by Peri Akman
“And I gotta stay in here cause the minute I step out they all flock to me like I’m candied human or something. The worst,” Tsalir muttered.
“Tsalir was one of the better guards here,” Uleyn explained. “The being-cooped-up part has been terribly disheartening on us all.”
“But not a warlock.” Kole observed.
Tsalir smirked. “Ooh, yeah, cause that’s such a problem. Last I checked it was actually easier for me to fight the little creatures. Their super scary feelings generator does absolutely nothing to me. Maybe you should consider us normal folk more often.” Tsalir batted their eyelashes mockingly.
“Oh yeah. I can see that worked spectacularly well.” Kole snapped back. “That’s why you’re stuck in bed, and I get to go out and club demons. But you’re right, you’re in the way better position.”
Tsalir’s smirk faded. “Give me my knife and I could still take you on, ya old lady.”
“Give me a knife and you won’t make it to people calling you old, ya brat,” Kole countered.
“Is this fighting necessary?” Uleyn simpered. For a big guy in charge of the fighting, he didn’t seem to be enjoying the bile much.
“Did the demons always swarm you, Tsalir?” Quinn asked, curious.
Tsalir shrugged. “Yeah. Not as much. Why?”
So they had positive magic. Explained why they were here.
“And the demons attack you here?” Quinn continued.
Kole suddenly took a sharp intake of breath. She seemed to understand where Quinn was going.
“Yeah. I guess. I’m a bit high up for them to climb. But sometimes they circle the area,” Tsalir said, jerking their head towards the window. A wicked smile came across their face. “Sometimes I drop rocks on them, the annoying little bugs.”
“And what does that black mark do, exactly?” Quinn asked. “To you, I mean.”
Tsalir groaned and idly played with their thick and heavy braid. “It hurts. A lot. I had to learn to sleep on my stomach, it’s annoying. Every time I run around it gets bigger. It’s why I’m in here. And it burns through my clothing.”
“Must be the material,” Kole interjected.
“Yeah well, no material has worked so far. Why’re you asking? Looking to weigh the risks?” Tsalir asked, raising an eyebrow at Quinn.
“Well—never mind, it was just some questions. I was just curious,” Quinn said, averting eye contact.
“No it wasn’t. Finish your line of thought, Quinn. So help me, do not make me regret this overload of empathic nonsense,” Kole practically seethed.
“Well it’s just… if they have the infection, and they’re itching to leave… can’t they be… you know… bait?” Quinn said that last word at the tone of merely a whisper.
“What? Never!” Uleyn said.
“What? Yes!” Tsalir said at the same time.
“Compromise. Quinn and I will observe the surrounding areas, and if we think it’s useful, we’ll extend the offer after a few weeks, eh?” Kole offered brightly.
Uleyn’s face turned ugly. “No. I won’t allow it.”
“Hey, whoah!” Tsalir yelped. “What do you mean, ‘won’t allow it’? I’m nearly eighteen for Prism’s sake, I think I’m allowed to make my own decisions here!”
“You live under and work for me,” Uleyn grumbled. “You’ve been like a son to me, Tsalir, don’t do this.”
Wait, if Tsalir was grayshade, wouldn’t the accurate term be ‘child’ or ‘kid’ or something?
Tsalir leans masculine, Kole informed him
Like I said, not all grayshade are the same. Tsalir seems to be a mix of male and grayshade. Well, sort of. That’s the blunt way of explaining it.
Huh. Interesting. Quinn nodded silently.
“See, the apprentice agrees with me!” Tsalir interjected.
Quinn blinked in shock. What had he just agreed to?
Kole snorted, and Quinn narrowed his eyes at her. He didn’t want her thinking thoughts to him anymore, and Kole subtly put her hands up in surrender at this thought.
“Regardless,” Kole said diplomatically, “I think we got what we came here for. Tsalir, if you could just tell us the specifics of the encounter, than we can be out of this overemotional rock.”
