Day Forty-Three, Ruins of Omashu
“Where are you going?” Zuko asked as I dashed towards the
entrance we had come out of.
“Down,” I said. “There's something happening here and I have
to stop it.”
“Are you nuts?” Zuko called, falling into step behind me. His
long looping strides easily matched my own. “This place is crawling
with soldiers and you're saying something bad is happening, we should
get out of here.”
“You never struck me as a coward,” I told him.
His face stiffened. “I am not a coward,” he snarled, his eyes
narrowing dangerously.
“Then come on.” I paused at an intersection. Was the way down to
the left or right? Honestly Zuko had been doing most of the
navigating. “We have to act quickly. In fact... this will take too
long.” I slapped my hand down on the floor and in a flash of
alchemy a chute leading downward opened. “Come on.”
I leaped into the chute, which was smooth enough thanks to alchemy
that I could slide down it easily. My arms cradled Ed's leg as I let
gravity have control. Then I landed on the next floor down, wincing
at the impact on my legs. I ignored that and moved aside as Zuko came
down the chute after me.
“I can't believe I'm doing this,” he said to me. “But I need
you alive if I want answers.” He looked at Ed's leg. “You should
drop that, it will just weight you down.”
I glanced at it. “No, I'm not loosing it.” I held it out in my
palm and alchemy raced across its surface. With a few twists of my
arms I looped the rapidly transmuting metal around my waist, forming
a steel belt. I gestured with my free hands. “No slow down.”
Zuko grunted in grudging acceptance. “Where now?”
“Down more,” I said, forming a chute to the next floor down.
“If you don't close these up, the soldiers will notice.”
I considered telling him I didn't care but had to admit that some
caution was perhaps advised. A few seconds to close up the chutes in
our wake was not a terrible burden after all. Plus, it gave him a
victory after that insult earlier.
As we travelled downward the feeling in my guts increased. It was
like a terrible itching inside my body, as if my organs were covered
in gooseflesh. Finally we came to a stop much lower than we had gone
to before. The air here was moist and I could hear the rush of a
waterfall somewhere close by, but the echoes made pinpointing it
impossible.
“Where to-” I held up a hand to silence Zuko.
“Listen,” I whispered.
Zuko strained himself, cupping his good ear and turning it this way
and that. “I don't hear anything,” he whispered back.
“Voices,” I said. “Not screaming like before. But in pain all
the same.”
“Right...” Zuko frowned. “How close?”
“Close enough I don't want to use alchemy, the noise might give us
away.” I glanced at him and at the swords he was carrying. “Step
lightly. No noise.” I held up my hand. “We communicate with our
hands. Stop. Go ahead. Look.” I made some simple signs and Zuko
nodded in understanding.
We moved quiet as mice after that. I was surprised at how lightly
Zuko could move when he wanted to. It was like he vanished the moment
I took my eyes off him. Our soles didn't so much as make a scuff on
the stone floor as we carefully made our way towards the source of
the voices only I could hear.
Zuko stepped in front of me and held up his hand for me to stop. I
looked at him and he gestured to his good ear and then down a side
passage. I frowned in that direction but couldn't hear anything. I
gestured for him to go ahead. He nodded and started walking in front
of me. Every now and then he would glance back at me, as if
confirming I was still there. I felt inordinately proud of that,
being at least as good at sneaking around as him.
Finally I could hear the new voices too. They felt more real, more
immediate than the ones that had led me down here. It was like those
pain filled voices were in the back of my skull, echoing in the dark
places where I slept, while the new ones were echoing in the empty
halls. It didn't take long to recognize them, Azula and the two other
girls.
Finally we exited near the top of a large amphitheatre like chamber.
It was built as an inverted bowl, with a flat circular centre. We
came out on a circular walkway near the top and I could see two more
below us, each separated by arched walls. In the centre of the room
were three young women, a man and... something that could only be a
homonculus.
