034.009

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Breath of Air

Asylum

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The group of monsters continued on toward Illuna, this time with Alyssa at the head of the group, Brakkt at the rear, and Fela moving about and making herself seen. Brakkt in particular had his eyes everywhere, looking for any sign of the group that was chasing after the monsters. A quick Message to Volta had revealed that Martin, acting as the current regent of Illuna, was willing to meet with the monsters to discuss a possible peaceful resolution to their problems. Which meant that Brakkt actually had some leeway in openly assisting the monsters. This was the sovereign territory of Illuna. Anyone operating here would have to respect Martin’s wishes. The assassination squad included.

Apparently.

Politics weren’t something that Alyssa had delved too deeply into on Nod. She wasn’t sure that she wanted to get too into politics, either as a participant or observer. It was a hassle enough back on Earth. She could only imagine how chaotic an unstructured society would be. Not to mention the difficulty in paying attention to the goings ons with poor communication. Message spells helped, but they just weren’t sufficient for real communication. And they didn’t facilitate mass communication either.

Which meant, unfortunately, that there also wasn’t really a way to communicate to the assassination team that the monsters were under a parley truce. If there even was such a thing. This all seemed rather informal.

At the current pace, the monsters should arrive by evening. As a show of good faith, Martin was going to prepare a small amount of food. Small being enough to feed the several dozen starving monsters, anyway. The prospect of food had put a bit of haste in the steps of the monsters. Alyssa hoped that they weren’t pushing themselves too much. The food would still be there later.

Alyssa kind of wished that things weren’t quite so… tense? Since their initial discussion, no one had said much of anything. The cyclops and minotaur walked on their own. The rest of the monsters were strangely quiet as well. For such a large group to be so silent, it had to be something about how they were wary of the humans in their midst. Even the slight murmurs of excitement from the promise of food had died down. Perhaps it wasn’t wariness, but weariness, exhaustion at having to walk so much. Some relief had to have set in which would further exacerbate matters. The relief would bring in relaxation, which, in turn, would make it a bit more difficult to remain determined. Keeping up the walk was probably about all they could do at the moment.

As for Brakkt, Alyssa, and Fela, they were all spread around the group with Kasita riding alongside Alyssa. But the distance made talking impossible. Between Brakkt keeping watch for other humans, Fela smelling the air for much the same reason, and Alyssa keeping an eye out for trouble ahead, they probably wouldn’t have had time to talk much even if they were all right next to each other.

Several times, Alyssa found herself closing her eyes to try to look for the monsters’ pursuers only to realize what she was doing. Getting rid of the Astral Authority couldn’t happen soon enough. At least they weren’t after her constantly anymore and she didn’t have to worry about little slip-ups. Though it did make looking for people a pain.

Irulon had that one soul-sight spell, the one that made souls appear as symbols or animals, in Alyssa’s case. She did have a picture of that one in her phone, so she could draw a few of them. But she didn’t have any on hand. It just wasn’t a spell that she had ever thought she might need to use on the regular. And she wasn’t sure if it worked through invisibility fields like Empty Mirror.

Thankfully, they made it to the city without incident. The sight of Illuna’s much smaller walls—in comparison to Lyria—was a welcome sight. The array of guards on the walls was less so, but it couldn’t be helped. Alyssa wasn’t sure that they needed every guard in the city up on those walls. There was practically no arm room between them. They wouldn’t be able to effectively fight like that, so it had to be more for show and intimidation than anything else.

Alyssa had to hope that they hadn’t left the western wall completely empty of guards. Someone needed to be on watch for wayward demons or Patiences. But they probably knew what they were doing. Hopefully.

Maybe she would send Fela to check that there really were guards out there.

But for the time being, Brakkt directed the monsters to stop well away from the main walls. They weren’t even anywhere near the farms that sprawled out over the land surrounding the city. The city’s bowmen, assuming they could draw the string while being so packed in with their comrades, would be hard pressed to land an arrow anywhere nearby, let alone hit a target. Arcanists might be able to do something, but… there shouldn’t be any accidents or rogue agents. Volta, as court arcanist, would probably have some influence in who was accepted as a guard. Given Volta’s identity, she wouldn’t select arcanists likely to cause incidents at times like these.

Alyssa stayed behind with Fela while Brakkt headed up to the city proper. She couldn’t help but notice that he stopped by the abandoned stables where Izsha was on his way up. Just a quick peek in without even dismounting from Ensou. There must have been nothing to worry about because he went straight up to the wall after that.

From there, it was a waiting game. Without walking to distract them, the monsters started talking among themselves. The conversations were kept to low whispers, but there were enough of them to create a small level of noise. From that noise, Alyssa gathered two primary feelings. Excitement and fear.

Alyssa had to hope, for everyone’s sake, that there really wasn’t much to fear over. But she couldn’t say that with certainty.

“Hey.” The deep voice of the minotaur startled Alyssa out of her thoughts.

Judging by the slight hop, it startled Musca as well. Of course, the draken tried to disguised the jolt as simply turning around to face the giant of a monster, but Alyssa could tell. The nervousness probably came from the simple fact that Alyssa was still on Musca’s back. If the minotaur or cyclops took a sudden disliking to Alyssa, Musca would probably end up as collateral to one of their large weapons.

