Chapter 28

“There it is,” said Kal staring at the distant southern forest. “Te’thalas should be right on the border and the tower somewhere inside.”

“How will we find it?” asked Sera.

“I’m hoping we will only need to get close and we should run across one of the tower’s defenders. With luck, since we aren’t bandits and I obviously don’t have any problems with monster girls, we might be able to talk them into letting us look around. After a millennium I’m questioning if we will find anything of use. But I don’t think that Ikuno would have sent me here for nothing.”

“And if we can’t befriend them?”

“I’ll do what I need to. I’d rather not have to fight them, but I’ve spent too long on this journey to be turned away now. As a last resort, I may need to ask for your help. These women are defending their home for the last thousand years and the place where they were created, killing them is not an option.”

“But freezing them in place for a couple of days is?”

“As I said, only as a last resort.”

“It’s still strange to think of them as being created and not born,” said Graff.

Velt nodded in agreement, “It feels unnatural.”

“As it should,” Kal replied. “They were made as defenses for the tower, not because Prentas wanted to make monster girls.” He looked back at the forest, “Ikuno didn’t tell me anything else about what to search for but I’m going to assume that the city was within sight of the tower. Let’s see if we can find anything to tell us we are in the right place.”

“You said that Lantaris tried to erase Te’thalas’s existence and that was a thousand years ago. Do you think they might have come back and removed any evidence the city was here?” asked Sera.

The mage thought for a moment, “That ... never crossed my mind. Considering the lengths they seemed to go to, that may very well be a possibility. We won’t know for sure until we look,” he said before continuing along the ancient riverbed.

Sera sighed and looked over at the other two women, “It will take a miracle for us to find anything.”

“I think you are right,” said Velt as they started walking after the mage. “Before meeting Graff, I traveled the breadth of these plains a number of times. I’m certain on at least one of those trips you could have seen me from where we stand. I don’t remember anything that resembles the ruins of a city.”

“From Kal’s description, it was a hastily built city that sprung up from the promise of free and easy sex with the original monster girls.”

The vixen shrugged, “If your guess about Lantaris erasing them is true then there may not have been a lot for the Lantarans to clean up after getting wiped out by the ... other people.”

“Montar ... the ‘tar’ in the name must have been popular back when the cities were founded. Or, maybe they were parts of the same kingdom at one point.”

“Separate military and church cities?” offered Graff.

“It’s possible,” said Sera, “but the women in the tower are the only ones who might be able to answer that.”

“Kal, there’s nothing but grass here,” Sera declared as she approached him, “and what on earth are you doing?”

The mage was on his hands and knees, crawling along staring at the ground as though it would reveal its secrets through sheer force of will. “Trying to see underground. I can send out pulses of magic and sometimes tell what it looks like beyond what we normally see. I used this once to tell if a cave-in was worth busting through or if we needed to find a path around, so I know it works.”

Sera raised an eyebrow, “I didn’t doubt that it worked, I was just curious what you were doing.”

Kal straightened up and sighed heavily, “Sorry, I just really need this to be here. The march from lake Montar, the old river, the border of the southern forest, everything matches up. I just need something to tell me we are in the right spot and to start searching the forest.”

“Why not just search the forest instead of trying to find your proof?”

“Keep in mind, I’m making a lot of assumptions here. First off, I think the tower was visible from the city mostly because they saw Prentas as ‘father’ of Te’thalas. After all, they let him name the city after one of his lovers. It seems likely that they would have wanted to keep their patron and the man who created the monster girls they were enjoying in sight. Second, if that’s true and I go off of the height of Kelthor’s tower as a guide—”

“Kelthor is the wizard who lost the dog girl, right?”

“Yes. If I go off the height of his tower then that gives us a large amount of ground to cover when searching for the tower’s ruins.”

“What about gliding up above? Is it possible you might be able to see it from the air?” she asked.

Kal looked at the ground, suddenly feeling a little silly, “I really should have been the one to think of that.”

“I’ll go get Ria and the other two, no sense in continuing to search until you get back.”

