Akrivi’s training room served as their rendezvous point for the past three weeks. The space was much smaller than Medusa’s annexe, and instead of holding training dummies, it was a study-lab with parchments, scrolls and odd objects she couldn’t identify scattered about.
There was also a large board to the left, covered with tiny lines of writing and runes. Lots of runes. From the glances she stole, she vaguely understood it had to do with a formula for portal carts or caps? Not so sure. Making sense of his atrocious handwriting was nearly impossible.
“I have a feeling it’s today,” Akrivi said excitedly as he palmed a pouch off a shelf and tied it to his belt. During the time they explored the nest, he had grown increasingly invested in locating the end of the map, an unwanted development Medusa had suspected might arise. She refused to worry, though; he had his plans, and she had hers.
“You said the same thing yesterday.” She picked her way around the mess on the floor as she approached him. “I thought we’d be done by now.”
Tomorrow was the first day of the Month of the Lizard and the start of trials. She couldn't tell how well the dogs had improved, so she was running on hope. Would the dogs not coming last at the trials impress Demeter?
“We reached the fourth spot in our last run.” He tapped the spot on the map spread across the cluttered table. “Past that point, our search area should be significantly shorter.”
Medusa said nothing as she stared at the map. Other worries ate at her mind, like the fact that a month had already passed and Clotho was yet to show up. Something was happening to her disguise. Yesterday her voice had cracked, shifting to the tone of her ten-year-old body before turning back; there was that one time three days ago that her hand flickered before her face.
She recalled Clotho had said she'd come around to renew the disguise in a month, but it was already a month and some days since her time at her aunt’s place.
Anxious, she tried again.
Clotho?
Silence.
“Don't look so glum. Trust me.” Akrivi patted her shoulder before dipping his arm into the pouch. The tiny bag was one of his many odd inventions. From it, she had seen him pull out an entire javelin. The show-off.
After discovering she was a deity's child, Akrivi made no secret of his plan to flee Drys Valon. His backer intended to throw him into the Fate of Heroes to test their luck, something Akrivi wasn’t particularly ecstatic about. Medusa suspected he had gotten it into his head that a way out might be at the end of the map she provided.
“This should serve us for two more runs.” Akrivi retrieved two white stones from the pouch and tossed one her way.
Medusa caught it smartly. The stone was warm to the touch, etched with runes and flared with the faintest pulses of aether. It wasn't an aether stone, so how did he make it function as it did? Theos tongue? Could he speak it?
Akrivi began parroting the safety instructions he gave before each trip. “Keep your body loose. Eyes shut. Don't let go of the stone, and absolutely do not breathe.” He fell silent until she met his gaze. “Understood?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” He blew a breath, faced ahead and rolled his shoulders. “Ready?”
No. Even though she had done this several times, she had never been ready. “Ready,” she said.
“I’ll be waiting.” He shut his eyes, closed his palm over the stone and winked out of sight.
Repeating his action, Medusa poured a stream of aether into the stone and waited for that jarring sensation. It came all at once. Her insides twisted painfully as the prick of a thousand needles raced across her skin and gathered at her midsection before a forceful jerk pulled her forward.
Stumbling into the sound of the forest around her, Medusa braced her hands on her knees and fought the feeling of nausea pushing up her throat. Failing, she hurled the contents of her stomach with racking heaves.
“You’d soon get used to it,” Akrivi offered, voice apologetic.
“You said that last week.” Medusa took the canteen he offered and rinsed out her mouth. Ugh. Her stomach still twisted with nausea, and the dizziness.
Retrieving a stick of saltpine bark from her dimension, she broke off a chunk and chewed it. The feeling of nausea vanished as its bitter aftertaste coated her tongue. She sighed and stood upright.
“You're addicted to that thing,” Akrivi said as he passed her a leather belt holding two daggers.
Medusa buckled the belt in place instead of answering. He wouldn't understand. Sleep had been torture. Seeing her parents in that pitiful state, and fleeing an endless barrage of monsters in nightmares. No. She had asked Lonian for help, and he recommended saltpine. Her sleep has been blissfully dreamless so far. That, and she liked how quickly it got rid of the taste of puke in her mouth.
“I'm not an addict.” Wiping an arm across her mouth, she glanced around. They were back at their last stop point. The early afternoon sun filtering through the canopy warmed her skin.
“If you say so,” he mumbled as he clipped his sheathed sword to his belt. “Let's move.”
As Medusa trudged after him, her sandaled feet sank into the wet forest ground. It rained heavily all through the week, so they’d only explored the nest for two instead of four days.
