A Sinner's Eden

***Tirnanog, Hochberg***

***Magnus***

“We have to tell the elders as soon as they arrive with the fleet,” Astra commented once we returned to our quarters.

Then she went to get herself a drink from one of the bottles.

The Caravaners provided fresh water for the individual living rooms each day. Living on a saherna came with all the possible comforts of a modern lifestyle. The people of the clans hadn't turned into savages just because they had been cut off from technology, but running water wasn't easily achievable on a moving animal.

Only the public bathrooms had a water system. A very rudimentary set of copper pipes were connected to a heated central water tank.

Astra sighed once she had taken a sip. “I hope knowing in advance that something went wrong doesn't give the Thich too much of an advantage.”

“It was unavoidable,” I reassured her. “Surely, they informed their masters as soon as the news of our delegation arrived at Hochberg. As far as I understand, Aerie wouldn't have sent an entire delegation if the pot wasn't already boiling over. So, there was no way to avoid it. Unless there had been a way to sneak all the way from Aerie to Hochberg and make contact without announcing our arrival?”

I raised a questioning eyebrow. “And how should we have known that there is a Thich delegation already waiting here with a telecommunication device ready at hand when such artefacts are supposedly so rare?”

“Maybe.” Astra clearly wanted to argue but she deflated and let out a sigh of annoyance. “Yeah, no. Going with the Caravaners was the best option, and we still lost people. It's all too likely that the price of going by ourselves would have been higher. And we would have been much, much slower, since the drakes wouldn't have been able to fly through the storms. We would have had to wait out the storms before even starting the journey.”

I nodded. “Then let's rest. I am sure the next few days before the fleet arrives are going to be busy. The Hochberg will want to know everything possible about their colony's computer and I would like to have a closer look at the communication device. Preferably somewhere where I can play around with it. The thing looked like someone cobbled it together from creature cores, making me wonder...”

I wasn't sure what it meant, but I was sure it meant something. I just wished Gilbert was already here with the other elders to have a look at the cursed thing. Surely, he would have a much better understanding of it than I did. He had thrown himself into researching applications for cores while I barely had time to consider the topic after discovering it.

“Sure, why not?” Astra yawned and went to the bedroom. “You coming?”

“Give me just half an hour,” I said and pulled out my savaged short sword. “I have to do at least some maintenance before the fleet arrives or elder Gilbert will have my head. I already put this off longer than I should.”

Astra shook her head with a grin. “That thing is done for. Just look at the bend. A smart blacksmith would turn it into a pry bar. It’s better to get a new one from the armoury.”

“I at least want to give the impression of having tried my best,” I insisted. “You know how Gilbert is when it comes to his work.”

She shrugged and disappeared into the sleeping room with a flirtatious swing to her hips. “Just don’t take too long or I might already be asleep.”

If that wasn’t an incentive to be quick, then I didn’t know what was.

I took a closer look at the sword and sighed. A superficial cleaning after the duel had revealed the true damage to the blade. Not only was it bent, but the edge was also chipped in dozens of places.

Astra suggested the crudest of tools, but I had another idea.

“If Gilbert ever decides to work on tools instead of weapons and armour, he might be able to salvage this by turning it into a saw,” I muttered before I slid the sword beneath the heavy cabinet which held some items of convenience. The furniture was of sufficient weight to be used as the hinge for a lever and I managed to work out the bend as well as it was possible without specialized equipment.

A second check revealed the blade to be almost straight, but anyone with a keen eye could still tell the metal had suffered. Abusing the sword in this manner was no option in the long term. Material fatigue would have the weapon fail at a critical moment sooner rather than later.

I wasn’t afraid of the weapon suddenly breaking after it had already endured the brutal abuse I had put it through. It was very good spring steel. Unfortunately, the already weakened material would be a lot more prone to bending in the future.

Astra was right. The best thing would be to get a new sword from the Caravaners. Further relying on this one only posed a risk.

Which was sad, since I was somewhat fond of all the equipment I had gotten from the peculiar elder. His craft was Gilbert’s lifeblood. So much so that he left almost all of his duties as an elder to his partner. I had seen him at the Hall of Law only a handful of times and each time he looked like a child who had been dragged away from a game by his parent.

Maybe the whole elder spiel was a job initiated by his wife and not something he would normally do of his own volition.

“I still might get a few more chops out of you,” I muttered. “At least until someone can get me a proper replacement. Sorry for sacrificing you to keep that worthless Thich alive.”