High above the trees, the mage was beginning to despair. He had run through all four of his mana crystals gliding back and forth over the bare canopy without any sign of a tower or even a clearing where one might have been. With a shake of his head, he shifted his cloak to bring him back to where the girls were waiting. Thankfully, from up here, the dry riverbed was easy to make out.

As he drifted back over the plains and prepared for the aggressive swoop that would let him move against the oncoming wind, he noticed something strange down where the girls were waiting. With a yell of excitement, he angled forward to gain some speed before cutting power to the featherfall rune.

Sera jogged up as he landed, “I take it you— mmph!” the gorgon’s words were cut off as Kal grabbed her by the shoulders and kissed her, the snakes making up her hair spreading out and hissing slightly in surprise.

Pulling back, his face was beaming, “We’re here!”

“Not that I’m one to complain after a kiss like that, but you already thought this was the right place. I’m guessing you found the tower?”

“Actually, no. The ruins must be grown over. But I do know that we are standing where Te’thalas used to be,” he declared.

“It’s been a thousand years or whatever,” said Velt, her face skeptical. “How could there possibly be anything left that could tell you there was a city here?”

“The ground told me,” said Kal, cryptically.

“You had your nose a finger’s width from the ground earlier and couldn’t make anything out,” said the gorgon. “I’m having a hard time believing you could see something from the air.”

The mage grinned, “Not something in the ground but the ground itself. Te’thalas was the third-largest city of its time, which meant lots and lots of buildings and people. That also means lots and lots of weight on the ground.”

“Kind of like what I did tamping the dirt inside our new home but with bunches and bunches of humans?” asked Graff.

“Exactly, and that makes the soil beneath very hard and hard soil is less likely to get washed or blown away. Dirt and dust blown in from the west would have collected in the river while it was here then filled in the riverbed after it dried up. Meanwhile, the earth on the other side of the river continued to erode. But the hard-packed dirt where the city was would erode much slower.” He smiled wide, “From the air, you can see we are standing on a tiny plateau.”

“That makes a reasonable amount of sense, though I would like something a little more solid to go on before we go scouring the forest,” said Velt.

“I may have a starting point for us to start our search. Te’thalas started as a small village on the forest edge and I’m guessing it expanded toward the river since that was their source of water. There is a possibility that we may find another small plateau like this, but honestly, I doubt it.”

“Then how—” started Sera.

Kal held up a hand, “Again, I’m making assumptions here, but since I know from gliding around where the river ran through the forest and considering how far into the forest Kelthor built his tower, I think I have a good idea of where to start looking.”

The gorgon’s eyes narrowed in suspicion, “You seem awfully certain you know where this tower used to be.”

Kal smiled, “That’s because if I were building one I know exactly where I would put it.”

Sera shrugged, “As good of a reason as any, I suppose. Where do we start looking?”

“That direction,” Kal pointed, leading the way.

As the human and gorgon walked off, Graff leaned into Velt and whispered, “Who is Kelthor?”

“I think I’m glad we got here when we did,” said Sera. “As dense as this forest is, it may have been scary to come here when there were leaves on the trees.”

Kal grunted in agreement, when he was gliding above it earlier it looked like a sea of gray occasionally dotted by an evergreen or the occasional tree that was staunchly refusing to give up its leaves. While still cold out, this far south it was significantly warmer than what he was used to at this time of year. Even with the branches bare of leaves it still looked far from inviting.

“Are you sure about this?” asked Graff.

“What’s the worst that can happen if I’m wrong? Then this would just be a regular forest and we turn around and walk back out.”

“Well, yeah, I guess,” said the rabbit-girl while feeling a bit silly for not seeing that.

While he was certain that his observations were correct and that they were in the right place, Kal couldn’t help but be worried that his desire to find the Prentas’s tower was skewing his judgment. Taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, he started forward into the forest.

“I think I found something!” called Velt.

After entering the forest they spread out with the vixen and doe on one side of the mage and the gorgon on the other as they cautiously worked their way through the forest, looking for any signs of the tower. The lack of leaves on the trees and shrubs was making their search easier, but the area was still so overgrown with brush and brambles that moving forward was difficult at times.

