Chapter 16

Edited by: oldfart and 2muchdiggity

‘Let her in, Kal,’ came the thought from Kuto.

“Why the hell would I do that?” said Kal aloud. The last few minutes he had been talking the frozen harpy through the more panic-inducing parts of her stasis, such as no longer breathing or having a heartbeat. The bird-girl’s hysteria faded quickly as the mage shared images and feelings from his own experience. Knowing that she would be okay once the gorgon’s petrification ran its course did a lot to dispel her fears. At the moment, she was far calmer than Kal, who was still seething from what Sera had done.

‘You heard what she said when we arrived. You took her from her home, it’s your responsibility to make certain she will be okay here in the surface world.’

“That disappeared the moment she attacked you,” he growled, but the harpy’s words had dulled the edge of his anger.

‘No, it didn’t. If I were in extreme pain or damaged in some way, then I would agree with you. I’m uncomfortable and a little pissed off that we can’t have any fun while I’m stuck like this, but that doesn’t justify leaving the girl outside where she’s terrified. I heard how scared she was before you closed the door. Let her in, Kal’

He stared down at Kuto’s frozen body lying in the bed where he placed her after tossing the gorgon from the tent. The look of surprise still on her face nearly made him reject her suggestion outright. With a snarl of annoyance, he turned and walked out of the room. “You’re too damn forgiving,” he called back. He received a mental smile from the harpy in return.

The mage grabbed his cloak and threw it on as he made his way to the tent’s entrance. Flipping the cowl up, he tugged it down over his eyes as he came to a stop in front of the canvas flap that would take him outside.

“Velu,” said Kal. The tent reacted to the elvish word with a faint glow that ran around the doorway then winked out indicating the entrance was now unsealed.

He put a hand out to push the flap to the side but no sooner had the glow vanished when Sera came tumbling backwards into the tent. She had apparently been leaning against the doorway this entire time.

Kal reached out to help her up but she ignored his presence completely. Instead, she flipped from her back onto her hands and knees then scrambled past his legs and down the steps before darting off to the side. Pressing her back against the wall of the tent, she drew her legs up and wrapped her arms protectively around them. Staring blankly forward, Sera shivered with fear as the snakes making up her hair draped themselves around her neck and shoulders while peering outward for any possible threats.

The gorgon’s actions caught him by surprise. He had expected screaming, yelling, tears, a hate-filled tirade, even an attack. Perhaps he hadn’t given enough credit to the woman’s utter fear of the outdoors.

Ria landed on his shoulder, having stayed out of the way as Kal got Kuto situated. She pulled the side of his hood back. “I’ve never seen her this bad,” said the sprite with a worried expression.

The sound of the Ria’s voice made Sera’s head snap up. She glanced between Ria and Kal before jumping to her feet and running frantically toward the room Kal had made for her yesterday. There was a sound of tearing cloth as the mage and sprite followed more slowly. The gorgon emerged moments before Kal got to the room, a strip of cloth torn from her bed linens now covered her eyes.

“Thank you,” she whispered in a shaky voice as she stepped up to the mage and wrapped her arms around him.

“I’m still mad at you for what you did to Kuto.”

Sera tensed up, “I’m sorry. Just please don’t put me outside again. I’ll do anything, just please, please, don’t make me go out there again.” As she spoke Sera stripped her shirt off and began reaching for the clasp of the pants Kal had bought her when the mage’s hand stopped her.

“Not like this,” said Kal. He could still see the hurt and fear on her face even with the blindfold. With most of his anger gone from seeing the miserable state the gorgon was in, it was getting more difficult to maintain the steely tone in his voice. “You were never obligated to do anything like that for me before, and you aren’t now. Besides, Kuto is the one who needs your apology and your thanks. If it were up to me, you never would have set foot in here again. Go back to your room and stay there, I’ll call you when I’m done being mad at you.”

Pivoting on his heel, Kal strode back to his room where Kuto was still lying on the bed.

Sera tilted her head as though looking up at Ria, who was hovering in the air after being dislodged by the mage’s sharp about-face. “He won’t throw me out again, will he?” she asked. The gorgon’s desperation was plain in her voice.

