“Meewfolk magic armor is amazing! How do they keep those shields so stable?” Rin craned her head back as we passed.
“Our torques are a secret known only to our artificers, little silverskin. But it is best not to look any of the Royal Guard or the Priestesses in the eye,” the guard closest to her said. “They will take it as a challenge. On the temple grounds, you are honor-bound to fight anyone you stare at.”
“Temple?” I asked. “What god is it dedicated to?”
“To the Triad,” the leader replied.
I blinked a couple times. “You mean… the Paragon, Artist, Warsinger Triad? Or…?”
“No. We have three gods. Lua, Mewa Rathi, and Hanuwele. It is a place where they are worshipped, and also the place where our ancestors are honored.”
At the top of the stairs, blocking the entry to the temple proper, was a unit of some twenty guards—and the one in front, an especially large, strongly built woman, narrowed her eyes and stared daggers at me as they came to a stop. Like her sisters, she was dressed only in pounds of metal, but she had pieces that the other guards did not: stacked rings around her neck, a golden girdle around her waist, and a lovely earring that linked to her nose with a fringe of fine chains. She was very dark furred, with a black face, hands, and tail that bled to fawn over the rest of her coat.
“What is this?” The new woman demanded. “You know it is forbidden for you to bring males here outside of the festival season!”
Our escorts went to pains not to meet her gaze, looking down with their ears folded back and their tails held low. The leader stepped forward and bowed deeply. “We have brought novelty for her Highness’s consideration, Battle Maiden. These humans and one Mercurion. They beg an audience. Some matter to do with the magic of the Ancient Ones.”
The Battle Maiden, as the city guard had called her, irritably flicked an ear as she surveyed us. “How? They only speak the prattle of apes.”
“Believe me, I can understand you just fine,” I said in the same language.
The woman looked at us. Her eyes were an especially brilliant, piercing blue against her dark face. “You have followed this conversation?”
“Yes,” I replied. “Loud and clear, ma’am.”
The woman’s nose twitched as she sniffed at us. “Most manlings who come here expect us to learn their languages, or speak to us in trade pidgin. Why are you here?”
I pushed forward to stand slightly ahead of the others. “We are the Triad of the Sixth Age, and we’re here to beg an audience with your queen to discuss the impending return of the Drachan.”
“The Deceivers?” The Maiden studied me for a few moments, her tail lashing. “They have not been heard of for five thousand years. A myth, save for the stories written onto the skin of the Avatar, and every Avatar before him. He is who you must seek, not our Queen. However...”
“However?” Suri waved a hand.
“Our Queen must assess your intentions,” the woman continued. “And if you are who you say you are, I suppose you may seek an audience. If you wish to meet her, you must be stripped of your armor and weapons and given more appropriate attire.”
“Let’s do it.” I shrugged, looking to the others.
The guard captain—I was pretty sure she was the captain—looked down at the city guard who’d escorted us. “Thank you, guardians. You may release them and go about your business, free from taboo.”
“Thank you, Hwa’nehh.” The leader of the guards squinted at her, then stood and pressed her hands together, palm to palm. All the others did the same, bowing from the chest, then turned to us and untied our ceremonial cuffs.
“I am Hwa’nehh Tahan, first among the sacred guard,” the Battle Maiden uttered. “Come. We will prepare you to enter the temple.”
***
Fifteen minutes later, the six of us were all stripped down, dressed in plain sarongs and not much else. No shoes, no weapons, definitely no armor. We’d been instructed to place our inventory into guest lockboxes and put on what amounted to a large silk sheet. The sarongs could be tied over the chest or wrapped around the waist—it was our choice. Suri and Rin had theirs up higher, so that the sarong looked more like a dress, but Gar and I wore ours down low. Thus stripped, we were taken through the pavilion to the great temple at the end of the complex.
Tahan ushered us into a great round hall. Pillars held up a tall, conical ceiling. In the center of the building was a fighting ring, while all around it, Meewfolk women talked, laughed, fanned themselves, and dozed in the sunlight that strayed through the windows, watching indulgently as two young girls sparred on the sands. They had the big paws and gangly limbs of teenagers, and fought with wooden spears that clacked as they struck, whirled, and parried one another. Now and then, one would let out a piercing yowl, or hiss, faces contorting with simulated rage.
