Chapter 199: Enter the Temple Tower
Ann came back to the world a little groggy. Her head swam as she sat up in bed, clutching the sheets until her vision settled. Wait, sheets? Bed?
Looking around, she was not in the wide atrium where they’d engaged Aranaea. It was a smaller room, lit by several candles and filled with a pleasant herbal aroma. Wooden boards were still rotting here and there, meaning she was still in the Seed, but they’d been moved.
“Oh, the Mistress is awake!” The cry came from the far corner of the room, up by the ceiling. A red-haired spider woman was staring at Ann with glittering black eyes. She scurried down and bowed low. “Sorry, the Mother couldn’t be with you while you rested. She is rather indisposed. Did you rest well?”
“Yeah? Where am I? Where’s everyone else?”
“Resting in their own rooms. Katlyn was quite obstinate, but we convinced her to relax. No harm has been done. Not at all to the Mistress or her companions, no, no, no!”
“What’s this about, Mistress?” Ann grumbled, shaking her head, making her ears flop around.
“You! Mother insisted, so we call you that, now. Mistress must have been tired after putting our Mother in her place so thoroughly. She said it was amazing when she could speak. That comes and goes now.”
“Shit, did I break her?”
“Hm, no? I don’t think so. She seems happy,” the little spider said, cocking her head adorably to the side. “Just different. Anyway, would you like to meet your friends? Your things are under your bed.”
“Yeah,” it was only then that Ann realised she was still very naked, and reflexively covered herself. Wait, they’d moved her here. They’d seen that, and since her fur wasn’t a crusty mess of cum, had cleaned her as well. Shrugging, she got to work dressing and equipping her armour.
“Would you like help with that?” the spider chirped, legs clattering forward.
“Sure. The back’s a bit of a pain,” Ann said.
Four arms made quick work of the laces in her corset, helped with her shinguards, and quickly combed her hair out. Ann slid her gauntlets on and thanked the woman.
As she worked, Ann’s eyes tracked to a floating mote of black smoke in her vision. Willing it to appear, a new skill was presented to her. She didn’t get to choose this time. Just a floating window with a description. Reading it, Ann felt herself grin.
Warping Increased!
You have absorbed a tiny portion of the corrupting forces affecting the Seeds of the Gods. This will allow mutability of the flesh. The more you absorb, the stronger the effects will be.
New skill obtained:
Genital Manipulation: Spend twenty health to change the form of your genitalia. While there are no limits on the shape, size cannot exceed your natural proportions unless another skill would apply. In addition, shape cannot be changed more than once every three days.
Her girlfriends were going to have a field day with this. Then the ramifications of how she’d gotten this skill slammed into Ann’s skull. Fucking. She’d fucked Aranaea and became more Warped because of it. Bringing up her Sheet she found that she’d gone from a 3.6 to a 4.1 on her Warping level. Half a level for sex.
“Oh, no need for thanks. It is our duty as hosts to give of ourselves. Now, this way!”
Ann followed the creature as it led her down the hall. Rosalyn appeared out of one door, almost running into her as they went.
“Ann! You’re ok! Sorry, I was kinda out of it for a while. That venom is a doozy! You definitely have to give Kat some later. Wonder how hard she’ll choke me if she gets it!”
“That would be what you’re interested in,” Ann laughed. “Kinda seems to do the same thing that overloading my Libido does.”
“Yeah!” Rosalyn nodded happily as she grabbed Ann’s hand. “’Cause I was still, I dunno, there? Like, I could think, but I wanted nothing except to have sex over and over! Couldn’t really care how, but I just knew I wanted more and more! Felt kinda awesome to not worry about anything else and just bounce.”
“Little worried about long-lasting consequences with a description like that,” Ann said. With a start, she realised she’d kept the fangs. After a moment’s concentration, they fell out into her hand as new ones grew in with an agonising toothache she tried to hide. As the process completed, she felt the tiny venom glands disappear back into her body, reabsorbed or whatever happened to them.
