Skyfall
Various Parties | Hanhai Cavern
Tuuya hung up on Platar, breathing a sigh of relief that he had agreed to destroy the Ozryel swarms’ eggshells.
It was the only chance they had of destroying them for good - and if anyone could do it, it was him.
They’d miss him, strangely enough. Even if he was a product of all the empire’s wretched discrimination, they still felt he was not entirely a bad man.
They closed their eyes for a moment. They couldn’t afford to delay long. They just wanted to take Kaningard in, one last time.
The distant sounds of scrabbling animals in the cavern. Their daughters, talking and arguing in the room over. The soft fabric on their skin, clothes they had made themself.
Ozryel had to die. Leave. Whichever.
By extension, so did they.
They opened their eyes again.
They began walking to their daughters.
If only they could say goodbye to their other children…but there was no time. Almost two hundred sweeps, so suddenly cut short.
But wasn’t it that way for everyone, in the end?
They’d brought enough death. They ought to face theirs with dignity.
They poked their head into the dining room.
“Hello, my dears…I hate to interrupt, but Uunive, I need you. Something urgent’s come up.”
Their tone and expression must have made it clear how urgent it really was, despite their attempt to sound calm, because their older daughter got up and went with them, no hesitation whatsoever.
Quickly, they took her to another room and explained the situation.
“It will be very dangerous, and I may not return - ” (they internally winced at the half truth) “ - and…”
They trailed off as they noticed the limeblood wordlessly reach out to touch the cave wall, grab a chunk of it with only the strength of her hand, and then crumble it.
“I’m coming with.” Uunive said, in a tone that brooked no disagreement.
Despite everything, Tuuya couldn’t help a proud but nervous smile from stealing over their face. Their darling girl. So strong and grown-up now.
Grown-up, and about to be alone again.
No. No time for pain. They had to keep moving.
“All right.” They said with a nod. “If you could call Kamala for me, while I gather our weapons…someone has to watch Ailene.”
Their human daughter was still recovering from the loss of her arm. Fortunately, one of their moirails was a docterrorist.
Uunive nodded, and the worm swarm bustled away to review their stock and pack as quickly as possible.
Smoke bombs? Check.
Their laser pistols? Check.
Uunive’s knives? Check.
Superheated blades and a few other emergency items? Check.
They looked at their work outfit, slung on a hanger in their closet, the one they often wore when going on jobs for Chimer.
They’d already altered it once, to accommodate their current body type…and they would alter it one last time, because damn if they would go down without a fight.
As they rolled back their sleeves, white worm tendrils sprung from their arms to work in tandem with their hands, scissors, needles and thread.
A few minutes later, they nodded at the result, satisfied, and changed into it.
Normally they would decry this skimpier style as ridiculous and impractical. For them it was ideal to have more skin to let out tendrils from, and it still covered much of their skeleton and what few organs they had.
With a few swift scissor chops, they cut their hair. Less to get tangled by the other swarms or for them to grab onto.
They’d take along their fireproof armor too. It had certainly saved their skin enough times…and they’d ask Uunive to use her luck psiionics to enhance their weapons too, just in case.
They could only hope they’d stay intact long enough to find and subdue Ozryel.
Hope, mused Tuuya as they went back to fetch Uunive and go, activating their small spaceship for the first time in ages.
Strange that they should have to give up hope that wasn’t even theirs.
That when they should despair, they instead felt calm.
What was there to worry about anymore?
—
Rivali pursed their lips as they saw a missed call from their old friend. Not an uncommon expression for the jade, but one currently laced with worry along with disapproval.
They tried to call Daudre, hanging up when it went directly to voicemail. Then they tried to call Vannyn.
“Rivali?” Said the worm swarm, surprised. “Ah - I’m a little busy right now, what’s -“
“Daudre called me, but left no message. Do you know anything?” They said curtly, cutting in.
Tuuya sucked in a hesitant breath. “Ozryel, Inshii, and Rhyssa invaded Hanhai cavern. Uunive and I are on our way.”
