Chapter 46: 1-44: High Mother and High Houses

Our mule meandered along, laden with both us and some supplies Hayli had acquired somehow. We had tried to leave on foot but when a friendly farmer asked us where we were setting off to, he insisted that it was better to take a mule than go on foot. So, I had the reins to it and Hayli in my lap, my arms not having to move to accommodate her.

“You know it would be easier to drive Frumpy if you were behind me.”

“You’re doing fine. And besides, I want to see where we’re going, Terra.”

“Have it your way. Don’t complain to me if we miss a ditch because the top of your tail was in my face.”

She wrapped her tail around me and hmphed. “Better?”

"Barely."

Frumpy crunched the snow with its hooves, slowly but surely making its way forward. The sun shined down from the sky, reflecting off the dirty snow. I wondered if trusting a bartender's advice was a good idea. It was still cold, and I had no idea where I was going- just a vague direction they had gave me this morning.

And of course, it was completely insane to trust someone who lived out here by himself to be able to help me- especially one who ever person I had asked about had said something contradictory about. That he was a Humon in one telling and a Demon in another. That he had shown up here a few years ago or that he had visited the area before during the last Prophecy Cycle. That he lived in a cave or that he lived in a castle. Really, I wasn't even sure there was anyone in this direction at all.

Even if he did exist, and could fix the situation I had found myself in, how would that help us get back and snap the others out of Azrael's control? I really did not want to kill anyone- but if I had to... That of course assumes that offing her would reverse the control like some kind of fairytale. 

"Terra. You're nervous. Why?" Hayli asked, her neck bent back to look at me.

"Worried that we're on a goose chase."

"Yes. Makes sense. But worry not, soon we will return to where we are meant to be."

"If you weren't still obsessed with Az, I might have made a comment there."

"As I said, and you agreed, this me is me. And I can guess what you'd say from the blush on your face. Truly, a bottom."

"Okay, seriously what the fuck does that mean."

"Can't this beast pick up the pace, Terra?"

"It's a mule, Hayli. They don't go fast. And they go ever so slower when laden down with supplies and two ladies on their backs." I patted Frumpy on the side.

Hayli groaned and stretched, “I’m bored. Let’s say we play that game we did before you came out.”

“No.”

“You really don’t have a choice, Terra. Now, my mistress said something that I am sure was about you having asked her out. Was that true?”

“Why? Are you jealous?”

“I’m bored and want you to distract me.”

“Yes. I had a crush on her when I was a kid. It was right before I met Quaza.”

“And she said no?”

“I thought this was the game, shouldn’t it be my turn now?”

“You said you didn’t want to play. Now answer.”

I grumbled. “Yeah. She said she was into girls.”

“And that was it?”

“Well we got in a fight when I asked her what type of girls she liked. Said Avery wasn’t- never mind.”

“Oh, defending your sister? I’m jealous of that.”

“Well, that and she said a character in a Fantasy Serial that was popular among us at the time wasn't the best girl in it.”

“And I’m losing respect for you.”

“Fuck you. My turn.” I thought for a moment. I didn’t like asking Hayli as she was now anything, but she might give more honest answers about some things I was wondering. “With your mom being an acclaimed actress, you must be well off.”

“Yes. But that’s more my father’s doing.” She tensed up a bit, “Least he could do is send money, with how absent he became. Now, let’s see… ah. Terra, what would be so bad about serving my mistress? Even with your silly idea she’s using mind control.”

“The mind control part.”

“I thought you’d be into that.”

“From you.” I stopped taking a moment to get myself to ignore that response. “My turn. Last turn. Did you know Olli before you met her in the carriage? She seemed to recognize you in the capital.”

“No. Clearly, she knew Ilyah and put two and two together. Now, hush. If this the type of questions you wish to ask, I’d rather nap.” Hayli said closing her eyes and soon very quietly the sound of snoring came from her. I pulled my arms closer so her limp body wouldn’t fall off as we went and enjoyed the silence.

When she was asleep, I could almost forget the whole obedience to Azrael thing. It was just nice, to be able to hold her and be near her without having to hear her talk about Az or worry about her trying to do something to me. 

We moved on for a few more hours of Frumpy powered travel, Hayli awakening an hour later to continue to not talk to me, until suddenly Hayli pulled the reigns for me, jolting our ride to a sudden stop. She motioned for me to look ahead. There was a thin wisp of smoke in the distance, barely visible.

"I cannot believe I am going to say this, but approach slower."

"Why? It's just a campfire or something."

"Terra, I know you are often surprisingly naive for your character, but you know that the Heroes were recently in the area."

"Yeah, and they left. Probably down to the valley."

"Would you bet your life on that?"

"Maybe I would."

"And mine?"

"Fine, I'll slow down."

