Chapter Thirteen: The Fire on the Mountain
Written by Jeff
A pool of shimmering liquid rested on the stone table, surrounded by a circle of living, slithering vine. Ja tipped the glass vial above it and the silvery substance inside slid down over the lip, dripping into the pool below. As they rejoined, the liquid emitted a sharp flash, and when Ja lowered his arm and looked back down again, he saw that the pool had hardened into glass. The vine, though still vibrant and alive, had stopped writhing in an infinite circle and now sat unmoving on the table. Ja picked it up and examined it. Other than the dissimilar frames, this mirror was similar to the one made of jawbones in his satchel.
“Is that it?” asked Kaia. “The shard is back where it belongs?”
“It would seem so,” Ja mused. “The mirror is solid again. That must mean something. Hopefully, this will put an end to all the destruction that’s happening on the other worlds.”
“What do we do with the mirror now?”
“The Harvester said that smashing it a second time wouldn’t do anything to stop the Ghora; its frequency has changed from assimilating other lifeforms. I don’t know what good this mirror does us anymore, but it doesn’t seem like we should just leave it down here.”
Ja opened his satchel and placed the vine mirror inside next to the obsidian cube, the jawbones, pink vials, and charging crystals. He wondered how any of these small trinkets were going to be enough to stop a creature as powerful as the Ghora.
Thankfully, the monster was nowhere to be seen in the ruins. The four companions stood in the chamber at the bottom with the star stone, which was black and lightless, resting on its pedestal of bones. Before, the Ghora’s tentacles had never entered this room, but they did stretch into the hallway outside. Now, the vines were completely absent from the underground tunnels, making the area feel noticeably more spacious with them gone. The group walked up the steep incline to the sprawling room where the Ghora had slept and found it vacuous and filled with light that streamed unimpeded from the gaping hole in the ceiling. The tree-trunk-sized vines that once clogged the opening had retracted and followed the creature wherever it had slithered since leaving its pit. The hole in the ground where it had perched now seemed to drop away forever into darkness.
The world above looked starkly different without the Ghora’s vines as well. The ground was still littered with bones, scattered across barren soil, but the sickly, diseased forest that grew up through the ruins now seemed properly dead without the grasping flora surrounding it. It was oddly quiet outside, devoid of bird sounds, like when the buru had left the tree shelter where Ja and Kaia had slept not far from here. Kaia examined the dry, crumbling plant life and frowned, wondering how far the blight spread. There was no need to “track” the movement of the Ghora outside of its pit - the trail of destruction was plain to see. They followed it through the dead forest to what was once a wall of living plant life, but the Ghora had busted through. The enormous hole it created was surrounded by living plant matter that was withered and crispy around the edges, as if singed by death.
The jungle on the other side of the wall wasn’t quite as dead as the area surrounding the ruins, but it wasn’t flourishing, either. The palm leaves and brush grass drooped down sluggishly, deflated and malnourished. Kaia went from plant to plant inspecting them, then peered off into the distance, trying to take in the state of the jungle as a whole.
“This doesn’t look good,” she said to the others. “We only brought food for a few days; just what we could carry. I assumed I could hunt and forage more, but this forest is in bad shape. I don’t know how anything could survive inside of it.”
“Something survived,” said Torv. “It’s tracking us right now. Over there, about a hundred paces away in the brush. It can’t hide very well with the leaves so thin.”
Kaia’s eyes narrowed in on the place where Torv had pointed. It didn’t take long to notice the large, slinking cat. Once the animal realized its cover was blown, it started to close in quickly on the group. Torv spotted the movement and stepped forward with his axe and Kaia moved next to him with her spear. The predator kept within pouncing distance but revealed itself - and its intentions - openly to its prey. The big cat had mottled gray fur that hung loosely over protruding bones. It snarled, presenting gums above long upper incisors that reached down well below its mouth. This creature was starving and these four were the most food it had seen in ages.
“It’s a spearcat,” said Kaia. “Be careful. We call them that because you have to hit them with at least twenty spears before they fall. They’re incredibly dangerous.”
“You said we needed food,” said Torv. He smacked his axe handle against the inside of his palm. “It’s bony, but it still looks like food to me.”
Kaia gave him a sideward glance.
“We’re not that desperate yet. Don’t attack unless it charges first. I’d prefer not to have to fight it, if we can get it to go away.”
“I would prefer that as well,” said Doro, making his way up to the other two. “This creature doesn’t want to attack. I can tell. It just feels like it has to.”