The thing was huge, at least two metres tall and probably taller
than that by a good ten centimetres. It was also built like a brick
wall, with arms as thick as tree trunks and a chest as broad as a
doorway, all muscle with not a hint of fat. It's face, if you called
it that, was square jawed and covered from the nose up in some sort
of black mask that somehow looked more like rubbery skin than a
covering. Thick strands of rubbery hair fell out of the mask in a
manner that it was hard to tell where the mask ended and the hair
began.
It was also crucified to the ground, thick metal rods, partially
melted by some intense heat, where thrust through its palms and feet
leaving it spread eagle against the ground. I could see the flesh
around those wounds trying to regenerate, hissing and sparking with
red light as it tried to reconstruct around the holes.
The three young women stood near its head and they were a study in
contrasts. The one that immediately stood out was the girl in front.
She wore black shoulder armour over an immaculate red silk outfit
that. Her hair was perfectly styled, with two bangs that framed her
face and an elaborate topknot held in place by a small gold ornament.
She also had a scar running down her left cheek and her left eye was
hidden beneath a soft black eyepatch. She had a menacing smile on her
face. As I watched she gestured with one hand towards the prisoner,
flame springing from her fingers and grounding into the metal spike
in his arm, which hissed as it glowed red hot under her
ministrations. The monster on the floor barely reacted, just groaning
something about 'effort'.
To the girl's right was a severe faced woman in a silk robe a
slightly darker shade than the leaders. Her hair was also elaborately
styled, but lacked a topknot or ornaments. Her hands were hidden in
her long sleeves. She was glaring at the homonculus pinned to the
ground, her expression cool but infuriated.
To the left was the real odd one out, dressed in a bright pink
acrobatics outfit that left her midriff exposed. Her hands were
playing with her braided ponytail as she looked around, her eyes wide
and obviously frightened.
The man was taller and older than the three of them, with a long
slick and glossy mustache that fell to his shoulders. He wore a small
red cap and robes in the same shade as the severe faced girl, though
in a more masculine cut. He wasn't paying attention to any of the
girls, and instead seemed to be running his hands across the walls
and floors.
I realized with a start that it was an array, some insanely complex
array etched into the stone walls and the floor of the chamber. I had
no idea what it was meant to do, there were symbols in there that
seemed impossible.
“This thing?” the severe faced woman said, glaring at it. “This
is what killed my father and everyone in the city?”
“Ultimately he is responsible,” the leader said. She shot
another stream of flame to another spike, causing the monster to
groan and shift as if in mild discomfort. She walked over and placed
her hand on the creature's broad chest, smiling down at it without
any humour. “Though it is less the cause and more the consequence.”
“I don't like this Azula,” the nervous pink clad girl said. She
had backed up nearly to the wall and looked like she wanted to push
herself against it but kept glancing at the marks on the wall in
suspicion. “That thing makes my skin crawl just being near it.”
“Oh, don't be a baby Ty Lee. He's harmless.” So that was the
mysterious Azula? I could see why Zuko was afraid of her. There was
something about her that set me on edge. Some primitive instinct part
of my brain recoiled at her voice, which even when talking to her
companions had an edge of barely restrained malice. “I can keep him
under control long enough to finish what we need to do,” Azula
said.
“How do we kill it?” The severe faced woman stepped forward. Her
hands had dropped to her sides and I could see several glittering
knives in her hands now.
“Kill it?” Azula looked at the young woman in mock surprise.
“Why would I do that, Mai?”
The name seemed to cause Zuko to shift uncomfortably, making a small
noise. I saw Azula starting to look up and grabbed Zuko, pulling him
down over the edge of the stone railing. He glanced at me in apology.
So he knew more than one of these girls?
“It killed thousands of people,” Mai said, her voice cold fury.
“Including hundreds of your troops and my family.” There was a
long pause. “Azula? Answer me.” The demand was given with a hint
of nervousness in her voice.
“Hmm? Oh, sorry, Mai. I thought I heard some rats.” There was a
clack of shoes against floor as Azula moved. I glanced over and saw
she had all her attention on the cold voiced girl now. I gestured for
Zuko to rise up, slowly.
