Tayla felt like her entire world was capsizing. After the events of the last couple days she was nearing her breaking point. Today was already shaping up to be yet another terrible day. It had been quite the shock this morning to wake up to her guards standing over her, they had assumed she was recovering from the night before, but when it neared noon, they grew concerned and entered the room to check on her. It was embarrassing that she had slept through the Keel being brought back to full power. The many diplomats had wasted no time in making numerous encrypted communications before packing their bags and leaving in a hurry. Thankfully in her absence, the great Houses had stepped in to oversee the whole fiasco; she would have to thank them later for their hard work.
Part of Tayla was saddened that Thoren had left without a word. She felt like they were on their way to becoming friends, something she had very few of. Thoren wasn’t the only one that had left without a word. She had been told by the House of Chimera’s that Phi had left a note stating he would accompany Fel on their journey; the two of them had never seemed close, so the thought of him running off with Fel was strange, but having Phi by their side made Tayla feel a bit less anxious for her sibling.
The only good news that had come was a report from Bynard and Zo, Alnur was still undergoing surgery, with no foreseeable end in sight. As far as Tayla was concerned that was a good thing, it meant he was still holding on.
There had been just one thing left behind by the guests, the coffin that Vauhn had brought with him. Tayla stood in front of the horrific box, staring down at the occult machinery and sigils inside of it. Both the Arcane and Engineering house’s had stepped forward to demand they be allowed to investigate the contents of the coffin. As for the occupant of the box, shortly after his examination he had demanded to be given leave with the rest of the Cabal’s representatives. The doctor’s had tried to stress the trauma he had been through and the concerns they had at him traveling in such a state, but he had chosen to leave nonetheless.
That left just one last problem that was weighing on her mind. Tayla turned to look to her side, hoping that this time she would be free. The floating decayed corpse of Vauhn waved back enthusiastically at her.
Nope, still seeing dead people.
Tayla was alone in the room with the coffin, she had asked to be given a chance to look it over on her own, ignoring the counsel from the Houses. She spoke aloud, still unsure of how this worked. “So, if this was the real Vauhn, what the hells are you? My bet is still that you’re a dem-”
The thing that was not Vauhn quickly interrupted her. “Hey! How many times do I have to tell you, I. Am. Not. A. Demon. You are really being insensitive y’know!” Dead or not, he still spoke in his usual overly dramatic way.
“Then, if you would be so kind.” Tayla said, her voice sweet and kind. “What the fuck are you! Furthermore, get out of my head!” She said, raising her voice while still trying not to alert her guards outside.
“Well.” Not-Vauhn said as he floated up to Tayla, the tendons in his hanging jaw were starting to rot yet that seemed to do little to stop him from running his mouth. “Where’s the fun if I just tell you! Why don’t you try and guess and I’ll tell you something if you guess it right.” As he spoke his eyes glowed in an ever shifting spectrum of light.
Tayla sighed, she could do little to stop the thing, perhaps if she played along she could get some more information to use against him. At the very least maybe it would finally shut him up for five seconds. “Okay, I'll take a guess. Are you a demon?”
“You can stop that anytime y’know.” There was a withering look in Not-Vauhn’s eyes.
“Can you at least tell me your name?” Tayla said with a sigh.
The thing raised an eyebrow. “What don't you like calling me Vauhn?”
Pointing to the empty coffin Tayla continued. “Last I checked, the real Vauhn is on his way home for some much needed therapy because of you.”
“Please, he’ll be fine. I made sure he would forget everything about his time in the stasis sarcophagus. Just takes a day or two for the subconscious mnemonic-engine to kick in.” He glanced back at Tayla, who continued to look at him with a cold expression. “Okay, okay. Call me Dee.”
“Dee? Is that your name?”
“It is an acronym. It stands for ‘Don’t you think I’m pretty handsome?’ Clever eh?” Dee said with a giant grin on his rotten face.
Squinting slightly, Tayla quickly retorted. “That’s not how acronym’s work, like, at all.”
There was genuine pain in Dee’s eyes. “Shut up! You’re not how acronym’s work!”
“If anything, I would have thought ‘Dee’ was short for demon.”
“You young lady, are an asshole."
“Coming from you, that’s a compliment.” Whatever this thing was, so far it hadn’t taken any aggressive actions towards her. For now.
Dee flipped on his back, gently floating in a circle around the room, he had his usual smarmy look plastered on his face. “So, are we gonna play this little game or not?”