Hayli smiled as we began our approach towards what I was pretty sure would end up being just the remains of some hunter's camp or something just as innocuous. After all, my brother for some reason had wanted to go skiing, went skiing and thus would have gone down the mountain and not whatever direction we were going. Actually, why did he want to go skiing. He hated skiing the one time he tried it with Ulther. Just what kind of person was the spell making him out to be?

As we approached ever closer, Hayli and I disembarked leaving Frumpy tied to a pine tree. As much as I hated to admit it, there was at least someone there- though if it was someone we knew was yet to be determined. There was a soft voice, barely noticeable to me, singing a tune with no words. Soon we came to see the source, a cloaked figure who was sitting by the smoldering remains of a blaze.

We moved towards them, silently. Hayli and I rock paper scissors-ed to be the one to go and announce ourselves to them, which I won. Hayli thus walked up behind them and coughed.

The figure shifted, a voice familiar to me but without the drunken tone that usually accompanied it answered, "Ah. Odd. Last I checked, were you not on the island with no boat to escape it, Hayli."

Hayli immediately jumped back and hissed. "You."

Bianca, High Mother of the Human Kingdom, stood up and looked at us. "And you must be Terra. A pleasure to meet you once again."

I had, out of instinct, pulled out my knife and was holding it in a mockery of a defensive stance. "Why are you here?"

"The Heroes are here, are they not?"

Hayli growled, lowering to the ground, "That wasn't an answer."

The High Mother shrugged, "And you expect my glorious self to give answers to a sinner like you. Hayli. Shame, you ended up on their side- Ilyah is not as useful as you would have been."

"I'd rather serve my mistress than be a hero for you."

"Mistress? Ah... I see. That one's gift has been used. Shame that's one of my planned distractions to help the Heroes pass time gone- but if you have been captured, I can only imagine who else has."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Oh, our benefactors for the return of the Twins gave me some magical items to disperse as I saw fit. Ways to create chaos, to keep the Heroes busy while we do the work."

"And that work is?"

"Terra, I'm not giving away the plot that easily. I take it Azrael didn't get you with her gift." She stretched. "Now, go ahead and come at me, Hayli. It's not good to keep your feelings inside. Rage, traitor."

Hayli taking the invitation dashed forward, trying to grab the High Mother. Bianca calmly side stepped her, letting Hayli stumble to the ground. The Water Dragon quickly leapt back up and launched herself forward. The High Mother moved back so smoothly that it looked as if she was gliding.

This continued on for a bit, while I was just watching it. Well, more I was watching the High Mother, a strange thought in my head. That her movements didn't seem right. Like she was not affected by the terrain she was on at all. 

"Terra. Are you going to stand there and gawk or will you help me?" Hayli yelled.

"Help how?"

"I don't care. Throw shit at her to distract her so I can pound her."

I shrugged picking up a rock. As Bianca was sidestepping a swing of Hayli's tail, I launched it at her. It soared in the air, and then as it reached the point where it should have hit the High Mother, it kept going. I blinked trying to figure if I had missed and just imagined that happening. I bent down grabbing a nice ball of snow and rocks and dirt. I waited until Bianca was dodging once more and once again chucked it at her. Once again it soared through her and to the ground beyond. 

Was this some kind of protection magic? I wasn't sure how it was making a solid object go through her. Or was it a mirage, where her actual physical form and what we observed weren't the same. Say she could appear to be a foot away when she was really a foot and a half away. Eh. Only one way to stop it regardless. 

I stepped forward as she dodged a punch from Hayli and produced the orb to the tip of my finger and let it touch her. Instead, my finger passed through her and her whole body as well. That wasn't right. 

Bianca laughed as I passed through her. "Oh, twins-dammit. I was having fun messing around. Now, Terra, I know what's going on in your head now. Why didn't that little orb of yours work? Now, even if I was there, I hate to tell you but that little gift of yours wouldn't work on the magic granted by Runes."

"How do you have Rune Magic?"

"Oh. You know what that is? I see. The benefactors did mention two others arrived on the island with them- despite their efforts to contain everyone to Magala. But yes. Or rather, I have someone who can use it. That, by the way, is what powers the gifts of Chaos I handed out."

What. "You're just bluffing." I replied trying to kill her with my eyes alone.

"Worry not. Maybe if you destroy the item, Hayli might return to normal. Or it might make it permanent."

"I am not going to let you bait her like this. What are you playing at?" Hayli asked. 

"Having some fun. A little distraction. It is so boring waiting for things yet to come. I have to be going soon, my pets are getting restless. So, a final question. What are you planning to do? Are you going to try and stop us, or have you given up? Because the last Candidates were fighting us Heroes by now." She shimmered and faded away just as Hayli was about to leap on her again despite fully knowing she wasn't there.