“I suppose I should be more to the point,” Azula began. “This
man did not kill the people of Omashu, this thing is the
people of Omashu.”
Mai stared at Azula for several long seconds. “Explain.”
Azula shrugged casually. “I barely understand the specifics
myself,” she said. She reached up and her hand hovered near her
eyepatch. “Ever since that night at the palace when Father...”
She trailed off and started again. “I've learned as much as I could
in the time I've had. Suffice it to say that this thing was created
using the people inside Omashu as its components.”
“Components?” Ty Lee moaned. “I don't like the sounds of
that.”
Mai's face paled, which was an impressive sight given how pale she
was. “You mean... someone murdered everyone in this city to
make...” She looked at the pinned monster. “That's... that's...”
“Monsterous?” Azula tapped her chin thoughtfully. “Yes, I
suppose it is.”
Mai was staring at the homonculus. Her hand blurred and a knife
virtually appeared in the things forehead. Three more bounced to the
ground, having been deflected by the creature's hide.The monster
grunted and blinked one eye.
“Now look what you've done,” Azula said as if she was
reproaching a child for spilling ink over the floor. “Every time it
has to regenerate, it uses up more of its Stone.” She clucked her
tongue and looked in the things face. “You're not going to heal
that,” she commanded.
“Healing is... too much... effort...” the thing grumbled in a
deep bass voice I could hear in my bones.
“You there, have you finished examining the array?” Azula said,
turning to the man who was still running his hands over the wall.
“Hmm?” He turned and stroked his moustache with one hand. “Ah,
yes, Princess.” Princess? I glanced at Zuko, who was staring
down intently. One hand was on the hilt of his swords. “I believe I
understand the workings of this array now.”
“Can you make it work?” she half asked, half demanded.
“I'm not as good as that foreign boy, but I should be capable of
activating the array.”
“Excellent.” Azula clapped her hands. “Come on girls, out of
the circle. We wouldn't want to be caught in this.”
“What are you doing?” Mai asked as the three moved towards a
ground floor exit.
Azula smiled. “Rendering that thing useful to my plans.” She
turned to Ty Lee. “You probably won't like what you see,” she
said offhandedly. “Go up top and get some air. Mai and I will take
care of this.”
The girl in pink stared at Azula, her body shivering. It took me a
second to recognize that she wasn't afraid of the monster on the
ground or the array on the wall nearly as much as she was afraid of
Azula. She recoiled back when Azula moved towards her, as if Azula
was made of something foul. The girl nodded mutely and ran from the
room ahead of the others.
“What's her problem?” Mai asked evenly.
Azula's hand hovered over her eyepatch for a second. “She's just
confused. Soon enough she'll understand what I am hoping to
accomplish.”
“And that is?” Mai glanced at her.
“Something wonderful.” Azula chuckled, a sound full of disturbed
joy. “Don't worry, Mai, I won't leave you out. I plan to share
everything with my friends.”
They finally vanished out the doorway. The moustached man nodded to
himself and walked to a circular void in the array that had been
carved. He knelt and placed his hands on the floor, his eyes closing.
Red sparks began to travel along the lines of the array, across the
floor and up the walls. One passed within centimetres of my nose. A
few arced across the supine homonculus.
“...okay...” It said. “Living is... too much... effort.”
“What's going on?” Zuko hissed at me.
“I don't know,” I whispered back. “This is way beyond me.”
“Can you do something about it?” he asked softly.
“Maybe...” I glanced around. “I could certainly alter the
array, but that might stop the reaction or cause it to backfire.”
“And backfire is bad?”
“Very.”
“Are we safe here?”
“Probably not,” I said.
[ ]Try to stop/control the reaction by changing the array.
[ ]Hey, one of those girls went off on her own. Follow her, maybe she
knows something.
[ ]Forget stopping anything, let's just get the hell out of here.
[ ]Attack the alchemist activating the array.
Updates in te afternoon this week, voting open until 1PM EST.
