Chapter 98: Run It Back

The Seed gleamed before them. Ann felt a twisting nervousness in her gut as she stared up at that nauseating swirl of colours. It was time to face down the domain of the gods that had almost killed them and so many others. She knew the Seed itself couldn’t really be blamed. It was doing what it was designed to do. Still, resentment festered.

They’d left early that morning, picking up Lucia’s rifle and stopping by Wendyl’s. The enchanter had taken less than half an hour to carve and engrave the runes required to quiet the weapon’s barks. She had, of course, made another pass at Kat, much to Ann’s glee, but was turned down again.

Ann would get that Inlon in their bed at some point.

The remaining support staff was still present, the investigation and guarding of the Seed still ongoing. Most of the researchers were healed up by now, but the harrowing experience had not lessened their curiosity. They waited for Kat’s team to return, and for the real clearing of the Seed so they could return.

“Alright. Ye’ve all got yer supplies? Nothin’ else we need?” Kat was doing her usual check in before an incursion.

“Got ammo, things for traps, food. I’m ready,” Lucia confirmed.

“Same here,” the rest said, tensing.

“Then let’s do this,” Kat said, taking Rosalyn’s hand.

They all followed suit, Bren taking Lucia’s hand last in the order.

A brief trip with closed eyes later, and they emerged into the late afternoon cityscape. Fucked up Edmonton looked just as off-putting as the last time. As Ann looked around, she noted the buildings had changed. Instead of the large skyscrapers that took right angles halfway up, they twisted along their length, spiraling corners as they leaned left and right haphazardly.

“The city changes?” Bren asked, looking around and trying to note everything he could. “I wonder what could have caused that. Usually changes in the Seeds are due to weather changes or natural events, but that is mostly for the nature-based domains. This is completely manmade and should be fairly static, besides the layout.”

Ann felt that uneasiness spike in her chest. “Maybe it’s not ‘what happened’, but ‘who entered’,” she said. What if this Seed recognised what she was? Could tell that she was from this time and was changing to better upset her, someone who knew this landscape better than anyone else.

“That is a disturbing thought,” Bren murmured. He took his notebook and scribbled before snapping it shut. “Regardless, we must see this through. Defeat the Guardian, have Ann interact with the Core, and advise those outside that it is safe to enter.”

“Hey, at least we know what we’re gonna be dealing with, right? I mean, we can deal with the weird raccoon things and the birds. Ann, you called them harpies?” Rosalyn asked as they started walking.

“Yeah, kinda. They’re an old mythological thing from my time. Half human half bird. More bird than any of the Vulhardrin I’ve seen. Anyway, these seem to be mixed with pigeons. They were really smart birds that lived in big cities like this, scavenging food and pooping everywhere.”

“Ah, is that why they shite acid?”

“I mean, maybe?” Ann shrugged. “They weren’t acidic when I was around.”

“So, how do they do it now? I wonder if they have glands that produce the acid. Maybe some type of magic allows that and they’re just generating the fluids inside of them. I wanna dissect one!” Rosalyn said, looking around excitedly, trying to find any visible bird Warped.

“Easy, no rush,” Lucia cautioned. She’d also shifted her attention to the skies. “Have feeling we’ll see plenty.”

“Freaks left! On the roofs!” Kat yelled.

Several of the fat raccoon faced Warped launched themselves from the building just as Ann turned to face them. Now that the group knew how these things would try to ambush them, it was trivial to step out of the way. Five thudded to the pavement, unharmed, and rose on squat legs. Hissing chitters rose from their maws as they waddled forward.

“At least they’re slow,” Ann grumbled as she stretched. She fell into her stance, hands up and paws moving constantly.

Lucia’s rifle sounded behind her and a hole appeared in one of the Warped. The thing flinched, but didn’t stagger back. Ann watched as its wound closed up, with only a faint scar.

“Slow, but regenerates fast,” Lucia observed. “Critical hits good. Go for head, heart, spine.”

“Or just fry them!” Rosalyn laughed as she called lightning down on one of the creatures. It fell, a charred bulk of burning skin and fur.

“Aye, tha’ works,” Kat shouted. She slammed her turtle shell shield across the face of the nearest Warped, and stabbed straight through where its heart should be. The thing shrieked in pain, pulling back and off her blade, but didn’t die. “Gonna need a few hits. Be careful!”

Ann was already fully engaged with her own Warped. The thing reached at her with grasping, claw tipped hands. Way too close to humans. She ducked under their reach and used her claws to stab deep into its chest. She felt the heartbeat near her gauntlet and grabbed at it. It squished in her grip like a peach, and as she wrenched her hand free, the Warped staggered back. Blood poured from the rough wound, but it still stood.

A hole opened up in its forehead as Lucia took her shot. The Warped staggered, then toppled to the ground.

“Head and heart,” Lucia grunted. “Both at once kills.”