Doro continued to walk past his armed companions and towards the snarling cat, and as Kaia reached out for the giant boy and pleaded for him to stop, Ja interjected and told her that it was okay. He’d seen Doro calm a fiercer beast than this in the Putrid Coast. The cat continued to growl as Doro approached, but as he reached out his hand to nuzzle the creature’s mane, it stopped fighting and allowed the affectionate touch. Soon, Doro had both hands rubbing around its neck and the cat was purring loudly, luxuriating in the attention. It didn’t even bristle when the other three approached behind Doro and stared at the strange scene.
“This cat just needed a friend,” said Doro. “I think I will name it Meelo.”
Meelo looked up at Doro as he said it, and Ja could tell that the animal understood what the boy had said. It knew that Doro had given it a name, and seemed to like it. Doro rubbed the cat a few more times on the mane and got to his feet. As the group continued to walk along the Ghora’s path of destruction, the other three couldn’t help but look fearfully at the giant cat striding alongside the giant boy, but it no longer seemed to pose any threat. After an hour of following along though, the cat grew distracted by noises in the jungle, and sensing that Doro wasn’t going to feed it, bounded off in the drooping fronds to try and feed itself. Torv began to follow behind the cat, leaving the rest of the group behind.
“Where are you going?” Doro called out.
“I’m going to kill that cat so we can eat it.”
“That cat is my friend,” said the boy. His voice went stern. “Find something else to eat.”
Torv’s face scrunched and he fought the urge to continue following the animal despite Doro’s objections. He rocked back and forth visibly with indecision.
“Come on, Torv,” Kaia said impatiently. “I’m sure Meelo isn’t the only thing to eat in this jungle.” The barbarian sulked back over to the group, mumbling angrily as he walked.
Though the Ghora didn’t travel that way specifically, Ja asked the others to follow him down a worn path they crossed, thinking he recognized it. Sure enough, he had - it was the path to the compound he had used for gathering spice. The stacked stone entranceway still stood, but no one was standing guard. Ja peeked his head inside and saw that all of the inhabitants were gone as well.
“What is this place?” asked Torv.
“It was a prison,” Ja said. “I grew up here.”
Torv peeked his head inside and inspected the grounds. “Brutal.”
“I was only here a little while, but it was really awful,” said Kaia.
“Not sure things around here are much better now,” sighed Ja.
Kaia looked at him and gave him a soft smile. She brought her arms forward and said using hand language, “We will fix it.”
Ja hadn’t thought about hand language for as long as he had possessed the Tongue of Kathaka. Hand language used to be the only way he could communicate in this place. Since he’d escaped, he’d spoken with strangers from other worlds and had telepathic conversations with bug swarms. The idea of speaking with his hands now felt almost nostalgic. He raised his arms and signaled back to his friend, “We will fix it together.”
Though the Ghora had avoided the compound, it had completely trampled the blood sacrifice site. The thirteen stone slabs that Ja had stood against so many full moons no longer jutted from the ground but were scattered and flattened into the dirt. The sun had nearly set now and the group had been walking all day, so they decided to set up camp among the stones and settle in for the night. Ja felt uncomfortable sleeping in this particular spot, but he didn’t share it with the others, wanting to seem strong.
But as Torv stoked the fire and Kaia handed out rations from the beach, Ja realized that his discomfort wasn’t subsiding. It was spreading. As soon as he had stopped walking and sat still, his body began to feel weak and drained. He tried to eat some of the dried meat Kaia had brought for strength, and when he put it to his mouth, he found that he couldn’t taste it at all. He tried some fruit as well, and that too had no flavor whatsoever. Then Ja realized that he couldn’t smell the smoke of the campfire and his eyes flared in panic. Kaia saw him react and subtly placed her hand on his leg and whispered, softly and patiently, “What’s the matter?” She said it with a tone of such understanding that Ja couldn’t bear but to tell her the truth. She nodded and didn’t say anything more to him, turning her attention to the story Torv was telling around the fire. Ja was relieved simply to have gotten it off of his chest.
Kaia fiddled with the petrified tongue hanging from her neck as Torv regaled the group with the tale of his fiercest hunt. At best, Kaia only ever understood about two-thirds of the words from the barbarian’s mouth. It was as if Torv was constantly slipping in and out of her language; enough that she usually got the context, but big pieces weren’t getting translated. The tongue Ja had given her didn’t seem to be properly attuned. She wondered if it was the same for Torv when she spoke to him in her language. She wondered if Torv only understood a fraction of the words he heard in his own language.
“That is a good story, Torv,” said Doro. “I see that you were a great protector for your people.”
“I am still a great protector for my people,” the barbarian snipped. “The wizard will help me revive our forest and save them when we are done with the monster here.”
“I was a protector too,” said Doro.
“Is that so?”
“I was in charge of protecting the sarva,” said the boy. “Or at least, I thought I was protecting them. Now I protect my friends.”
