MM1, Ch. 24

Oof! Lots of busy stuff this break, lots of good times as well... Not a ton of time to write. I got a rough draft of this done, but I put it through heavy edits this morning before sharing it.

It might not stay chapter 24. I'm not 100% sure if I want to spend more time with Ravel and the gang before checking in with Koby, but this felt kind of right. I don't anticipate changing it much even if I insert another chapter before it.

Chapter 24

There used to be hundreds - perhaps thousands - of living things in the world! On Marynth Isle today, that number is far lower. A few small insects and spiders survive in the walls of our nurseries, but there are only four larger living things: humans, chickens, grandelions, and the ant colony, which survives only so long as its undying queen does. Protecting the ant colony is one of the Guardians’ most important tasks.

• The World Today, age 6 social studies primer

Koby

Koby awoke facedown, nose pressed into the uneven surface of the floor.

He tried to roll onto his side, and was surprised when it didn’t work.

What’s going on? I don’t remember going to sleep, and I usually use my backpack as a pillow. Did I roll off of it?

His thoughts felt thick and fuzzy. He opened his eyes, revealing a few shadowed square inches broken up into dirty white and black squares.

They were striking and completely unfamiliar.

Where am I? Need to find out. Don’t… don’t need to move my whole body to see. Just my head. I can do that much, right?

The effort it took was bewildering, but he managed, dragging his head to the side until his cheek rested against the cool tiles. The precise pattern continued, disappearing beneath a wall of potted plants a foot in front of him.

He took deep breaths, trying not to panic at his unresponsive body and unfamiliar surroundings. The smell was wet and heavy. The mustiness seemed a little familiar.  His family had been lucky enough to have a window room, and his mother had taken advantage of that fact to grow her own small garden of herbs. Sometimes, he’d catch a whiff of something similar from the water that drained into those herbs’ drip trays.

But rosemary had soft needles about the length of a finger joint. The chives were much longer, each a thin green strand several inches long, but each about as thin as the tine of a fork. He supposed there was some similarity between these plants and the thick-leaved mint plant his mother maintained… but those leaves were the size of a thumbprint! These plants were enormous, some with leaves as large as his head. 

And if the mustiness was familiar, it was at war with another smell: alien, sharp, and rich. 

The combination made his nose itch, and he sneezed.

Repeatedly.

At least, when the sneezes subsided, he felt more awake. He’d also caught a glimpse of something white wrapped around his torso during one of the convulsions.

Are those bandages? Am I injured?

Last he remembered, he’d been in yet another test chamber, trying frantically to catch up with Dee and Ravel.

The pair had been unbelievably kind in waiting for him, but it was easier to time your exit from some chambers than others. Still, he’d expected to find them when he had finished, just as he had a dozen times before. He had finished, hadn’t he? 

It felt hard to think, for some reason. He gritted his teeth as he tried to push his uncooperative brain into action. What had the last chamber been? They’d been… forming runes? Yeah. Trying to form runes to make water. That was it.

He was actually pretty good at sensing magic - maybe even better than his newfound friends - and his few experiments with perceptual magic had encouraged him to hope that he might have a talent with that too, but shaping magic was difficult for him.

Very, very difficult.

As the rooms had required more and more precise magical manipulation, Dee and Ravel had to wait longer and longer to let Koby catch up. 

Were they here? Was this the next room?

He coughed to clear his throat. “Dee? Ravel?”

The words prompted a rustling from behind him, and he felt a moment’s relief as a hand grabbed his arm.

But when another hand reached across him to help roll him onto his back, he knew something was terribly wrong. The first hand had felt normal enough, but the second was a dingy grayish color he’d never seen on a human being, and the arm it was attached to was far too thin and had at least one more elbow than an arm should have. Some areas were smooth and skinlike, but others were peppered with a smattering of wiry hairs. 

When he saw its face, he screamed. 

It was some kind of magic-twisted monstrosity. A pair of wicked fangs glistened beneath a head festooned with eyes that tracked him as he thrashed. Some were simple round orbs, but other eyes looked far too human. 

Worse, he knew the horrific visage wasn’t friendly. He remembered now. 

Dee and Ravel had finished the last room long before he had, and he’d struggled to follow. When he’d finally managed to power the runes, he’d found himself in a new room, transfixed by the tiny talking woman explaining things to him. 

He hadn’t noticed the monster’s approach, focused on the tiny woman, but he’d felt  something hit his back and a piercing pain in his shoulder. He’d spun to see this… this horrible thing leaping onto the floor behind him and then…

He didn’t remember what had happened afterward. Did it matter? Whatever this thing was, it had clearly brought him here against his will. He needed to get away. Why couldn’t he move?!

As he jerked his body upward, trying to get a better look at his torso. Whatever was restraining him, he was pretty confident it wasn’t bandages. It was hard to move, but he got a better glance for a second. 

His arms, stomach, and legs were all wrapped in layer upon layer of white-gray threads.

“He’s awake, Caliban. Sit him up while I talk to him. They’re more receptive when they’re sitting.”

Even in his terror, Koby had to admit the voice was gorgeous, almost musical. It sounded female, but strange: too deep and resonant. 

Pressure on his torso brought his mind back to his situation. The large monster picked him up with its startlingly humanlike hands, drawing Koby’s face against its hair-and-skin torso as it dragged him across the floor. 

It seemed wholly unbothered by Koby’s muffled screaming. Nor did it seem offended when Koby began hacking and spitting as it leaned the boy against a shelf.

It took Koby several seconds to dislodge the hairs that had gotten inside his open mouth, but when he did, he took only a moment to glance around the room before he began yelling: “Where are you? Let me go! Let me free! I haven’t done anything to you! Let me-”

“Silence.” The word was spoken like an announcement, not a command. Now that he was sitting, it was easy to pinpoint the source of the sound: not a person or a monster, but a small upright patch of white fabric stretched around a metal frame etched with runes.

His monstrous captor reached out a hand to tap the device. One of the runes lit up and Koby saw a fresh wave of magic roll out, coating him in some kind of bubble that kept his shouting from reaching even his own ears. He could keep moving his mouth and feel the vibration of the words in his skull, but he couldn’t hear any of them.

“That’s better,” said the voice. “Your words are irrelevant. Mine are the only words that matter. My assistant has captured you and brought you to an area with a magic density of two Avalons. Your odds of spontaneous mutation in this area are low, since you have completed the qualifying course. However, in three days, he will bring you to a four Avalon area. If you have not implemented any sort of personal enchantments by that time, your risk of mutation is quite high. With a weak personal enchantment, your risk is low. With a strong one, negligible. I will grant you two questions. Caliban, remove silence.”

The hand tapped the device again. 

Koby saw the silencing magic vanish.  “No! I don’t want to do that. You can’t… are you the castle? Why are you doing this to me? Explain yourself!”

The voice laughed. “Wasted questions, as usual. No, I am not the castle. I am doing this to you because I want assistance.”

“You need my help?” Koby asked, hope blossoming. If she needed his help…

“A third question… but arguably part of the second. I will be generous. No. It doesn’t have to be your assistance. I am in no rush. If you die, Caliban will eventually capture another.”

“Capture another what? Another kid? Are you human? What do you need me for?!”

“Far too many questions. We will speak more if you arrive.” The voice chuckled, a sound exactly the same as the previous laugh. “Three days. I suggest you apply yourself. Calaban, mute incoming.”

“No! Please! Don’t go! I want to know what’s going on. What’s going to happen to me?”

The monster observing him lifted a leg to the device.

Other than that, there was no response.