Tayla looked down at her living wrist, the eldritch script seemed to be dancing around her skin while laughing. If she wanted some way out of this, she would need to play along. “What are the rules for this game?”
Something shifted in Dee’s demeanor. He turned to give Tayla his whole attention, there was a bottomless hunger in his eyes. “Are you familiar with the children’s game where you have to guess what something is in twenty questions using only yes or no answers?”
“Uh. Yeah, I know of it.” Tayla was relieved that it was such a simple game.
“Good. You seem like a smart woman, so let’s say you have seven questions. If you can guess who and what I am with seven questions you will win the game.” Dee seemed smug, whatever he was, he assumed that there was little chance for Tayla to guess correctly.
Tapping her foot for a moment Tayla looked up at Dee. “Just so long as we aren’t playing for any real stakes. I’ve made enough bargains with you for one lifetime.”
Dee grinned from ear to ear. “No bargains, just a friendly game.”
Tayla had a hard time believing that this game would be anything but friendly. “I’ll give it some thought. On to more pressing matters, I’m guessing you won’t tell me what this coffin is?”
Dee nodded.
Great, the only reason she had come here was in the hopes that Dee would give her some information about this accursed box. She turned to leave, there were more important duties she had to be attending to. As she left the room a pair of guards quickly fell into line behind her. Thankfully they were far enough away to give her the chance to whisper to her new ‘friend’.
The bloated festering corpse floated down the halls by her side. “Do you really have to use that form? Any longer and I’ll be speaking to a skeleton.”
Looking down, Dee said, “This shabby form isn’t my fault, this is because of your mind's eye deciding to project me like this. I am just a meta-spiritual manifestation using a localized mnemonic anchor point. You can change this anytime you want.”
It never ceased to amaze Tayla how Dee could speak the common tongue and still sound like he was speaking some foreign language. “Stop using made up words to sound smart. How do I change how you look?”
“Just because you don’t understand them doesn’t mean they're made up, though, I do sometimes have to make up new words to describe my brilliance.” Dee grumbled to himself. “You need to clear your mind and tap into the old powers, the ancient ways. Or, in simple terms. You have to envision it until your individual perception of reality overpowers the actual reality.”
“How is any of that ‘simple terms’. You are the worst at explaining.” Tayla fought the urge to scream and pull her hair.
“Look. Maybe later I can give you a lesson or two in the eldritch arts, I’m sure you’ll love it. For now, you’re stuck with me as I appear to you. Tough luck.” Dee spoke of heresy in a shockingly casual fashion.
Tayla took a breath, she tried to tap into the Tranquility to ease her nerves, but her mind seemed to resist. The stress over the last few days was taking its toll in a myriad of ways. “Can’t you disappear for a bit? I really need to focus on running a nation and having a rotting corpse speak to me is a bit distracting.”
Dee seemed to be weighing something in his mind. “Well, like I was saying, you are in control here. Not just how I appear, but when. You just don’t know how to control your new senses yet. For now, if you really want me to go away for a bit, you just need to clear your mind and forget I exist. Simple right?”
Arguing with the man was getting Tayla nowhere. So, she decided to try and take the man’s instructions to heart. Closing her eyes as she walked, she let her mind wander. Resting her hand against the corridor's wall as a guide, she tried to put all of the terrible things she had seen lately behind her. She could feel the minor vibrations of the Keel’s power core through her living hand, it felt like a beating heart. The beat seemed chaotic and random at first, but Tayla had gone to bed each night listening to that rhythmic beat. It was more akin to a lullaby to her; she could tell how much power the ship was using just by the vibrations alone. Memories of her lifetime in these halls came washing over her, and with them the pain and sadness of the day seemed to ebb away.
Tayla opened her eyes as she continued to walk. For the first time in days, she felt at peace.
“Wow, for a second I really thought you had it!” Dee said.
It had been worth a try.
While there was much the great Houses could do to help with Tayla’s duties, there were some things that she had to take care of personally. As she reached her destination she entered the small private communications chamber that would be her home for the next several hours. Dread crept up her spine at the thought of what was to come, the politicking and theological bootlicking she would have to endure to try and placate the other nations and governments.