---------------
Epsilon
“Where are you going?” Zuko asked as I dashed towards the
entrance we had come out of.
“Down,” I said. “There's something happening here and I have
to stop it.”
“Are you nuts?” Zuko called, falling into step behind me. His
long looping strides easily matched my own. “This place is crawling
with soldiers and you're saying something bad is happening, we should
get out of here.”
“You never struck me as a coward,” I told him.
His face stiffened. “I am not a coward,” he snarled, his eyes
narrowing dangerously.
“Then come on.” I paused at an intersection. Was the way down to
the left or right? Honestly Zuko had been doing most of the
navigating. “We have to act quickly. In fact... this will take too
long.” I slapped my hand down on the floor and in a flash of
alchemy a chute leading downward opened. “Come on.”
I leaped into the chute, which was smooth enough thanks to alchemy
that I could slide down it easily. My arms cradled Ed's leg as I let
gravity have control. Then I landed on the next floor down, wincing
at the impact on my legs. I ignored that and moved aside as Zuko came
down the chute after me.
“I can't believe I'm doing this,” he said to me. “But I need
you alive if I want answers.” He looked at Ed's leg. “You should
drop that, it will just weight you down.”
I glanced at it. “No, I'm not loosing it.” I held it out in my
palm and alchemy raced across its surface. With a few twists of my
arms I looped the rapidly transmuting metal around my waist, forming
a steel belt. I gestured with my free hands. “No slow down.”
Zuko grunted in grudging acceptance. “Where now?”
“Down more,” I said, forming a chute to the next floor down.
“If you don't close these up, the soldiers will notice.”
I considered telling him I didn't care but had to admit that some
caution was perhaps advised. A few seconds to close up the chutes in
our wake was not a terrible burden after all. Plus, it gave him a
victory after that insult earlier.
As we travelled downward the feeling in my guts increased. It was
like a terrible itching inside my body, as if my organs were covered
in gooseflesh. Finally we came to a stop much lower than we had gone
to before. The air here was moist and I could hear the rush of a
waterfall somewhere close by, but the echoes made pinpointing it
impossible.
“Where to-” I held up a hand to silence Zuko.
“Listen,” I whispered.
Zuko strained himself, cupping his good ear and turning it this way
and that. “I don't hear anything,” he whispered back.
“Voices,” I said. “Not screaming like before. But in pain all
the same.”
“Right...” Zuko frowned. “How close?”
“Close enough I don't want to use alchemy, the noise might give us
away.” I glanced at him and at the swords he was carrying. “Step
lightly. No noise.” I held up my hand. “We communicate with our
hands. Stop. Go ahead. Look.” I made some simple signs and Zuko
nodded in understanding.
We moved quiet as mice after that. I was surprised at how lightly
Zuko could move when he wanted to. It was like he vanished the moment
I took my eyes off him. Our soles didn't so much as make a scuff on
the stone floor as we carefully made our way towards the source of
the voices only I could hear.
Zuko stepped in front of me and held up his hand for me to stop. I
looked at him and he gestured to his good ear and then down a side
passage. I frowned in that direction but couldn't hear anything. I
gestured for him to go ahead. He nodded and started walking in front
of me. Every now and then he would glance back at me, as if
confirming I was still there. I felt inordinately proud of that,
being at least as good at sneaking around as him.
Finally I could hear the new voices too. They felt more real, more
immediate than the ones that had led me down here. It was like those
pain filled voices were in the back of my skull, echoing in the dark
places where I slept, while the new ones were echoing in the empty
halls. It didn't take long to recognize them, Azula and the two other
girls.
Finally we exited near the top of a large amphitheatre like chamber.
It was built as an inverted bowl, with a flat circular centre. We
came out on a circular walkway near the top and I could see two more
below us, each separated by arched walls. In the centre of the room
were three young women, a man and... something that could only be a
homonculus.