On the other side of the chamber, raised on a dais and surrounded by ladies-in-waiting, was the Priest-Queen of Ru Waat. She was a sight to behold, tall and lean and extremely fit. Most of her coat was as white and silky as polished pearl, darkening to dark red points on her extremities. She had an especially fine tail with a plume of long, lustrous fur. It lay draped around her thighs like a fan of scarlet feathers.
When she caught sight of us, her ears pricked, and she pushed herself up to her hands. The crowd of servants and slaves around her scattered as the flame-pointed woman got to her feet. She was dressed all in gold: a filmy gold sari, a golden headdress styled like the rays of the sun, and stacks of gold bracelets, rings, and chokers. Like Tahan, she wore an earring connected to a nose ring by slender chains, though hers was larger and fancier.
Tahan motioned us down. “Kneel for the Priest-Queen of Ru Waat, Pranang Prashini Solai Maaw, Chosen of the Sun, First Warrior among our people.”
Suri, Rin and I all bowed from the waist. Gar folded his arms and stood back, only sketching a brief, awkward dip of his torso.
Tahan went to her knees and bowed to the floor. “These manlings have come to our land seeking a favor of you, my queen. They request that you humor them with audience.”
The queen with the very long name studied us, gazing at each person with obvious delight. She had starling eyes, a blue so pale they were like chips of ice against the brilliant red fur of her muzzle.
“Humans? And a Mercurion? How unusual.” She trilled, sashaying forward. She moved like a panther, all muscle and grace, and wove around and through the group of us. Her tail slid under my nose on the way past, her arm brushing mine. “What a strange scent you have, human. The perfume of the dark forest at night, heavy with the smell of the hunt. You smell like a predator worthy of the title. But this one...”
The Priest-Queen came to a stop in front of Rin, looking the nervous Mercurion up and down. “You, lovely one, are not a predator at all, even though your kind were crafted for war. Your people are nothing but stories in our land.”
“N-No,” Rin stuttered. “I’m really not.”
The Queen’s curly mouth lifted into a sly smirk at the corners, and she reached out to press the pads of her fingers against Rin’s breastbone, giving her a small, playful shove before sauntering over to Suri. Suri tensed as the Queen ghosted around her, sniffing curiously.
“And here we have a woman who smells like old blood, carrying the heat of the desert storms with her like a cloak,” the Priest-Queen sighed. “So beautiful, you are, and with the bearing of a queen. Are these two your favorite males?”
She flashed Gar and I both a wicked, knowing smile.
“I’d say one of them’s currently my favorite male, and the other one’s a fixer-upper I picked up off the street,” Suri replied wryly. “He’s got a long way to go before he’s my favorite anything.”
Gar’s cheeks flushed. “Hey! What’s your damn problem?”
Suri flashed him a look of disbelief over her shoulder. “You shot my damn hookwing, mate.”
The Priest-Queen laughed with delight at the banter, but then abruptly sobered. The li
ght left her eyes, and her ears pinned back. “Regardless, it is against law for males to be here out of season. You were surely told this.”
“I would like to claim an exception, Your Majesty. Human males are always in season,” I quipped. “Three hundred and sixty-five days a year, 24-hours a day, Sargent Roger is ready to stand at attention and fire when ordered.”
The queen struggled with her serious façade for a moment, before she broke into a sibilant, tinkling laugh. Her mirth was followed by Tahan’s, and most of her other maids in waiting: some of whom were clearly just copying their ruler out of courtly necessity.
“So I have heard! So I have heard. No doubt why you travel with such an assortment of lovers.” The Queen gestured broadly to our group. “You do not need to use my title. Call me Solai.”
“Now you just hang on a goddamned-OWW!” Gar started, cut off as Rin discreetly stomped on his bare toes.
I laughed. “There is a lot of love here, but most of us aren’t involved that way.”
Solai fixed us with wide, innocent eyes. “Ah, but if you are the Triad of legend, then of course there is love! Who can forget the passion between the Paragon Siva Nandini and his dragon mate, Yavrusa the Carnelian Splendor? And his passionate, scandalous affair with Jun-Heera, the first Warsinger?”
