{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://serpentsquiggles.neocities.org//posts/black-nerve/chimhop/12",
  "path": "/posts/black-nerve/chimhop/12",
  "publishedAt": "2022-05-04T00:00:00.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:ivoe7cntxuy6at7uzmxzs2ft/site.standard.publication/3mfk6cpprzt2t",
  "textContent": "That night, they slept without the security of the cave they'd grown\naccustomed to. It was in a field near a hill, and all the security they\nhad was boulders and a few trees. (Trees, not metataxites.) For Awelah,\nshe slept here and remembered her second night after the wispfall,\nsleeping in bedrolls just hours before occupied by now-dead pawns. She\nremembers killing them. She doesn't sleep well, but you never sleep well\nthe first night in a new location. Still, the memories don't help.\n\nShe wakes up with the sun --- perhaps the subtle sound of Makuja leaving\nto gather breakfast had awoken her. Regardless, she's up. She approaches\nOoliri's bag to wake him, and has the sudden image of standing before a\npawn asleep, moments before she had thrust her spear forward.\n\nThey'd all had orders to kill her. Awelah has sworn to kill a certain\nbane, and along that path there's sure to be more regrettable deaths\nthan the stupid pawns of a cruel mercenary --- she knows just who\nshe's after.\n\nNo, she thinks. There will be no regrettable deaths. Because she\nshouldn't regret, so long as she stays true to her ambition.\n\nThose pawns had killed roaches. Killed them and roasted them like prey.\nHow could she regret avenging that?\n\nIt's morning and she's safe in a camp with her allies. She looks around,\neyes pigmenting to refocus. Awelah decides to let Ooliri sleep.\n\nAfter her fight with Klepé, mud still clings to her cloak. Her cousin's\ncloak, which had secured her escape from the ruins of Duskroot, and\nacross the wisp-occluded countryside. She has to clean it. The water\nfrom the creek is also muddy, but less so once strained through a bit of\ncloth. She climbs a tree, and her heartbeat slows while she rubs dirt\nout of her cloak.\n\nDespite the focus on her task, she catches the bit of movement ---\nMakuja's return. She watches as breakfast is made. When the work\nconcludes, the pale nymph hops down from the tree. She's frowning as she\napproaches the red nymph. There's an emotion like a shadow beneath her\nthoughts. Like a shadow, its details are obscure, unnamable to her.\n\nMakuja is walking to Ooliri, to awaken him, sleeping beside his barrel,\nand that's when Awelah intercepts her. The intent look of the last\nAsetari is what has her pause; the palps themselves working without\nmaking a sound. It's a moment before Awelah articulates her words.\n\n\"I killed a lot of your teammates,\" she says. \"I know you've sworn\nloyalty to us, but did you ever want to... avenge them?\"\n\n\"No. They failed. They were flawed tools, in the end. I only cared about\none.\"\n\n\"Your master,\" Awelah guesses.\n\n\"I wake up in the morning, and I'm halfway through making meal before I\nremember I'm serving you and not her. I wake up forgetting she's gone\nand this isn't one more mission.\"\n\n\"I can't forget.\" Awelah's voice is quiet but hard. \"Don't have that\nluxury. Every night I dream of how each of them died. I remember every\ndetail, experience it.\"\n\n\"I dream of the people I've killed,\" she says. \"Do you?\"\n\n\"Sometimes,\" is all she commits to. \"The only mantids I've killed were\nyour teammates.\"\n\n\"Do you ever...\"\n\n\"Regret? No. They were obstacles in my path. They stood in the way of my\ngoal, and that's all that matters.\"\n\nMakuja nods. \"We fulfilled our purposes. It's good that a tool does its\nwork. But perhaps it's good also if that work doesn't need to be done.\nOoliri says everything deserves to live. So, at times, I think about\nthem... alive.\"\n\n\"I'm not a tool. You wonder about them living like it's an idle\nthought, but you don't care, do you? If I were you, my purpose would\nbe to avenge them.\" Then she pauses. \"But to avenge your master, you'd\nonly have yourself to go after, wouldn't you?\"\n\nThen Awelah is on the ground.\n\nMakuja punched her. She's walking away, now.\n\n\"Get back here. That was a cheap shot. Give me a real fight. Makuja!\nFight me!\"\n\nThe departing figure doesn't turn around.\n\nNo one needs to wake up Ooliri, now. He's sitting up, looking around\nconfused. With Awelah, he eats in silence, repeatedly shooting glances\nat her.\n\nWhen he finally speaks, he's interrupted. \"Awelah, you ---\"\n\n\"I'm going to fight her,\" she states. \"It's training. Sparring. Real\nvesperbanes do it all the time. Would you prefer I sparred with you?\"\n\nOoliri sags, and bites a mushroom cap. \"Don't hurt each other, then. No\nspears, no knives.\"\n\n\"We aren't stupid.\" Then, with that established, \"I'm going to kick her\nabs. Don't need weapons to do that.\"\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\nAwelah is waiting outside the camp when Makuja returns. Ooliri went out\nto retrieve her, and there's a tight curl of her antennae at seeing\nAwelah regarding her with raptorials open.\n\n\"If we must,\" she says. \"Are we doing this formally?\" She isn't looking\nat Awelah. She is unstrapping a few knives and placing them at the base\nof a tree. Awelah wonders if that's really all the knives she has.