There was a moment’s silence.
“I’m coming too.” Declared the komondor troll.
“Rivali! I know you’re skilled, but you could di -“
The jade hung up on the undead’s panicked plea.
No one invaded their old home without them doing something about it.
Despite the miseries they had suffered under those narrow-minded old wretches, they were far from the only trolls there.
Daudre, the only friend they’d ever had at home. Ashwat, their lineage-mate, kept away from them for fear they’d be a bad influence on her.
Even the stuffy, rigid matrons who disdained their identity did not deserve to die in such a way.
They had fought Ozryel when she’d been in Tuuya’s body, and they had won.
As they checked their weapons and sent a message to Temasek cavern’s matron superior excusing their sudden absence, Rivali found themself eager for a rematch.
—
A short time later, the ship hovered some distance above the desert cavern’s entrance. Tuuya’s dark gray fingers adjusting and focusing the ship’s sensors to see if the other swarms had been bright enough to leave constructs to guard the entrance.
The answer seemed to be no, the pale sand below undisturbed by anything but the wind.
Still, Tuuya took them down slowly, laser cannons primed to fire. They weren’t keen on doing more collateral damage than they had to, but they also weren’t going to give the other swarms even the smallest chance to get in close.
They were glad of it when a massive wasp construct shot out of the sand, buzzing angrily as it got riddled with melted gaps from a round of white beams. The rest of it dodged and reformed before streaming further upwards.
Tuuya pulled the ship back up, g-forces pressing on the worm swarm and their daughter. They cooled the cannons; now it was time to use nature to their advantage.
They slowed a little, a tactic that would make most opponents suspicious, but Rhyssa hadn’t the brains the mother grub gave an ant. It only made her bear down harder as the small ship drifted into a cloud.
The lingering heat from the cannons caused gentle steam to waft around the vessel, cloaking it even further.
As the construct barreled within range on vast wasp wings, multiple wicked pincers extending from it, Tuuya released a little something they’d had Thrixe make for them.
Unfortunately, they didn’t have much of it. This would use up their whole stock.
The construct began to skitter and scratch against the ship’s windows, causing small cracks to splinter across the glass…and then went limp, helpless, rendered impotent by the fungus specifically engineered to feed on undead biological matter spreading through its tissue.
Tuuya smirked as they slowly took the ship down again, watching the massive white insectoid thing fall to the sand and scatter into pieces, going still as it died.
They landed, and satisfied nothing else would jump out at them, strode past the wreckage and the corpse riddled with gray fungus; fortunately, the substance became inert after it did its work, so neither they or Uunive were at risk.
“I cannot wait for the rest of you to perish.” They said lovingly to the splotched, broken body as they went by, stepping over a large segmented leg.
“I do so hope I’m there to see it.”
—
Hirudo panted as she faced down a room full of white butterflies, even though she didn’t technically need to breathe. If she got out of this, she was swatting every single one she ever saw again.
The fuchsia was covered in cuts, her already ratty lolita dress now basically in shreds, and Joey and Neffie were faring even worse as they stood behind her. One of the rustblood’s pedipalps had partially broken off, and Neffie was limping heavily.
Klirro had never arrived. Who the fuck knew why.
She felt their eyes on her as she hefted her heat gun defensively (it was nearly out of charge), but the swirling swarm didn’t attack.
Instead, it spoke to her.
“It would be a waste to kill you.” said some butterflies, pressed together with rapid constructs to make a faceless voice, but it still didn’t quite sound like a troll speaking. It was rustling and oddly-toned, vibrating at random moments and making some vowels in drawn out or overly clipped ways.
“You proved yourself useful to Rhyssa. She would have you dead for your treachery, but I think otherwise.”
Hirudo laughed sharply and without humor, the sound echoing against the stony cavern walls.
“You think I believe that?” She snarled. “You might be elders, but you turned even on Tuuya when they didn’t do what you wanted. I know what our lives would be like under you; I won’t do that to my coven.”