“Oh, right. Yeah, can’t forget them,” Suri drawled. “Your Majesty, we all, uhh, share different types of love, and you can be assured that I won’t be hopping into a hot tub with Gar or Rin any time soon.”
Solai laughed again. “And fair enough, too. That taller male looks like a dried-out antelope carcass.”
Gar bristled, but Rin stomped on his foot again before he could retort, earning a yelp and a scowl.
“Of course, there is one true test to determine if you are indeed the Triad.” The Priest-Queen breezed around me again. “The Legendary Spear. Do you have it?”
“The younger male did have a very fine spear with him, Your Highness.” Tahan said.
“Sure do,” I said. “I can call it to my hand, if you want to see it?”
“Of course I want to see it!” Solai’s tail arched into a curious question mark as she came to a stop, hands on hips. “Do it. Call it to your hand.”
I took a step back, held my arm out, and called for the Spear. As soon as the thought manifested, it appeared, gleaming with traceries of red, black and white.
A gasp went up around the court. Priestesses stopped mid-fan to gawk.
“Ahhh...” The queen reached out curiously, hands hovering over the haft. “The Spear of Nine Spheres, just as the stories say. But this only has three stones, not nine.”
“We’re hoping you might be able to help with that,” I said. “We’re looking for the others. We’re also looking for anything and everything we can find about Warsingers... and access to a Chorus Vault off the coast of your home.”
A murmur went up. Several of the lounging priestesses sat upright, watching the audience with greater alertness.
“Well, if you have such knowledge of our greatest mysteries... well. Who am I to deny an audience with our Sacred Avatar?” Solai’s eyes hooded. “I will grant your request, but not for free.”
“Not for free?” Suri took a step forward. “The Drachan are a danger to the entire world, and we don’t have a lot of time.”
“We have survived the depredations of both the Drachan and the Aesari. We shall endure the foolishness of humans, if it comes to that.” The Queen shrugged. “I cannot admit untried strangers to visit our holiest of places without evidence that you are here in good faith. You must prove to me and my colony that you are who you say you are.”
“Fair enough,” I said. “What do you want?”
A smile curled her mouth. “Three wishes. Of you.”
“Me?” I pointed at me. “Just me?”
“You bear the Spear. That means you and your dragon queen are the leaders of the Triad.” Solai shot a sly glance at Suri. “Your companions go where you go until your destiny is complete, yes? I shall make my wishes of you. They may follow you if they wish.”
“One wish should be plenty,” Suri said flatly.
“Three is a sacred number.” The Priest-Queen folded her hands and contentedly squinted at Suri.
I shrugged and looked to the others. They shrugged back. There wasn’t really much we could do, unless we felt like fighting our way to the Avatar through an army of Meewfolk. Given all their NPC meters displayed between two and three red skulls each, indicating their challenge level was a good bit higher than ours, I wasn’t keen to try.
“Three wishes, then,” I said. “But you can’t wish for more wishes.”
“You are bold, to tell me what I can and cannot do in my own house.” The Priest-Queen’s smile widened to show teeth. “But I like boldness in people. You are someone who knows that you do not attain power by purring and mewling at someone else’s hand. You must seize it.”
“Where I’m from, we have a saying. ‘The bad guys aren’t gonna shoot themselves, and the General isn’t gonna get his own coffee’.” I smiled back at her.
“Indeed.” The Priest-Queen returned to her dais, collapsing back to her divan and draping herself across the royal blue coverlet. “A deal is struck, human. My first wish of you is the most arduous. You may have noticed the damage to our city, and the many soldiers and patrols we have stationed in and around Ru Waat?”
I rubbed my wrists. “Yes.”
“We have been attacked by many of these monsters in recent weeks.” The tip of her tail began to flick. “At first, it was little things. Goblins, baboons driven into a rage. Then the monsters started to arrive. Saberwolves, animated skeletons, dead lizard men. Slowly but surely, the attacks are getting worse, the monsters larger and more dangerous. Every hour or so, a wave of them erupts from the deepest parts of the jungle, from the ruins which lay crumbling in the dark.”