“Why are you helping these two?” asked Torv. Ja and Kaia both were already asleep, bored by Torv’s rambling, nonsensical tale.
“Because it is the right thing to do.”
“That seems like a dumb reason to risk your life, Doro. There has to be something in it for you.”
“I disagree. I am helping them save life. I am trying to be a good person. You should try to be a good person too, Torv.”
Torv couldn’t grasp the concept of being a “good person,” but he could tell that Doro was calling out some sort of deficiency, and Torv did not appreciate being told to change himself or his behavior. He rose to his feet and aggressively stepped towards the boy, but with surprising quickness, Doro also shot up and towered over the barbarian. Torv instinctively went to grab for his axe and Doro’s massive hands clasped down on the Ulvson’s arms, pinning them to his sides. He lifted the barbarian up in the air like a plaything.
“That is a bad response to being told you could use self-improvement, Torv.”
“What do you know?” the man boomed.
“I also was a protector on the plateau. When bad people arrived there, I was in charge of throwing them off the cliff, because I am a good judge of character.” Doro gave the wriggling barbarian a stern look. “Based on your character, I should probably throw you off a cliff.”
“What’s stopping you?” mocked Torv. There was no way he was going to break out of Doro’s grip, but he was trying, nonetheless.
“Because even though I think you should try and be a better person, that doesn’t mean you’re entirely a bad one. I know that you want to save your people, Torv. You do and say lousy things all the time, but I know that there is good in you.”
Torv stopped squirming and Doro placed him back on the ground. Kaia had awoken during the altercation, but had decided to ignore it, though she sniggered when Torv was lowered down like a child. The barbarian glared in her direction but didn’t say anything. He just sat back down by the fire and pouted.
The group took off at dawn and continued to follow the Ghora’s path. It was now aligned with the existing trail that led between the sacrifice site and Orn. The hike was long and hot and grueling. More sun made its way through the wilted canopy, so the group sweated profusely as they hiked. They felt fortunate to find a clean, fresh source of water around midday, but they found no edible fruit or game to pursue. Kaia was confident that she could have found something if she ventured further away from the Ghora’s trail, but they weren’t in danger of running out of food quite yet. They needed to press on.
The group moved sluggish and slow through the dying jungle, but Kaia brightened up as they entered a clearing in the trees. They were close to Orn now. She jogged out ahead of the group excitedly, but Torv and Doro kept their steady, lumbering pace. Ja was trailing significantly behind, agonizing with each step as he pulled his exhausted body forward again and again. He kept his eyes trained on the ground in front of him, never looking past the next step, willing himself forward in the smallest increments. Then, finally, he looked up and saw that he was standing in front of the walls that surrounded Orn. Or rather, where walls used to stand.
Like the sacrificial slabs, these stones had been leveled and flattened into the dirt by an immense force. Without the walls, it was clear to see that there was nothing left of Orn; everything that once stood was now crushed and laid bare. No stone statues lined the streets. There were no people here, no sounds of any kind. But there were bones. White and sucked clean, scattered everywhere. It was like the entrance to the ruins where the Ghora had slept, but these bones were fresh and unblemished. Kaia walked around the devastated city wordlessly, eyes welling with tears. The entrance to the underground caverns where the community slept - and where the Blood Summoner dwelled at the bottom - were caved in with enormous rocks. She sat outside the sealed entranceway and covered her head in her hands.
That night, like every other night since finding Ja in the cave behind the waterfall, Kaia had the dream where she was running through a mountainside covered in flame. Every night the trail morphed and changed, but she always found her way to the summit. On top awaited the wall of famished flame, greedy and hungry and ominously dark, emitting blistering heat but no light. It grew and expanded and pushed her to the edge of the cliff, giving her no choice but to plummet or face the fire head-on. As always, Kaia stepped into the flame.
As her eyes opened and the dream began to fade, Kaia felt that she could still see smoke swirling in front of her eyes. Her mind and vision fought to clear, and she saw Torv sprawled out on his back in the dirt, away from his sleeping palms. He was supposed to be keeping watch. The smoke wafted and Kaia’s eyes stung, and she saw a hooded figure crouch over the Ulvson man. The figure held out a red gemstone to Torv’s bulging bicep, then Kaia’s eyes became leaden and could not stay open any longer, and she was fast asleep.
When Kaia rose the next morning, everyone else in the group was already awake, clamoring nervously. They all had their right arms held out. Torv, who refused to wear sleeves, had a red incision along the inside crook of his elbow. Doro had a vertical slit along his wrist just below the shirt cuff. Joining the conversation, Kaia realized that she had been cut on her wrist as well. Ja had no incisions that anyone could see, but the young man looked poor off in every other way. Both of his eyes were now a pale yellow and his face looked as sallow and sunken as it had back when the Ghora was still assimilating him through the mirror shard. But even worse yet - Ja’s satchel was missing.