If I had just chopped off something important instead of clashing blades with the nameless mob, the sword would have never gotten into this state. But killing the Thich had seemed like a bad move at the time.

This was one thing I should point out to Astra the next time she was worried about me laughing like crazy while fighting a tense battle. If the ecstasy overwhelming me really robbed me of my rational thinking, I could have chopped my opponent to dozens of pieces before anyone had a chance to stop me.

He had been fast, but not fast enough. The thing which held me back was my inability to keep him alive without revealing more than my speed.

Sadly, all the effort had gone to waste when Dejana forced us to blast her with lightning.

I promised myself to remember this point the next time we argued and retrieved the maintenance kit from my supplies. A rough file and a finer one helped remove the worst chips before I switched to a set of whetstones to give the weapon the finishing touches.

With what I had at hand it was impossible to restore the sword completely, but leaving it in its bent and chipped state was the worse option. The duel had reduced it to little more than a rod of steel.

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The process of grinding it back to a cutting edge left me in a Zen-like state during which I could contemplate our next steps.

I was about twenty minutes into the process when someone knocked on the door.

“Yes?” I called and turned my Second Sight on the door which connected our quarters with the hallway.

“I have a message, sir!”

I blinked at the three figures I could make out through the wood and narrowed my eyes. Two of them were our guards, standing on both sides of the door.

The third one right in front of the door didn’t look right. The energy signature did not match with anyone I knew – and I had made a habit of memorizing how people looked in my Second Sight.

After meeting fucked up things like changelings, Forgotten, and the tentacle nightmare which was after us, I was glad about the ability to perform a second form of identity check.

Too many creatures in this world liked to pretend to be human – not counting the human monsters.

And the one standing in front of the door wasn’t human. The energy inside it was concentrated into knots throughout its body, something I had seen so far only with Tirnanog’s natural inhabitants.

“Sir?”

A quick decision was necessary. Should I try to talk? Was the thing out there a threat or an opportunity? Maybe it was a human with a very odd mutation. All I had to go by was my own experience.

For a moment, I warred with my sub-identities until one posed the right question, the only question which mattered.

Could I take the risk?

“Hello?”

“I am coming, I am coming! Give me a few seconds. Can’t step out naked.” I stood up, glad I hadn’t taken off my armour yet.

A few quick steps brought me to the bedroom where Astra was relaxing on the bed. Her alluring figure posed a distracting sight which clashed with the seriousness of the situation. “Monster, no time to explain, get into your gear!”

I grabbed my spetum and returned to the living room. Walking slowly, I tried to convey calmness through my voice. “On my way!”

A flash step took me to the door and the spetum’s blade burst through the wood, directly into the creature and what I perceived as a central knot of energy!

I didn’t follow up with a full blast of lightning, fearing the guards would get caught up in the attack, but I discharged a little bit of power through my weapon.

It was answered by an inhuman howl, confirming my suspicion.

A knee-kick broke the door down and I had an awkward moment of wrestling with the debris and the creature speared on my blade before the lower half of the door fell away.

The monster writhed in an attempt to get free, but I followed its retreat until it was backed up against the wall of the corridor.

To their credit, our guards didn’t question or hesitate in joining the attack.

The upper half of the door still blocked my view of the enemy.

Before I could get a clear look at what I was fighting, one of the guards stabbed it in its side. The other took a swing at its upper body, but the blade was deflected by a hand which ended with the hand being cut off.

Then the door fell away, revealing a woman wrought in Hochberg armour.

She tried to get to me with a crazed expression on her face, but the twin guard blades of my weapon prevented her from further impaling herself on the spetum.

I changed my grip on the weapon to push her further away and barely managed to pin her against the wall on the other side of the corridor.

Then her body almost dissolved, her skin turning wet and slimy like a slug’s before she tore sideways off my blade, leaving an enormous gash in her side and revealing her utterly inhuman nature in its full horrifying glory.

I blasted the monster with lightning, but it only caught the edges of the attack.

A tentacle flicked something at me and one of my sub-personalities took over, angling my shoulder ever so slightly to the side instead of relying on my armour.

Paying a horrible price the creature finally managed to get past the sideblade and charged in.

I punched it right in the face with a palm full of plasma while the guards managed two more hits with their swords, scoring superficial cuts.

I wasn't sure what I was fighting. Whether it was a Forgotten or the threat Gaia warned us of, I didn’t want to have another dose of what I assumed to be a lethal poison. My encounter with deathnut oil had been enough for the foreseeable future.

The monster was already mangled beyond recognition, but only the plasma torch in its face was enough to make it recoil somewhat.