The sprite shook her head. “I don’t know. Considering you attacked one of his women, you should be happy you are still breathing,” she said curtly before following Kal.

Sadness and regret etched the woman’s face as she picked up her shirt and returned to her room.

Kal summoned the gorgon a few hours later and she emerged from her room still wearing the blindfold. He was still irritated with the woman, despite Kuto continuing to talk him down. Adding to his annoyance was that she hadn’t put her shirt back on and he had to keep tearing his eyes from the gorgon’s breasts as he spoke to her. After the bounty of flesh he was subjected to during his return home, he expected to be nearly immune to the sight by now. His eyes and body disagreed.

“Despite what happened earlier, I still need to speak with the dwarves. Once that is done we can work on getting you acclimated to the outside so we will be able to travel. I’m working on the assumption that we won’t be able to reach Sandy and find you a new cave system to live in since I don’t have a way to contact her. Even if I did, there’s no guarantee that she would agree to find you a new home. I may have given her a child, but she isn’t beholden to me in any way,” he reminded her.

Sera nodded, now she felt even worse for what she did to the bird-woman earlier. Even with the harpy out of commission, he was still going to leave.

“Since Kuto is in no shape to fly me back and forth.” He paused for a moment to glare at the gorgon. He knew she could still see through the serpents making up her hair, though it wasn’t actual ‘sight’ but something more like infravision. “Now I have to make my way through the forest, instead of over it, so there is a good chance I will spend the night in the dwarven keep. I’ll be taking Ria with me so you will need to know how to seal the tent on your own to keep out any predators.”

“Velu?” she asked, “I tried to pay attention when Ria said it.”

Kal was surprised, she even got the inflection right. “Very good. Now about Kuto...”

“I won’t touch her, I promise.”

“After what you did, I really don’t want to leave you here alone with her. Kuto is insistent, however, that you only petrified her out of fear, not malice, and that she will be safe.”

The gorgon nodded again. The harpy’s assessment was accurate.

The mage affixed her with another stern glare. “Don’t forget her and I can speak to one another, so if you do anything while I’m gone, I will know. I’m certain I don’t need to go into detail as to what might happen if you hurt her.”

Sera shook her head emphatically. The threat of being thrown outside again was enough to keep her in line without the intimidating look he was giving her, which she couldn’t really make out anyway. Finer details like facial expressions got lost when ‘seeing’ through her snakes.

“If I’m exceptionally lucky, I’ll be back tonight but don’t expect me until tomorrow,” he said as he pulled on his cloak. With a wave he was out the door and gone, the haste rune on his vambrace already lit up and starting to spin.

After a couple of minutes, the gorgon took a deep, steadying breath. Banishing the desire to run after him, she began walking towards the room where the harpy lay upon the mage’s bed.

‘She’s coming inside, Kal,’ sent Kuto, a hint of worry in her thoughts.

He cursed as he came to a skidding halt and started back toward the tent.

‘Wait ... She apologized to me and is sitting down next to the bed,’

‘Do you think you will be safe?’

‘I’ll be fine, she’s talking about her life before you came along and how you’ve turned her world on its head. I’ll keep you updated.’

As Kal continued on through the forest on his way to the road which would take him to the Dwarven Kingdom, Kuto relayed the stories Sera told her. Kal’s frown got deeper as she went on.

The gorgon talked about how humans would come and attack her. Some tried to just force her out of her home while others tried to outright kill her. All of them ended up the same, petrified as the harpy now was. During those periods she would use them as she wanted and oftentimes she would pretend they were actual lovers instead of victims.

Once free of her power, they would either flee or continue trying to kill her. Those that tried to kill her were easier to deal with emotionally than those who ran. It was easy to admit there was no hope for those who attacked her a second time and ended up statues in her gallery. The adventurers that ran though ... she couldn’t help but wonder what it was about her that disgusted them so much. Perhaps if they stayed for a little while and actually talked with her, then maybe some of those scenes she acted out while the person was frozen might become a reality.