With a heavy sigh Tayla accessed the communication network of the Keel, patching into the Celestial network of satellites. A flood of encrypted messages appeared in rapid succession, there were easily close to fifty marked as ‘Alpha Priority’. This was going to be a nightmare. There was no time to waste, she had already lost her chance to strike first when she had slept in this morning, now she had to try and claw back some good will.
A new message came in, this one was marked ‘Omega Priority’. That was extremely concerning, Tayla had never even heard of that level of communication. She opened it first, and as she read each line her heart felt like it was about to stop dead in her chest.
Attention, in accordance with Celestial law, the vassal nation of The Black Coast has been marked for immediate inquiry by the most Holy Inquisition of the Celestial Court. By order of the Primarus’ you are hereby instructed to give your complete cooperation in this investigation into the supposed acts of treachery and heresy. Failure to comply will be taken as an admission of guilt and grounds for immediate cleansing.
An imperial cruiser has been tasked with carrying out this inquiry on behalf of the Court. May the Gods watch over you, forever and always.
Tayla leaned back in her chair, her mind raced with the implications of the message and what was to come. This was the worst case scenario, having an official probe into the inner workings of the Coast was something her ancestors had always warned of. Now it was coming to pass, and she was at the helm.
Everything had fallen apart during the visit, she had hoped to convince the Court of the impending food shortages and the threat that it would pose. With how terribly things had gone, the whole plan had been cast to the wind. Now it wasn’t a matter of if there would be food shortages, but instead how many would die from them.
The only good thing about this whole thing, was that Tayla was so preoccupied with her thoughts that she didn’t even realize that Dee had ceased to exist.
Staring at the communication terminal for the last four hours had left Tayla’s eyes feeling like someone had taken sandpaper to them. She had done everything she could to try and ease tensions with the other races of the Court and the Cabal. The general sentiment she received in response to her messages were along the lines of, ‘we’re waiting for the inquisition to finish before we speak to you further’. Even the Cabal were on the side of the Court on this, no doubt wanting to avoid any unnecessary stress on their relatively new peace treaty by siding with possible heretics. The only nation that had responded positively was the king of Seru, not only had he apologized for the actions of his representative, he requested she be sent back to Seru to stand trial for her crimes against the Coast. Tayla would send the woman back immediately, and as soon as their own food situation was sorted out she would make sure to send a generous offering of Krak’un meat as a gift of goodwill to the Serulean king. If even half the rumours were true, the king of Seru was a monstrous being that ruled with an iron fist. He was also very easy to bribe.
As for the other nations, Tayla would have to try and smooth things over once this investigation was done, if they didn’t execute her first.
There was a reason that Alnur was the Lord of Light and Tayla was the Mistress of Shadow, the old titles sounded grandiose but in actuality it simply meant that one of them was the face of the kingdom and the other was more focused on making sure things ran smoothly while not drawing too much attention to themselves.
Tayla preferred it that way. Now that the harvest was over things were returning to normal, meaning the Keel was filled with swarms of people. As she walked down the hall she had to constantly stop and chat, or smile and wave. She didn’t hate it, but she was used to sitting in her office and focusing on paperwork. Her jaw was starting to become sore from all the smiling. How did Alnur do this so effortlessly?
Rubbing her face, Tayla made her way into the gathering hall through one of the hidden doors. As busy as they all were preparing for the coming inquisition, they couldn’t ignore the day to day governing of the nation. That meant she had to act as arbiter and mediator for the common court. She reached a hand down to adjust her ceremonial robes for the fourteenth time, they seemed to bunch and ride up in the weirdest places. The robes themselves were a heavy dark fabric with golden trim. Atop her head was a headpiece with two serpents of gold and iron, intertwined and locked in an eternal battle.
The gathering hall had been returned to the usual layout, three ornate wooden chairs stood at the far end of the room facing each other in a triangular fashion. Guards stood on either side of the chairs, ready to intervene if a disagreement devolved to fists. The wooden walls held the banners of the great Houses and their sigils. In the center of the far wall was the Ebontide family crest, its two serpents intertwined as a black sun hung above them.
Sitting down in her chair, Tayla turned to the flanking guards. “How many do we have today?”
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The guard on her left rolled his eyes up into his head for a moment as he looked through his sisters eyes. Returning to normal he continued. “As you commanded, we have sorted through the claims so that only the most pressing issues have to be addressed today. That still leaves half a dozen or so cases to judge on my lady.”