Kat slammed her shield with a bony thocking sound, taunting the last three of the Warped. They all turned and waddled towards her.

Ann slipped around their side, getting behind the pack. She watched Lucia take aim and fire a bullet into the chest of one creature, then a thorny spire sprout from the pavement into its head.

Kat caught the last two slavering beasts on her shield, keeping them focused on her, but having some difficulty slipping in any hits of her own. She took a scratch on the cheek, which immediately closed due to Bren’s healing.

Another shot from Lucia hit the heart of a raccoon-man.

Ann swerved around behind it, striking the back of its skull as hard as she could. She felt the bones crunch, but it didn’t kill. She pulled back and slammed her fist in again. This time, bones snapped and her fist entered the Warped’s skull. It fell, lifeless, pulling at her hand as it fell.

They dispatched the last monstrosity with ease. Their threat came from numbers, like most things in this Seed, and once they’d lost that advantage, it was an easy cleanup.

“The feck do we even call these things?” Kat asked, turning a body over with her boot to get a better look at its face.

“The scholars back in the camp were calling them Ringrats,” Rosalyn said. She’d taken her knife and was digging around in the guts of the one she’d charred. “Not a great name, but they can’t all be winners. Ew, that’s its stomach? It’s full of weird stuff. Ann, come look at this!”

Ann walked over to her girlfriend and looked at what she was holding up. It was a cassette tape, but without the tape. Exactly as she remembered, except one spoke was larger than the other.

“Huh. That’s some tech from my time. Won’t work without the tape, but that’s plastic. We’re leaving it in here,” Ann said. She handed it to Bren who eagerly snatched it, then gagged as black gunk got on his hands.

Rosalyn dug through the rest of the Ringrat’s stomach, pulling little bits of plastic, some cardboard, and other trash that a raccoon could have gotten into. The creatures Ann knew were smart enough to avoid eating most of what they found, but the Seed apparently didn’t know that. It seemed to assume that since raccoons went through the trash, they ate trash.

“Still don’t like how human they are,” Ann grumbled, moving to sit on a curb while Rosalyn finished her inspection.

“Ye don’t like anythin’ in ‘ere,” Kat pointed out. She didn’t sit, but stood next to her, keeping watch.

“Yeah, well, too close to home and all that. At least there are fewer of them,” Ann sighed, looking up at the buildings.

“Aye. Fewer o’ us, fewer o’ them. Crazy tae see what a Seed can put out if ye bring a large party. I’ve read about it, but seein’ it is a whole different beast.”

“And you said these things just start flooding Warped every hundred years or so?”

“Aye. Not lookin’ forward tae me first time wit’ a Swarm lemme tell ye.”

“Alright, I’m done!” Rosalyn chirped, standing up from the corpse and wiping viscera off her arms. “Not much interesting besides its stomach. Pretty normal animal things inside, but the loose skin seems to be part functional cushioning for how it launches itself off high places. Warped regeneration seems to take care of bones breaking and all that.”

“Good, let’s move on,” Kat barked, helping Ann to her feet.

“She always like that?” Ann heard Lucia ask Bren.

“Yes. Only with Warped, though. They fascinate her and she literally climbed into the last guardian we killed,” Bren said.

“Madness.”

“Unbridled curiosity is what I would call it. She does wait until they are fully dead.”

“Still crazy,” Lucia said, then shrugged and continued on.

“You’re spooking Lucia,” Ann whispered to Rosalyn.

“What? Oh no, did I do something? Did I put some lightning too close to her or something? I try to be careful, but sometimes it’s a little unruly and I’m so sorry!”

“No, no,” Ann reassured her nervous girlfriend. “Just the dissection stuff.”

“Oh, well, ok I can get why that’s creepy to most people. It’s just figuring out how a body works. Not too different from a doctor, really.”

“Actually, do you all have those? With healing magic, does that job even exist?”

“Oh, well, yes. Surgeons and other Paths like it exist. Not all of them have healing magic, and not everyone can get access to that kind of thing in a timely manner. People like Bren are pretty sought after. He’d be a shoe in with any studies on healing and medicine. Pretty sure the only reason we don’t hear about Indelholm bothering him is because Kat’s the one he’s hanging out with.”

“Right, and surgeons? Non magic healers?” Ann asked, trying to get her back on track.

“Oh, yeah, sorry. Well, since not everyone can get access to magic healing, there are plenty of paths and studies about non magical healing. From what I’ve heard, they’ve got this big sparkly hospital in Indelholm that they all meet in to talk about the stuff. Sounds kinda boring, since all they deal with are people, but it’s probably useful.”

“But Warped are more interesting.”

“Right! So much variance, not to mention the Guardians are a huge focus of that awful changing power. Getting to inspect them is a lot of fun!” Rosalyn beamed as she walked with a slight skip to her step.