Kole began to back out of the room, and sure enough, Uleyn broke the temporary silence. “I’d like to speak with Tsalir in private.”
Quinn followed Kole out the door.
“What an annoying kid,” Kole snapped the minute the door shut.
Quinn laughed awkwardly. Figured.
“Oh—” Kole hissed. “We are nothing alike! At all!”
“You just had an arrogant-off.” Quinn pointed out, grinning despite himself.
“Is that what they’re calling it now?” Kole grumbled.
Quinn shrugged in an exaggerated motion. “What do we do now, wait for him to yell at Tsalir?”
Kole’s eyes squinted in a grimace. “No, an empath is going to meet up with us soon. My emotions are basically a giant honking light, thanks to being all of them at once. He’s gonna lead us outside.”
“That’ll be good.” Quinn observed. “Which type of empath?”
“The mind reader. But not the one who can put their thoughts into other people’s minds. Those are separate,” Kole explained, dryly.
“Wow so you really are just a sinkhole to them, huh?” Quinn asked.
“Oh yeah. Clever idea on the bait, by the way. Darker than what I was expecting from you.” Kole nodded approvingly.
On a whim, Quinn summoned up a telescope to see if it would work. But he couldn’t see anything, because he didn’t know how telescopes worked. No enhanced vision for him.
Quinn eventually saw the empath walk up the stairs with his normal-person eyes.
The empath was a rotund woman with wispy hair.
“Hello. I see Uleyn has run derelict of his duties. I will help you the rest of the way. Although I should warn you, I will not be able to parse anything you say from what you think. If you want to get my direct attention, you are better off tapping me on the shoulder. I see you are familiar with sign language—yes, good, that will work perfectly.” The woman nodded as Quinn gave a feeble signing of understanding.
He hadn’t had to sign anything for about a week and then some, and somehow it had just all evaporated from his skill plate. It was actually kind of annoying.
The mind reader introduced herself with a complicated six syllable name that Quinn momentarily blacked out on, and then gave the shortened version of her name, which was just Li.
Li led them outside of the temple, down an assortment of more stairs and hallways. Finally, they went inside the entrance room, the place they were supposed to enter, as opposed to exit.
It was easily the most gorgeous room Quin had been in. It seemed to be the height of the rest of the temple, all several stories of it, all within this one room. The ceiling was made of crystal, and the sun seemed to be at just the right angle to cause the room to dance with lights.
In the center was a massive fountain, with statues of each of the Colors made of pure glass. The fountain itself seemed to have carvings of the Dark Queen and the Light King acting as pillars.
The light itself reflected off the water, making it sparkle.
“I bet you that when the sun hits midday, this place is even more obnoxiously bright,” Kole casually observed.
“This place is beautiful,” Quinn insisted.
“Yeah, if you like being blinded by religion,” Kole muttered solemnly before her voice cracked with a laugh, clearly thinking she was being clever.
Li’s face faltered with confusion. Probably because she was trying to parse out the joke, and if she should be offended by it or not.
Quinn smiled, despite himself. He had never been religious, but he wasn’t exactly inclined to be… anti-religious. It had always just been a Thing.
Plus, they were in the home of religion. It made sense to respect it.
“You know, Ko
le, shouldn’t you be all about the Prismatic religion, since it’s all about isolation from the government?” Quinn asked.
Kole snorted. “Don’t try and use my own logic against me. It won’t work. I’m far better at it. And for the record, Quinn, I can dislike two things at once, even if there is an opposition. I’m allowed to be a multi-faceted individual.”
“Your multiple facets are being rude to whoever is closest to you to piss off,” Quinn pointed out.
Kole stared at Quinn in confusion. “What.”
“You pulled that slavery rhetoric on Teacher Tellack because you were basically invalidating her entire life. But I haven’t seen you bring it up elsewhere unless prompted. Here you’re making jabs at religion, something you’ve basically ignored unless brought up. You just like making people around you annoyed,” Quinn replied, a bit terrified that Kole was going to club him.