There was something familiar about the guard's face and voice, but Tayla was struggling to remember the man’s name. The guard was staring at Tayla, like he was waiting for her to say something. Oh Hells, he wanted Tayla to thank him. There was a hint of panic as she instinctively reached for the link, Alnur knew everyone’s name. Shame washed over her as she stopped, she would have to survive without her brother to save her from social awkwardness.
Tayla opened her mouth to try and fumble her way through a thank you when someone spoke over her. “Thank you for your service Franc.” Tayla snapped her head around to see her uncle standing to her side, he had come in his ceremonial armor, polearm at the ready. It was common during arbitration to bring at least one advisor, it would seem he was keen on filling that role today.
It was painful to look at her uncle. Tayla’s face grew flush, after the events of yesterday it was hard to look at him and not feel bitter anger. She lowered her voice slightly. “Cyrus, I had thought it clear that I didn’t want to see you again.” Something in her screamed at her to stop being so stubborn even as she spoke, but her pride won out.
Cyrus for his part didn’t seem fazed by the scathing tone. “My lady, news of the coming inquisition has already spread through the kingdom. I only wish to do my part in supporting my home in these troubling times. Your father welcomed my counsel for many years, with Alnur and Fel gone, I thought it only prudent to offer any wisdom I may provide.” He was speaking too politely, it didn't suit him at all.
Tayla scoffed. “Now you want to help? When it’s convenient for you!” Despite her misgivings of her uncle, the fact of the matter was that Cyrus had been her father’s advisor for almost two decades. With the pressure to get through these daily arbitrations as quickly as possible it would be a major boon to have his experience in settling these disputes.
With a nod of his head Cyrus turned to leave, taking Tayla’s comments to mean she wanted him gone. Her heart raced as she quickly held up her hand. “Wait.” Her uncle stopped in his tracks and looked at her with a pained expression. “I would have your counsel. Uncle.” The words were a struggle to force out, but she could see the relief on her uncle’s face as she said them; like a weight being lifted from his shoulders. As he took his spot at her side again Tayla continued in a whisper. “I don’t know what possible reason you and Lillian have for refusing to be by my brother’s side when he needed you most, and until I hear a good reason, I for one, still consider you to be an oath breaking piece of shit. Understood?” She said as the armrest of her chair was covering itself in hoarfrost, she was instinctively tapping into the Tranquility to try and quell the burning in her chest.
It was nice to know that she was beginning to regain her ability to use her gift. Even if it was only under extreme emotional distress.
Lowering his head Cyrus spoke softly. “Tayla, I am only following your father’s orders. We can discuss this later. Please.” Tayla blinked. She had to fight the urge to clear the room and hear the truth immediately, but even as she tried to wrap her head around what her uncle had said, the doors opened to reveal the first citizens and their advisors in need of arbitration.
Tayla brought her dead hand down in a fist into the frozen armrest, shards of ice broke off from the impact. She was growing tired of all the secrets and cloak and dagger business that was going on around her. It was starting to feel like every single person around her had some ulterior motive. When this was over she would demand the truth, she was done with all the secrets.
The group of three stepped forward. Two of them, a pair of women in their thirties, were dressed in fine imported silk robes. They held themselves with the dignity of nobles. The other representative was an older man in dirty linen and leathers who seemed uncomfortable to be indoors. One of the finely dressed women and the older man each took their respective seats, the other woman stood to the side of her companion.
Tapping into the Tranquility to banish the rogue thoughts that still lingered about her uncle, Tayla cleared her mind, focusing on the task at hand. Trying to sound as authoritative as possible, she said. “Greetings. What concern have you brought before the crown to be judged today?” She felt a bit silly considering she technically didn’t have the crown, but hopefully no one was going to be stickler for such trivial details.
Both parties in the other chairs attempted to speak at the same time, resulting in a pair of sneers to one another. Tayla raised a hand and pointed at the man to speak first. He looked like he wouldn’t waste time with pointless lip service.
The man leaned forward, putting his elbows on his knees. “My lady, I am Ton. I am here on behalf of the clanless, we-”
The woman in the other chair suddenly shouted with a shrill grating voice. “These bastards are refusing to let my salvage teams retrieve the Krak’un remains from the great hunt! Every second we waste talking about this is more spoiled meat that we need, more plating that is just sitting out there waiting to be hauled back to the shipwrights and armorers!”