\n\n\"Of course not. We didn't become vesperbanes to do formal duels.\"\n\nStill, Awelah bows, and Makuja reciprocates. Then, the fight begins.\n\nThe pale nymph charges, and the terms are set immediately. Awelah is\nbigger, older. She has more reach, and her punches hit harder. Smaller,\nquicker, Makuja dodges, crouched lower than Awelah can comfortably\nreach. When the bigger nymph takes the bait and kicks, Makuja jumps out\nof the way, spinning when she lands --- her nimble legs sweep across the\nground behind her. Awelah has to abort the kick, jump straight up, to\navoid being flipped on her side.\n\nThen Makuja strikes, a raptorial foreleg flying out to snap around one\nof her arms. Awelah hops back.\n\nShe starts making tarsigns.\n\nAnd Makuja strikes again, lunging forward with another raptorial snap.\nThe Asetari is interrupted, and no projection comes to her aid.\n\n\"You made the same mistake yesterday. This time, I'm not covering for\nyou.\"\n\nAwelah only grunts in response, throwing a trio of jabs to make Makuja\ndodge back, resetting the terms of the fight. It's almost a reprise; the\nfollowing exchange pushes Awelah back once again, and again she tries\nthe tarsigns. Again interrupted.\n\n\"It's not going to work. Is it the only tactic you have?\"\n\nMakuja always struck Awelah as one to take her foes down silently. But\nthis?\n\n\"Are you taunting me?\" she asks. Then, \"You're not taking this\nseriously.\"\n\n\"It's a spar. To make us stronger. How are you to improve, if I don't\ntell you what you're doing wrong?\"\n\n\"Tell me if I'm doing wrong after I win,\" Awelah says, and swings her\nforelegs down to smash Makuja. It's an easy maneuver to dodge, but it\nbuys the pale nymph some space. She's backing up further, but the red\nnymph is on her again, reaching out and grabbing her cloak to stop her.\nThe thing starts to slide off one of her arms, and Awelah kicks back,\npivoting to resist Makuja's force. The two actions combined see her\nturning round, and stepping away. The hold grows untenable, is released,\nand now Makuja is coming after Awelah. It's a short chase.\n\nAwelah angles for the nearest tree, and breaks into a run. She doesn't\nknow if she can outrun Makuja, but she can make it to the tree. She\ndoesn't stop, and starts running up the tree with Makuja behind her.\n\nThe red nymph is stopping short, but Awelah is already kicking off. Her\nnext move has two components. Makuja will be jumping out of the way, to\navoid the bigger nymph landing on her, but she won't be expecting the\ncloak. Awelah slides it off the other arm, and the heavy thing lands\nover her opponent's face. The smaller nymph did make it free of her\nobvious trajectory, but her foe still lands at her side, and promptly\ntackles.\n\nIt's wrestling, but it's wrestling done with Awelah's mid- and hindlegs.\nIt lasts for several moments, Makuja is split between needing to slip\nout of Awelah's hold and pull the cloak off it. When she rips it free,\nAwelah is backing away from her in the shade of the tree. She's\nsmirking.\n\nMakuja lunges again, and Awelah dodges, maneuvering around her. The\nAsetari throws out her hand, but it's nowhere near hitting Makuja. Then\nAwelah is reaching out as if to grab for her neck. It leaves her open to\na counterattack from her.\n\nBut before she can make another move, she feels the chill beside her. In\nthe blurry fringes of her vision, she sees the blackest shadow.\n\nWhile she was under the cloak, Awelah completed her projection. The last\nAsetari holds her by the throat while her enervate is poised to touch\nher. She recalls what even a little bit of the stuff did to the bodies\nof animals. Deliquescence.\n\n\"I think I win.\"\n\nMakuja flinches away from the projection placed so close to her.\nEnervate never felt nice to be around. She doesn't contest Awelah's\nvictory.\n\nShe asks, \"Your earlier attempts, were they some kind of misdirection?\nShaping my expectations?\"\n\n\"If I could end it that easily, I wouldn't complain. But I was right,\nwasn't I? You were underestimating me, thinking I'd fall into the exact\nsame trap as yesterday.\"\n\nMakuja inclines her head.\n\n\"I was going to be a vesperbane since the day I hatched. I know a few\nthings about tactics.\" Awelah reaches out and touches a foretarsus to\nthe projection, unblowing the bubble, and Makuja is released from the\nunpleasant vibrations.\n\nOoliri watches the dispelling with undisguised interest, curiosity\noverwriting his concern and disappointment at Awelah's tactics. Before\nthe boy can say anything, she's speaking again.\n\n\"What about you?\" She means Makuja. \"Why are you holding back? Not just\ntoday --- it happened yesterday. What happened to the bloody wing-claws\nyou stole from your master?\"\n\nMakuja brushes her palps against her pars stridens and makes a sound.\nShe turns to collect her knives.\n\nNeither quite heard her, and it's impossible to say if the words they\nmissed were \"I don't know\" or \"I can't.\"\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\n\"Why do you have that barrel, anyway?\" Awelah asks Ooliri. Her eyes are\non the unrolled seal Klepé had gifted them, revealing the way for",
  "title": "A Spar and a Specter"
}