Then came Kal, the only one of her victims to smile at her. She found herself doing things to impress him that she hadn’t done with others. Clearing out her gallery so he wouldn’t see those who had come before him. Gorging herself to prove that she was a good hunter and could provide food for him. Showing off her body, even flaunting it in front of him while silently hoping for his approval. She also adjusted his arms many more times than all the others, positioning him in ways that made it feel more like he was participating. This was something she couldn’t do with others she had frozen as once the petrification ran its course those wounds would start to bleed again, but on the man who smiled up at her for all of those days, there was a flash of light from his back and the tiny holes left by her serpents healed without leaving a trace.

Along came the day he would wake up ... he didn’t attack her ... or run away. Instead, he created a small shelter and invited her inside. He made love to her, laying her down and taking her in a way she hadn’t experienced before with her ‘lovers.’ Afterward, he punished her for what she had done to him, subjecting her to a delicious torture for a couple of hours as she rode the edge of orgasm and explaining that this was akin to his experience when petrified, only it lasted for days. After thinking about what his experience must have been like, she concluded that he was being exceptionally merciful with his punishment.

Kal went from being prey she could use for a time to sate her needs to this almost mythic persona in her mind.

Then he disappeared, flying off into the sky with the bird-woman. With Ria’s help, she managed to keep herself together. Mostly because of the sprite’s reassurances that she contained nearly all his worldly belongings and he wouldn’t just leave the tiny woman there. In fairness, the avatar only mentioned it once, the rest of the time she emphasized that Kal would never just abandon the gorgon. Still, that one reason stuck in the woman’s head, “He would come back for Ria.”

Earlier that day, he once again was leaving her behind to go with a harpy, but this time Ria was going with him as well. She couldn’t shake the thought that if he took the sprite there would be no reason for him to come back.

She panicked, and now she was paying for it.

The gorgon finished by thanking Kuto once again for convincing Kal to let her stay and apologizing once more before returning to the room Kal had set up for her.

In the forest to the east, the mage stood from where had been sitting with his back to a tree, listening to Kuto recount the gorgon’s story. As he continued toward the road, he berated himself for being so clueless and callous about how the woman felt.

Huldurn grunted as he looked over the drawings the human had brought. The dwarf cursed for the thousandth time his poor choice of departments when drafted to be a Magistrate. Though unhappy with being chosen, when his name came up he jumped at the chance to be over Engineering and New Constructions, not understanding why older dwarves with more knowledge in the field shied away. It didn’t take him long to figure out their reasons. Being an advisor to the King meant he got little chance to see the machines the engineers were creating or the new projects currently in process. Sure, he got to visit on occasion but never got the chance to really get into the project and get his hands dirty.

Huldurn threw the drawings down on the desk in front of him. “Come back in a couple o’ days, lad. Our head engineer, Olen, is the one who needs ta see these. He’s been down in the eastern mines testin’ some new contraption o’ theirs. Shoulda been done yesterday but it’ll take a few more to get back here. An’ that’s if all goes well.”

A scowl crept across the dwarf’s face, “Yer sure there’s a chamber below we can tap fer hot air?”

“Yes sir,” said the young human, “I have a spell that protects me from heat and flames.” To demonstrate, the boy walked over to the wall and stuck his hand over one of the smokeless oil lamps still used by the king and his administration because of all the paperwork. One of the runes on a bracer the human wore glowed dull red. “When I entered that chamber, the spell was using so much power I could have stood inside the flaming breath of a dragon.”

The dwarf was suitably impressed. “We could use...” his voice trailed off as the young mage began shaking his head.

“The magic requirements for that kind of protection are enormous, less than a minute in the chamber left me nearly drained.”

“Bloody hell, if it’s that hot down there then we may not be able ta use it. We won’t be able to bore into rock that gets too soft from the heat.”

“You still haven’t explained why you are interested in a chamber of heated air in the first place.”

“Aye, an’ I’m not goin’ to. Olen’s had an idea he’s been knockin’ about fer years but it’s near impossible ta find the right place ta build it. I won’t be takin’ the fun of telling ya ‘bout it from him.” Huldurn was about to dismiss the young wizard when a thought occurred to him. “Things like yer asking aren’t cheap. How were ya plannin’ ta pay fer this path up to the top o’ yer mountain?”