Kole gave a dry laugh instead. “Alas, you’ve realized my evil plan for world domination. I hate everyone.”
“Doesn’t really help your points very much then, hm?” Quinn asked. “If people assume you’re just gonna say whatever, then no one’s going to listen to you.”
“Well, you’re not entirely wrong, and you’re right, I do switch what I say depending on where I am. But that’s… that’s not…” Kole paused and trailed off.
Quinn raised an eyebrow expectantly. Li stood around awkwardly, trying to keep track of the conversation or possibly just ignoring it outright. At some point they had stopped walking.
“Hey Li,” Kole asked brightly, signing her words as well. “What’s your opinion on the government's politics in terms of warlocks?”
Li blinked in surprise, but seemed inclined all the same to give an answer.
“Well, I myself am more forgiving than most of my companions here, but that is because I have been in the minds of many. To be frank, we do not enjoy the restrictions. It results in border guards, and pilgrimage and communication between the temples are difficult to accomplish. It takes months to set the safe passage in order.” Li started launching into an explanation.
Kole nodded and paused her.
“Now, what about your opinion on the anti-theistic folk who are warlocks? Like me?” Kole asked, signing along.
Li frowned. “Ah… you’re essentially rejecting my entire culture and my entire home. Not positive.”
Kole shook her head. And signed a few things to clarify, a bit too fast for Quinn to notice, and this time she didn’t provide a translation.
Li immediately brightened. “Oh! That! Sorry I misinterpreted… Quinn, yes? Yes. Quinn’s mental image of what it implies absolutely skewed my initial interpretation of events. My apologies.”
Kole gave a chuckle, and Quinn blinked in confusion.
“I dislike it, but that’s your guiding light,” Li said with a shrug. “Even then, I don’t particularly dislike it. I just find it… limiting. But that is of course just me. I don’t see the advantage in eschewing everyone because of the few, but you clearly take great importance in who you associate with.”
“You realize that proved nothing to me, right?” Quinn pointed out. “I have no idea what just happened.”
Kole began to sign the words ‘what do you mean’ before realizing her mistake and stopping.
“Oh wow. Sorry. I sort of forgot which motor function I was using there. A lot of religious backlash in general comes from the dislike of the institutions behind it. Religions need power if they want to be influential and free from the power of other religions. So you get a lot of influential people controlling things in unhappy way. The Book of Stars, the Prismatic Parables, The Cultek Creations… they all have a few issues with how they’re run,” Kole explained. “Especially the Cultek. In fact if you wanted I could give an entire rant on that toxic terrible group.”
Quinn tilted his head. “OK… and?”
“I dislike the institution. I kinda dislike the religion. I don’t really hate most of the people complicit, at least in this case,” Kole elaborated. “I only really hate one religion completely, and that’s, as I’ve stated, the Cultek, due to them being more of a political con to oppress people than an actual religion. I mean I guess technically you can imply I also hate the Star Gods too for the same logic but there is a difference between abuse of text and outright abusive text—”
“But that’s not what you said before,” Quinn insisted. “You said ‘blinded’ by religion.”
“It was a pun and I went for it, Quinn!” Kole snapped. “I’m allotted some hyperbole here and there, you know!”
Quinn took a step back. “All right, all right… sorry…” Quinn trailed off, but not before muttering under his breath, “Just forget I said anything.”
Kole wilted. “No… Quinn… my point is I’m not here to anger people. I’m just a bitter grumpy person. Really.”
Quinn shrugged distantly. “I guess. You sure do seem happy for being grumpy.”
“Laughing’s a stress relief, it’s not just to show joy, you know. Come on, you’re honestly telling me you act in a perfectly respectable manner when you’re mad?” Kole asked.
Quinn was about to open his mouth to reply, when Li interrupted.
“I am sure you are discussing very important things. But I did in fact have plans for today. I would appreciate it if I could lead you to where you’ll be staying, and then you may continue your debate on social interactions and the ethics thereof,” Li spoke quietly.