Whoever had visited and cut them in the night had taken all of Ja’s artifacts. Everything he needed to try and fight the Ghora was gone. He had no idea how he was going to use those artifacts to combat such a creature, but he knew that he wasn’t going to beat it without them. Especially now that the Ghora was clearly assimilating him again, sapping his life away. Ja figured he knew why it was happening, and posited his hypothesis to the group: The mirror shard that had connected him to the monster was gone, but part of the Ghora would always be inside him. The closer he got to the creature, the more he could feel its leeching presence inside of him, absorbing and transforming. Ja felt desperation begin to overtake him.
“There’s no use,” he sighed. “Orn is gone. My artifacts are gone. We need to accept that we’ve lost. We need to get as far away from here as possible. But now that I’ve lost the mirror, we can’t even leave.”
“We’re not giving up,” said Kaia. “Do you see where the Ghora’s path is heading?”
Ja followed the destruction. It appeared to be headed towards the base of the fiery mountain that towered above Orn and the surrounding jungle. The mountain had been a source of deep fascination and fear for Ja when he had lived in the compound. Even from far below, you could see the spires of flame that spurted from its peak. The only water source inside of the prison had been a hot, cloudy trickle that somehow made its way to the bottom of the burning mountain. Ja looked back to Kaia, unsure of why the Ghora heading to such a frightening place was a reason not to give up.
“I’ve had the same dream every night since the Harvester removed the mirror shard,” Kaia continued. “I never put it together that this was the mountain I was dreaming about. It’s on fire; the hunters never went there. But every night, I’ve seen the dark flame on the top of the mountain, and every night I’ve stepped forward to face it.”
Ja gave her a despondent look. “But there’s nothing I can do to stop the Ghora anymore.”
“I don’t know what dreams are supposed to mean, Ja. But I do know that we have to get to the top of that mountain.”
Ja lowered his eyes but raised his hands, signaling to his friend, “We will fix this together.”
Torv, proud and honorable to a fault, could not have been talked out of hiking to the top of the flaming mountain. Doro was less enthusiastic, but he could see that the others needed his help. Once they took off from the wreckage of Orn and it became clear that Ja could barely walk, Doro picked the young man up and placed him on his shoulders. Ja tried to protest at first, but he just didn’t have the energy, and slumped down on Doro’s head, eyes heavy and exhausted.
Ja awoke crashing painfully into the dirt. He crumpled at the impact, wondering why Doro had dropped him, and then saw that all three of his companions were also writhing on the ground. But their pain was much more intense and prolonged, as if they were still actively being hurt. Ja spun around and saw the Blood Summoner standing before them, eyes flashing with rage. From a long, narrow slit on his arm, blood flowed down to his hand and surrounded it, swishing and swirling. He clenched his taloned hand in the air, gripping furiously at nothing, and as he twisted his wrist Ja saw his friends seize in pain. He had stolen their blood in the night and was using it to wreak havoc on their bodies.
“You took my artifacts,” Ja called out as forcefully as his body would allow. The Blood Summoner looked at him and sneered. “I need them to stop the Ghora. Let me fix what I broke.”
“You are in no state to fix anything,” mocked the Blood Summoner. “All of this is your fault, Ja. I will not allow you the opportunity to make things even worse. This evil - the Ghora - will be cleansed by the Great Serpent. This world is ours, and you have done it unspeakable harm. You, and all who travel with you, will be held accountable for the damage that you have caused.” The hooded man placed his bloodied palm down flat against the air and Ja’s friends began to cough and choke, breath pressed from their lungs.
Ja pulled himself up to his feet and staggered towards the man, unable to even stand upright. Still, he was mobile; the Blood Summoner wasn’t pinning him to the ground like the others.
“Can’t control me?” Ja mocked hollowly.
“There isn’t enough blood in you to control,” the Blood Summoner laughed. “You’re more Ghora than man. Why would I need to control you, Ja? You can’t even put up a fight.”
The Blood Summoner stepped forward and pulled the fang saber from his side in one fluid motion. Before Ja could react, the blade lashed and cut through his hide clothing, sending him back down to the dirt. Ja reached up and felt the liquid starting to ooze from his chest. It was thick and dark and more green than red. The Blood Summoner kept the other three pinned with his right hand and pointed the fang saber at Ja’s neck with his left. He pressed the tip into the young man’s jugular.
“Killing you is less than you deserve,” said the Blood Summoner. “But I am more than ready to be done with you entirely.”