“I love you,” Ann laughed.

“What makes you say that?” Rosalyn asked, looking up in confusion.

“You’re just, well, you. Curious about things that other people freak out about. It’s fun to listen to.”

Rosalyn rolled her eyes, but smiled wider. “I mean, when my girlfriend can pop out her eyes, weird takes on a different meaning.”

“That’s fair,” Ann shrugged. “Gonna get even weirder, if the last thing was any indication.”

“Can’t wait, darling,” Rosalyn giggled, grabbing Ann’s gauntleted hand.

They walked for a few more minutes. Sure enough, without so many people in the Seed, it was relatively quiet. Two more ambushes of the Ringrats were dealt with easily.

Lucia started taking potshots at the roofs she suspected were hiding more of the monsters. It was a waste of ammunition when it didn’t draw out anything, but with her sense of smell and the sensitive hearing of Kat and Ann, they were usually certain which buildings it would be.

Ann took a moment after one such attack to inspect an alleyway, and Bren stepped up to join her.

“Are you well?”

“Eh, hanging in there. Still an awful sense of déjà vu.”

“Déjà vu?” Bren asked.

“It means you feel like you’ve been somewhere, but can’t remember it exactly. Like this alley, for example. I’ve seen a hundred like it. Those trash cans, that dumpster, the pipes running electrical cables up the walls and the fire escapes. Thing is, they’re all off. That dumpster should have two lids, and the warnings on it are wrong. Those trash cans should be round and are square. The pipes loop and don’t go anywhere. Then there's the fire escapes that don’t have windows next to them and are all twisted. No way someone could climb down that.”

“Ah, I see,” Bren said. For once he didn’t grab his journal, but stood and observed with her. “I will not lie. I have a thousand questions about this place, but I also understand this is difficult. Please, do not feel pressured to over-explain on my behalf.”

“Nah, it feels good to get it out of my head,” Ann said. She walked over to a square trash can and opened it up. A ten legged rat skittered out of the mess of garbage, chittering at her for daring to disturb it. The contents were as strange as the rest of it. Newspapers with nonsense titles and lorem ipsum type articles. Sealed trash bags and greasy square containers with blurry logos filled the rest. It was almost hard to look at some of the imagery, it was so close to correct.

Ann grimaced and shut the can, sighing. “Yeah, fucking weird.”

“So, still cannot read any of it?”

“Nope. Actually, can you?”

“No. It is a different form of text than we use. That actually begs the question, how can you read our writing?”

Ann paused. She’d figured her being a Chosen just came with language translation, but hadn’t considered written words. “I… I’m not sure. I figured I could just speak and understand you all because of Orenous. Writing flew under my radar, er, attention. Guess it extends there too?”

“I may need to borrow you after this. I want to test how far that extends. Maybe it will allow you to read other languages than ours.”

“Yeah, maybe. That’d be pretty awesome, being able to translate for everyone.” That’d be a hell of a diplomatic skill for sure.

“Let’s keep movin’,” Kat called back to them. “Gotta get through this shite afore it gets dark!”

“No keeping her waiting,” Bren chuckled, patting Ann’s back. “Do not worry overly much about this. The Seed does not know what it is doing, really. Not anymore.” They turned and made their way back to the main street. “Stories are, when they were the Gods’ domains, they were more coherent.”

“Wonder what a God of this place is like,” Ann said. “Wait, right, if we get through this we’ll probably find out.”

“Yes, we shall, and I am equally intrigued. Will they make some reference to you knowing the origins of this Seed?”

“Gods, he’s probably going to have an accent in his writing. Please tell me he’s not Albertan,” Ann groaned as they met up with the rest of the group.

“Find anythin’?” Kat asked.

“Just more of the same. Shit that makes me homesick and freaked out.”

Kat gave her a concerned look that Ann shrugged off. The princess cared, but this wasn’t really the time for it.

“So we’re gettin’ intae the part where the, what, harpies are gonna show up. Lucia an’ Rosalyn. Ye’re in charge o’ spottin’ an’ tryin’ tae kill ‘em afore they get tae us. Ann an’ I get the nasty work o’ dealin’ with ‘em after.”

“Have you seen any of them?” Rosalyn asked, pouring some water over her hands, cleaning them.

“Not yet, an’ that’s what bothers me.”

“Probably in towers,” Lucia grunted, pointing at the skyscraper nearest to them. “Nests on top?”

“That’d make sense. The animals they’re based off lived on top of buildings,” Ann said, craning her neck to look up at the twisted spire.

“Let us not forget the human Warped as well. I have the disturbing feeling we have not seen the true extent of those monstrosities,” Bren said.

“No. Definitely more,” Lucia nodded.

“We’re not gonna find out if we stand ‘ere talkin’. Let’s go kill us some Warped,” Kat said with a grin. She turned her broad back to the party, leading the way further in.