Quinn nodded, and immediately started walking. Outside of the huge entrance was another garden, but this one was lacking the same amount of plants. Most of it seemed to be devoted to a river, cobblestone paths, archways, gazebos, and a large amount of statues, brightly colored and painted, with carved clothing and fur that seemed to ever so slightly move in the wind.
It didn’t help that he could have sworn that one of the statues smiled at him.
Kole signed something quickly at Li, and Li nodded.
“Correct. These are enchanted statues. A century and a half ago, there was a powerful warlock who could make stone homunculi. Many have broken down, but some of the more minor enchantments are still good and alive. You will also note that no amount of weathering have worn out the colors, for example. Said warlock was also responsible for a good deal of expansion for our temple. It was met with much controversy, and even an assassination attempt. The full politics of it are documented in our library, if either of you are interested,” Li explained. She then waved at a statue, who silently giggled and waved back.
It was really bizarre. Like something was off in how they worked. Probably because they weren’t made of meat and other bits, but just rock. That had to make the weight and the connections different.
Quinn watched the statues for a bit, slightly entranced. All the power to make stone alive, and this warlock decided to do some renovations and make pretty statues.
“Quinn.”
Quinn blinked and looked up to find Kole and Li far ahead of him.
He looked back at the statue he was staring at.
It really was a pretty statue…
“QUINN!”
Quinn blinked and looked up to find Kole kind of close to him and Li in the same place as before. What was she mad about? What statue had he been looking at?
He turned back to it.
Man, maybe he could generate a statue like this.
The next thing he felt was a walking stick hitting him across the head, and a very angry Kole dragging him away, yelling about hypnotic statues.
Chapter Sixteen
A few feet away from the garden, Quinn shook his head, the pain and confusion washing off of him step by step.
“I see you were accidentally entrapped by our defensive measures,” Li observed, smiling.
“What was that?” Quinn asked, slightly dazed. He feebly signed out a ’what’, which Li seemed to understand pretty well.
“We are not physically inclined, even with Uleyn’s guidance. We have a few leftover defenses.
That one is to keep the monsters out. The monsters often get distracted and stay there, which means it’s easy enough to shoo them away when we put together the proper forces. We’ve only ever had a few monster cases this close to the temple, however. Unfortunately, the statues are rather impossible to move or make remotely versatile,” Li lamented.
“Oh. Does everyone else just… ignore it?” Quinn asked. Li ignored him until Kole signed the question.
“No. It doesn’t work on most people. Just monsters. But there are the occasional warlocks that get trapped. You are a part of a small percentage, for better or worse,” Li explained.
Quinn expected Kole to cackle, but instead she was oddly silent.
“Uh… good to know I’m that brainless then?” Quinn supplied.
There was an awkward silence.
Finally, Li broke the silence, most likely unaware there was an awkward silence to begin with.
“Please keep your guard up. From here on out, the land is unpredictable. It used to be rather safe, but the demon influx has changed that.”
Kole looked at Quinn and gripped her walking stick tighter. Quinn responded by summoning his shield, H and all. It was what he had had the most success with, and he could handle it better than a weapon, since he didn’t need to swing a shield.
The two circled around Li, to protect the less physically capable empath. In the distance, Quinn could see flickering shapes, most likely demons watching them. It created an odd sort of effect, like the entire area was a wavering, moving hallucination. There had to be dozens of them to create that effect. Quinn had no idea how the two of them were going to take them all on.
The houses were in a cluster, like it was a small town. It was almost adorable. It even had a well with a straw thatched top. It struck Quinn as looking exactly like a painting. There were about six houses, all one-story, which was actually something Quinn found odd. Almost all buildings he had encountered were either massive multi-storied behemoths like the Academy, the Hospital, or the Temple, or narrowly built buildings that seemed to be stacked vertically, like Sennta’s apartment home.