But the minotaur didn’t look like he was about to fight. Having the head of a bull, it was almost impossible for Alyssa to read his facial expressions. He had the body of a man, a particularly buff and large man but a man nonetheless. That gave her some idea of his body language.

The fact that he didn’t have his axe in his hand helped convince her that nothing was amiss.

“What’s up?” Alyssa said. As she spoke, she could feel Kasita leaning around her back to get a better look at the minotaur.

Kasita had still not changed back from her lizardy version of herself.

The minotaur looked left, then he looked right, then back to Alyssa. With a slight nod of his head off to one side, he started walking away from the group. For being so large, his footsteps were surprisingly soft. They didn’t shake the ground or make that loud of thumps.

With a glance to Kasita, who shrugged, Alyssa directed Musca to follow.

He didn’t go far. Just far enough to get a small amount of privacy from the others. “Not all of us are useful,” he said eventually, looking back to the group. “Some are wounded with injuries that might keep them from working for the rest of their lives. Some are just small peaceful creatures without much physical strength.”

Alyssa hadn’t had a chance to look over the wounded. She didn’t have any healing potions, knowledge of monster physiology, or even a connection to Tenebrael to maybe get some miraculous healing in. The monsters here would know better how to handle their own injuries. Probably.

Actually, now that she thought about it, she didn’t know much about how monsters handled medical matters. Did they think slapping leeches on things to ‘balance the humors’ was a valid method of curing ailments? Something to talk about with Kasita later. Maybe Jason as well for general medical matters. He might know better than she would about how to disseminate proper medical knowledge to the world. In fact, proper medicine was probably better than farming equipment.

But that was a discussion for another time, she supposed.

As for the weaker creatures, that wasn’t hard to believe either. There were several small and fluffy creatures much like bunny rabbits or even small dogs? Even a few goblins in this group. Alyssa knew from personal experience that goblins weren’t all that impressive in terms of anything, let alone monsters like Fela or the draken.

“Yeah,” Alyssa said, looking back to the minotaur.

“They won’t make good slaves.”

Alyssa blinked. “What?”

“Even still, we discussed it together before even deciding to head to the human city. As long as they are not harmed and are taken care of, the rest of us will do as told without rebellion or complaint.”

“Wait,” Alyssa said, holding up a hand.

But the minotaur ignored her and continued talking. “I alone should be worth a dozen of the smaller ones. And Fezzik, the cyclops, should count as another dozen.”

“Hold on!”

“And if those are not agreeable terms, then—”

“First of all, none of that is up to me. I don’t even live in this city let alone hold a position of authority. You would have been better off bringing this up to Brakkt before he left. Secondly, I don’t think any of you should be slaves. I don’t agree with the practice. And from what I’ve seen of this city, I’m not sure that they agree either. They have few if any slaves.”

“That said,” Kasita added with a small smile, “I don’t imagine you’ll be able to freeload. This city’s guard has been… diminished through repeated interactions with the demons nearby. I’m sure farmland could use tending. Other skills you all might have could help as well if there are any craftsmen or fabricators among you.”

The minotaur didn’t say anything. Again, it was difficult to tell from his facial expressions, but Alyssa guessed that he was somewhat surprised. Probably. She should have realized it earlier, realized just what submitting themselves to human rule might mean for the lesser among them, never mind those like the cyclops and minotaur.

Before the minotaur could speak again, the very air changed. A palpable tension rippled across the atmosphere. The low murmurs of conversation that had sprung up since the group stopped their long march hushed down in an instant. Monsters big and small shifted their stances, some shrinking in on themselves while others puffed up, perhaps in an attempt to look a little more intimidating. Or, taking into context what the minotaur had said, maybe even trying to make them look a little more appealing for enslavement.

It only took a minute to figure out just what had caused the change.

A large group was coming down from the city walls. At least a dozen horses did nothing but carry banners emblazoned with the fleur de lis symbol of the city. More horses moved between those, all outfitted with bronze armor and more emblemed tabards. In the center of it all, Martin rode with shining silver armor on a similarly outfitted white horse. At his side, Brakkt rode on Ensou, essentially in a completely inverted color palette.

They approached without any semblance of haste in their movements. Their horses didn’t gallop or even trot. They walked in a slow procession clearly designed just to show themselves off.

Considering how nervous the monsters were already, the unnecessary parade just made Alyssa frown as she wondered who had come up with the idea. Martin? Volta? Brakkt? Some guard captain looking to curry favor as the idea guy? It wasn’t like Alyssa couldn’t understand the purpose behind it. There were almost a hundred monsters out here. Walking down with his cane and only a guard or two wouldn’t give the proper impression at all. It might even give the monsters the idea that they could just take over the city through brute force. At the same time, Alyssa had to frown at the display.

The procession came all the way down the road, spreading out in loose formation as they neared the monsters. Martin, Volta, the cursed sword, Brakkt, and a pair of identical twins that even styled their mustaches the same way were left in the center, along with several guards. As when Alyssa and her group first approached the monsters, Martin slowed to a stop with plenty of distance between him and the group.