The thing was huge, at least two metres tall and probably taller
than that by a good ten centimetres. It was also built like a brick
wall, with arms as thick as tree trunks and a chest as broad as a
doorway, all muscle with not a hint of fat. It's face, if you called
it that, was square jawed and covered from the nose up in some sort
of black mask that somehow looked more like rubbery skin than a
covering. Thick strands of rubbery hair fell out of the mask in a
manner that it was hard to tell where the mask ended and the hair
began.
It was also crucified to the ground, thick metal rods, partially
melted by some intense heat, where thrust through its palms and feet
leaving it spread eagle against the ground. I could see the flesh
around those wounds trying to regenerate, hissing and sparking with
red light as it tried to reconstruct around the holes.
The three young women stood near its head and they were a study in
contrasts. The one that immediately stood out was the girl in front.
She wore black shoulder armour over an immaculate red silk outfit
that. Her hair was perfectly styled, with two bangs that framed her
face and an elaborate topknot held in place by a small gold ornament.
She also had a scar running down her left cheek and her left eye was
hidden beneath a soft black eyepatch. She had a menacing smile on her
face. As I watched she gestured with one hand towards the prisoner,
flame springing from her fingers and grounding into the metal spike
in his arm, which hissed as it glowed red hot under her
ministrations. The monster on the floor barely reacted, just groaning
something about 'effort'.
To the girl's right was a severe faced woman in a silk robe a
slightly darker shade than the leaders. Her hair was also elaborately
styled, but lacked a topknot or ornaments. Her hands were hidden in
her long sleeves. She was glaring at the homonculus pinned to the
ground, her expression cool but infuriated.
To the left was the real odd one out, dressed in a bright pink
acrobatics outfit that left her midriff exposed. Her hands were
playing with her braided ponytail as she looked around, her eyes wide
and obviously frightened.
The man was taller and older than the three of them, with a long
slick and glossy mustache that fell to his shoulders. He wore a small
red cap and robes in the same shade as the severe faced girl, though
in a more masculine cut. He wasn't paying attention to any of the
girls, and instead seemed to be running his hands across the walls
and floors.
I realized with a start that it was an array, some insanely complex
array etched into the stone walls and the floor of the chamber. I had
no idea what it was meant to do, there were symbols in there that
seemed impossible.
“This thing?” the severe faced woman said, glaring at it. “This
is what killed my father and everyone in the city?”
“Ultimately he is responsible,” the leader said. She shot
another stream of flame to another spike, causing the monster to
groan and shift as if in mild discomfort. She walked over and placed
her hand on the creature's broad chest, smiling down at it without
any humour. “Though it is less the cause and more the consequence.”
“I don't like this Azula,” the nervous pink clad girl said. She
had backed up nearly to the wall and looked like she wanted to push
herself against it but kept glancing at the marks on the wall in
suspicion. “That thing makes my skin crawl just being near it.”
“Oh, don't be a baby Ty Lee. He's harmless.” So that was the
mysterious Azula? I could see why Zuko was afraid of her. There was
something about her that set me on edge. Some primitive instinct part
of my brain recoiled at her voice, which even when talking to her
companions had an edge of barely restrained malice. “I can keep him
under control long enough to finish what we need to do,” Azula
said.
“How do we kill it?” The severe faced woman stepped forward. Her
hands had dropped to her sides and I could see several glittering
knives in her hands now.
“Kill it?” Azula looked at the young woman in mock surprise.
“Why would I do that, Mai?”
The name seemed to cause Zuko to shift uncomfortably, making a small
noise. I saw Azula starting to look up and grabbed Zuko, pulling him
down over the edge of the stone railing. He glanced at me in apology.
So he knew more than one of these girls?
“It killed thousands of people,” Mai said, her voice cold fury.
“Including hundreds of your troops and my family.” There was a
long pause. “Azula? Answer me.” The demand was given with a hint
of nervousness in her voice.
“Hmm? Oh, sorry, Mai. I thought I heard some rats.” There was a
clack of shoes against floor as Azula moved. I glanced over and saw
she had all her attention on the cold voiced girl now. I gestured for
Zuko to rise up, slowly.