“Oooh, are those the fangs?” Rosalyn asked. “Can I see ‘em?”
Ann gave her a look.
“Promise not to prick myself,” Rosalyn sighed, rolling her eyes.
“Fine,” Ann laughed, handing her the pointy teeth.
“Oh yeah! Weird, these aren’t like a spider. Their fangs are more curved to hook prey and keep them there. I’d say these are more like a viper. Long, slight curve, but still capable of injecting venom. Definitely hollow, the roots have a tiny opening allowing the vein to pump the fluid through. Ooh, look how small that is! The dose you got into me must have been tiny, but with such a strong effect? I wonder what an alchemist could do with that?”
“Lust potions?” Ann suggested. “Feels like a bit of a dangerous business. Don’t want to be the progenitor of a date rape potion.”
“Nah, I was more thinking along the lines of those who struggle with intimacy and the like. Maybe that could help?”
“Yeah,” Ann shrugged as they turned a corner, their guide’s legs clicking against the stone floor. “And with me being the only one who can make it, I guess that’d limit who gets it.”
“Right,” Rosalyn nodded. “If we get a chance, I want to send some back to Zidane to study. She’s got plenty of friends with the alchemists for that kind of thing. She can probably figure out how the horniness part of it works.”
“You want me to grow these back, don’t you?”
“Gods, yes! Kat gets the next one. Maybe if you get…”
Rosalyn was cut off as they entered a door to find Bren, Lucia, and Kat already equipped and taking a meal.
“About time!” Lucia grumbled. “Been hours.”
“Guess I wore myself out, sorry,” Ann said sheepishly.
“You should have seen her! She was like a force of nature!” Rosalyn giggled, grabbing some food.
“I would imagine someone engaging in a trial as she was, would be,” Bren said flatly. “I still refuse details.”
As Ann walked over to the open seat next to Kat, she noticed something. Bren and Lucia were sitting closer than normal. They weren’t quite touching, but both had ample room to move further away and chose not to. Maybe her plan wasn’t necessary after their trial. Making out with someone for thirty minutes did have a habit of bringing people closer. Just like fucking did.
“Glad to see you two survived,” Ann said, her tone nonchalant. “Was slightly worried you’d burst into flames from embarrassment.”
“It was an experience,” Bren said. He didn’t hide his feelings in his tone this time. Ann could hear his excitement and embarrassment mixing. Not to mention the blush on his and Lucia’s faces.
“Was nice,” the Thrundol nodded.
Bren just nodded his head, seeming at a loss for words.
“Well, glad ye two had a good time,” Kat sighed. “Still figurin’ out me own feelin’s. Was fun, don’t get me wrong, but…” she made vague gestures with her hands.
“Take your time,” Ann said, leaning up against her girlfriend as she munched.
“I, for one, am quite disappointed in our host. You lot should be dead. Kissing for half an hour. What a trivial task!”
Ann glared at the skull in the middle of the table, then flicked it so its cranium rolled off. “Be nice, or you don’t get to sit at the adult table.”
“Such a rude woman,” came Skullo’s reply.
“So, we’ve probably gotta get moving, right?”
“The Mother says that is proper,” the dark skinned spider that had proctored Bren and Lucia’s trial informed her. “Our control will only last for so long, and concessions have already been made for the intense nature of your reward. Not to mention Mother is quite fond of the Mistress. I would suggest leaving immediately, lest we devour you whole!” Her tone was incredibly chipper for someone who just threatened to kill them.
“Well, guess that settles it,” Kat sighed, grabbing her pack and some more food to go.
Snagging Skullo, they quickly left the complex, one of the spiders waving at them before slamming the door shut. Ann swore she could hear angry hissing from beyond, but didn’t want to get closer and find out.
“Right, now that this diversion is complete, you have earned the right to enter the temple. If you hadn’t noticed, that would be the big tower in the back,” Skullo directed.
“So, what, we just walk in?” Ann asked, swinging the skull from his eye socket.