Cyrus slammed his polearm into the ground, cracking the wooden floor. The woman for her part grew small and quiet, perhaps finally realizing how rude she was being. Tayla would let her uncle play the role of the villain, for her part she decided on taking on the more friendly and warm approach. “You will have your opportunity to give your side ma’am, next time you may wish to start with your name first though. Ton, you were saying?”
Ton cleared his throat. “Thank you, my lady. I’ll cut to the meat of it, what this banshee says is the truth. Though she’s leaving out the part where we tried to reason with her teams. They weren’t keen on hearing the words of us clanless.” Ton rolled up his loose shirt to reveal a rainbow of bruises.
Tayla gasped slightly. “Is this true? Did your workers assault this man and his people?”
The finely dressed advisor stepped forward, she seemed much more composed than her companion. “My lady, I am Val Westwood, advisor to the trades guild. We have had conflicting reports as to whom started the fight. Though from what we have gathered, no one from either side was seriously injured.” Val was definitely the more level headed one of the two, which was a blessing from the gods.
Nodding as he spoke, Ton continued. “Aye, it's true we don’t know who threw the first fist, but we never wanted it to get to that point! My lady, the sheer amount of crabs that were killed this year is staggering, times are tough and food has been scarce. There’s no way the kingdom will be able to recover this entire hunt’s worth of food and materials.” Ton looked down at the floor, his voice growing quieter. “We figured we could take some of the scraps, just enough to help us survive the winter.”
The shrill woman raised her hand, perhaps she realized screaming wasn’t going to get her anywhere. Tayla gestured for her to speak. “I would like to offer an apology to you and the crown my lady. My name is Lady Fairweather of the House Fairweather.” Tayla winced slightly, she hadn’t even recognized a member of one of the great houses, she was starting to see just how much of a crutch having Alnur around had been for her. “I know my outburst may have seemed childish, but I cannot stress how important it is that my teams can continue their work!” Lady Fairweather turned to Ton. “You may see me as just some heartless banshee, but your food supplies are not the only ones running low. The only difference is that we have the responsibility to feed the entire capital.”
Tayla leaned her chin on her thumb and forefinger as she gave the situation some thought. “Lady Fairweather, you and your teams have had almost two days to recover the remains of the hunt. Forgive me for my ignorance on the subject, but hasn’t the meat already spoiled by now?” The hunt had never been a focus of Tayla’s studies, she was realizing that there were many aspects of the kingdom that she knew seldom about.
Cyrus was the one to speak up. “The House of the Arcane has a few spellcasters that can help slow the rate of decay.” He turned to Lady Fairweather. “My understanding however is that they only have a handful of such gifted individuals, surely there must be far too much Krak’un to recover before most of it rots.”
“Lady Fairweather, by your estimates, what percentage of the remains will be usable?” Tayla said.
Fairweather fumbled with a notebook for a moment. “I can only give a rough number, but we should be able to recover fifty-seven percent of the Krak’un fles-”
“Fifty-seven percent?!”
Westwood was quick to step in. “That is not an uncommon percentage my lady, but the key factor here is not just the meat. The plating of the Krak’un is just as vital, arguably even more so. The concern with the plating is that as the flesh rots and decays, it releases certain chemicals that will cause the plating to become brittle and weak. Our salvage teams work hard to retrieve as much food as possible, but they also know when to try and save as much usable plating as they can.”
Ton shook his head. “Then why can we not simply take a few of the crabs for ourselves? It sounds like even with your best crews, there will be some waste. And that waste could be the difference between starvation for us clanless.”
Tayla turned to the noble women. “I find myself in agreement with Ton, by your own accounts there is too much this year for you to recover. What is the harm in allowing the clanless to take some of the excess?”
“The harm!” Lady Fairweather said, her tone growing more and more high pitched. “The harm is that even the spoiled meat and weakened plating still has a use my lady! Where do you think our fertilizer comes from? We grind the remaining Krak’un down and use the remains to tend our fields.” She continued under her breath. “Even your brother knew that much.”
Cyrus looked ready to berate the woman for her rude behavior but Tayla raised a hand to stop him. She stood up from her chair, removing her head piece as she put it on the chair behind her. She walked slowly towards Fairweather who was looking more and more uncomfortable at the silence. Tayla removed her living hand’s glove as she walked behind Fairweather’s chair. “I’m not good with people.” Tayla said without warning, causing those assembled to blink in surprise. “Don’t get me wrong, I can make a deal with potential business partners. But when it comes to being friendly with people, I struggle to care. I tend to think of people by their value to me. I don’t even intentionally do it, it is like second nature to me.”