“You and the cyclops seem to have taken charge since our arrival,” Kasita said from behind Alyssa. “Perhaps the two of you should head forward for negotiations? Unless there is someone else here more fitting of the role.”

A harsh breath shot out the minotaur’s nose. “Humans find us threatening. We are threatening. Something smaller and more human-like in appearance…”

“But no one else is stepping forward. No one stepped forward when we arrived. The two of you did. In fact…”

Although the minotaur had taken them to the side to talk about his slavery concerns, the cyclops wasn’t far away. After swiveling his large eye toward Alyssa, Kasita, and the minotaur, he started forward. His movements were deliberately slow as if he were trying to be as nonthreatening as possible. After about five steps, he paused, reached to his hip, and undid the ties that kept his large stone club attached at his hip, letting it fall to the ground with a weighty thump. He paused again and looked back to the minotaur.

With another snort of air, the minotaur followed suit. He tossed his axe to the ground and marched up alongside the cyclops.

Alyssa, after beckoning for Fela, followed just to the side. As she had said to the minotaur, she really wasn’t a part of whatever discussions were about to take place. She didn’t know the politics or even the personalities of the humans or monsters. She couldn’t really vouch for either side, although Martin had seemed the amicable sort in her few meetings with him. But if things went poorly, she had the spells on hand to act as a moderator. She was confident that she could keep the two sides away from each other long enough for the monsters to leave without bloodshed on either side. Hopefully. But she was more hopeful that the monsters would be able to get along with the humans. At least on a surface level. Deeper friendship could come after a time. And if a few words from her and maybe a threat or two could lead to that end, well, that was something that Alyssa had wanted to see ever since meeting monsters properly in the Waterhole.

Although the cyclops and the minotaur were not mounted, Martin remained on his horse, rubbing a gauntleted hand down its neck in what was likely supposed to be an attempt to calm it down. A few of the others, one banner carrier in particular, were a little less successful in keeping their horses from breaking ranks. They didn’t turn around and sprint back like the Lyrian guards had upon seeing the gaunt, but it looked like a close thing. Though Alyssa could honestly not tell whether the horses were more frightened of the monsters or of the draken. Those horses closest to Brakkt seemed far worse than those further away.

With Martin on his horse, he still only came up to the cyclops’ stomach. The minotaur was a bit shorter than his companion, but not by much. So it probably wasn’t that bad a thing to have him still mounted. It meant that the two giants didn’t have to duck quite so much to be on his level.

And they did duck down. It obviously wasn’t a bow or a kneel or any other respectful deference, at least not further than moving down to eye-level was respectful.

“Monsters,” Martin said, voice a neutral greeting. “I understand that you are short on food. After speaking with my advisers,” he said, gesturing toward Volta and the two twins, “we have purchased supplies from agreeable merchants. I have men currently loading them up to deliver down here as fast as they can.”

Both the monsters looked to each other, surprise evident on the cyclops’ face—the minotaur was hard to read, but Alyssa was pretty sure he was surprised as well. Even she had to blink. Opening with a promise of food without even introducing themselves? Brakkt had said there would be food, but Alyssa expected for there to be some terms and conditions set beforehand, using the food as a bribe to keep the monsters from doing anything complicated.

Volta, Alyssa noted, looked to her with her real body. It was sluggish and slow, but she did wink.

So Volta had something to do with that decision. Alyssa wondered how she had framed the proposal to the others. A way to keep the monsters docile during the meeting? Or maybe just appealing to morality of the situation, arguing that leaving the poor things starving and wondering if they would continue to starve was just too inhumane.

She would have to ask later. For now, the discussion continued.

“I am Martin, regent of Illuna while my son is in the grand city of Lyria. These are my advisers, Holbrook and Holland. My court arcanist and a trusted source of advice, Volta. And I believe you are acquainted with the Second Prince Brakkt, visiting from Lyria.”

When Martin fell silent but neither of the monsters spoke, Alyssa, off to the side with Fela and not really part of either group, tried to make a subtle hand gesture. Just a little wave from the monsters to the humans. She didn’t think they were stupid or couldn’t understand social cues. In contrast to Volta or even the bunyip at the Oasis and Kasita at the Waterhole, they just lacked the initiative that Alyssa expected someone in their position to have.

Unless someone else in that group of monsters was willing or ready to step up as a leader, it was up to them.

“Fezzik,” the cyclops said. “No fancy titles. I am not even a… Our leader was killed over a week ago.”

“We’re standing here because we seem to have been nominated as representatives,” the minotaur said with a glance toward Alyssa. “I am Rokien.”

“We… thank you for your generosity with your food. Most of us have not eaten in weeks.”

“Far be it from us to starve others. We need not be enemies.”

Alyssa sat a little straighter. She wasn’t sure whether it was Volta’s influence on Martin or if he was just a genuinely kindhearted man even despite the racial tensions between humans and monsters, but everything seemed to be going well. Quite well.

Taking her eyes off the meeting, Alyssa started glancing around at the gathered monsters and guards, wondering just how it might go all wrong.

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