“Correct. I will be of no use to you inside, but you must complete the trial set before you in order to leave with your lives.”
“So, uh, do you want us to just leave you here?”
“On that lantern over there. No, no, yes, that one.”
Ann walked over and plonked Skullo onto a nice stone lantern that had started sinking into the muck of the grounds.
“Farewell, and thank you for getting me to a place I can see more than dusty boards. Should I attempt to bite your hand off next time I see you, know it is by choice!”
Ann rolled her eyes and rejoined the rest.
“Feckin’ weird Seed,” Kat grumbled, looking up at the tower.
“And we still have no clue as to which God this temple is attributed,” Bren mused. “Perhaps the final trial will reveal it?”
“No,” Lucia shook her head. “Too cryptic. No one talks. Probably won’t either.”
“Fair,” Ann shrugged.
They walked up to the large stone double doors. More of the winding, looping text, like on the doors and pillars outside, covered this surface as well. Bren took out a sheet and obtained a quick rubbing before stepping back.
“An older language than even Annita recognises,” he said to himself. “Gods know this will be nearly impossible to decipher, but one can hope.”
“One can,” Kat agreed. “So, want me tae open it?”
“I’m not gonna,” Rosalyn shook her head.
“Together?” Ann asked Kat. They nodded and braced against the doors.
“One,” Kat counted.
“Two,” Ann replied.
“Three!”
Together they pushed the doors open with a creaking of stone hinges, the door scraping horridly across the floor as well. The inside was dark. Even the scattered windows visible above didn’t provide much light. It smelled dusty, along with the must of mildew and the pervasive humidity in the area. Ann’s wolf eyes adjusted quickly to the darkness and picked out a circular plinth set at the centre of the room. It was stone, with a brass-like metal bowl placed atop. Swirling text coiled around the nine-sided pillar, a whorl occurring on each face with a different coloured gem marking the centre of the pattern.
“No enemies,” Ann whispered. “Seems deserted.”
“Hah,” Kat laughed mirthlessly. “Gotta be a trap.”
They walked a few steps forward. Once everyone was inside, the doors ground shut behind them. An echoing thump followed by a loud clunk, and they were locked inside. Every window above them closed, plunging them into pitch black. Blind.
“Ann, can ye see anythin’?”
“Smell nothing.”
“Can’t see anything. Even I’m blind in total darkness.”
“Is this a trick? Must we light our own way?”
“You’d think they’d give us a torch or something. Folks from this time are kinda rude.”
Light slowly grew upon the stone pillar in the centre of the room. Craning her neck, Ann couldn’t find a light source above, nor anywhere in her line of sight. Only darkness.
“Guess the bowl’s important,” Rosalyn said, pointing out the obvious. “Any of your Warped talking?”
“Nope,” Kat and Ann replied.
“Cool, then this might be important,” Rosalyn groaned.
Bren was the first to step up, wand raised cautiously as he moved. Nothing attacked. Nothing moved at all. “I believe it is safe to say we must begin the trial ourselves, and that it involves this bowl. But what do we do?”
“Pillar. Instructions?” Lucia suggested.
They all clustered around the pillar, looking at a couple of sides each.
Ann’s side had a green, blue, and red gem set into the patterns, patterns that made her eyes hurt as she stared at them.
“Colours?” Lucia asked.
“Blue, Red and Green over here,” Ann reported, still staring.
“Yellow, Orange, Pink,” Rosalyn said.
“Black, White, and Gold,” Bren muttered.
The headache was growing as Ann stared. Gods, it was disorienting. Each swirl seemed to flow so perfectly into the next, with no breaks in the lines to distinguish the end of a sentence. Lazily, her focus shifted as she followed the paths.
“I do not know,” she faintly heard Bren saying. “If I could read this text, then we could make some headway. The door is locked, and we cannot see the path upwards.”
“Already tried tae find it. Somethin’s in the way, but I can’t bloody see it.”
“Maybe I could cast lightning?”
“I’d rather keep me ears, Fluffs,” Kat said.