“What is it?” he yelled back, making his way towards the fox-girl. Behind him, he heard Sera do the same.

“I think ... It’s a road.”

Kal stopped in confusion, “A road?” There hadn’t been anything that looked remotely like a road from the air. He let the gorgon catch up before continuing toward Velt, collecting Graff along the way.

“Look for yourself,” she said, pointing through the trees as they got closer.

Kal scowled at the sight of the wide, flat, light-tan path. There was no way he could have missed something like that. As they crept closer his frown turned into a smile. There were few explanations as to how something like this could have escaped his notice and the most obvious one was magic.

“Stay alert but I think this means we are going in the right direction,” he said as they finally made their way out of the forest and onto the cleared edges of the road. Kal looked up to see the sky but as they continued toward the path he caught little flickers of movement in the air above them. “They covered it with an illusion. But why?” he wondered.

“Because some foolish human wanted to try his hand at being a flying squirrel.”

All four of them froze and looked down the road. Up ahead was a square pit. The edges were a darker color than their surroundings, giving the impression of repeated patching over many, many years. The voice came from a woman with bright green eyes who had arms crossed on the lip of the pit with her head resting upon them. She wore a polished helmet that gave the hint of a faint glow in the autumn daylight with auburn hair spilling out from the back. Pauldrons protected her shoulders and she also wore gauntlets, but it seemed odd to Kal that her arms were bare. He couldn’t tell if it was just the style of the suit since the rest of her body was hidden down below.

“I take it you are one of the tower’s guardians?” he asked as they stepped onto the road.

“Someone seeking the tower instead of stumbling across us by accident. This hasn’t happened in a couple of centuries.”

“I was sent here in search of knowledge only possessed by the wizard, Prentas.”

The woman smiled, “I haven’t heard an outsider speak Father’s name in a very long time, I thank you for that. Sadly, I cannot let you continue. The tower’s secrets are not for any passing scholar or mage who happens upon it.”

“You said ‘any’ passing mage. What do I need to do to prove that I’m not just ‘any’ mage?”

The armored woman regarded him with amusement, “Careful with such challenges, mortal. They could cost you your life.” She sighed, “As much as I would hate to see a male leave, I will offer you a way out. A simple spell that will erase your memories of the last few days and place you back out on the plains somewhere.”

Kal regarded the rest of his party, “I’ve come too far to back down now, but I understand if you don’t want to take up my fight.”

“You still have all of our stuff in Ria, you’d better not die on us,” Velt said, sounding annoyed.

“You’re still all I have up here on the surface. I’m not going to run away now,” Sera chimed in.

“Since it sounds as though you are determined, as long as they don’t get involved, my offer is open to your companions,” said the woman. “But be warned, there is a significant chance your man will die.”

“I don’t like this,” Graff said to Velt. “We should have taken your herbs last night.”

“Is that all you’re really worried about?” The vixen was decidedly unimpressed with the doe’s choice in priorities.

“Of course not! It’s just ... I like him, and he likes us, and you can see how much he loves Sera and ... and ... Dammit Velt! We have been waiting for so long! We passed up so many other opportunities to have kits and ... I want him to be the father.”

“It’s so wonderful to see how far our daughters have come.”

Everyone turned toward the woman in the pit. “What do you mean?” asked Sera.

“The first few generations wouldn’t have had the restraint to let a man go until they found one they felt worthy of having children. Right after being created, they were so single-minded that getting a ‘husband’ and getting pregnant was of the utmost importance. Many thought nothing of kidnapping males and killing anything that stood in their way, including the man’s family. I may not be alive in the same sense you are, but I still feel pride at how monster girls have grown.”

“That explains a lot of why the Lantarans, and humans in general, demonize them,” said Kal.

The woman nodded, “I would love to see that stigma disappear and have our daughters take a proper place in the world.”

“I’m hoping to have a part in making that happen. I want to create a haven where humans and monster girls can live together.”

