{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://serpentsquiggles.neocities.org//posts/black-nerve/chimhop/04",
  "path": "/posts/black-nerve/chimhop/04",
  "publishedAt": "2022-03-06T00:00:00.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:ivoe7cntxuy6at7uzmxzs2ft/site.standard.publication/3mfk6cpprzt2t",
  "textContent": "Upon a sheer hill, dark filaments rise up to the heavens. You can see\nfor kilometers in the distance. There's a far away lake or large pond,\nand near the horizon, there's a hint of farmland.\n\nAtop this cliff, the pawns --- Ooliri and two others --- sit in\nmeditation. Oocid guides them, while the mentor stands off, regarding\nAwelah.\n\n\"I watched you fight Fihra,\" she says. \"You're trained. You were going\nto be a vesperbane, yes?\"\n\n\"It was my purpose.\"\n\n\"And now, the banehold that would have countenanced you is...\"\n\n\"It's gone. All of it.\"\n\n\"Yes. So, what now, Awelah? What is your new purpose?\"\n\nAwelah's eyes darken in a way that the fiend looking at her, years of\nexposure to all the menace real monsters offer, can only find cute. \"I\nwill hunt down whoever is responsible for this, and I will find out why,\nand I will avenge my clan.\"\n\nThe fiend nods. \"For that, you'll need the power the vespers grant, and\nfor that, you'll need the countenance of a banehold. The Windborne\nStronghold is the strongest of all the provincial baneholds. It welcomes\nnew vesperbanes, and one of your bloodline...\"\n\n\"If it will make me stronger, then I will have to accept.\"\n\n\"What does being stronger mean, to you?\"\n\nAwelah pauses to think for a moment, eyes distant. Then, \"Do you know...\nhave you ever heard of a vesperbane that can walk through fire without\nbeing burned? Travel through blazing flames without crossing the\nintervening distance?\"\n\n\"Ah, you've heard the stories of the One-Winged Phoenix? The ashbane\nwith an unpaired aviform myxokore... They are a mighty vesperbane. Is\nthat your ideal?\"\n\n\"How strong would I have to be to be better than them? Defeat them?\"\n\n\"You... There are some banes it's best not to compare yourself to. The\nPhoenix is heir to the great Thimithi clan, and a once-in-a-generation\ntalent --- she was the youngest bane to be admitted into the\nArch-fiend Selection Exams, the youngest to win, though they refused\nto promote her. Even if she were a normal vesperbane, she's a fiend\nand you are a pawn. That's enough of a headstart you might never catch\nup before one of you dies --- and, it's there in the name, rumor has\nit the Phoenix can't die.  Mere training won't beat greater training\n--- so I advise against besting your heroes being your goal.\"\n\nAwelah scowls at that.\n\n\"Lighten up, little nymph. I'm sure you'll become a strong vesperbane in\nyour own right. Now here, if I'm going to put a recommendation in for\nyour enrollment, I want an idea of what Duskroot was teaching you.\nFihra, come here. I want the two of you to spar. No weapons, no injury.\nReady?\n\nWithout her weapon, without a foe who'd just woken up, and without the\nneed for an efficient, immediate takedown, Fihra doesn't cleanly\noutmatch Awelah. It's still no puzzle which one of them has the greater\nphysical power, and seasons more training. Awelah puts in a good\nshowing, but her struggle against the wretch imparts her with mounting\nfrustration. Her temper only makes her easier to shut down. The mentor\nwatches on, antennae working in thought.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\nThe other pawns gathered nearby, sitting with abdomens to the ground,\nand Oocid is guiding them through meditation.\n\n\"...and breathe out. Come back to me now --- what did you feel?\"\n\nOne pawn shrugs, and another stridulates negation. Ooliri is the odd one\nout --- when am I not? --- feeling what might be unmistakable success.\nBut if anyone could mistake it, he might.\n\nNone of the three pawns were quite of the laity, even now. Each had a\nsingle vesper nursed within their guts. A vesperbane had at least two;\nbut traditionally, a pawn is given one vesper first, to give the body\ntime to adjust, to see if they are found wanting in the vespers'\njudgment.\n\nA vesper feeds on a diamantids' victual offerings, consuming them to\nbind arete, the foundation of a veserbane's power. It's energy stored in\ndense, umbral fatty tissue. Even a pawn with one vesper produces arete.\n\nIf arete is stored caloric energy, it should be within even a pawn's\npower to withdraw. That was the goal of this meditation. The vesperbanes\nhad eaten breakfast; the pawns had not.\n\nOoliri hadn't eaten breakfast, and he felt full.\n\n\"So you succeeded, little brother?\"\n\nHe nods. \"But that's not enough to get promoted, is it?\" He hated the\ntone of hope that crept from somewhere into his tone.\n\nThe response is a click of mandibles. \"It's progress, certainly. But a\nvesperbane is a balance of mental and physical excellence. You've never\nbeen wanting in mental regards --- so to be promoted, you need to\nimprove physically.\" His eyes lose their focus on his brother. \"I'm\ngoing to give you three a break, then we can try again later?