from one of our other townships and brought in their best scouts and soldiers. We were planning a strike on one of Vi's holdfasts and couldn't find a way past his scrying towers without being seen. He has towers like the exalted torches of your sanctum, only instead of warding off foul winds, they seek out the salt and sulfur of living souls, and when they find you, they scream, bringing soldiers from the holdfast."

"They sound awful," I said, though I was not very afraid, really. She knew that, having knowledge of they who raised me. But she smiled and nodded, rather than call out my small speech.

"They are difficult to avoid, and often call worse things than Lord V's thugs. I dislike recalling the event, but once we struck a protein farm of his, and the scrying towers wailed. We triggered them on purpose, as we'd set traps and had the high ground. But we failed to note there was a warpgate nearby, and a pentam of Devils came out and attacked us all."

Now Devils were a thing I'd heard of, and it frightened me to learn they were real. "What do they look like?"

Dolores spoke very quietly, though her volume was maintained by the subrosa. "Abominations. You've seen men in soul armor?".

I nodded, thinking of Turk.

"You saw the grotesques that attacked us".

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I hadn't, not clearly, but I nodded.

"Devils are worse than any golem or hoplite. They are shaped like men, but unnaturally large, with deformed limbs and glowing eyes like a spider's."

"And they spew fire from their hands?".

"Some. These had worse weapons. They made a deep and deafening sound, far louder than Lord V's scrying towers, and when they directed the sound at a person, the person fell in pieces on the ground.

I winced at the thought.

"I alone made it back to our township. The protein farm was destroyed, naturally, but we were forced to flee before the Devils came for us."

"What about their warpgate?".

"There is nothing to be done about them. They wield powers and arts far beyond any on the surface know, even the Dolomites. All one can do is flee from them. Their portals open and close when and where they wish them to. I was terrified of scrying towers for a long time after that battle, and it showed when Tyr saw me fretting hopelessly over how to avoid them. He was quiet and patient during the brief, but when we were creeping up on the holdfast, he took his squad and they tried every plan and contingency I'd spouted during brief, even the ones I'd discounted as too risky, until the holdfast was clear of Lord V's thugs. I wanted to reprimand him then and there, but thanks to him our assault drew out a Valkyr who'd been inspecting the holdfast. I'm guessing you don't know what a Valkyr is?"

I shook my head and shrugged. She went on to describe Lord V's hierarchy of warrior concubines, shamanic priestesses and women given treatments to give them the size and strength of a large man, whose role in life was manual labor and the guarding of dungeons. The Valkyrs were bred and raised for war and death, and their bodies were specially conditioned to wear armor that gave them flight and increased strength. They might have sounded frightening if not for the tale I'd just heard of the Devils and their thunder canons. I idly asked if Lord V was afraid of other men, or just wanted all the women for himself. Dolores laughed, then her voice went quiet again.

"His ideology is a strange one, and not for thinking people. His rule is riddled with contradictions and unfounded bias. What I've heard from our spies is that in his city, men who have his favor wear collars and tend to the needs of the women, and are no more than servants and bed slaves. Only one man has earned a place in his court, and the rumor is that he did so by means so vile that he is almost as feared as Lord V himself. His name is Ahz, if you're curious."

"So you forgave Tyr for being reckless?". The talk of Lord V and his ways held no interest for me then. Naturally, that would all change one day. But I had those Devils on my mind, and was terrified that such an enemy could simply appear wherever and whenever they wished.

"No," Dolores replied. "But I fell deeply in love with him in time. While I sat pondering endlessly, he was always quick to act and get something done. A lesser man would have died a dozen times, but Tyr had the instincts and courage of a mother bird. The saddest thing, Victor, is that it took me so long to see his worth. We hadn't been married a fortnite when he died."

My heart sank, and I wanted so badly to go to her and hold her hand, as Kendra held the sleeping boy's.

"Stay there, Victor. You need your rest. But thank you. Would you like to hear of my brother as well?"

"He saved my life," I answered.

"More than once. Oscar was like many Vandal men; exactly the kind of man Tarthas needs more of. There are fewer like him every day. He saw something in you. I listened to him, and I'm beginning to see it now. I'm slow to see virtue in others, I suppose."

"I try to only see virtue," I said, feeling my thoughts being pulled out of my mind again. "You're branded, like me. Why? I thought the marks were for our covenant."

She was silent for a long time, during which Kendra came to my side and curled into a ball, then fell asleep. The Vandals changed their watches, the tarrasquin came in for hot broth and cold water, and I examined the interior of the arch in the slowly changing light of the prisms. The room was tall, and the walls were pocked and scratched. Motes of dust floated like jelly fish in the damp air.

"The covenants are a thing of the past, Victor."

She sounded very worried.

"I..." I felt like crying, and was confused as to why. "I remember being asked which I believed in, and I argued that there must be more than two. I was told that a man's mind is his own, but he must make an outward choice for the sake of others. I refused, and they marked me as a wraith. I remember it, Dolores. It's true."

"I know. I believe you, Victor. My brand is different from yours. I chose to be marked, you see. These aren't just scars caused by an iron. With the brand comes changes to our bodies and minds. The most painful give the strongest gifts. Mine hurt a great deal. But yours... Before seeing you, I thought your sign was only a legend."

I felt angry. "You said Lord V has the wraith mark."

"He does.". She grimaced, then shifted back against the wall more, and reaching over the sleeping boy's head, traced a triangle in the ground with a line slashed through the top. "This is a wraith mark. I would not have called yours by that term, had you not. It's your brand, Victor, so you know more of it than I do. To be honest, I know very little of the brands or the arts they're made by. And mine was given by an antagarthan. You were made how you are by the Dolomites themselves."

I shook my head, growing increasingly agitated. "I wasn't. I came from the north, from the continent. Or..."

"There is another island north of us," she sounded piteous, "a much larger one. Maybe you came from there? The Vandals all hail from Aiseura, Victor, and I promise you there are no bone white boys with shining eyes like you."

"I'm not from here," I insisted. "Lord V probably knows what I'm talking about. He probably refused to choose a covenant as well. Maybe that's an old thing on the continent, but not on the island I was born on.". She wore a look that made me angry. "What?!", I demanded, raising my voice. Kendra woke and hugged me, patting my head until I calmed down, then went back to sleep.

"Victor," Dolores seemed on the verge of tears, "that island is a wasteland. The reason my people came here is because Tarthas is almost dead. Few places can still support life, and this is one of those few. This has been the case for a long time."

"If no one can live there, then how did you survive?".

I remember her sigh. "I'm sorry, Victor. You must hate me now. I'm not lying to you, or trying to confuse you. Please understand that I'm as confused by what you're telling me. Maybe we're both wrong. It's so hard to know the truth in a world such as ours. We're..."

"What about Hokanto?" I interrupted. I was so angry, and the fact that I couldn't figure out why made me angrier still.

"Excuse me?", she was mystified.

"Where Nokan's from. There's people there."

"If Hokanto was still habitable, then why have they come to Ataroa? Victor, I'm sorry."

She didn't say so, but somehow she knew that before this moment, I had never once had any notion of being from the continent.

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