Despite the size of the monster in the cave and the terror welling up in her she thrust out a finger to activate her Pull rune rocketing her forward over the rough ground. She pulled one of her arrows and snapped her fingers over the head to pre-light it. The beast emerged and her stomach sank. It was like the other wolfen Vogel but broad and hulking. Its body was more akin to a bear. The most terrifying element of the massive creature was the helmet-like heavy bone ridge covering its head and snout. Its four eyes were bright red and enraged. Tendrils of Noctis writhed out of its maw snapping and hissing with their own bone white jaws.

  She fired her arrow and it impacted with its bone armor before exploding. The beast recoiled and screeched but did not catch fire. Cursing again she grabbed her hammer and pulled it free. Channeling Coat again she covered it with a sheen of gray stone. She rushed forward, dodging and rolling under the snapping and screeching tendrils. She got close enough and tried to bring the gleaming pick head of the hammer down onto the protective bone helmet of the giant Vogel. Before she could she felt something pierce into her back and she was heaved up and off the ground. Her heart hammered and the adrenaline and juice of the strange recovery fruit worked in tandem to throw her into a wild fury.

  Maria screamed and gestured outward, channeling Build and Pull. The ground underneath the beast thrust upward and the tendril on her back loosed its grip and she fell. Crying out she brought the pick down toward the beast’s skull with her falling momentum. The pick crunched into the bone and sent a crack spidering throughout it exposing thin writhing tendrils of glossy Noctis. Holding on tight, she channeled coat to her fingers again as two of the tendrils locked onto her back again and dug their teeth into her skin and armor with a wet crunch. She snapped her fingers as cold washed over her, either from the wounds or her constant channeling or perhaps both. Sparks tumbled into the cracks in the beast’s armor.

  The massive Vogel exploded and sent her flying into the cavern wall. Despite her terrible wounds and the swirling blotches in her vision she could hear the screeches of the returning Noctis from outside the cave.

  Coughing and unsure of where she was headed she climbed up to her feet. Stumbling away from the fire that dominated her vision she headed further into the tunnel. The light from the burning monster cast a sheen on something dark and writhing at the far end of the cavern. Behind her she could hear the other monsters rushing into the cavern after her. Pulling and lighting an arrow, the chill of casting causing her to nearly lose consciousness, she fired the arrow blindly toward the back of the cavern. Her vision was first awash in a brilliant and warm light. She thought that she might be on fire?

  As the light started to recede the world went fell into darkness and everything was silence.

  –

  Maria’s eyes flickered open and she found herself looking up into the distraught face of Alora. Somewhere nearby the world rumbled and everything around them shook. She started to speak but the goddess put a finger to her lips with a wild look of warning in her eyes.

  She hazarded a glance around them and devised they must be confined in a darkened room. She was lying on a bed that she was sure was made of leaves and surrounded by a wooden bedframe that appeared to have been grown or shaped to have a floral motif. There was a door and a single window that were both closed, the latter covered with a shade of heavy waxen leaves.

  Alora looked terrified.

  The entire world rumbled again causing swirling dust to fill the tiny chamber they were in. A booming voice, so loud that it vibrated the very room around them, spoke from somewhere outside the room. The deep feminine voice roared, “Have I not provided for you?”

  “Did I not save you from your captor?”

  Maria started to move but the arboreal girl shook her head and gestured for her to stay still.

  The voice continued as it grew more enraged, “I don’t know which of these pointless little AI’s took your prison with them but when I find them, I will put you back where you belong and then they will suffer an eternity of anguish. I will make you watch every second!”

  There was a cacophonous sound of impact followed by a great earth shaking crack. The entire world shook again, this time from what sounded like a colossal collapse.

  After a tense moment the booming voice spoke again, this time more controlled and calm, “This is our world now Alora. Do not play games if you are not ready to suffer the consequences.”

  A lasting silence filled the small and dark chamber. Alora turned to look down at her panting and shivering. Finally, Maria asked, “Who was that?”

  The little goddess whispered, “That was one of the invaders. The one who took my title and my power. The one who imprisoned me here in the Bough.”