As she spoke, the leech rainbowdrinker swapped her heat gun for a grenade she pulled the pin from and flung at the ceiling in seconds, then grabbed her coven members and made a break for it.
She knew, as the butterflies dove for her in a massive fluttering of wings, she probably wouldn’t make it.
Either the rocks would get her, or the bugs would.
Maybe she could at least throw the others clear of -
A giant rope - no - a white worm tendril - snaked around her and yanked her to safety with sickening speed, pulling her out of the room in barely more than a second.
Barely conscious from the debris that had pelted her body, the razor proboscises that had freshly cut her skin, Hirudo wiped her face clear of blood and dirt with a shaking head.
She gazed up blearily at her rescuer as she was gently set down, Neffie and Joey tumbling out of her arms onto the rocky floor. They groaned as they slid down, Neffie hissing in pain from her bad leg.
Crashing and crumbling noises came from behind them, and while she felt the breeze of a few butterflies escaping, she could tell many had been crushed. The very floor of the cavern shook from the impact, and she knew it would be felt throughout the whole place.
Tuuya smiled down at her with that needle-filled mouth of theirs, and gave her an ironic salute. Uunive stood next to them wearing a hardened expression, prongs on her horns now, and the seadweller could hardly believe it was the same girl she’d kidnapped mere perigees ago.
Beetles hovered around her, for some reason. What…?
“There are matrons’ bodies in a room not far from here, ones we found already dead.” Said Tuuya with sadness. “Make use of them. Heal. Find Rhyssa and kill her, Inshii too if you can manage it. If my contact has succeeded in rendering the other swarms able to die…we will soon know.”
“What about you?” managed the highblood, coughing between words.
“I?” They said, amused, looking back as they already began to walk away, ragged crimson coat waving as they strode side by side with their daughter.
“I’m here for Ozryel.”
—
After the cacophony of the explosion, it was almost eerily quiet in the cavern. Inshii had fled elsewhere, not hanging around to attack the worm swarm and the lime drinker.
Jade blood lay messily spattered across the ancient sandstone passages Tuuya and Uunive descended quickly, heading for the mother grub - and something of equal value.
“The matriorb…” Tuuya said, picking up a conversation they’d had on the ship. Uunive had mentioned feeling certain that the mother of swarms would try to use it for some terrible purpose.
“I can’t imagine why Ozryel would want it, but who knows? I remember when I got ahold of it…it seems so long ago. At first I worried I might be getting tricked, but no, it was a real one. Real enough to earn you a place here…”
They sighed, looking around at the ravaged cavern.
“I hope there are still jades to save. I hope it dearly.”
“There will be.” Uunive said firmly, her beetles fluttering around her.
“Tutu, think. She invaded this place to do something. Maybe it had to do with me, but that can’t be the only reason. She has to want at least some of them alive.”
Tuuya nodded. They had no idea if that was true, but there was no point in arguing, and all they could do was try.
A dying groan and wail came from the cavern ahead, and both undeads’ eyes widened as they sprinted toward it -
- in time to see Ozryel finish slitting the mother grub’s throat by dragging her claws across the exposed paleness, jade blood gushing out of the vast grayish white carapace. It pooled across the floor, flooding over toward the other two undead.
Tuuya wailed, a wretched noise more beastlike than troll, and Uunive yelled in rage.
Ozryel laughed as her strange wings lifted, bird-shaped yet diaphanous in nature. Of course the wretch had white hair as a troll, and pincers at the edges of her mouth. What a lovely family resemblance to her children.
Green eyes. Solid green, the same color as their own irises.
Tuuya’s hatred suffused their every worm as their insides writhed, the swarm eager to kill.
Not eager to die. Resigned nonetheless.
They lifted their laser pistols and began shooting at the ancient creature as she soared up and away, laughing mockingly as she dodged the daggers and laser fire.
