Fell Champions

Rua and Kir travelled to the other side of Pruana Isle. They did so on foot, with no guard or fanfare, through dense jungle. A path had been cut by someone, but it was a futile attempt in a place like this. While Ashborne was gone from the Islands, it seemed his touch still remained. The vegetation clawed back, reaching out further and faster than it would on the mainland. 

“You’d think Ashborne’s influence would have lessened by now,” Rua said, pushing a branch away and ducking under it.

“Why would it?” Kir said.

“Well, I did kill him.”

Kir stopped, a particularly brambly piece of bush digging at her side, but she gave it no notice. “What?”

“Well, I helped. Otter and Sunny did the majority of the work.”

“What?”

“Ashborne’s dead. I know, you always fantasized you’d be the one to kill him. Too bad, I beat you to it. Maybe we should switch jobs, since you’re engaging in kidnapping and assassination, while I’m the one slaying Mythwalkers.”

“The smoke coming from his island…”

“Not me. Otter thinks every problem can be solved with fire. She is almost as dimwitted as you are.”

“I’m not stupid,” Kir sputtered. “Quit saying I am.”

“You’re set on depriving yourself from regular orgasms, you’ve kidnapped me, the only person who seems to genuinely care for you, you allow yourself to be abused by your absolute ass of a father–”

“Yes, because the abuse you love to take from the actions of yours is any different.”

“At least mine isn’t here, and if she was, I’d probably stab her. Unlike you. Which makes you either stupid, or a coward.”

Kir’s eyes narrowed at that. “You’re coming close to a line.”

“What are you going to do about it? Use your Pact to silence me? That means I win.”

“How would me making you be quiet make you win? It seems like a victory to me right now.”

“It means you were threatened by my words. That you were scared of them. And you’d only be scared of words if they were true.”

Rua wasn’t sure where she was going with this, why she was insisting on trying to bait Kir. Well, other than the obvious reasons. But she was definitely in the mood for a fight. And Kir didn’t disappoint. 

Kir’s fist snapped forward, and Rua managed to deflect it with her forearm. It’d been an exploratory blow, meant to probe, to test if Rua was ready for a fight, and not meant to hurt. It hadn’t been fast enough, and lacked any actual strength or followthrough. 

Rua’s response did not suffer from the same.

She feinted, shifting her weight one way to make it look like she was readying a punch in return, and then kicked at Kir’s shin as hard as she could. As invested with soul power as she was, she struck with enough power to break bone.

Kir’s Tenacity hadn’t fully returned yet. But it was enough to take most of the blow before shattering. The rest of the force went right into Kir’s shin.

“Ow,” Kir said, hunching down to grab her leg. “You fucker, that hurt. Who kicks shins?”

“People who look at a mountain and decide to bring it to ground level instead of climbing it.”

“What–”

Rua tackled her, sending them both rolling into the brush. Every bit of wood and leaf seemed to slap Rua in the face as the two of them tumbled about, but she grit her teeth and ignored it. Kir had grown sloppy since getting her Pact. Every movement was still flawless, every action she took perfect. But she didn’t have the fear, the fear that made you take a fight seriously. Everything was just a game to her. She couldn’t get hurt. She’d been crippled by success. 

And Rua was stronger. She knew as close as she was, there wasn’t much Kir could do. Not without actually giving in and making a command.

It was only inevitable that, just as the last time they’d wrestled, Rua ended up on top of Kir, pinning her to the ground once more. But this time they were face-to-face, Rua holding Kir’s hands above her head with one of her own, smirking down triumphantly. 

“This is becoming a habit,” Rua said. “I’m starting to think you like it when I’m on top.”

Kir breathed in sharply, but said nothing. She looked afraid. Not for her life, but for something else. 

“I’m going to kiss you now. And if you don’t want me to, if you want me to stop… all you have to do is command it. Use your Pact and tell me not to.”

Kir’s mouth opened as if to speak, but no sound came out. Rua waited a heartbeat, and then two, and then descended, her lips pressing firmly against Kir’s. 

It wasn’t as nice as she’d always fantasized. Mostly because Kir didn’t return the kiss. She went still, her body taut like a wire. 

She’d ruined it. She’d wanted to save this kiss for when Kir was sure, when she was ready, and in Rua’s desire to move forward, to try to force something, it was an anti-climactic bore. Worse, some part of her felt ashamed. 

She withdrew, and mumbled, “Sorry.”

She couldn’t meet Kir’s eyes. Her stomach roiled, and she nearly stood up and walked away. The game wasn’t fun anymore.

And then Kir leaned up and kissed Rua back.

It was quick and tentative. More than a peck, more than something you’d give a family member. But only by a hair. 

Kir blushed with her whole body, her pale white skin taking on a bluish hue all over. 

“I don’t know why I did that,” Kir stammered. “Mikovians aren’t like Silayans. I don’t like women like that.”

And then pain blossomed across Rua’s sinuses. It was sharp and throbbing and the most wonderful feeling she’d ever experienced.

“You’re lying,” Rua said in a hushed voice.

“What? No, I’m not. I don’t… I can’t. It’s against all custom and tradition.”

Rua rolled her eyes. Of course she was going to be obtuse. She flicked Kir’s nose with her freehand. 

“Lie.”

“Stop that, I’m not lying…” She stuttered as Rua winced. “Your Pact is wrong.”

“Nope.”

“It most certainly is.”

“You’re giving me a headache right now. With quite literally every sentence you’re saying. You know you’re fishing under a cloudy sky.”

“What does that even mean? Never mind, stupid Silayan idioms. If your head is hurting, it’s because your Pact isn’t as good as you think it is, not because of… I don’t even know what you’re saying.”