"What the fuck was that about?" Hayli asked brushing herself off.

I shrugged, walking back towards Frumpy. "A waste of time. Come on Hayli."

"Let's hurry up then. I want to return to the Mistress as soon as possible."

I nodded and we started off again. Surely, I could bring Hayli- and the others- back from Azrael's grasp. Surely it wasn't a fruitless endeavor. I mean, if the person we were going to was studying runes, they could know a way to fix this. I just had to keep positive.

After all, my only other option was to give myself to Azrael, and I didn't want someone else tell me how my existence should be spent. So, only one choice. Onward still.

(The strange ram horned demon giggled as Avery tried to look intimidating towards her. "She's funny. I like her also."

"Vern. Why is a demon in town?"

"Avery, we have demons like all the time, right Earth?"

I shrugged, "There's the goofy looking thing."

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"Pinja."

"Yeah xer."

"Are you going to answer my question or not?"

"I was showing Earth around the woods and this weirdo found us and followed us back."

"I'm Olli!"

"Avery. Hero, with the big H."

"Ooh. Cool."

"Shouldn't you be a bit more afraid?"

"Why? I'm not a candidate. We haven't even begun to select ours."

Vern looked confused, "Why not?"

"Oh, it's not starting till Emdoa."

"That's the end of the year."

Olli ignored that, something we would discover she was good at doing instead, getting closer to Avery. She circled her and then asked, "So... you think you can do better than the last cycle?"

"Better?"

"I mean a Lord and what was nearly a full war? Pretty bad result for your side."

"I don't see a Lord in charge of the Demon Kingdom, just a candidate from four cycles ago."

I raised my hand, "Hey Avie? What's a Lord?"

"You know how I'm a Hero right?"

"I hope Earth does; you only mention it like all of the time." Vern replied.

Avery shot him a look, "Well, there's a version of that for Demons, but they're called Lord Candidates or just Candidates for short. And if things go really bad for us one of the becomes a Lord."

"So, how do they decide who's the Lord?"

Avery shrugged and looked at Olli. "A little help here, demon?"

"Sorry. I don't know how either. None of my history classes have mentioned it."

"Great, thanks for the assist. Now, my two brothers can escort you back across the border a- she's running off towards town. Vern, Ulther will yell at me if I miss practice can you two deal with her?"

Vern smirked, "Yep." and grabbed my hand dragging me off with him to catch up with Olli. We quickly moved her out of the center of town and into our house. Our parents, home for once in their lives before work ended only gave us a cursory glance and a 'Please don't break anything' before returning to relaxing. Guess when one of your kids is a Hero, bringing in a strange demon girl doesn't really surprise them. We drug her to the bedroom that I was sharing with the twins until our dad finished refurbishing two new rooms for us to fight over and plopped on the floor.

"So, this is a human house. Exactly the same. Boring."

"Demon houses aren't made of bones?" Vern asked.

"Bones are a very bad material to build houses out of. By the way, nice to meet you. I forgot that earlier and granny would kill me for that."

"Vern, and this is Earth."

"Vern? Earth? Your names are odd."

"My name is completely normal. I know a Vern in the neighboring town even. He's a nice old man who owns the candy store. Olli is a weird name too."

"No, it's not. It's common for Demons and Humans, which is why my mom named me it."

"How do you spell it."

"O-L-L-I."

"That is not a normal way to spell that."

"Who cares. What about Earth?"

"We have asked mom and dad so many times about that."

"And?"

"It changes every time we find out the last story was a lie."

"So, you acknowledge his name is weird?"

"Yeah. It's literally another word for dirt."

"Bullies call me Mud and Dirt at school." I helpfully chimed in.

"Are Demon names always weird to you, by the way?"

"Hit us."

"Pinja."

"Weird in name and existence."

"Honi."

"Less weird."

"Swyr?"

"Normal sounding but I know it's spelt weird, and I only know because I know that's the name of the last Lord." Vern looked proud of himself.

"Well. It's been fun, but like... I should get back before Granny gets worried." Olli stretched standing up. She turned to Vern and winked, "Oh, if only someone could escort a lady like me back."

"Avery is more ladylike than you. Even Earth is, and he constantly forgets to get out of his pajamas before going outside." Vern said as he still took her arm. "Earth, don't mess up the bed too much if you nap."

"I make no promises."

Vern shook his head and left the room as I dove into bed and wrapped myself in the blankets for a nice afternoon nap.)

After a very uneventful next day where I did not get in an argument with Hayli and cried myself to sleep, we soon found ourselves against the end of the path we were on, staring up at a sheer wall of rock.

“I don’t see anyone, Terra.”

“Have you even tried looking around? Maybe there’s a cave.”