“Ruins?” I frowned. “What kind of ruins?”
The queen shivered, then licked her fangs. “The taboo kind. None but the Avatar may venture there. It is a ruin of the Fall.”
“The Fall?” Rin piped up. “Do you mean the Drachan?”
“Perhaps. I cannot say. It is taboo.” The queen blinked at us slowly, resting her chin on the backs of her hands. “I cannot send my warriors there, even the males. But humans and Mercurions are not bound by our laws. So that is my first wish: go into the jungle, to this dark and brooding place, and learn what is sending this plague toward us.”
“What are the other two wishes?” I asked. “Hopefully not as dangerous.”
She reached out, and began to toy idly with a tea glass that sat on a small table next to her, ever so slowly pushing it toward the edge. “I think that depends on your perspective of danger, Paragon.”
“Then hopefully not as time-consuming,” Rin said, wincing. “We have to stop Emperor Hyland from… ummm… well, becoming an actual emperor, ruling multiple countries and stuff.”
Nonchalantly, Solai swatted the glass to the ground. None of the Meewfolk reacted as it shattered, or when a comically overdressed servant crawled from around the back of the throne, quickly swept up the broken glass with an ornate dustpan and broom, and set a brand-new glass in its place before scuttling back.
“Your dread emperor can wait three more days,” the Priest-Queen sighed, reaching out with a single claw to toy with the new glass. “I shall formalize my wish as a quest. And then you may go or not, as it pleases you.”
[New Quest Alert: Genie in a Bottle.]
New Quest: Genie in a Bottle
The Priest-Queen of the Meewfolk has agreed to humor your request to speak with their sacred Avatar: provided you grant her three wishes of her choosing. Complete your first sub-quests and speak with Queen Solai after completion to receive the other two.
Rewards: 4000 EXP, ??? Renown (Meewhome, Priest-Queen Mawar Solai, Cult of Dera)
I accepted the main quest, and as soon as I did, the sub-quest appeared.
New Sub-Quest:
The One Who Abides
A mysterious force emanating from Meewhome’s ancient rainforests is threatening the city of Ru Waat, as well as outlying villages and the nomadic herders who provide the populace with food. Undead monsters and dinosaurs have been pouring out of the deep jungle to assault the walls, escalating in power and frequency as time wears on.
The Priest-Queen of Meewhome has requested that you find the source of the problem and halt the flow of undead abominations. From your prior journey to the Temple of the Maker in the Bashir Desert, you know that the ruins the queen has requested you travel to are in fact the ruins of the Dragon Gate of Devana, the Mother Goddess of Dragonkind.
Difficulty: Hard.
Rewards: EXP 3500, Unknown Treasure, Unknown Special Items.
“Wow. The EXP for these are really nice,” Rin breathed, her eyes flicking from side to side. “Do all party members get this much EXP?”
“I am a generous ruler.” Solai yawned, her lips pulling back to reveal twin rows of long, sharp fangs. “And thus I await your victorious return, Triad of the Sixth Age. Until then, I shall give you all my sovereign’s mark. You have free run of my city until you depart—but if you commit any crimes, make sure they are interesting ones. I would not wish to have you all exiled or enslaved for being boring.”
***
We were escorted to the city outside the Priest-Queen’s palace and left to our own devices. Once the gates were closed, we gathered into a circle and considered our next move.
“So, hear me out,” I said. “My vote is that we find an inn and stay here overnight, or even for a couple of days before setting off for Devana’s Dragon Gate.”
“Why?” Suri frowned. “Thought we needed to get back to Myszno in case of a raid?”
“We do,” I said. “But think about it. The Priest-Queen just told us that monsters are attacking the city walls about once every hour, right?”
“So?” Gar scowled.
“Can you think of a single spot in Archemi where you can reliably fight high-yield monsters over and over again?” I waved my hands in the direction of the city walls. “Dude, this is the perfect spot to grind. If we camp here and ride those waves, we could go up three or four levels in twenty-four hours. Even better, there’s no time limit on Solai’s quest. The system always flags quests that have to be completed within a certain timespan. Whatever’s causing these dead dinos and other monsters to attack the city, it’s gonna keep sending them until we fix the cause.
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