The human looked down to his side, “Ria? I need one of the big rubies.” A moment later a speck of light turned into a dazzling, faceted ruby the size of a human’s fist in his hand.

The dwarf stared at it for a moment before bursting into laughter. “If ye were gonna do that then ya shoulda never mentioned ya did magic. Red pieces o’ glass won’t pay fer good dwarven stonework!”

As the dwarf guffawed the young man just stood there holding the gem. When Huldurn’s mirth finally began to fade, the man quietly said, “Do you have a jeweler?”

The ancient head of the jeweler’s guild let the loupe fall from his eye, letting it get caught by the delicate gold chain pinned to his collar. The dwarf had been inspecting and cutting gems longer than Huldurn had been alive. Only an elf might have more experience due to their much longer lives. “It’s real,” he declared.

“But ... how?” stammered the magistrate.

“If it was created with magic it would look flawless but shatter like glass,” said the old dwarf as he gave the ruby a couple of taps on his granite workbench. “This one has inclusions and tooling marks from where it was cut that didn’t get buffed all the way out. It’s real.”

The King’s advisor crossed his arms in front of him, “Even if it’s real, we’re talkin’ about months o’ hard labor. This won’t be enough.”

The wizard looked down at his pouch again, “Ria, another ruby please.”

Sera dominated Kal’s thoughts the next day as he made his way back to his campsite. He was so preoccupied that he missed the ribbon he had tied to a branch overhanging the road that indicated where he needed to turn off. Though he was going straight west from where he had marked, Kal was lucky enough to not have to worry about getting lost. The small clearing with the tent was right on the edge of the forest where it bordered a swamp. All he needed to do if he got off track was follow the marsh until he found the clearing once again.

Partway through the forest, the mage froze.

“Ria,” he whispered, then shushed her before she could give her normal greeting. “How are we doing for venison?” he asked in low tones and he carefully watched a doe shuffling through the underbrush.

Ria made her body fade before answering. “Sera never left the tent to go hunting and it’s amazing how much she eats. She put a pretty big dent in your stores while you were gone.”

Kal’s expression showed his surprise at the news but the sprite had given him the information he needed. Slowly sinking to one knee, he held his hands as though drawing a bow. The small purple rune on his vambrace glowed and a similar colored arrow formed where a real one would be.

“I wish it were cooler, I’d rather let that age for a while before cooking it,” said Kal as the meat, hide, and the rope he used to drain his harvest vanished into specks of light and floated into Ria’s bag.

“Why don’t you ever use magic when you hunt? After you dressed it you didn’t even use your strength rune to carry it away so you could string it up. Ever since we first left the farm I’ve never seen you use magic to process what you hunt,” said the sprite as they walked away from the carcass. Scavengers would be arriving soon, nothing went to waste in the wilderness.

Once they were a fair distance away, Kal flopped down next to a tree and leaned back against the trunk. “Habit more than anything, I think. It’s a part of my old life that I want to hang on to. I also think the extra effort I put in shows respect to the animal that gave its life to feed me. Using magic seems like it would cheapen its sacrifice. It may seem silly but that’s how I feel about it.”

“Nah, that makes sense in a strange, human kind of way,” said the sprite as she landed on his thigh and sat down. “It was nice doing this with you again, you haven’t needed to hunt since we arrived at Carriston.”

“Dax took a lot more than really necessary when training the rest of her pack for life in the forest.”

“A good thing too with as much as Sera has eaten. From the sounds of it, she wants to be warm for you, but her body doesn’t work the same as yours and she has to eat loads of food to keep her temperature up.”

Kal thought back to the time he spent petrified and saw that Ria had a point. When he and the gorgon finally slept together after he was free of her gaze, he hadn’t noticed a huge difference in their temperatures. Their very first time, however, Sera’s body had been noticeably chilly. Regardless, he’d have to talk with her about her eating habits. Much as he appreciated the effort she was making, it wasn’t feasible to keep up with that kind of appetite long-term.