  Maria stared at the dark window and sat up next to the goddess. She said, “She is from my world?”

  Alora nodded and then turned to study her carefully. She sighed and whispered, “Did you hurt yourself again?”

  Maria blinked at her and made a so-so gesture, “It was ninety percent a nasty Noctis pod that threw me into a wall and stabbed me a bunch.”

  At Alora’s concerned expression she smiled, “I don’t think I’m dead, otherwise I would end up back at the camp with those Dominus priests.”

  The little Arboreal poked her in the chest and shook her head, “That is not a metric to rely on.” She put a gentle hand on her shoulder and whispered, “You are pretty hurt but I will help as much as I can.”

  Maria felt warmth flooding through her chest and a gentle green glow filled the small chamber, “How often does she check on you?”

  Alora whispered, “Only when she is cross, or lonely. It’s been a few weeks. She found out that the Bough was gone .”

  Several long moments passed in the darkened room before Maria asked, “So, I think I should ask.”

  Alora made an inquisitive sound, “Hmmm?”

  “Am I your pawn?”

  The young looking goddess’ eyes shifted upward and locked on hers as she asked, “My pawn for what?”

  Maria gestured toward the window, “Those games that Her Loudship was suggesting that you are playing.”

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  Alora seemed more tense and prim as she withdrew her still glowing hand. She said, “Maria, of course you are not my pawn.”

  Maria started to smile before she saw the stern look on the arboreal woman’s face.

  Alora said with considerable gravity and a pointed look, “If anything, you are my Queen.”

  Maria gave her a wry look.

  Her vision began to tear at the edges and she felt herself being pulled away again. Alora leaned up and gave her a kiss on the forehead, “If we are going to stop her we need three ritual items. The instrument of the oppressor, the seed of your world, and the ritual of the eternal faithful.”

  Maria raised a single eyebrow as she studied the small woman, “Those are really vague. Can you be more specific?”

  Alora gave her a surprised look and shook her head, “Of course I can’t. That is all prophecy.”

  She frowned, “Don’t you make the prophecies?”

  “No, why would you…”

  Maria started to open her mouth to speak but then her entire world shook violently. The strange dark room tore apart into motes of light. She was drifting in darkness once again for several moments before the world rushed back up to meet her.

  -

  She was rocked out of the embracing darkness and into a world of pain. The world was full of the sight and sound of black smoke and a furious grath face was staring down at her, “Wake up you idiot!”

  She answered with a groggy, “Oh, hey Medi.”

  They were laying outside the cave amidst piles of corpses and the wafts of smoke billowing out of the cave mouth. The grath warrior gestured toward the cave, “I dragged you out of there, you fool!”

  “So I go from having a strange dream to being dragged out of a burning cave by my fiance. Yep, this is my new life.”

  Medi ignored the quip and pushed her to get to her feet, “Is this how you are going to face all your problems, with suicidal stupidity?”

  Maria hobbled toward one of the bodies and started to search it for things of use, “According to the Mysta that’s all I am good for, my ability to ‘not die’.”

  Medi punched her in the shoulder to get her attention, it hurt. She turned to see the same furious but maybe… worried expression on her face. She said, “That is not your whole worth. Never say that in front of me again.”

  Maria watched her go and sighed. Medi gathered her pack and went off into the woods, likely to scout, or brood. She should not have said that to her. Damnit.

  She went around the area gathering what she could starting with a quick foray back into the cave. The smoke was dwindling at this point and she used a cloth to cover her mouth and nose. Her pick was gone, lost in the fire of the cave, so she kept an eye out for a new weapon to replace it. At the rear of the cave she found the stone wall that had presumably contained the Noctis pod. There was little left but a soot stain and a pile of ash. Amidst the ash she noticed something glittering.

  Kneeling she pulled out an irregular piece of rose colored crystal. It was still warm to the touch and there appeared to be a swirl of red energy inside it. She shrugged and put it into one of her pack’s pouches, careful to keep it separate from the Bough herb.

  Everything she found outside the cave was made for larger beings. She pocketed a few silver coins that she found, each of them with the symbol of what looked like a single drop of water on one side and an imperious looking man on the other.