Ja felt the tip of the saber leave his neck and swing up into the air for a decapitating blow. He clenched his teeth and recoiled, but the blade didn’t swing back down. Instead, the Blood Summoner let out a horrified shriek as a large creature snarled and grunted, bringing enormous teeth down around the unsuspecting man’s head. Ja looked up to see Meelo ferociously wagging the Blood Summoner back and forth as the man attempted to stab the cat with his saber. The enchanted blood stopped swirling around his hand and flung off everywhere as his body was violently shaken from side to side. Then the big cat crunched down hard and the Blood Summoner went limp. Ja was too shocked to speak, but as the cat dragged the lifeless, robed body off into the brush to consume it, Doro graciously called out, “Thanks, Meelo!”
“What happened?” Kaia asked groggily, pulling herself from the ground.
Torv responded, and Kaia couldn’t tell if her tongue was failing to translate the words properly again or if it was just the way the barbarian’s simple brain formed words.
“Cat eat food.”
Ja could see that the group was now at the base of the mountain with a clear path of ruin winding up to the summit. There had been some sort of stone structures here marking a trail, but the Ghora had demolished them. Random bones were scattered about in the dirt leading all the way up the slope. Along the path, burning fissures erupted, sending up small tendrils of fire. Far above, it looked as if the entire mountain peak was surrounded by flame. As Ja peered at the summit, something was placed in his hands and he looked down to see that Kaia had handed him his satchel. He opened it and was relieved to find all of its magical contents were still in place.
“Now you’ve got what you need to stop that monster,” smiled Kaia.
“I still don’t know how I’m supposed to do it though,” Ja sighed. His hand grasped the obsidian cube and he contemplated the vial of plague from the Putrid Coast hidden away inside. “There is one option, but I’m not sure it’s any better than just letting the Ghora devour everything.”
“You’ll figure it out, Ja. I believe in you. But the only way we’re going to stop the Ghora is to catch up with it first, which means we have to get to the top of that mountain.”
Doro picked Ja up and placed him back on his shoulders again and the group began to trudge up the steep incline littered with bones. As they climbed, the fires that erupted from the soil grew in intensity and the already-oppressive heat became insufferable. Before they were even halfway up, their water skins were drained and Kaia began to seriously worry about dehydration. She knew there was water somewhere on this fiery mountain that made its way down to the compound, but she couldn’t imagine what its source could be in such a scorched and inhospitable climate. As she scanned the horizon, she saw charred trees extending from the ground like blackened spires and felt like she had been transported back to her recurring dream. This path was as unfamiliar as any of the ever-changing routes she traveled from night to night, but she knew that it was the right path. She knew that they must make it to the summit and confront the dark flame head-on.
After several hours of walking, something new began to clutter the path: discarded robes. Ja recognized them immediately as the garb of the Great Serpent - he had worn this robe himself for several months. The Blood Summoner had said that the Great Serpent was going to “cleanse” the Ghora, but from the looks of things here, they didn’t seem to have been very successful. Whatever the blood cult had in store for stopping the monster, it wasn’t nearly enough.
By the time the summit actually came into sight, the group’s pace had slowed significantly. Though they suffered in silence, each person was profoundly thirsty and exhausted, faces covered in soot. Even though he was being carried and didn’t have to walk, Ja looked the worst of the four, splayed limp on Doro’s shoulders, shallowly panting. The group scaled a ridge and the ever-present din of crackling fire was diminished by the Ghora’s horrific wail, causing the group to cower and cover their ears. The group looked at each other in disbelief; were they really going up to the top to confront that? Even Torv looked like he wanted to turn and start heading back down the mountain, but Kaia huffed and started up the path again and the others dutifully followed behind.
The Ghora’s screams only intensified as they neared the peak, and before long the group realized that there was something else up there emitting terrifying noises as well. The Ghora was fighting something at the summit. Their mood brightened at the prospect of an unexpected ally; they weren’t in this alone after all. Then the path finally crested and they saw what awaited them at the top.
The Ghora was truly enormous now, as big as the most intimidating monsters they had witnessed from afar in the Putrid Coast. The creature was seemingly on its back, extending hundreds of tentacles in the air, wrapping them around a gargantuan snake that towered above it, surrounded on all sides by a wall of flame. The summit of this fiery mountain was the domain of a literal Great Serpent, and the Ghora had climbed all the way up to assimilate it. The two were locked in fierce combat. The snake sunk its fangs into tentacles and ripped them ferociously from the Ghora’s body, but the monster had plenty to spare. Green tendrils reared back and stuck into the serpent like skewers, sending rivers of red blood spewing from the wounds. Kaia had killed plenty of snakes before. No snake she had ever seen was so full of blood.
