Elmira
Once she was for certain out of sight from lookouts, Elmira pulled her karai’i from a secret pocket sewn into her belt. A place protected by runes against divination and other prying magic.
Intricately weaved threads of silver and gold made the bracelet a work of legend. Coated in gem dust with leather and fleece fibers braided together to form hollows where beads and stones could settle. Worn patches spoke of its age, less durable than its owner. Yet alive with a pulse of magic.
For a long moment, she didn’t do anything but run her fingers over it, tracing the delicate patterns, feeling the slight imperfections of past repairs and the scars of long-forgotten battles. It had been hidden away for so long that it felt alien.
Wrapped around her wrist, the bracelet fit snugly around the small shade realm darkstone secured there with a thin silver chain. The stone seemed to absorb all light and aided her ability to move through shadows. A small cheat, but a necessary one. Joined there by another gem, the Mask of Calls, which allowed her to speak with others at a distance, even see them.
The sapphire set within the citrine shimmered in the dwindling light, casting a pale glow across her hand. A moment, and the pair merged like the intimate, slow brush of old lovers under a starlit night with a tickling buzz of something greater than her at work.
A small flicker of magic danced through her veins, and then with a barely audible murmur, she whispered the keyword. The tracking thread hummed to life, its faint glow stretching out like a thread of destiny.
Slowly, she turned, the glow intensifying in her palm as the magic began to seek its kin deep within the jungle’s shadows.
The path she followed was an animal path, overgrown with vines and jagged stones, barely visible in the growing gloom. It twisted down through the craggy rocks toward the valley’s base. In some places, the ground was so treacherous that her boots felt as though they might slip at any moment. The sounds of Base 19 faded behind her, swallowed by the thick, oppressive atmosphere of the jungle.
Instead, there were the soft howls of unseen creatures waking up to begin their hunt, the rustle of leaves disturbed by something lurking in the underbrush, and the endless creak of ancient trees swaying in the wind. Something pulled her deeper into more than just a dangerous jungle. It settled into her bones like a memory of blood, sweat, and adrenaline, of growls, and the heat of a dozen breaths mixing in an alley.
The sound of glass against metal. The bitter aftertaste of moonshine and needles in her blood. Brown eyes, dark hair, a laugh she could never forget.
“Stop it,” she muttered, blinking against the onslaught that threatened to flood her.
“Let them go.”
Elmira’s step paused, a cold sensation growing in the pit of her stomach.
“What?”
“Let him go.”
Even though the voice was soft, the words felt like a thunderous slap. Emotions swirled like a raging storm, but she focused on the path ahead, ignoring everything that wasn’t hers. El’s life was not hers.
Grounding herself in the magic of her karai’i, she pushed on. Distractions could not be afforded. Not by him. Not by them.
Wetness clouded her vision before she realized she was crying. She blinked hard. Not now. If she gave in to it, if she gave in to the grief, the rage, the sense of betrayal, it would swallow her whole. She couldn’t afford to lose herself again.
That thought alone twisted her stomach into knots. So much had already been lost. Hadn’t she lost enough? When had her heart abandoned her?
“I am not strong enough on my own.” The words fell from her lips like shivers.
“I am here. Forget them, leave them behind. Follow your path. I am with you always.”
The squeeze on her throat tightened sharply. “When I do your bidding. Yes. But let us not pretend anything other than that your support only leads me in one direction.”
Cold air pressed into her lungs, freezing the tears on her face. “Promise me, Elder, you will not do anything foolish. Remember who you are, remember your purpose. We are at war—”
“Why do you care?” she cut in with an exasperated exhale. “What makes you so bloody afraid?”
The dignified rage came like a crack of lightning, leaving a splitting headache in its wake. It took minutes before she could take a proper breath again. Many more before she could make her muscles obey her commands.
“I am sorry,” she whispered, reaching out to that place in the back of her mind where her presence could usually be found. The presence of her patron, her goddess, the one she relied on. But the space where the bond should have been was hollow, empty.
There was nothing.
No matter how far she reached, trying to grasp at the connection, she found nothing. Her patron was gone as if she had never been there at all. The chaos inside her grew stronger still, flared up stronger , and this time she could not ignore it. This time, she stood truly alone amidst the jungle’s dark embrace. Lost.
Was this the freedom she’d yearned for? Who was she without her? It had just come out.
“I did not mean it,” she said, closing her eyes against the empty void inside her, against the pale moonlight and the noises of the jungle.
Against the karai’i on her wrist, pulling her ever on. It was often easy to forget that her patron was a goddess and she was not. That she was nothing but a mortal woman caught in the messy, tangled web of her own mind. Was she wrong to feel conflicted? Was she wrong to call her out? What made gods afraid? If not a weapon strong enough to make them face their own mortality?
Elmira gasped. Was that it? Was that Kollisi’s plan? But why then was Agartha Nova in peril? Why reignite the Shadow Wars?
Too many questions!
And if it was a weapon, then surely her place was right here? She shook her head. No. She had her orders. Obedience was the prize she paid for the life she now lived.
All she could do was push on, forcing herself to ignore the dread and the grief of the past three hours. Put one foot in front of the other. This was a mission, just like anything else. All she had to do was keep her eye on the goal, and everything would fall into place. Distance was what she needed. Distance. That was all.
About an hour had gone when the hairs on the back of her neck rose and her step stalled. Something was off, something was wrong about the way the jungle carried itself. The sensation in her gut twisted again. An eerie warning that told her she should not be there.
In a heartbeat, daggers appeared in her hands. Their familiar weight grounding her. Her breath slowed and her body stilled as she reached out with her senses, trying to read the air, the earth, and the shifting of life around her.
That’s when she heard it. A sound, faint but unmistakable. Bones breaking with a sickening crack, followed by a rustle of something unnatural moving. Her grip tightened on the hilts of her weapons.
Edging towards the side of the path, she peered down into the darkness and immediately wished she hadn’t. There, on a flat plane of broken rocks stacked together with only the laws of physics keeping them together, was a nest made up of a sticky mess of loose twigs and stones, long feathers and down scattered about.
Just outside the nest, she could see the nauseating sight of a mutilated, unrecognizable body haphazardly tossed aside in torn sangoran leathers. Within the nest lay a curious amount of odds and ends. Shiny things like coins and jewelry and polished scrap metal placed with surprising care, and something even more dangerous: eggs. Five of them, big as a human head and black with purple and red marbled patterns.
And there in the middle of it all, gnawing at pieces of the corpse was a very large creature whose head, torso, and arms were that of a naked, beautiful woman with long, stringy hair, skin caked in mud, while its legs and wings were more like that of a vulture’s.
Harpies.
“Fuck!” she cursed but bit her tongue before any sound could escape far too late. The creature’s head snapped up, revealing a mouth full of teeth and shriveled lips covered in blood.