“Is such lofty aspirations what brought you here?”

“Actually, no. A lover of mine is immortal but was tricked into nearly killing me. She sacrificed her body to save my life. She is building another body as we speak but is weak against the magic used to attack her. I have learned some powerful protections and want to be there when she is reborn to protect her if the lich attacks again.”

“A lich? You’ve made some powerful enemies.”

Kal shook his head, “I don’t think he cared about me, only that he could use me to get at Ikuno.”

“Ikuno is the name of your immortal lover?”

Kal nodded.

“It’s a touching story but I still cannot grant access to the tower so easily. You will be required to pass three tests, one of strength, one of wisdom, and one of magic,” she said, holding up a finger for each. “You may take up my offer to erase your memories and be on your way any time before the test of magic. Once that starts, you will either succeed or die though there is a chance of death during the other two as well. As a request from myself and a few others, if you manage to pass the tests of strength and wisdom, then take a break and spend some time with a few of us monster girls before attempting the last one. For some, it has been decades since our last time with a male.”

The mage turned to Graff, “I’m sorry, but I have to do this.”

“I know I’m being selfish, but maybe if you make it through the first two we can set up the tent and wait a while before you try the last one?” she asked hopefully.

“Once you stepped on the road you are trapped on it either until released or you reach the end. You won’t be able to return to your camp,” said the armored woman.

“The tent she speaks of is magical, I have it with me,” Kal explained.

“Interesting.”

He turned back to Graff, “Have faith in me, I don’t know if Ikuno knew about these challenges but if she did, I don’t think she would have sent me here knowing I wouldn’t be able to pass them.”

The doe looked sad but nodded in understanding.

Kal gave her and Velt a light kiss on the lips before wrapping his arms around Sera and pressing his lips to hers, the gorgon clinging to him in what was almost desperation.

When they finally separated, the gorgon laid her forehead against his chest. “I almost lost you once and that was when I thought I loved you. Don’t put me through that again.”

“I’ll do my best,” he said softly before kissing her again and walking toward the woman. “I’m ready for the first challenge.”

“No, you aren’t,” she said, her voice deepening as her body grew larger and her auburn hair turned pure silver. Kal heard the familiar scraping of scales across one another just before she rose out of the pit, revealing that halfway down her thighs her body became that of a giant, silver-scaled snake. The scant armor he could see before only covered her breasts and down by her sex, leaving her upper chest and midriff bare.

Kal swallowed hard. “Ria, I need my sta...” he stared as two more sets of arms beneath the first pair extended out from where she had them folded behind her back. “ ... ff.”

The sprite appeared by her bag and looked up. “Holy hell,” she said, her eyes going comically wide as she took in the six-armed, armored lamia in front of them. She flitted up to his shoulder as a speck of light floated into the mage’s hand and turned into his staff. “Please tell me you are kidding, Kal.”

“Unfortunately, I’m not. If I don’t defeat her somehow, we don’t get to the tower.”

“It’s unusual to see one of you being so forward with their master,” the silver lamia said to Ria.

“She’s my friend and lover as well,” snapped the mage as the sprite on his shoulder nodded in agreement.

“I meant no offense. Between your affection toward your monster girl companions and how your bag of holding appears to feel about you, I’m beginning to hope that I don’t accidentally kill you during our battle.”

“Um ... Thanks?”

“You’re welcome.” She held out all six hands and Kal groaned in despair as rods of light formed in each and energy began swirling around them.

They looked just like when Ikuno summoned her iron club.

A moment later, six gleaming swords appeared, one in each hand.

“That’s not fair!” yelled Sera.

She turned toward the gorgon, “Your opinion of the difference in our strength means little when it comes to protecting my Father’s tower.” The visor on her helmet slid down over her eyes but there didn’t seem to be any slits she could see through. “Also, I am familiar with the power of a basilisk’s eyes, do not attempt to use your gaze on me.”

Kal looked back at a very stunned Sera, “That answers one of our questions about your heritage.” Turning back to the armored snake-woman he set his stance and wrung the staff in his hands in anticipation. “Before we do this, what are you called?”