Ann was finding it harder and harder to listen to anything else. Her head hurt so much, but she couldn’t look away. The patterns. The patterns drew her in. They expanded before her, vast and flowing, like an ocean in constant turmoil. She was lost in the waves of black ink, gasping for air as she swam against the raging tides. Spikes pushed into her brain. Agony bloomed. She swallowed ink as she screamed. Dark depths filled her lungs, her eyes. Her mind burned as she writhed in the absence of senses. Nothing but pain!
Then she heard it again. That song. The same one she’d heard in the first Seed. Gentle, calling. Through the tears, she swam. All she could do was reach for the only thing that offered respite from her torment. Anything she could hold on to that wasn’t pain. It tore at her. That pain tearing her mind apart!
A wave crashed into her. Was she on the surface? Everything was still black, but she gasped for air. More ink! Choking, she heard the song again. To her right! Correcting, she did her best to swim. Her body wasn’t meant for this. It was meant for running! Fighting through it, she felt a change, something remaking her, and she swam. She couldn’t see how she did, but she cut through the ink like a knife.
Pain again! This time, not from her mind, but from her chest as she ran aground. The song was close. So close! Too unsteady to stand, she crawled forward across a rocky beach. Waves of ink crashed against the shore, pelting her with their fury.
Just when the song was the loudest, it stopped.
“No, no!” Ann cried, whipping her head around. “No, no! Come back!”
“They won’t,” a voice whispered. It was gentle, soft, familiar. She’d heard it before. The one from the Cores. Wait, it was the one she’d thought was Orenous back when she’d asked for guidance. Whatever this was had hijacked her soul those few days past.
“Who are you?”
A hand, impossibly large, landed on her head and gently pushed her flat. Ann cried out as her bones broke, her organs ruptured, and her skull fractured. Suddenly, she was back in the real world.
Ann fell forward, leaning on the pillar as she gasped for breath. Her mind remembered the pain while her body showed no signs of trauma. She was still herself. Still Annita, the wolf woman. Her hair had grown out again, though, and so had her teeth. Her eyes ached, but they were still those of a wolf.
“Feck, Ann!” Kat cried, grabbing her, bracing Ann’s weight against hers. “Ye alright?”
“Not sure,” Ann gasped. “Happened again! Was somewhere else. It was awful. So much pain.”
“Ye’re alright. Hair grew out again. Chompers too?”
“Yeah,” Ann said, baring her teeth as Bren moved in to check on her. “Eyes as well. Feels like I’ve got a sinus infection.”
“Did you hear anything? See anything?” Bren asked, soothing healing coursing into Ann’s body, repairing the damage that changing her shape required.
“The song. That song I talked about after the Croaking Oak? When I got to the Core? I heard it again. Louder this time. Couldn’t see anything, though. Everything was an ocean of ink or something as black as ink. I was so scared!”
“You’re back,” Rosalyn said, moving over to wrap her arms around Ann’s neck from behind. “We’ve got you. Anything else?”
“Yeah. A voice.”
“A voice?”
“So, did I ever mention I’ve been hearing something when I touch Cores?”
“You most certainly have not!” Bren yelled. “Why did you hide this from us?”
“Honestly, I wasn’t even sure I heard it. Or maybe I was going crazy, since it hurts like a motherfucker to do what I do. Anyway, it’s been saying something. Single words, really. Asking me to stop or not to do what I’m doing. I heard it again. It was a she, for sure. The music had stopped, and I asked it to come back. She said they won’t, then crushed me into a paste. Then I came back here.”
“Word for word, what did she say?” Bren asked.
“They won’t.”
“That’s it?”
“Everything,” Ann nodded.
“We will discuss this later. After we are out of this trial, and out of this Seed,” the man said grimly. “Have any of you made any headway on clues?”
None of them had, voicing their frustrations.
Ann groaned, sitting up to look back at the pillar. Wrapping, curling text that reminded her of waves. Waves of ink on a sunless sea.
“I can read it!”