Kal looked off toward the clearing, frowning. “We need to get back, Sera just went in and asked Kuto when I was coming back before remembering she was frozen.” Kal shook his head as he stood up, “First Elta, now Sera. What is going on lately that these women are obsessing over me?”

Ria just shrugged but Kal caught the scowl that flickered across her face. “What’s wrong?”

“You and me, alone and relaxing for a few minutes. I was just hoping...”

The mage laughed. “Anytime we are free and you are wanting some fun with me, just ask. Not having you with me for two weeks showed me how much I’ve come to rely on you. Not just as something I use to store my stuff but as a companion as well.” He reached out and gently wrapped his fingers around her waist, getting a startled squeak from the avatar. “I didn’t tell you this with all of the commotion when we first arrived,” he gave the sprite a light kiss on her cheek, “but I really missed you while I was gone.”

Ria flushed in embarrassment, meaning her face and most of the top half of her body went nearly invisible. He could barely make out that her lips were moving but no sound came from the tiny woman. A moment later she vanished completely.

Realizing that the sprite had returned to her bag, Kal chuckled and continued on towards camp.

Sera was pacing back and forth across the main area when Kal arrived. Her shoulders sagged and she let out a huge sigh of relief upon seeing him step into the tent. A second later she stood up straight, her expression going neutral as she addressed him. “Welcome back,” she said in a stiff tone.

“What happened Sera?” he asked stopping at the bottom of the steps.

“Nothing! I didn’t even touch the woman!”

“I know that. I can still talk to her, remember? I’m wondering how a strong, independent woman who lived by herself for years and fended off countless attackers has become so terrified of being away from me.”

“Kal ... when I agreed to go with you, you became my world. I grew up in those caves, I know them better than anything. You are my lifeline up here on the surface. You were supposed to teach me how to hunt and live up here. Instead, you ran away,” she looked down and mumbled, “just like all the others.”

“I’m here in front of you right now, aren’t I? Twice I’ve left and come back as promised, even if it was a bit later than expected. I understand that I’m a bit different from the others who came and attacked you. But I really need you to find some of that independence again or we won’t be able to travel together.”

“What do you mean? Are you leaving again?” she asked, a hint of panic seeping into her voice.

“Yes,” he said flatly. “I have to hunt to replenish our food stores. I will need to return to the Dwarves in a few days to talk to their lead engineer. I’ll need to visit the bazaar as well to pick up any other foods I can’t hunt for. Apart from all those reasons, the human settlements are not friendly toward women like you and Kuto. If I need to go into them, you won’t be able to follow and it’s entirely possible that I may be there for weeks. I need to know that you are going to be okay without me. I need to know that if I end up dying a week or a month from now, you will be able to take care of yourself.”

Much like when he and Kuto first arrived, he walked over to the gorgon and put his arms around her. Confused but elated, Sera tentatively returned the hug, “I also need you to forgive me for leaving you so soon. I had no idea I had become so important to you, or that you were so ill-equipped for life up here. Living up here my entire life and seeing how well you had survived down there, I made a lot of assumptions about your abilities and knowledge.”

“You aren’t making me feel better,” she grumbled into his chest.

Kal gave a small laugh. “It wasn’t meant as an insult. Just a difference in experiences. If our situations were reversed, I might feel much like you do.”

“Liar,” said Sera, “you weren’t even uncomfortable being down there with me, but I’ll let it pass.”

“Admittedly, I’ve spent a fair amount of time in caves over the last couple of years.

“You need me to be less dependent upon you,” she said stepping back from him and fighting down the stray thought that he was just saying that so he could leave her for good. “How do we do that?”

“First off, by getting you acclimated to being outside,” he said, standing off to one side and gesturing toward the tent’s entrance.

Fear immediately filled the gorgon’s face and she began to breathe quicker until Kal stepped in front of her again, blocking her view.

The mage frowned, “That’s from me throwing you out yesterday ... isn’t it?”

Sera nodded in response as her breathing returned to normal. “I tried a couple of times while you were gone, but I’m back to where I started when Ria began helping me get over my fear.”