“If you are wondering what I am then Father called me a ‘sword maiden.’ My design was inspired by images he saw of a six-armed demon as well as those of some eastern deities. I was created to defend Father’s tower from those not susceptible to my sisters’ wiles. As for my name, I am called Senshu.” Her blades spun and wove among each other in a beautiful yet terrifying ballet for a moment before she settled into her own battle stance.

Clearing his mind, Kal centered himself. With Ikuno he had to worry about two arms and two legs. If Senshu only had four arms he could probably manage just from experience. But those two extras were going to change things a lot, as was her ability to hold a longsword in each one. He briefly wondered if Falma would be jealous.

Drawing power from his natural reserves, Kal activated the strength and speed runes. That was also going to be a problem. His flight earlier drained all four of his crystals, all he had left were his internal stores of magic, and those were running low. He should have thought of that before accepting the sword maiden’s challenge, but it was too late to worry about it now. The mage scowled at his complacency, he had gotten too used to having all the magic power he needed or wanted.

Senshu took that moment to strike, making Kal throw himself backward to avoid the points of all six blades. The mage noted with relief that she was significantly slower than the serpents on Sera’s head. Had the sword maiden been able to move that quickly, this fight would already be over.

The swords dove in after him one at a time. She was fast, but not unmanageably so and he quickly fell into a rhythm of batting the blades away. With the help of the speed and strength runes he was keeping up, but the woman was keeping him on his heels and pressing in every time he stepped back. He was never going to defeat her like this.

Changing her pattern, Senshu began attacking with two swords at once. This actually helped Kal as he was able to deflect both blades easily with the staff and there was more time between strikes. When he stopped giving ground, the sword maiden added in another blade. Now it was only two attacks coming at him, but he found himself jerking to one side or the other to avoid the third sword. He used this chance to angle away from where the girls were standing next to the forest edge. The mage also hoped that maybe he could somehow use the pit Senshu came out of to his advantage, though he had no idea how just yet.

“Kal I need something from Ria!” yelled Sera.

“Do it, Ria!” he called back.

The sword maiden turned her head slightly without taking her eyes off Kal. “Attack me and you shall become a target as well,” she called out to the gorgon. “From your posture, I doubt—” Senshu jerked back as a round-bottomed flask came sailing at her.

The woman held up a sword to block the potion but at the last moment moved the blade backward. The girls and mage had little time to stare in wonder as the sword maiden stalled the motion of the flask without breaking it. With a flick of her wrist, she sent the bottle streaking back at Sera.

“No!” screamed Graff throwing herself in front of the projectile. Slamming into her chest, the bottle broke, coating her front in the sundew’s fluid. The rabbit-girl had enough time to smirk at Senshu before collapsing in front of the shocked gorgon.

“Ria, the processed one! Sera, over my head!” yelled Kal stepping in, going on the offensive.

“Poisons and sleeping potions don’t work on Father’s creations,” said the sword maiden as she easily batted away the end of his staff.

“Kal!” Sera yelled, lobbing another flask with clear liquid towards the combatants.

“Naginata,” said the mage. Pushing his dwindling magic into the speed rune, he hopped back then jumped forward, placing himself above the potion’s path.

Senshu brought up all six blades and held them sideways, forming them into a wall of metal in front of her body.

As he jumped, Kal activated his boots and one foot came down on what felt like an invisible platform. Swinging the wide, partially-formed blade of the polearm as though paddling backwards in a canoe, he smashed the bottle sailing below him, flinging its contents all over Senshu’s bare arms and stomach.

The sword maiden’s eyes widened as her swords clattered to the ground and she began tipping forward. Kal darted forward in another burst of speed, dropping his staff so he could catch the snake-woman. Pumping the last of his power into his strength rune, he began laying her over on her side, so she didn’t fall on the pile of swords in front of her.