Though the others were petrified at the scene playing out in front of them, Kaia continued to make her way closer to the dueling beasts. Torv continued to follow behind, though his bravery was close to reaching its limit. The Great Serpent ripped off an enormous tentacle and sent it flying in the air. It sailed over the group and crashed to the ground behind them, blocking the way they had come. Boxed in, the others began to panic, but Kaia was not surprised. Just like her dream, there were only two options now: off the steep edge of the cliff, or directly into the dark flame.
The Ghora sent a volley of coordinated tentacles into the belly of the snake and then pulled them outward, ripping the creature open and sending a cascade of blood and entrails down into the tangle of vines. The Great Serpent shrieked and went limp and the Ghora wrapped up its body entirely. The victorious monster began to suck at its prize contentedly, absorbing the blood through its tentacles. As it consumed its enormous prey, human bones protruded from all over the Ghora’s green skin and then came free and fell to the ground, joining the already sizable pile that had accumulated at the battle site.
Seeing that the Ghora was now feeding and distracted, Torv raised his axe to the sky and let out a battle roar and rushed in to attack. After only a few steps he was caught around the torso by Doro’s extended arm and pulled back to the group.
“What are you doing?” boomed Torv. “Now is the time to attack!”
“The creature will only eat you too,” explained Doro. “You said you were a protector, Torv. Sacrificing yourself for no gain doesn’t protect anyone.”
“You’re both right,” interjected Kaia. “Now is the time to attack, but rushing in with axes and spears isn’t the way to do it. Whatever you’re going to do, Ja, you need to do it now. The Ghora isn’t paying any attention to us, but that will probably change as soon as it's done feeding.”
Ja was too drained to even feel panicked. Doro placed him on the ground and he could barely get the artifacts out of his satchel, let alone figure out what to do with them. He stared at the items he held: the obsidian cube with the plague vial, the vine mirror that used to be attuned to the Ghora’s frequency, and the jawbone mirror he had used to travel from world to world and switch bodies with the Blood Summoner. Killing the Ghora with the plague was technically an option, but Ja wasn’t sure turning this world into another Putrid Coast was much of an improvement. There had to be a way to solve this problem with the jawbone mirror. The Harvester’s voice echoed in his mind, mocking him for relying on artifacts instead of learning actual skills. Ja felt so useless then; not only did he lack the ability to fix his mistakes with his own power, he couldn’t figure out how to do it with unlimited power either. It was in that stinging realization that the solution finally came to Ja. He held the Tongue of Kathaka close to his mouth and whispered to it.
“Can the jawbones change the frequency of the vine mirror?”
“No.”
“Can the jawbones change their own frequency?”
“Yes.”
“I think I know how to do it,” Ja said to the others, words steeped in exhaustion. “To stop the monster, I have to give up my own power over the jawbones. The last people who stopped the Ghora attuned this vine mirror to it and then smashed it. I need to attune the jawbones to the Ghora’s current frequency and then destroy that. I’ll lose the mirror, but this world will be saved.” He looked up at the feasting monster. “To be certain though, I’ll need to do it after the Ghora is done assimilating the Great Serpent. I don’t want its frequency to change.”
This time, Ja heard the Harvester’s voice in his actual ears, not just in his mind. The others heard the man too, speaking as his body seemed to shimmer into existence several paces from the group.
“That is not a viable option, Ja.”
“It won’t work?” Ja asked. At this point, he wasn’t surprised to learn the Harvester had somehow been following their every move.
“It will work, but I won’t let you do it. That mirror is worth a whole lot more than anything you could still save with it on this world. Orn is gone, Ja, so why are you still here? Just use the mirror and go someplace else.”
“You said there are other communities like Orn on this world,” said Ja. “Communities that the Ghora will consume if I don’t stop it.”
“Yes, technically that is true. But that mirror is exceedingly powerful and capable of so much more than saving these backwater cavemen. If you destroyed it to save this world now, you would be making an even bigger mistake than destroying this world in the first place. Just use the vial I gave you and move on from here.”
“That is not a solution!” Ja pleaded. “Either way, everyone on this world will die.” He was so exhausted now that he could barely form the words in his mouth. Simply being this close to the Ghora was actively draining what little life was left inside of him. He knew there wasn’t much more in him to speak, so he chose his next words carefully. “Can’t you make another mirror?”
The Harvester gave him an exasperated frown.
“Making another mirror like that would require a different sacrifice you simply wouldn’t be willing to make. Either way, it’s a lot of work. I’d really rather not have to.”
The small, well-dressed man began to walk towards Ja intently, but after only a few steps Kaia was standing protectively in front of her friend, brandishing her spear. Seeing that this might be his last chance to act, Ja raised the mirror and began to speak, but the Harvester’s arm shot past Kaia’s side and struck him in the mouth, sending the mirror flying. The Harvester darted to grab it but Kaia jabbed her spear into the back of his hand, drawing blood. He pulled back and looked at the woman in disbelief; she was nearly as fast as he was. Ja crawled over and grabbed the mirror again and tried to speak the command, but before he could form the words in his aching, slack mouth, the Harvester snuck past Kaia’s spear and struck him in the face once again.