  Inside the wagon she found a grath sized belt with a number of nice leather pouches and swiftly switched it for hers. There were a number of mining tools including picks and shovels in a decaying crate. Several of the shovels were grath sized and she happily took one and strapped it to her pack. Never knew when you would need a shovel.

  The last of the bodies she turned over was a long haired human man. His face had been eaten away with months of rot but she got the sense he might have been a leader from the style of his dress. A hilt with a red gem was sticking out from his belt. Yanking it free she found a human sized dagger that was not in terrible condition. Someone had etched a phrase on the area around the blade’s fuller.

  “We forge in the name of the Dominus as he forged us.”

  It functioned well enough as a sword for her. She grabbed the sheath from the belt and attached it to her new belt, sliding the blade home.

  After she had scoured the area for anything else of worth she made her way to the edge of the clearing where Medi knelt waiting.

  Maria smirked at her and sighed.

  The grath warrior scowled, “What?”

  “I’m sorry I nearly got myself killed.”

  Medi’s nose twitched and she averted her gaze. She gestured toward the woods, “I found the body of one of the hunters.”

  Maria raised an eyebrow and said, “Which one?”

  “The boy. A single Noctis drone that escaped the destruction of the cave was trying to infect him. I dispatched it.”

  She grimaced at the knowledge that Talla was the one to fall. He was very young. Of course, he had discussed the systematic murder of the grath with abandon. After a moment she asked, “You take his supplies?”

  Medi gave her an incredulous look, “Do I look like a cub who hasn’t held a spear? Of course I robbed that outsider’s corpse for everything it had.”

  Maria turned back toward the trail and said, “I wouldn’t expect anything less. Let’s get back.”

  –

  First they dragged him with their insidious vine creation to a small bowl where they forced him to absolve his nail markings, robbing him of his ability to channel artes. Afterward they dragged him to his cell. Oser had languished in their dark wicker cell with only the company of three guards who would only babble in their chittering language from time to time, if it could be called that.

  The cage itself was not made to accommodate his size and he had not stood or stretched his muscles during his entire imprisonment. The little dome-like cage was made of flimsy wood and binding vines. When he had been thrown into it the entire construction had shook as if on the verge of collapse. He had tested the flimsy looking wooden dome upon his first arrival. That had been a profound mistake.

  Upon the slightest touch the wooden supports sprouted thorns, wicked straight wooden spears with red tips. One of them lanced into his hand and sent violent pain shooting through his entire body. When he recovered he discovered over the following two days that straying too close to any of the wicker beams had much the same result. The cage was a wicked prison that was worthy of the Dominus’ most notorious Houses of Reformation.

  They fed him and gave him some kind of horrendous saccharine honey drink to keep him alive but otherwise he only had his desperate prayers to the Dominus to keep him company.

  He offered to sacrifice himself to punish his captors. He offered his family’s lives to see the Angelus punished. He went as far as to promise a lifetime of silence and celibacy in a monastery suffering flagellation at the hands of more pure servants of the Dominus but an answer did not come. The Dominus left him to languish in his sorrow.

  It was often said that the Dominus may help those who offer him their prayers but he always punished those who did not at least sacrifice to meet the lord's goals.

  When they dragged him from the cell six days later he was so happy to stand up and stretch that he offered no opposition as they led him down the curling platform toward the bottom level. His entire body ached and he felt covered in a thin layer of grime and detritus. As they neared the bottom level he saw the Angelus traitor making her way through the open courtyard with her little bitch of a shadow following in her wake.

  The Angelus disappeared into the tent of those three masked creatures and his guards wrestled him down to sit in front of a tent. A fat grath with a host of needles jammed into her fur and a broken fang took out a knife and started to cut off his robe. He started away, in fear that they meant to finally dispatch him but accepted the removal of his filthy robe with quiet angst when his guards wrestled him back to his knees. His attention was locked onto the tent where the Angelus was no doubt plotting heresy against the Dominus.

  Moments later his two guards grabbed his arms. He growled through a raspy unused voice, “What are you doing?”