“And now just the sight sets you off,” he stated. The gorgon nodded in response a moment later.

“I have to go back and talk to the dwarves in a couple of days, once everything is settled with them we will just be waiting for Kuto to wake up before we get out on the road. That doesn’t give you a lot of time to get over this fear, so let’s get to work.”

Kal worked with Sera the rest of the day but progress was slow and only came in small increments. By sunset, she was only feeling uncomfortable looking outside, but that could have been from the lack of light and color making things similar to being underground.

“What are all of the little dots out there?” asked the gorgon. Kal had left the flap open for the time being and the cool autumn air wafted in, bringing the sounds of nocturnal forest animals along with. Sera was still a good distance from the entrance but had laid down on the carpet and was looking up at the darkened sky. Every so often she would scoot forward about a hand’s width then stay there, looking outside until she felt comfortable to move again. It was slow, but it was still progress.

“Stars,” answered Kal.

“That’s it? Just ‘stars.’ What are they made of? How do they shine like that?”

Kal chuckled, “You’ll have to be happy with ‘just stars.’ As to your other questions, I honestly don’t know. I grew up hearing that they were the tears of a goddess, shed for all the suffering and hatred in the world and thrown up into the sky to remind us how much she cares. Ikuno told me that the explanations behind stars change from race to race and sometimes even from town to town. The dwarves believe that they are the sparks from their god forging the world on his anvil. The elves think that they are the notes to nature’s song, hung in the sky for all to enjoy. Some nutcase wizard Ikuno met said they were giant balls of gas unimaginably far away. He even had diagrams and graphs that he called ‘proof.’ Ikuno said she was intrigued but didn’t care to wait the half of a year he said it would take to see the results with her own eyes. What this tells me more than anything is: we don’t know what they are.”

The gorgon smiled, “I suppose it doesn’t really matter. Down in the caves, there was a large one that I used to go visit on occasion that looked kind of like the sky does now. Worms that live up on the cave’s roof let down sticky strings then make their tails glow to attract bugs. Not very pleasant since they are trying to catch a meal, but it was pretty to look at.”

A small shudder ran through the mage as he momentarily imagined a lamia-like monster girl but with a glowing, grub-like hind end. It wasn’t a pleasant image, but it got him wondering how the sticky fluid they used to catch prey might work as a base for some of his inks. Which led him to...

“Sera? Could I get some of your venom?” asked Kal.

“I suppose,” she said turning away from the view outside to look at him. At the same time, she fought the knot forming in her stomach from the fears still running through her head. It was hard to shake the idea that if he got her venom then he wouldn’t need her anymore and leave for good. She kept reminding herself that he kept coming back as he said he would. Kal saw none of this internal struggle as he went into his lab and began securing some pieces of soft leather over a ceramic bowl to simulate biting through skin.

Walking back out into the main area, he saw that the gorgon had fallen asleep, her serpents fanned out on the carpet around her head. He noticed as he put the bowl down that the snakes were still moving, indicating that she was likely still awake, though their movements were slow and lethargic. Putting a hand on her shoulder and giving her a small shake got an annoyed hiss from some of the serpents but also informed him of the reason for her sluggishness. Looking over at the door he shook his head, the air coming in had cooled Sera’s body. Were it anyone else then he would be in a panic, worried about the person dying on him, but with the gorgon being cold-blooded he just rolled her over on her back and lifted her in his arms before making his way to her room.

‘Lucky bitch,’ came the thought from Kuto when he decided to share some of his own body heat.

Laying her on the bed and stepping back out of the room to seal the tent for the night, he sent back, ‘it’s the quickest way to warm her back up. Besides, she put a lot of effort in today, waking up with a warm body beside her seems like a nice reward.”

‘Reward for who?’

‘You’re just annoyed it’s not you.’

‘Damn straight I am. I’m also annoyed that I haven’t gotten any sleep since she did this to me. Not to mention that I should be home with Perra or close to it by now. It’ll be damn near another week before I get to see her again. And ... now I get to listen to you two fuck while I’m stuck like this because I doubt you will stick with what you said earlier.’