Torv’s instinct was to rush in and help his companions, but realized that it was a particularly bad idea to attack the Harvester. He was relying on this man to revive the great forest in his world and save the Ulvson. Torv realized he had thought about consequences before relying on violence, and doing so had changed his course of action. That was good, probably, but he still didn’t know what he was supposed to do. He looked over and saw Doro standing next to him, frozen in place. The young boy was distraught over what was happening between the Harvester and his friends, also unable to act.
“Doro,” Torv called out softly. “Does the Harvester deserve to be thrown off the cliff?”
The boy began to cry, tears rinsing the soot from his cheeks.
“Yes.”
“Are you going to do it?”
The tears intensified. Doro buried his face in his hands.
“No.”
The Harvester held a shimmering steel knife in each hand, blades facing outward, as he pranced and lunged and slashed at Kaia. She dodged and blocked him deftly, keeping herself between the small man and Ja, who had collapsed in the dirt after being struck several times. The Harvester reared back and pounced, leaving his feet to reach up for Kaia’s throat, but was intercepted mid-air from the side by the Ulvson barbarian. Torv had meant to pin the man’s arms to his side, just as Doro had done to him by the fire a few nights before, but the Harvester was too quick and Torv was only able to wrap his hands around the man’s torso. The barbarian held out the Harvester with arms extended like he was carrying a small, soiled child to the river to be cleaned. The moment Torv’s hulking hands grabbed hold, the Harvester began to slash at him viciously. His knives were wickedly sharp, slicing through Torv’s calloused skin before clacking against arm bone, but the deep cuts didn’t seem to faze the barbarian. He just carried the small man determinatively away from Ja and Kaia. As the Harvester continued to slice the Ulvson again and again with no response, he couldn’t help but laugh to himself: this was exactly the sort of resiliency that had made him want to feed Torv to his bugs.
“Think about what you are doing!” shouted the Harvester. “You need me to save your world!”
“I did think about it,” said Torv. “It’s a complex problem, but simple violence is still the answer.”
Torv raised the Harvester over his head, took a steadying step, and flung the man off the steep cliff at the edge of the summit. Both of the knives dropped from the Harvester’s hands and he began to furiously dig inside of his satchel as he fell. Glass vials flew up and out of the opening and he grasped at them desperately before his body crashed onto the jagged rocks below.
The Ghora let out a satisfied groan and released the withered husk of the Great Serpent to tumble down the side of the mountain. Hundreds of enormous tentacles lowered to the ground and spilled off the side of the mountain peak. The creature had grown even more enormous after assimilating the snake, and now even the smallest of its appendages was wider around than the biggest trees in the jungles of Orn. Two tentacles slammed down on either side of Ja and Kaia and began to slither in their direction at a glacial pace.
“Ja, you have to attune the mirror!” Kaia shouted. She grabbed it from the ground and placed it in his hand. Ja fought to get up to his knees and brought the mirror to his mouth. His lips barely moved, but no sound came out, only a wheeze of air. He tried again. Nothing. Ja looked up to Kaia in shock. His ability to speak was gone.
Kaia took the mirror from his hand and focused on it intently, then raised her own petrified tongue to her mouth and commanded, “Attune the jawbone mirror to the frequency of the Ghora.”
A strange whisper entered her mind from the tongue that hung around her neck. “You do not have control over the mirror. You can never have control over the mirror. You are not a Jaw.” Kaia scowled and placed the mirror back in Ja’s hand. The tentacles were now only a few paces away, closing in slowly but surely.
“I don’t know what I can do to help you,” Kaia cried. “But I’m here for you, Ja.” Her spear clattered to the ground and she said to her friend using hand language, “We will fix this together.”
A little life seemed to re-renter the young man and he sat back up to his knees and placed the mirror on the ground. As he began to move his arms, Ja realized that the message he was trying to convey was too vague in hand language; he might not be able to give the proper command. There were no signs for words like “attune” and “frequency.” But as Ja moved his hands, he could feel the Tongue of Kathaka guide and embrace them, just as he had felt the artifact guide his own tongue when he had lacked confidence in his words back in Orn. Though he barely had the energy to make the gestures himself, the tongue ensured the movements were fluid and clear, and when the command was finished, the jawbone mirror emitted a dull green flash. Ja collapsed on his back, signaling to Kaia with the last of his strength, “Finish it.”
