{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://serpentsquiggles.neocities.org//posts/black-nerve/eifre-quest/05",
  "path": "/posts/black-nerve/eifre-quest/05",
  "publishedAt": "2020-03-24T00:00:00.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:ivoe7cntxuy6at7uzmxzs2ft/site.standard.publication/3mfk6cpprzt2t",
  "textContent": "Hemolymph. You're stilled, staring at the wounded lady as she reaches\nout with a middle leg, patting the bird and scratching its head. The\nmotion slides open her robe, and you're able to see her thorax and\nunder abdomen. It --- the flesh --- is sliced open in multiple places.\nNo, sliced is the wrong word. Bored open? Gouged? There seems to be\nholes melted into her, and she gushes out through them.\n\nHemolymph. The green innards of a mantis, you've never seen it before.\nYes, you're a nymph; you and your friends have sustained cuts and\ncracks before. Tiny things. But mantids weren't supposed to leak,\nlike a fruit someone bit into. It's unsetting, uncanny.\n\n\"First time seeing blood, eh?\" Blood? But only boney animals have\nblood. You almost ask, but it's not important.\n\n\"Are you alright? What happened?\"\n\nWhile you ask this, you kneel down to get a good look at the mantis. The\ndark blue chitin marks her as foreign; no one in Shatalek has chitin in\nshade even close. The robes are dark, and you don't see any insignia\nwoven into them.\n\n\"Yeesh, I'm not dead yet kid, don't get so interested in my stuff.\"\nThey cough again, and you watch their abdomen rise and fall as they suck\nin more breaths.\n\nAgain you run an examining eye over the mantis, searching for details\nout of place. They teach you to be incredibly wary of defects and\nrenegades in pre-vesper, because they are tricky and all of them\nruthless. This could be an innocent... but she could be anything.\n\nShe gathers her breath, and finally addresses your question. \"What\nhappened isn't important... You're from Shatalek, aren't you? I was\ncoming to warn you... all of you.\"\n\n\"Warn us what?\" You should have pressed about her injuries, about what\ncaused them --- but if this is a new world-scar...\n\n\"Termite mound. A fresh, big one. The Stewartry will be coming soon,\nand...\"\n\nYou interrupt, \"Well if the Vesperbane Stewartry already knows,\nthey'll handle it. We need to make sure you'll be okay!\" This would\nbe so much easier if she stayed focused.\n\nYou had bandages in your bag --- a vesperbane should be prepared, after\nall. Unfortunately, you had simply left out to study, so of course all\nyour pre-vesper gear was still at home, including your bag. But you know\nhow to start a fire, and you know the signals the guard uses. But would\nthe smoke make it out of the canopy? Would it even be visible? The sky\nwas darkening when you left.\n\nMaybe you could send the bird back, but would the townfolk pay attention\nto it? How many would still be outside? Maybe the signal fire is the\nbest idea. But if someone did this to her, and they're still out\nthere...\n\n\"Do you have any enemies? Who did this to you?\"\n\n\"Enemies?\"\n\n\"You know, like bad guys. Evil people who're after you.\"\n\n\"Well I have the twin snakes of the Stewartry and the Kult of Kaos\ncoiling tighter and tighter around my neck... But where in the nine\nnations is this coming from?\" Cough. \"What does this have to do with\nanything?\"\n\n\"Well I'm thinking about lighting a signal fire, but if whoever did\nthis to you is still out there, we don't want to let them know and draw\nthem to us.\"\n\n\"A signal fire? In the middle of the forest?\" She shakes her head,\nmumbling something. \"Listen kid, I'll be fine. You need to go back to\nyour village and tell them... No, they would listen to a nymph...\"\nShe trails off.\n\n\"People listen to me!\"\n\n\"Sure. Do you know a... Tlista?\"\n\n\"My... mom?\"\n\n\"You're Tlista's kid.\" The mantis leans forward, head craning up as\nif to get a better look. But she moans quietly in pain and falls back.\nAnd she says, \"Great, that's great. Tell her the ambrosia witch sent\nyou, and tell her---\"\n\n\"You're the ambrosia witch? I thought you were just a scary story.\"\n\n\"Listen, kid!\" She isn't shouting (mantids can't shout and\nspeak), but she's louder (making the raggedness in her voice clear),\nand there's a clear note of warning to it. \"Go back to your village.\nFind your mom. Tell her there's a new termite mound. Council might\nexclude it, council might exclude you. You need to go fast, and you\nshould go now.\"\n\n\"I'm not going to leave you to d- I'm not going to leave you here!\nVesperbanes save people.\"\n\nShe laughs. She laughs at you. \"I am a vesperbane, little one. Was,\nwhatever. And I know that line is a crock of shit. How exactly are you\ngoing to save me?\"\n\nYou take a step back. A vesperbane? If this was a vesperbane... you\nheard stories about vesperbanes reading minds and possessing people.\nYour antennae are quivering.\n\n\"You want to become a vesperbane, do you? Countenance and all? Ha...\"\nShe coughs, and she says, \"Take a piece of advice I wish I'd known:\nthe Kindling Dream is a nightmare. Everything is a lie.\"\n\nYou didn't miss her past tense correction. Was --- Is she banefallow?\nOr... is she a defect?\n\nAnother step back away from the wounded lady. You glance away, looking\nat the muddy path back out of these cursed woods.\n\n\"Scared now? If you run, at least tell Tlista what I said. But if you\nreally want to help me... I have a remedy at my cabin. Reva will show\nthe way.\"\n\nThe bird lifts up a head its name, and it chirps once.\n\n\"Either way, welcome to the heartlands, kid.\" The vesperbane gives\nanother mirthless laugh. \"My name's Maune. And I would like to know\nthe name of Tlista's kid. She never told me.\"\n\nWhat is your name?\n\n::: afterword\n:::: details\nSuggestions Received\n\n> It seems like our mom may have had some interesting business on the\n> side, at least in her past. I think that we should try and bring the\n> remedy.\n\n- - -\n\n> find mother, inform of witch\n\n- - -\n\n> \\>\\> Tophem\n\n- - -\n\n> I'd suggest Eifre as our name\n\n- - -\n\n> Tikka?\n::::\n:::"
}