Born a Monster

348 The War Endlotline: Maiype: Societou’d be amazed what people will throw into the ocean; or rather, I was.

On the very day I awoke, grumpy and gummy-eyed, someone threw a sack into the shallows. I wasn’t curious, originally, until it started thrashing.

Now, I’m okay with adults committing violence on adults, but less so when they abuse children and animals. Yes, it happens in nature all the time.

People. Choose.

Anyway, it wasn’t wrath or justice or anything like that, but simple curiosity.

I slashed open that bag, and beheld a human baby. A boy, if it matters. His lungs were already full of water, and I should have just made a meal out of him.

Instead, I raised him up above the level of the water, and carried him to the shallows. People have notoriously bad instincts, but his seemed to suffice for puking water out of his lungs.

.....

His mother and two others stood there in the ankle deep water, looking at me in horror as I approached, now cradling the squalling infant.

One looked to be the father, the other the mother’s mother. I’m not dignifying her with the title of grandmother, not when she had a hand in something like this.

"I don’t eat these.” I said.

She looked down, possibly at her own reflection in the water. “We cannot feed him.” she said. “I stopped making milk two days ago.”

"We have nothing.” the man said.

"Do you have your papers?” I asked.

"Speak plainly, beast.” the elder said.

"The forces outside the Dusk Gate are negotiating terms of surrender. Get this child that far, and one of those women are lactating. They have food as well.”

The man shook his head. “We have three other children as well. The baby will not survive the journey.”

I sighed. “Fine. I’ll find a fishing village or something.”

It was an or something, as the guards didn’t want the monster having his hands on a baby for an instant longer than needed.

I passed my reticule over all of them; even the guards were starving.

"And there is the matter of you.” one of the guards said.

I took a step back, into deeper water. “I’m just waiting until my friends are free of their military duties.” I said. “I then plan to be gone from this island and never return.”

"If you would – lay out the bodies of the others we haven’t found, it would be an unexpected kindness.” the senior guard said.

"I shall do this thing.” I said. “Mother sea has enough orphaned children in her.”

Fourteen. Fourteen little skeletons, laid out on the sand, some above bags. I didn’t find all the bones.

And, rather than pester me with a barrage of cannon, or depth charges, or other annoyances, they mostly left me alone.

The ones who couldn’t get enough of me were the Brood. I swam the shallows, they would swim the depths, and I would find myself invited to friendly inquests, where they wanted to know all about Rhishisikk, and my Brood.

I answered what questions I could, and admitted what I did not know.

And, almost entirely by coincidence, got Sobek his blessed shrine. In the depths, where a relentless undertow had carved itself a canyon, (yes, I mean canyon, a hundred fifty three yards across at the deepest point, where the current formed a vertical spiral and a Water node), He got his temple, and his worshipers. And they got access to divine classes – Inquisitors and Hermits and Healers, mostly.

But they said their prayers, and kept the holy land free of debris, and some of them even began growing patches of scales in his honor.

It’s amazing what a few miracles will accomplish.

But all of this took enough time that the “ever loyal populace” had come from behind the Liberation Army, and cut off their supply lines. Surrounded, their allies at the Dusk Gate having surrendered, pleas were made to execute only the leaders, and let the foot soldiers return home alive.

What happened to that army belongs in a darker book than this one.

[You are on the victorious side of a war.]

XP, XP, XP... Up to three XP, in some cases.

[Your champion points have been refilled. 5/5 champion points.]

[Title: War veteran raised to rating two.]

Wait, titles have ratings as well? Yeah, like everything else in existence. It had bonuses, they took development points or veteran points to activate.

The fleet, suddenly having no place to dock and resupply, took two courses. Most surrendered, knowing that most of their crew would be executed (save for those who had remained somewhat loyal to the admiral).

The Sea King’s Blue Beard and her escorts sailed west, deeper into the island chain. Whether the joined the Cult of the Octopus or were sunk, I cannot say. But they did not arrive at Neo Esteban during my remaining time in the Shining Islands.

Madonna told me.

How did anyone learn to send dismissive waves across System channels?

<a>

<a> I should be close enough. I sent out a group invite.

<a> [Gamilla is unable to respond.]

<a> I told Madonna.

<a> I would learn later that day it was an or something. Gamilla had come down with a case of the Beach Mist, a fungus that infected the lungs. She was quite delusional.

<a> Turns out that Champion Points can be expended to apply Lifeshaper powers over a System link. [Tap Disease] and [Enhance Resistance (specific disease)], in this case.

<a> And then I whipped up a point of Healing mana, which set about repairing her scars rather than her lungs.

<a> [Cannot remove biomass points from System.]

<a> Well, nothing I could do about her malnutrition, then.

<a> More about her survival later; having done what I could on a single Champion point, I closed our System link.

<a> And brooded. For all my thoughts about how I wanted to leave this island, I discovered that having spent six months more than I was supposed to have didn’t fill me with feelings of success.

<a> At best, I’d managed only the minor goals. Oh, and not to die, like everyone before me had.

<a> I had no reason to doubt that my replacement was already here in the islands, and that I would be shipped off to the Tidelands to report my failures.

<a> It had been long enough, and if all their problems were from wildlife, Miletus, older brother to Rakkal, was an accomplished slayer in his own right. In theory, we had a working dock, possibly a thriving port town settled around it. At least a fishing village.

<a> Yes, yes. You can look at history from our vantage point now and realize how foolish such hopes were. But I didn’t know. I want to say I couldn’t, but in retrospect... ah, but I get ahead of myself.

<a> “Tell me of the Raven.” I said to the angel of Sobek. “Please.”

<a> The angel had let her mask of Sobek slip. Whatever fate paid the gods for using their faithful as its tools, her share of that had left her in a haze I normally associated with the smokers of kerrf.

<a> “Ah, Little Monitor. I should rebuke you for how long it took to make a simple shrine.” she said.

<a>

"Is there another task?”

"Kek. Next month, there shall be a task. For now, know Sobek is pleased with your sudden progress. He is upset, however, that it has taken you this long to show your true capacity.”

"He must have been talking to Kismet.” I said.

"He is great, and speaks to whomever he will. Kismet, known to you as Fate, responds to him. Sometimes.”

I choked down my words. This was a first chink in the armor of the gods. They didn’t know of the mortals around me, and that meant something. “Please, honored elder, tell me of the Raven that I should beware of.”

"One of the Raven’s Feathers has been dispatched to your homeland, with the intention of either capturing or killing you. Already, she recruits allies and spies. One of the Feather’s agents is in the Shining Isles, seeking you currently on the island of the Neonen. I cannot speak to whether that agent has swayed the Spiro family, only that the agent believes that.”

"And the Raven tells you this?

She turned a half-lidded eye to me. “I have my ways. Now begone for a month. I wish to regard an exploding star, whose light will not reach us this century.”

Yes, I have all the maternal instinct one expects out of a wood-chipper. But I had learned how to carry babies. I’m not an idiot, I just don’t usually care.

Kerrf is a reddish-brown leaf, nominally from the Khanate, although it grows in any arid climate. It has effects both narcotic and relaxing. In moderation, it is a medicine much like morphine or opium. Like its cousins, one rarely finds it used in moderation.

<a>