Akrivi was an excellent guide; she'd give him that. All through their search, he had moved with purpose, confirming his familiarity with the nest. And he'd taken care of the beasts they came across, insisting she do nothing since she was a client. Outside of his greed for stones and casual flirting, his sense of responsibility was quite firm.
They arrived at the exact location where the other half of the return stones were situated. The fourth titan.
Akrivi whistled as they took it in. “Never get used to the sight.”
Even buried up to her waist, she still stood as tall as a small hill, and unlike the three other statues they had passed, she didn't bear the appearance of a warrior. The outlines of her clothes, though obscured in moss and vines, appeared too fine for battle, and her expression was serene.
“I think your map may lead to the border of Drys Valon.” An eager shine lit Akrivi’s gaze as he looked at her. “You also wish to escape, no?”
Medusa gave a noncommittal hum. What was important was locating who was at the end of the map; If Akrivi found a way to escape while at it, good for him.
After retrieving the return stones, he glanced about. “If we head north-east, we'd likely reach the final spot before the sun sets.” His expression grew serious. “I haven't explored these parts of the nest; we must be careful.”
“Good thing you’re a strong guide,” Medusa muttered distractedly as she continued gazing at the titan’s face. Akrivi was correct about the energy it emitted. There was something off about—
“You think I’m strong?”
Medusa blinked and dragged her focus from the statue to his face.
“What else am I?” he asked, grinning.
Medusa released an exasperated breath. “A one-of-a-kind genius; the best guide ever,” she said dryly.
“Of course I am.” He nodded, seeming satisfied. “You're not stingy with praise. See why I like you?”
“Do you ever get the feeling that they're not dead?”
“Who’s not dead?” He inclined his head, signalling that they should start moving.
“The Titans.”
He paused and slid his gaze from her face to the statue behind them. “What sort of horrors go through your head?”
“It was just a thought. The dead should be dead, not throwing off energy.”
“Still doesn't mean they're alive,” Akrivi said offhandedly. “Let’s focus. If we do this right, we'll be back before dinner.”
As they moved deeper into the nest, they came across a few contaminated plants, which Akrivi took care of. The most frustrating thing about the plants was how everything looked normal until a random vine whipped out, coiled around a limb, and tore into the skin with its retractable thorns.
So far, the vines had gotten her only twice, and in those moments, they had been caught up in what Akrivi called a wave. It starts with the creak of trees falling, then birds taking flight as tides of rabid animals pour in from every direction. What made the waves an absolute nightmare was the small size of the animals. Venomous snakes, lizards, and bats, swarming in with fangs and teeth snapping.
After going through it twice, she realised Akrivi’s guide fee was justified. Blindly exploring the nest would have been an idiotic decision.
“This is odd,” Akrivi said after about an hour of walking.
Medusa looked around. No creaking trees, the leaves rustled in the breeze, and the call of birds and chirps of insects sounded normal. “I sense nothing wrong.”
“That’s the problem. Too normal.” He slashed at a nearby vine and watched it lifelessly plop to the earth.
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“Isn’t that a good thing?”
He looked around again, grip tight around the hilt of his sword. “Something doesn’t feel right.”
“Have you looked at the map? Could we be lost?”
He shook his head but pulled out the map and spread it open. “We aren’t lost. As a matter of fact, we are closer to the last spot on your map.” Rolling the map close, he glanced about again, gaze sharp. “Then what’s this feeling?”
Medusa looked around as well, straining her senses. Akrivi was right about everything seeming too normal. The nest has never felt this ordinary, not even at the green zone where—
Her eyes widened when she realised it. “No aether,” she mumbled before grabbing Akrivi’s arm. “I can’t sense aether. Can you?”
“I…” Eyes still darting about, he pulled the maps back into his pocket and unsheathed his sword. “I also can't feel aether, but we must keep moving. Just… remain alert.”
Unsheathing her daggers as well, Medusa did as he said. And for another half hour, they pressed on until they came upon a sudden vast clearing with a stark boundary.
Behind lay the lush forest, and ahead was a barren stretch of cracked earth, holding a sparse scattering of charred, stunted trees. Even weirder was the weather. While the sky of the forest was clear and blue, low-hanging grey clouds covered the sky of the dead land. Though the clouds appeared ready to burst with rain, there was no breeze, lightning or rumble of thunder.
“Hey, soft hands.”
“Huh?” Medusa answered without looking away.
“What’s this place? If we follow the map, we'd have to walk through that.”
“I see,” Medusa mumbled distractedly.
“I see?” Akrivi repeated, sounding aghast. “Is that all you have to say? Be clear with me. What are you searching for?”
“I don’t know what this place is. Never asked my backer.” Medusa had never seen such a stark demarcation of life and death. From left to right, it stretched as far as the eyes could see in a straight line.