“I don’t underst-”
Tayla continued without waiting for Fairweather’s response. “What I am trying to say-” she paused as she placed her hands on the backrest of Fairweather’s chair, tapping into the Tranquility as her breath came out as a thick fog, the chair was quickly covered in a layer of frost. Fairweather gasped in pain as the ice grew along her exposed skin that touched the chair. Burning the flesh from the severe cold. It was a shame she chose to wear an open back dress today. “-Is, what value do you hold for me?”
The guards and Cyrus looked on in shock, unsure if they should step in. Westwood finally lost her composure as she backed away in fear, Ton tried his best to seem small. Fairweather spoke with shivering blue lips. “P-please, my lady. I’m sorry! I shouldn’t have spoken so rudely.”
“Oh, I don’t give a rat’s ass if you spoke rudely to me, you’re right that I had no idea about the fertilizer thing. But, you chose to insult your king, who I will remind you is still fighting for his life. From my perspective, right this moment you hold absolutely zero value to me.” Tayla felt her power swelling, all it would take was a simple thought and she could kill Fairweather. The Tranquility consumed her, for a moment she felt nothing but the simplicity of logic. Gone were the nuances of political theater, gone were her emotions that held her back; the world seemed to fall into its rightful place.
As Tayla prepared to remove Fairweather from her sight, something started to call out from behind her. It was the sound of flesh being ground, the gnashing of teeth, the creaking of chitin. To Tayla, it sounded like the song of a siren, she tried to turn her head to see the angelic choir but was only met with a frozen door in the middle of the room. The sickly sweet song continued, beckoning her to enter.
“Oh no you fucking don’t!” A voice rang out as Tayla was ripped back to her senses. Her heart was pounding in her chest as she looked around trying to get her bearings. She found herself still sitting in the wooden chair, Fairweather looked concerned, but otherwise she was uninjured.
Had that all been in her mind? It had felt so real.
Cyrus looked worried. “My lady, are you well? Do you need to take a break?” Just how long had Tayla been sitting there?
The maggot infested form of Dee slid into view, whatever was happening to him it was accelerating at a rapid pace. “That was close Taytay. A few more seconds and you would have tagged yourself for purging by the Angels! For now, just take a deep breath and try not to tap into the void for like, five minutes.” Dee said nonchalantly.
Tayla shook her head of the vestiges of whatever spell she had been under. A part of her wanted to dwell on what had just happened, to try and understand it; but another part, a more primal animalistic part, quickly pushed the thoughts of what had just occurred to the back of her mind to keep her safe. “I’ll be fine, what was the last thing you said lady Fairweather?”
Stammering for a moment the woman responded hesitantly. “I was talking about fertilizer, and how we use it to tend the fields.”
“Right, and then you insulted your king. I am going to pretend that I didn’t hear that, because I am not in the mood for such backhanded comments towards my brother.” Tayla said, trying to keep her anger in check this time. Whatever was going on, it seemed tied to when she lost control of her emotions, it was a real shame that everyone seemed keen on pushing her to the breaking point lately. “I have come to a decision.” Tayla announced while putting her hands in her lap. “I am in agreement with Lady Fairweather, her family and the guild has overseen the harvesting from the great hunt since the founding of our nation, she has every right to the corpses from the hunt.”
Ton immediately sank in the chair, there was hopelessness in his eyes as he looked around in anguish. The noblewomen puffed their chests out as they looked down at the older man.
“But.” Tayla continued with another pause, watching the women’s faces sour instantly. “There is the rite of the claimed kill to consider.”
Fairweather hissed. “What in the hells is that?”
Tayla allowed herself a smile at the other woman's distress. “You don’t know about one of our oldest traditions? How shameful for one from such a great house. The rite of the claimed kill is an ancient law of the hunt, it states that whomever lands the killing blow during a hunt is entitled to do whatever they wish with the remains of the creature they fell.”
“Bullshit! I have never heard of such a law!” Fairweather screamed. Even her advisor was starting to grow agitated by the look on her face.