“I suppose I should be more to the point,” Azula began. “This
man did not kill the people of Omashu, this thing is the
people of Omashu.”
Mai stared at Azula for several long seconds. “Explain.”
Azula shrugged casually. “I barely understand the specifics
myself,” she said. She reached up and her hand hovered near her
eyepatch. “Ever since that night at the palace when Father...”
She trailed off and started again. “I've learned as much as I could
in the time I've had. Suffice it to say that this thing was created
using the people inside Omashu as its components.”
“Components?” Ty Lee moaned. “I don't like the sounds of
that.”
Mai's face paled, which was an impressive sight given how pale she
was. “You mean... someone murdered everyone in this city to
make...” She looked at the pinned monster. “That's... that's...”
“Monsterous?” Azula tapped her chin thoughtfully. “Yes, I
suppose it is.”
Mai was staring at the homonculus. Her hand blurred and a knife
virtually appeared in the things forehead. Three more bounced to the
ground, having been deflected by the creature's hide.The monster
grunted and blinked one eye.
“Now look what you've done,” Azula said as if she was
reproaching a child for spilling ink over the floor. “Every time it
has to regenerate, it uses up more of its Stone.” She clucked her
tongue and looked in the things face. “You're not going to heal
that,” she commanded.
“Healing is... too much... effort...” the thing grumbled in a
deep bass voice I could hear in my bones.
“You there, have you finished examining the array?” Azula said,
turning to the man who was still running his hands over the wall.
“Hmm?” He turned and stroked his moustache with one hand. “Ah,
yes, Princess.” Princess? I glanced at Zuko, who was staring
down intently. One hand was on the hilt of his swords. “I believe I
understand the workings of this array now.”
“Can you make it work?” she half asked, half demanded.
“I'm not as good as that foreign boy, but I should be capable of
activating the array.”
“Excellent.” Azula clapped her hands. “Come on girls, out of
the circle. We wouldn't want to be caught in this.”
“What are you doing?” Mai asked as the three moved towards a
ground floor exit.
Azula smiled. “Rendering that thing useful to my plans.” She
turned to Ty Lee. “You probably won't like what you see,” she
said offhandedly. “Go up top and get some air. Mai and I will take
care of this.”
The girl in pink stared at Azula, her body shivering. It took me a
second to recognize that she wasn't afraid of the monster on the
ground or the array on the wall nearly as much as she was afraid of
Azula. She recoiled back when Azula moved towards her, as if Azula
was made of something foul. The girl nodded mutely and ran from the
room ahead of the others.
“What's her problem?” Mai asked evenly.
Azula's hand hovered over her eyepatch for a second. “She's just
confused. Soon enough she'll understand what I am hoping to
accomplish.”
“And that is?” Mai glanced at her.
“Something wonderful.” Azula chuckled, a sound full of disturbed
joy. “Don't worry, Mai, I won't leave you out. I plan to share
everything with my friends.”
They finally vanished out the doorway. The moustached man nodded to
himself and walked to a circular void in the array that had been
carved. He knelt and placed his hands on the floor, his eyes closing.
Red sparks began to travel along the lines of the array, across the
floor and up the walls. One passed within centimetres of my nose. A
few arced across the supine homonculus.
“...okay...” It said. “Living is... too much... effort.”
“What's going on?” Zuko hissed at me.
“I don't know,” I whispered back. “This is way beyond me.”
“Can you do something about it?” he asked softly.
“Maybe...” I glanced around. “I could certainly alter the
array, but that might stop the reaction or cause it to backfire.”
“And backfire is bad?”
“Very.”
“Are we safe here?”
“Probably not,” I said.
[ ]Try to stop/control the reaction by changing the array.
[ ]Hey, one of those girls went off on her own. Follow her, maybe she
knows something.
[ ]Forget stopping anything, let's just get the hell out of here.
[ ]Attack the alchemist activating the array.
Updates in te afternoon this week, voting open until 1PM EST.
---------------
Epsilon