With a desperate stab, Kaia brought down the tip of her spear onto the middle of the glass and shattered the reflective surface. The Ghora let out a panicked shriek and its tentacles raised into the air and then slammed back down to the ground, causing the mountain to quake and boulders to break off the sides of the summit. Seeing what Kaia had done, Torv ran over and began to slam down on the mirror with his axe, breaking apart the jawbones into tiny shards. The Ghora wheezed and then slumped over, lifeless tentacles coming to a stop only inches from Ja’s collapsed body.
The others circled around Ja and looked at him with wide eyes. No one knew what to say. Then, they startled back when Ja’s chest seized upward with a choking breath and he sat up alert and panting. The greenish color began to fade from his face and he looked frantically to locate the mirror, relaxing a bit when he saw it crushed to pieces in the dirt. He reached up to Kaia and she helped him to his feet.
The group looked in awe at the dormant monstrosity spilling over the sides of the mountain. Its slack tentacles seemed to be covering most of the gas vents that emitted the wall of flame perpetually enshrouding the peak. Without the fire, the view from the top offered panoramas of the jungles below that stretched off into the distance forever. Ja had never viewed his world from this perspective before. There was so much of it he hadn’t seen. But then the summit began to fill with smoke again, paired with the smell of char. It didn’t smell like burning flesh or plant life, but a strange combination of both. They realized that the fire on the mountain was slowly beginning to consume the Ghora.
“We did it,” Ja said in disbelief. “And I think we may have accidentally done more than just shut the Ghora down. I think the mountain is going to burn it up.”
Torv patted Ja on the back, careful not to use too much force and further injure the young man. He looked up at the Ghora and smiled.
“This is the finest kill I have ever seen. I doubt I will ever see finer.”
Ja gave the barbarian a sad smile. “I was only able to do it because you stopped the Harvester. I know that must have been a tough decision for you. He said he was going to help you save your world.”
Torv looked over to Doro. “He was not the sort of man that could be relied on for help. He was no protector. It is true that I need a wizard to help revive the great forest, but I do not need that specific wizard. You are a wizard, Ja. A great one. Look at what you have done here! You will help me save my people.”
Ja’s eyes widened and he stammered in response, “The mirror is broken, Torv. I don’t know how we will be able to get there.”
“The star stone,” said Kaia. “It was still in the cavern at the bottom of the ruins. There were some mirrors down in the Blood Summoner’s chambers too, but the entrance to those caverns was caved in. The mirrors might be useful for something if we can get down there, though. Either way, the mirror we used to get to Torv’s world in the first place is already in your bag. Hopefully, we won’t have to put a shard of it back in your hand to get there.”
Doro walked over to the edge of the cliff and peered over the side. He looked dolefully at the smashed body of his former master on the rocks far below, but as he looked back up to his three companions, he felt a weight lift from his shoulders. He called out to the others.
“I’m sure there are some useful things in the Harvester’s pouch, if they didn’t break in the fall. I know how a lot of it works, more or less. I can help as well.”
“That’s good,” said Ja. “Because I still don’t really understand how any of this stuff works.” He turned to Torv. “Even if we do figure out a way to get back to your world, it might be a really long time until I’m able to learn how to save your forest, if I even can at all.”
“The Harvester said that he could do it, so I believe you will be able to do it as well,” Torv smiled. “My people are strong. They will figure out a way to hold on until you can come up with a solution. And if you can’t, I will find another wizard.”
“The Harvester also said there are other communities than Orn on this world,” added Kaia. “I guess we just saved them all from being eaten. Should we try to find them?”
“Maybe,” said Ja. “But I don’t know if I want to live with a bunch of strangers again. I kind of liked when it was just the four of us on the beach.”
“I liked that too,” said Kaia. She looked over the three men in the group. “But I think I’d prefer to have a few more...options.”
“That’s fine,” said Ja. “We can find you another community. Personally, I want to live somewhere a little more rural.”
FATE INDEX:
1. Messiah-like figure attempts to remake society
2. Character loses one of their senses
3. Protagonist finds a source of healing/resurrection
4. Include a historical figure
5. A hidden foe is revealed
6. An obscure side character suddenly gets a crucial role in the story
7. Traditional gender roles are switched
8. Character finds a large egg of unknown origin
9. A betrayal brings thoughtful growth
10. Physical confrontation with an inanimate object
11. Discovery of higher technology
12. Monotony is broken
13. One of the protagonists is actually a spy
14. A catastrophic end
15. Too many cooks in the kitchen
16. Torrential rain causes big problems
17. A stranger shares consequential information
18. Ghost story
19. A dam breaks creating massive flooding
20. Cat eat food
Outcomes Used:
2. Character loses one of their senses
20. Cat eat food
Added outcomes:
An accident leaves a protagonist with heightened senses
(thanks to Christoph)
Infinity is discovered
(thanks to Liz)