Making up her mind, she moved to take a step over when Akrivi grabbed her arm.
“Don’t.”
She looked from his hand to his face. His focus was fixed on the dead land, brow bunched with not just worry but fear.
“I think we should stop,” he said, appearing the most unsure she had ever seen him. “My instinct—I don’t feel good about this place.”
Her sense of self-preservation was also yelling for her to turn back, but Medusa sensed it. Her goal was not so far off. “You should head back.”
Drawing out the rest of the stones from her dimension, she offered him the pouch.
“Take it and leave.”
A look of disbelief coloured his face as he swore. “You’re joking”
“I’m not.” When he said nothing, she took his hand and placed the bag in his palm. “Go. I’ll use the return stone if anything goes wrong.”
“You must think I’m some cad.” Despite his words, he drew the pouch into his pocket. “Thanks for doing business.”
Medusa laughed. Akrivi was such an animal for stones.
“But I’m still coming with you.”
“Huh?”
Before Medusa could protest, Akrivi stepped over the boundary and pulled her along. “There.”
For a tense moment, they waited for some reaction. When nothing happened, Medusa relaxed a little but still retrieved her daggers and held them ready.
“You really should head back.”
“I have a conscience, you know,” Akrivi said as he peered ahead.
If she were honest, she was a tad relieved he’d be coming along. That sense of danger still blared in the background even though she could see nothing particularly dangerous ahead.
They hadn’t walked too far when her foot struck something that rolled with a hollow, clattering sound. She looked down and stumbled to a stop. That… was that a skull?
A bolt of raw panic lashed through her when she noticed them. Human bones were scattered about. They were too obvious. How had they not seen them?
“Soft hands, do you see that?” He wasn’t looking at the bones; instead, he stared ahead with a look of perplexed awe on his face.
Medusa looked in the same direction but found nothing amiss save for a single tree amid a rising fog she was only just noticing. Panic doubling, she held her daggers tightly.
“Akrivi, I think—”
“So beautiful,” Akrivi muttered, voice soft with wonder as he sheathed his sword.
Why was he sheathing his sword? This was not the time to sheath a sword.
“Hey.” She grabbed his arm, but he wouldn’t budge or look away. She glanced at where he was looking, only to do a double-take.
In the place of the dead tree was a stunning woman. Scantily clad in folds of satin and silk, she sent a coy smile Akrivi’s way.
Medusa’s grip slackened as realisation struck. Hyades. The trees were hyades. The irony of finding rain nymphs in a dried-out land nearly made her laugh.
Their odds worsened as distant trees began to move and change into buxom women.
But wasn't it strange? From what she read of hyades, some should wear the appearance of Antonii to tempt her. He was the only person she'd ever been attracted to in all her lives. So why wouldn’t the nymphs morph into him?
Instead of feeling relief to be free of their enchantment, all she felt was annoyance and pathetic longing. She wanted to see him. Just once… if she could see his face just once.
“Are you seeing this?” Akrivi asked, laughing excitedly as he ran ahead. “This is paradise!” He spread his arms, his smile glowing with welcoming charm. “Come, my doves. I can love you all.”
They rushed at him, a swarm of fair vixens with love in their eyes.
As she did during her training with the statues, she channelled thin streams of aether down her legs and shot forward. Arriving just as one of the hyades hugged Akrivi’s head to her chest, Medusa snatched her by the hair and slit her throat. Instead of blood, ash poured.
Someone grabbed her arm and twisted, but she bent along with their attack, kicking off another hyades and aiming her dagger behind. When she got them on the side, she summoned her dimension.
The one she stabbed followed her in, her burning teeth clamped into Akrivi’s lower arm. He stared down at the hyades languidly, not even reacting when Medusa stabbed her through her chest.
She had barely caught her breath when she felt it. A ripple across her dimension. Frowning, she peered through the transparent walls. The hyades littered about, a distraught look on their faces as if in search of a lost loved one. But that wasn’t the problem. Something was making her dimension unstable. Was it the lack of aether in the air?
Sense of urgency rising, she faced Akrivi. He still appeared out of it.
“Hey,” she said gently. When he didn’t respond, she looked at the wound on his arm. It had healed. Another ripple washed over her dimension. Her heart raced faster.
“Hey!” Medusa snapped her fingers before his face. “Can you hear me?”
He blinked. “What?” Frowning, he looked around with unfocused eyes. “I could swear I saw Rhea. She's this gorgeous courtesan at the—”
Medusa released a string of curses as she struggled to keep her composure. Grabbing his hand, she placed it around the hilt of his sword. “You need to fight. You need to kill them.”