–
Rivali had taken a juvenile roc lusus as transport, quickly rigging it with a saddle and throwing on a helmet paired with goggles.
Not strictly with cavern permission, but Hanhai desert was a suitable enough environment for one to spend some time in. It wasn’t big enough to do any major damage, and the local towns were scattered apart some distance from the cavern.
Besides, this was an emergency. They could apologize, do paperwork, and pay the fines later.
The real challenge had been getting the thing to put them down (mostly) safely, but a few bruises were an incredibly minor price to pay for the speed of travel; though at least Temasek wasn’t too far away.
They primly dusted themself off, the roc promptly ignoring them as it looked about for food.
Much as they longed to rush down into their old home, the komondor troll was wary as they entered the tunnels, ears pricked and eyes open for any wretched bloodsucking insects. At the slightest flash of white, they’d have their heat gun trained on it.
They hoped the creatures weren’t disguising themselves as trolls. They would be more difficult to identify quickly…but why would they bother? Much as Rivali hated to admit it, the lack of guards and no sight or sound of anyone so far probably meant the place was already in their grip.
They heard whimpering, and froze.
They peered around the stone corner.
A few jade wrigglers in gray and black uniforms huddled in a hall, and the oldest couldn’t be more than five sweeps, with the youngest perhaps three.
Above them hovered a small cloud of white wasps, making a low buzz.
Rivali waited, wondering why they hadn’t been attacked, then realized: insect eyes weren’t very good, and the light was low. The only illumination underground from the wasps’ own mild glow and the glass-encased torches on the walls, one of which had been smashed and damaged. They were already clad in their sleek white armor, lightweight to allow freedom of movement, but still offering some protection.
They couldn’t shoot at the swarm fragment right now, not with it so close to the girls.
So they picked up and threw a rock over it, the movement making the wrigglers jump and the wasps rise up in a small, angry funnel, zipping toward them.
Rivali fired.
The heat spread in a burst, melting most of the wasps into white drops dotting the tunnel floor. The few that escaped were dispatched by the flash of their blades, swiping the creatures apart and smearing the last one against the wall with a ringing clang.
The wrigglers huddled together, still scared, though the oldest held a knife in a shaky hand. She stood in front of the others to shield them.
“Wh-who are you?” She said.
“Rivali Tescin.” Said the older jade, not looking at her, already moving on. “Hide somewhere. This will take a bit.”
–
Outside the cavern entrance, one last being had come. Only to witness the curling strands of conflict, not to fight.
Still, she had promised her coven aid. This was not the time when they died.
There would only be two deaths today. She was fairly certain of it.
With red spiral eyes Klirro watched the solitary white butterfly that watched her in turn, and smiled with a mouth full of jagged teeth.
“Inshii.”
Others came to join it, making a throat and voice.
“Klirro.”
“You are not really in this with your whole feeling, are you?” She said gently, lovingly. “You spiral inwards and inwards, not even guarding your sister, letting my coven escape.”
“I assist my mother as she asks.” Said the butterflies in their flat, rustling voice.
“Only as she asks.” Murmured the horrorterror.
Spirals had already started to weave themselves through the tan grains, filling the sand with patterns between the tall, thin undead’s feet. Hot winds blew around and around her, stirring her short hair.
“I ask you, Inshii the butterfly: retreat.”
The butterflies stared at her with their myriad compound eyes, antennae twitching as their wings endlessly beat.
“If I refuse?”
Spirals of twisted, dried organs lashed out at the butterflies, holding them in the air, warping the air so it was solid, angled, like glass, then like liquid, pouring in on each other, physical laws breaking down with spirals of crimson energy.
Klirro laughed. A light, normal laugh, as she held out her open palms under the blaring light of the sun.
“Then you can never refuse a single soul again.”
Inshii, for the first time in millennia, felt fear.
The last of the DeVilles smiled wide, stretching the muscles and bones of the corpse she inhabited.
Yes, Ozryel might be an incarnation of death.
But the second worm had come, and death was due a reckoning.
END