Hayli shrugged and grumbled to herself as she started to walk and look around. I fed Frumpy an apple and petted them as I moved my eyes around the area. Snow and rocks. 

I cocked my head up, climbing the cliff, trying to find a ladder or handhold that might say that we need to climb it. Eventually, my eyes hit something wrong. An opening, shaped like a piece of candy in its wrapper with nearly camouflaged white pillars in front of it.

“Hayli?” I called.

“Yes?”

I pointed upwards.

“How are we supposed to get up there?”

“Hold on.” I closed my eyes, focusing. It took three seconds. I walked to a part of the cliff and pressed my hand in. I could feel the wood of the ladder. I wasn’t sure if this was a trustworthy thing, but, if it was invisible that meant the person I was after used it, so it was probably safe.

I returned to Frumpy and grabbed a pack and tossed my mind-controlled girlfriend her own. "Invisible rope ladder." I told her, immediately walking back to the ladder without giving Hayli as second to complain like I know she wanted to do. 

We began the ascent, carefully grasping the very harsh rope with one hand as the other one and our feet felt for the next foot and hand hold. As we got up higher and higher, it naturally became more of a bitch to climb. With the wind, and the ice on the rope and the wood, and the giant pack attached to my back, it was being more and more likely that I was going to fuck up and fall.

Thankfully, that didn't happen. To me. It did happen to Hayli who slipped, started to fall, caught herself with her tail, her pack falling down into the white void below and he head crashing into the rock, knocking herself out cold. 

Trying to stay calm I had to think. The cave wasn't so far away now, and I could probably get up to it and pull her up. But I wasn't sure that her tail would hold until that or during it either, and I was completely sure that fall would kill her- and me. So, I decided the best course of option was to toss my pack down as well, quickly descend to Hayli, awkwardly grabbing her and somehow managing to get her onto my back and began to slowly and carefully climb up again. I could feel a very worrying wet spot grow and freeze somewhere on my back, but I managed to not think about it every step of the journey to the cave, just most of it.

It was a mercy when I pulled my body up onto the cold stone and half crawled and slid forward until I could stand up and check on Hayli.

I could see anything that bad. Beyond the broken nose, and welt on her head, and scraped skin on multiple parts of her body. I, not knowing what to do, went back to find a piece of ice and just pushed it against Hayli's bare skin while telling her to wake up. After a minute of doing this Hayli grumbled a bit and nothing more. Well, she was alive.

I sighed, picking her back up and tossing her onto my back and started walking into the darkness, yelling out for help every once in a while, while trying not to stumble and hurt myself and Hayli more. 

Soon I bumped into something wooden. I felt around until a cold metal knob made its way into my hand and I tried it. It barely moved. Locked. Well, clearly the person I needed was behind this door so...

I started slamming on the door and screaming like a banshee. After awakening the deceased, I heard something from ahead of me and stepped away. The door swung open, and I waited to see who was in front of me before stepping forward. Instead of a man, Pinja appeared, holding a Lantern with... something.

I blinked looking at xer, who looked back at me. "You seem like you recognize me. Hmmm. Oh, you must know my child Pinja. I am xer parent, Panju. Why are you here at my master's domain?"

"Well, Hayli got brainwashed by a ru-" I began.

"Hayli? I see. Come in. Come in." Pinja's terrifyingly identical parent guided me inside. 

Inside it was basically a modest mansion, which only made me surer that whoever it was xe served was going to be able to help me. She placed me into a sitting room, and I placed Hayli onto the fainting couch and sat down in a chair and waited. Hayli was now snoring.

After a bit, Pinja returned with a bed on wheels. "Help me get her upon this, human."

"Why?"

"Master wishes to see her first."

"Why?"

"She needs her mind returned to normal, does she not?"

I conceded that and helped toss Hayli off the couch and onto the bed and watched as Panju wheeled her snoring form out of the room. A second later xe returned and told me not to move, before closing the door behind xer with a slam. I sat back down, this time wrapping myself with a blanket to warm up.

I really hoped that this master would help Ha- wait, I didn't say what the issue with Hayli was. How had Panju known that? No, no. Don't look the gift horse in the mouth. Don't think about how you're in a room Terra, with no one else, in a stranger's home, in a cave, in the middle of a mountain. Just stay calm.

I of course calm went to the door and tried to pull it open, finding it locked. Of course. I was a stranger entering another person's abode, uninvited so such caution would make sense, but with Hayli, it only made me more paranoid. But I had seen how thick the door was and I knew I couldn't break it down, and the walls in the room were bricks, which meant that was my other path out blocked.

I slid onto the floor and stared at the ceiling. I really hoped my imagination was just overacting and there was nothing sinister going on. I stared up harder until I just zoned out completely and totally.

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