While its head dissolved into tentacles to avoid my hand, a tentacle-turned arm came forward, seeking my neck.

Meanwhile, it still found the time to batter the guards with three more tentacles which reminded me of a smaller version of what attacked us in the marsh.

I grabbed the nightmarish tentacle reaching for me and channelled as much electricity as I could, concentrating on a continuous current. The monster’s skin lit up as my fingers charred it while digging through sinuous flesh. At last, something reedy inside the tentacle snapped and it fell off.

It howled and tried to tear itself away from me and the guards who were going to town on it like lumberjacks.

Sensing its hesitation, I screamed and went after it with my bare hands and the dagger from my belt. I plunged it deep into the writhing mass, seeking out another one of the energy knots.

The guards joined me and all three of us together managed to press it back against the wall. I plunged a hand into the wound, ripping out what revealed itself to be one of the creature's cores.

Astra appearing fully geared from our quarters must have been the last straw for the creature to re-evaluate its chances.

With a burst of strength it threw me and the guards off, but instead of using the opportunity, it turned and fled, half running, half tumbling forward on its many tentacles. Now that it was farther away, I could see it fully for the first time.

It wasn't purely tentacles, since it had a central, slightly oval lump of flesh connecting everything. On a closer look, it might be an evolved version of some form of starfish.

“Don’t let it get away!” I screamed and reclaimed my weapon before flash-stepping after the monster. As soon as I was close enough, I swiped the spetum at the thing and claimed one of the larger tentacles – of which it had entirely too many!

But there was no stopping the thing as it barrelled out into the training yard from where it swung itself onto the roof.

I was right behind it when Astra appeared in front of the monster and kicked it without holding anything back.

It was sent flying and skitted over the roof before it fell off and rolled right into the drake's pen!

“Loop!” I jumped back down, barely touching the ground before the pen erupted with a dismayed yowl promising a very slow death. It was a sound unlike any I heard the drakes ever make. As if someone had decided to balloon a screaming cat to the size of an elephant.

There was something which sounded like a wet 'slap' before the creature flew out of the pen and smacked against the training yard's wall.

All three drakes burst out of their pen, Cadence taking the lead in chasing the tentacle thing which already didn't look very healthy by this point.

Loop followed, moving a little awkward.

Nonetheless, the seemingly immortal creature already stirred again when the large female drake stood up on her hind legs, looming over the intruder. Then she allowed her upper body to fall, bringing down the considerable weight on a single clawed paw.

All I heard was a 'squelch' as litres of liquid and innards were forced out from beneath the drake's paw in all directions.

I had a strong stomach for gore, but the thought of such a thing happening to a human had even me reeling.

“Good girl!” Astra cooed while she landed next to me.

Cadence raised her paw, now sullied with blue blood and white innards.

The other two drakes retreated upon smelling the gore.

Cadence opened her mouth in disgust and began panting desperately through it instead of her nose while she tried to clean her paw on the ground. The training yard had been covered with bark pieces to somewhat mitigate training accidents.

I already knew that whoever was in charge of maintenance wouldn't be happy about the drake tearing up the ground.

Astra covered her mouth and nose when the smell hit us. “Oh, heavens! What is that!?”

I used my sleeve in a futile attempt to protect myself against the creature's final retaliation, only to realize that metal armour didn't make for a good filter.

The smell!

It was...

I turned around and expelled the contents of my stomach while Astra fled the scene.

She didn't get far before succumbing to the same urge.

***Tirnanog, Hochberg***

***Loopsfast***

Loop felt utter bliss while he clung to Candence's back and thrust as if his life depended on it. In a way, it did.

Because if Cadence wasn't pleased with his performance, he would likely lose a wing. And a drake without all his wings wasn't much of a drake.

The night before, Elegance had signalled her readiness to accept Loop's advances, impressed by his valiant defence of the colony. Maybe it was also the tension of being cooped up in this small nest with two females and only one male, right at the beginning of a new season.

He didn't care.

As his rider had put it, a male had to fulfil the female's wishes.

And as a proper drake, Loop had jumped on the chance – and on the female's back – without questioning his luck.

To find a second willing mate was more than Loop had ever hoped for.

Cadence hissed and began winding herself beneath him in approval of his efforts.

He growled softly before he tried to get as deep inside Cadence as possible and spilled himself inside her. Then he clung to his much larger mate, enjoying the afterglow of having bred his second female.

Some odd smell drew Loop’s attention, reminding him of a foe.

Right before something uncomfortably cold, wet, and slimy slapped right onto his neck.

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