“Then why did you kiss me?” Rua said.

“I don’t know! Let me up. Now you’re the one being stupid.”

She struggled against Rua’s hold. When she seemed to realize that Rua had no intention of letting her go, she sighed.

“I want you to say it,” Rua said.

“Say what?”

“You lost. Again. Which, why hasn’t your Pact freed me if I keep beating you in these games?”

“Because they’re just games. They’re not life or death. Neither of us thought they were important enough.”

Rua sighed. “Very unfair. Well, you owe me another penalty. You’re really building up on these.”

“And what humiliating thing do you want me to do now? What Silayan… Silayan perversity do you want me to engage in?”

Rua wasn’t sure, but she thought she detected a hint of eagerness in Kir’s voice. A desire to hear what was next. She almost seemed like she wanted some of that ‘Silayan perversity.’ 

Pinned as she was beneath her, Kir looked very tempting. Rua wanted to very much take advantage of the game and her position. But that was too easy. 

And since Kir intended on making things as difficult as possible, Rua was going to answer in kind.

“You owe me one. I’ll think of something later.”

“What?”

“I’m not feeling in the mood right now. Maybe sometime next week?”

And then she released Kir’s hands and stood up, brushing her clothes off as if the dirt now covering her was of greater import. 

“What? No, you can’t…” Kir’s mouth worked soundlessly, as if trying to figure out how to finish that sentence.

“Can’t what?”

“Never mind. I had something I wanted to show you.”

Kir stood, and her face became a mask, but not a particularly good one. She was a little too wild about the eyes, a little too quick in her movements as she trudged through the jungle ahead. 

It took them about two hours. Pruana Isle was one of the larger islands, but they didn’t cover the entire distance of it. No, this was a trek from one cove to another, a section of the island a little bit further north. The woods gave way to open grasslands, which had been stomped flat by heavy foot traffic. More foot traffic than Rua would have expected.

An entire field of good nuamaya grass, flattened and stomped down. Some of it had even been harvested, and from the looks of it, put to use as thatch for new houses that were being built nearby in the Silayan tradition, standing on stilts to weather the tides and the storms. 

But in what appeared to be a brand new village that had sprouted to life outside of anyone’s gaze, no Silayan walked. The pale white hair and skin of Mikovians was all there was to see in those that walked about, tending small farms of herd animals, and planting crops. 

“What’s this?” Rua said, stunned. 

She started counting heads, trying to get an estimate. There had to be at least a few hundred Mikovians here. More than three, less than five. Combined with those that lived in the main settlement in Pruana Isle, that had to put the population of Mikovians at well more than a thousand.

There weren’t supposed to be that many of them in the Islands.

“The invasion began about four months ago,” Kir said, her voice despondent. She took them closer, her speed increasing. “I didn’t know until a month and a half ago. My father doesn’t trust me with much, apparently.” 

“We would’ve seen the ships,” Rua said, trying to catch up with Kir’s infuriatingly long legs and their stupidly long strides. “How has this been kept secret?”

“They didn’t come in ships,” Kir said. 

“They would’ve needed to. The Wayfaring station on Pruana Isle isn’t large enough to handle the kind of traffic this would require. It can do maybe ten people a week before needing to be refitted with new Adamant. And Juala was in charge of what shipped in and out of the islands in that regard. There’s no way she would’ve approved it.”

Kir nodded. “As I understand it… we stopped using the Wayfaring station for six months. Claimed it was being refitted, redrawn. And we used it to transport nothing but Adamant in.”

“That’s… that’s terribly inefficient. You’d be better off just…” Rua stopped, seeing the giant platform ahead of them, sitting in the centre of the new village’s square. The air smelled of something burning, but not of wood or ash. It was as if the air itself had caught aflame. 

She knew that smell. Anyone who’d done travelling by Wayfaring, or seen someone off who had, did. 

“To just build a new Wayfaring station?” Kir finished. “A larger one, where we could move tens of people at a time? No. No, we didn’t do that.”

Dozens of soldiers sat guard around the platform of stone. A building that looked like a barracks sat nearby. And more were under construction.

But the platform itself had Rua’s attention. Smooth, black stone, etched with glyphs. Nearby, incense was being prepared by Wayfaring pilots, those that maintained the station and did the appropriate math and made adjustments as were needed to insure safe transportation.

The Wayfaring platform in Ri Oa was the pride of the Isles. It stretched perhaps fifty meters in length. It could transport a full hundred at a time, should it be wished. It had been destroyed during the Final Pushed, and rebuilding it had taken years. The cost had been astronomical, and nearly bankrupted Seat Hyleah.

This was easily twice that size, carved with far more intricate glyphs. And it was still being worked on, extensions being added on all sides by labourers moving slabs of Adamant into place. .

“No,” Kir said. “Tens of people? Not nearly efficient enough for what was planned behind my back. The entire wealth of Mikovia is being thrown into this project.”

“But why?” Rua asked, watching men and women work. “Why would Old Grey do this?”

“Old Grey? My father doesn’t have the power or money to arrange this. King Erathawk gave the order himself. He’s decided he wants Pruana Isle, and is determined to take it any way he can.”

“Why show me?” Rua asked. “We both know you’re just going to order me to silence.”

“I’m not. I need… I needed you to see. To understand. The Islands are still recovering. Will be for at least a generation, maybe two. I need you to see this, and tell people. They can’t fight. You need to make them understand. The full power of Mikovia’s coming, and I can’t stop them, and if the Silayans try, they’ll be swept into the sea.”

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