\"\n\nWhen the wretch leaves, one pawn turns to Ooliri. Her name is Mita.\n\"How. How did you do it? What are you doing differently?\" Ooliri's\ngoggles are hanging around his neck. Without them, the world is blurry,\nexpressions hard to parse.\n\nHe pauses a moment to consider where to start. \"Relaxation is the first\nstep, right? What calming image do you focus on to get there?\"\n\nThe other pawn's eyes flush, as if it were embarrassing. \"Uh, I remember\nthe day my mom walked me to the academy. I think about what she'll say\nwhen I come back as a real vesperbane. Uh. Something like that. Like,\nthinking of your mother --- that's got to be calming for anyone, right?\"\nMita finishes, defensively.\n\n\"Oh.\" Ooliri is now thinking of his own mother. Wasting away from\ndisease, dying of a condition father had thought he could save her from.\nA condition he probably could (or did) discover how to fight, in the\nend. If only they could decode his notes --- if only they could finish\nhis research. Silverbane thought he could save anyone. Everyone.\n\n\"Sorry,\" the other pawn is saying, and it sounds distant from this deep\nin Ooliri's thoughts.\n\n------------------------------------------------------------------------\n\nThey're traveling east along a dirt road, stopping regularly to let the\npawns rest. Fihra isn't impressed by Awelah hunting beetles with her\nspear --- but saving her the work, that's convenient, she concedes.\nOoliri gives the fresh kills strange looks, and shies away from eating\nthem even as the other diamantids eagerly take them to pieces.\n\nThat night, they hear the howling of direbeasts again. When they make\ncamp, they split into watches. The banes keep watch for direbeasts and\nbandits, while the pawns are told to keep an eye on Awelah and Makuja.\nIt's Fihra and Ooliri who get the watch in the middle of the night.\n\nThe sound of distant wolves howling haunts the night air. They swear\nthey can see shadows crossing the distant countryside.\n\nIs the howling getting louder? Fihra hears something and gets up to\ninvestigate.\n\nOoliri, meanwhile, is all but nodding off. He's brought back to\nattention by Awelah.\n\nSomething's wrong.\n\nOoliri asks why she's awake.\n\nAwelah hasn't slept well in five nights. Thus, she noticed when Makuja\ngot up, but assumed it was to relieve herself. It's been a while ---\nAwelah counted to a thousand --- and the other nymph hasn't come back.\n\n\"I'm going to look for her,\" she states simply.\n\nOoliri can only follow behind. It's opposite the direction Fihra went.\n\nWhen they do find her, she's on the ground, forelegs bound, and the\npawns from earlier stand above her. Awelah rushes forward.\n\nThere's a trap, and she trips it, getting caught in a net.\n\nAwelah still manages to sound demanding. \"You have me, now. Let her go.\"\n\n\"No, I think our master will want both of you.\"\n\nOoliri thinks. They're some distance from the camp. Screaming for help\nisn't the smartest thing to do in a night with direbeasts on the prowl.\nWould it work in the short term, thought? But Makuja was at the pawn's\nmercy. What might they do, if Ooliri panicked them? So, not good in the\nshort term, good in the medium turn, bad in the long term.\n\nIf he were more like Oocid, Fihra or even Awelah, this would be so much\neasier. Would this be already over, if Ooliri had the guts to act when\nit mattered?\n\nOocid's words return to him. To be worthy to be a vesperbane he didn't\nneed to think better, but to do better. He reaches for his baton.\n\nHe wonders if the energy from his vesper would help. Probably not.\n\nHe draws a breath, and then runs forward. They didn't prepare more than\none trap, almost as if they expected only one to come here.\n\nOoliri swings the baton like his brother taught him. It cracks against\nhis foe's chitin. Fear is already flooding his mind when he gets a\ncloser look at the weapons the pawns are wielding.\n\nThen something happens when they're distracted, advancing toward Ooliri\nas he backs up. Makuja is bursting up from where she lay on the ground,\ncut ropes falling off her limbs.\n\nThe first thing Ooliri registers is the bleeding, the pawns falling\nover. Then he sees the knives in Makuja's grasp. She's kneeling, and\nslitting the necks of fallen pawns.\n\n\"Y-you're killing them?\"\n\nMakuja just looks up at him with those empty white eyes. \"Why do you\nsound so shocked? Are we not predators?\"\n\n\"No, no. We're beings. With thoughts, emotions, souls. They-they were\ntoo. And you... killed them.\"\n\n\"They were threatening us, so I made us safe. It is good for an axe to\ncut through wood, and it is good for a vesperbane to cut down the\nenemy.\"\n\n\"Their life... Every life matters, Makuja. Weren't you taught that?\" he\nsays. \"I came to your defense because you matter --- you defended us\nbecause we matter. I don't think anyone... anyone should have to die.\"\n\nThey look at each other for a moment, but Makuja doesn't have a reply,\nand Ooliri goes to help Awelah down out of the net trap.\n\nMakuja looks thoughtful all the while, and her grip tightens around her\nknives.",
  "title": "A Beleaguered Journey"
}