Cyrus stepped to one of the panels on the wall, retrieving an ancient leather bound book from one of the hidden alcoves. As he walked back he flipped through the pages until he found what he was looking for. Clearing his throat he began to read aloud. “In honor of our close bonds with the Ono, we have seen fit to recognize the ancient rite of the claimed kill, let any who land such a killing blow be allowed to claim this right, in the eyes of the Heralds we do hereby decree.” Tayla was glad her brother’s Ono obsession had finally paid off, she remembered all those nights of him reading anything and everything to do with them. He was the one that originally discovered the obscure lost rite, how he had found it in the many ancient tomes was a mystery all on its own.
Westwood rushed over and snatched the book from Cyrus’ hands, frantically reading the page with growing concern. “Alright, so you found some ancient law. The majority of the Krak’un were killed by the Stormpriest, last I checked he isn’t around to lay claim. This law is useless.”
Tayla smiled from ear to ear. “Uncle, do you remember what I landed the killing blow on?”
Realization struck Cyrus as he also began to grin. “I do indeed.”
The pair of women looked at one another trying to figure out what they were playing at when Westwood dropped the book to the ground. “The Elder.” She whispered.
“That’s right, I was the one that landed the killing blow on that vile beast, and I invoke the rite of the claimed kill. The meat was probably turned to dust, but the plating, I’m sure I can find a good use for it.”
Fairweather screamed as she flew across the room at Tayla, a thresher whip snapped as it wrapped around the woman's legs, she fell to the wooden floor, hard. With a bloody nose she looked up. “My lady! The last Elder was killed almost two hundred years ago, their shells are vital in the process of constructing another capital ship!” Her voice was filled with desperation.
Tayla could understand why the woman was so worked up, it was like Fairweather said, the shells of the Elder Krak’un were integral to the construction of their capital ships, of which there were only six in the whole of the coast. Despite the name, the capital ships were more like fortresses, they were just built in the shape of ships out of tradition. To an outsider it may seem odd that a nation that had never known war would be so desperate to build such fortresses, but to the Twins, such creations were their greatest symbol of their faith to the All Mother.
“Well.” Tayla said after a pause. “Perhaps you would be willing to trade for my spoils?”
The other shoe dropped as Fairweather narrowed her eyes. “Here I was thinking you were just a child playing pretend. Fine, you win. I’ll give the clanless bastards twelve percent of the Krak’un meat.”
“Make it ten percent of the meat, and five percent of the plating.”
“Deal.” The word seemed to hurt Fairweather as she spoke it. Without waiting, she quickly undid the whip around her ankles and made to leave.
Ton was wiping his face as he came up to Tayla to thank her. “My lady, I swear it upon the Gods that I will never forget your kindness today. My people will sing songs of your generosity.”
Tayla let out a sigh. “Be at peace Ton. Even if you have no house to call your own, you and your kind are our brothers and sisters. Without the help of the clanless my family and I would have died to the Elder, this is the least I can do to try and pay back that kindness. Go, prepare for the coming supplies.”
The older man knelt on the ground as he lowered his head. “For as long as I live, I shall serve you, our Mistress of Shadows. This, I swear on the old ways.” Tayla cocked her head, she wasn’t familiar with this tradition.
Cyrus seemed upset with the man’s display. “Raise! What nonsense are you spouting? We have more problems to oversee today, you have a long road ahead.” It was a rare sight to see uncle Cyrus so flustered, perhaps this was some clanless ritual that they didn’t show to others. She would have to ask her uncle about this later.
Ton scrambled to his feet as he bowed again before leaving. Cyrus put the ancient law book back in its home. As he was walking back to Tayla’s side, the doors opened once more. If the first case was any indication, this was going to be a long afternoon.
Later that night as the staff cleaned up the gathering hall, the last of them went to gather the chairs so they may be placed in storage. They paused when they noticed something strange with one of the chairs, there, on the top of the backrest were two perfect hand prints burned into the wood. Curious, the staff member ran a finger over one of the prints, without warning their finger was frozen solid instantly. Shrieking in pain they pulled their hand back, the digit remained attached to the chair, snapping off their hand with ease.
Gasping in pain, the staff member held their hand, frightened to see the damage from the frostbite. With shaking hands they mustered the courage to look down only to find that there was no missing finger, no frostbite, just their trembling hands. Snapping up to look at the chair, they saw the lines of the hand prints seemed to writhe and move of their own accord.
The disappearance of one of the ornate mediation chairs would normally warrant a much more thorough investigation, but the sudden arrival of the Court’s investigation team became the more pressing concern.