He looked beyond the transparent walls and looked back at her in confusion. “Why should I kill doves?”
“They’re hyades, dammit.” Medusa smacked her forehead with the heel of her palm. “Look,” she pointed at the beast’s corpse. “I killed one.”
All she got was an even more confused Akrivi, who appeared torn between staying at her side and breaching her dimension to reach the forlorn women. One of the hyades was even weeping.
“They look so sad,” Akrivi said as his gaze flittered to them once more. “I should comfort them.”
“They’re not—” Shutting her mouth, Medusa struggled to think. Did hyades have venom that clouded the mind? She had read nothing about that, but she shouldn’t be so confident in what she read. This was Tartarus after all.
Dropping her daggers, she grabbed his face and forced him to look away from the women.
“I’ll leave you to die if you don’t snap out of it.”
The fool had the gall to look amused. “I don’t mind dying out there, though.”
Her hands fell to her side. It was useless. This had nothing to do with venom. Akrivi was too much of a womaniser to break out of their enchantment.
“Just… stay still for a moment. Don’t move. They’re not going anywhere. See?” She gestured at the women. “Let me think.”
He shrugged. “Fine.”
She had barely gathered her thoughts when a third ripple came. This one lasted even longer, with the walls distorting and curving in. One of the hyades noticed. It was the weepy one with dark hair and eyes. Standing straighter, she cocked her head as she peered at the spot where the distortion appeared.
Heart racing in her chest, Medusa couldn’t summon a single solution. She had no access to the content of her dimension while within her dimension. And even if she manages to get the return stone, how would she get Akrivi to cooperate with her?
The hyades stretched her hand towards the dimension.
Retrieving her daggers, she breathed through her mouth as she accepted the fact that her dimension would soon rupture. When that happens, she’d need to act fast.
There were at least twenty roaming hyades, while others remained as trees in the near distance. She had seen them move. Seen them swarm Akrivi. The scattered bones were a testament to what would happen if she failed to protect herself.
“Soft hands, something isn’t right with that one.”
“You think?” Medusa released a mirthless chuckle as she watched the hyades’ finger extended like some fast-growing branch.
“Trust me this once, Akrivi.” Her grip tightened around her daggers as she prepared herself. “They’re not women. They’d eat you down to the bone.”
When the hyades’ finger touched the wall of the dimension, a grin split her face. The ends of the sinister smile stretched to her ears, peeling open to reveal sharp wooden teeth.
“By the gods!” Akrivi yelled.
Medusa burst through her disintegrating dimension, daggers first. She slashed upward, catching the hyades across the face. Her shriek of pain heralded Medusa’s following attacks. She came for them as they came for her; limbs of flesh twisted into deadly wooden lances and swiped at her. They got her across the back, but she stabbed one clean through the heart. Then another lost an arm.
Shrieks mixed with her harsh pants. Even more poured in. Where was Akrivi? This stupid rising fog. I hate this.
When she lost a dagger, she threw needles, explosions going off as she stabbed with her other dagger. Roots burst from the earth, scattering sand and stinging her eyes. They came for her. Ropes of death. One stabbed through her arm. She lost her other dagger.
I hate this.
Drawing a breath along with aether from her reserve, she twisted around and screamed. Some hyades rolled away, but others… so damn dogged. They pierced the earth with rooted limbs, hissing and exposing charred teeth. The fog wasn’t fog. All that smoke pouring from their mouths. She must have been mad to wish these vermin appear as her husband.
“Die.” She threw needles, both the laced and the unlaced. More explosions. Dust rising. Everything until her dimension was empty.
Someone grabbed her from behind. Whipping around, she slashed.
“It’s me.”
“Akrivi?” Dust stung her eyes.
“Loosen your shoulders. Don’t breathe.”
He covered her eyes with his hand. That jarring sensation.
Suddenly, air that smelled of parchment and ink. Aether was everywhere. Falling to her knees, Medusa panted as aether poured through her pores. She remained still until the nausea passed.
“Soft hands?”
Blinking, Medusa looked up. At least he had the decency to look contrite. She shook her head as she stood up. “It’s not your fault.” And she meant it.
“What would you do now?” He stared at the return stone in his palm. “And just so you know, I did snap out of it.”
She figured seeing a face split that grotesquely could snap a madman back to sanity.
“Thank you,” she said as she made her way to the door. Even if he asks for the return stone, she wouldn’t give it to him.
He spoke just as her hand grazed the doorknob. “Is it worth the risk? They’re using you; they’re using us.”
“Didn’t I say I’m fine with it?” She pulled the door open. “Tomorrow, I’ll head out alone.”
I dropped a poll.
Who Is Akrivi's Parent?