As the rune sputtered and died, Kal managed to hold her up for a fraction of a second before his knees buckled. Falling onto his back, he barely managed to keep her head from landing squarely in his groin. Getting headbutted in the balls was no way to celebrate a victory, especially when the person doing the headbutting is wearing a metal helmet

Panting from the exertion, he laid back on the road and looked over to see Velt and Sera standing over Graff.

“Is she alright?”

“Other than some cuts from shards of the bottle she seems to be okay,” answered Velt.

“Thank goodness.” Propping himself up on his elbows, he looked down at the sword maiden’s head still lying in his lap. Carefully, he maneuvered her so she was looking at him and not face down in his crotch. He tried raising her visor, but it wouldn’t budge. No sooner did he take his hand away then it moved upward on its own. “Since you are incapacitated, I’m claiming victory. Blink once for yes, twice for no.”

After a moment’s thought, the sword maiden’s eyes closed and reopened once. A few seconds later she began shrinking to her original size as her hair turned from silver back to auburn. Off to the side, six flashes signaled the dismissal of the magic swords.

Kal looked up at the sky. “And this was only the first challenge.”

“Her scales are so pretty,” said Sera, running a hand over Senshu’s lower body.

“I agree but you should probably ask first before touching her,” said Kal. He chuckled as the gorgon jerked her hand away. Before Sera could open her mouth, the sword maiden’s armor, other than her helmet, melted away, drawing into her body much like Gerda and the other golem’s rocks did. “I guess that was your answer.”

Looking over at Velt and Graff, he saw the vixen sitting in the grass on the side of the road with the doe pulled into her lap. Though they were turned so he couldn’t see her hands, he was pretty sure from the movements of the fox-girl’s body that Velt was making the rabbit-girl’s temporary paralysis as pleasurable as possible. She certainly deserved it for protecting Sera like that. Depending on the nature of the second challenge, they might have to camp out and let his magic recharge before attempting it. If that was the case, maybe he could thank her more intimately later.

“Kal, come over here for a moment, please?” asked Sera, waving him over while looking down into the pit.

He rose from where he was sitting next to Senshu’s torso and joined the gorgon. Earlier he took care of Graff’s minor injuries from the shattered bottle but ran himself out of magic again. The few cuts on the sword maiden’s arms and lower torso were little more than nicks, but since she wasn’t interested in killing him and had admitted defeat, he felt it was his duty to tend to her wounds as well. Unfortunately, his ability to absorb magic from his environment seemed ... muted. Even the four crystals in his pouch were having difficulty recharging. Nearly a half an hour had gone by since healing Graff and he wasn’t quite to the point where he could activate the rune and heal up the six-armed woman.

Sera pointed at the bottom of the pit as he approached, “What do you make of it?”

Down below, the bottom of the pit was filled with small mounds made of stone.

Kal suppressed a laugh thinking that it looked as though the earth had goosebumps. The mage shook his head, “I don’t know, we’ll have to ask Senshu when the paralysis wears off.”

“They used to be spikes,” said the sword maiden from behind them. Kal and Sera both spun around, the mage nearly stepping back and falling into the pit, to see the silver lamia roll onto her back. Each set of hands intertwined their fingers before flipping palm-out and stretching her arms above her. She then let the bottom sets flop to the ground beside her while the top two slipped under her head. “Sundew nectar. I should have noticed the rabbit’s eyes didn’t close when she fell.” She tilted her head to look at him, “Good play, but with the rabbit and your snake-woman getting involved, I worry that it will make the final challenge more difficult, assuming you make it that far.” Her eyes shifted to Sera, “What exactly are you? Your eyes are that of a basilisk, but I’ve met basilisk-girls before and none of them have the serpents on their head. You can turn people to stone with your gaze, right?”

Sera nodded, “My gaze freezes them in place, but I have to bite them before they turn to stone.” Opening her mouth impossibly wide for a human, the gorgon’s fangs folded out from the roof of her mouth.

“Interesting, definitely not a basilisk. But that should have been obvious, the basilisk-girls I met had dull green scales, not the pretty emerald like yours.” She turned back to Kal, “The next challenge is one of wisdom, you won’t be needing magic for it as using divination spells will be an automatic failure.”