Of Ice, Death & Monsters

Chapter 102 : And A Poison

21 Days Ago.

“Do you know where to find Peter?” I asked, curious to see if she had a starting point.

“He disappeared off the Navia and I believe he's currently protected by someone as powerful as yours truly, which could be another Watcher, a Leshy… Or more possibly, a Baba.”

Then, a faint Name recoiled in my head. “Baba Yaga. He’s with Baba Yaga now.”

“Oh?” Masha tilted her head curiously. “Ah, did you see him get taken away?”

“No, but in his memories, I heard and saw him say that he was traveling to find Baba Yaga to try and escape Galfania.”

Masha gave out a cackle that most people would call evil. “Oh, he’s not leaving. Nobody is. All of you have been marked by the gods themselves. You are to be kept here until judgment can be made.”

I raised my eyebrows at that and gave a wolf-like smile. “And where are the gods right now? I do wonder, do they exist here much like in Caniel and in Damachi?”

The Watcher sighed and twirled on her corner of the bed. “Some are actually. A lot of minor gods and goddesses survived in their own communities. If you want to stretch your definition of a god, the Leshy’s are all here, and yes, they definitely would not let anyone leave if they could allow it. If you think about it… I, too, am a goddess~” She gave me a playful wink, but I returned it only with a narrowed eye of suspicion.

“And you won’t let me leave?”

“Oh, of course not! The fun has only begun. We need you to save our world after all. We need a hero, and thus, you have been given up to us.”

I would have questioned why they couldn’t save their world. But alas, I know that it’s not their Destiny. It was not their purpose or design; they were made to rule and watch, not to save. Everything in the world has its own purpose, and this shall be mine.

“Then, we have work to do. You know this land better than I; how exactly do you think I could save it?” 

“Well, first things first! Oh, I know, a map.”

She snapped her fingers and suddenly several fae entered the room rolling over one of our tables. It was an equivalent to a giant digital tablet on wheels. On the screen itself was a map of sorts, alongside, of course, other doodles that were scattered.

“I would have thought electronic interference would have made this nearly impossible without Magick.” I muttered as I marveled at the sight.

“We’re the ones who control what interferes and what does not. It’s been quite fun whenever the other foreigners try to come in and try something new~ Radar, Sonar, whatever they can try. We always love to play and mess around. We even have our own trophy room filled with all sorts of collectibles! Maybe you can find something you would like or need there.”

“So is this Galfania?” I pointed at the screen as I noticed we were in the region known as Urvan. 

“That would be right.” Masha then sat down on the tablet, tapping around the other regions. “You see, Galfania, or what we refer to as Jawia, is currently quite barren and empty on the surface. Most of all, the life here are monsters, what little remained was with the Keepers in Zakhar, but thanks to the Descendants, they have been wiped out.”

“Except for a few handful…” I muttered aloud as I remembered the people who fought that masked man with that whore Jane. He seemed quite formidable yet insane, always cackling and laughing about his goals.

“Normally, this wouldn’t matter to us in the slightest. They have chosen their path, and we have chosen ours. Even some of the survivors have chosen to become Fae under my rulings, as long as they did not bother us, we would not bother them.”

“But something has changed, has it not? The world is different now.”

“Right again~ The consequence of our little plan in the Nawia has sent souls and memories all across the Jawia and Prawia, alerting every single form of being there is, some even came back to life. Now that the world is all riled up, the second act is sure to follow~”

She then tapped the side to hide the first layer, revealing the second, an underground map of Galfania, now mostly focused on the central region. “Over here are the Mokoshans, the only remaining group of people ever able to call themselves civilization. They are protected by one of the few remaining goddesses, Mokosh, who has maintained her vessel quite well over the millennia. She no doubt would have sensed what had occurred down below and would like to stabilize the Mokoshans before anything else.”

Masha then poked my nose. “Now, what we need you to do is get in there and simply show yourself as what you are: an ally. An ally to the world, to her. We build power and friendship, as you will be the one to inform her that it’s time to reclaim the surface and end this Eternal Storm. She would know more about the situation than I do.”

She gave a small smile. “Now then, do you know what you need to do now? Do you have anything you wish to bring alongside you? If not, then we will be able to send you once more through the Nawia.”

“Oho? Even after all the trouble we caused?“

“I’m not quite sure about the others who survived. But you are the Chosen of the Caretaker; you are an ally to all of existence. Those who oppose you are death and destruction itself.”

I smiled at that. It seems Fate was on my side once more. “Wonderful, then we shall not need to worry about traveling. As for what I desire to bring…”

I stood up and stretched my arms. My tail wagged excitedly as my ears stood on their ends. “We’re going to find that out right now.”

I flicked the light switch on, illuminating the basement armory of the ship we were on. Immediately, rows and rows of containers came into view, each of them labeled accordingly. Some were in simple wooden boxes, and others were literally welded into the walls with security codes needed to unlock them. 

I noticed that many of them were missing, and a few were opened up. To that, I stared at Masha, who was literally posing with an Anti-Material rifle as if she were in a pinup poster. 

“Oh? I’m quite a fan of the provocative poses done with guns. Love and war go quite well together!” She laughed before twirling the rifle in her hand. 

“You don’t seem too unfamiliar with the weapon you hold.”

“Guns were used over a thousand years ago, a bit more than that if you count in those tiny cannons. We actually made a few ourselves, and collected the ones of the travelers that came here.”

I grabbed one of the pistols from a box, examining it closely. I was never one to use guns. I often didn’t find the need to, Magick already provided me with the means of offense, defense, and utility, and I usually travelled with bodyguards.

However, perhaps it was now time for a change. I would need all the help I could get. 

So I focused, clutching the pistol in my hand. It was an ordinary pistol, yes, a simple handgun made to be a sidearm. From what I learned and remembered from the Smorodina, even objects like these had a semblance of a soul. It was similar in concept to Phorash, where everything had a Destiny and Fate.

Perhaps that’s what a soul is. It’s simply the Destiny and Fate of someone, pre-ordained, pre-made. It is configured to what they shall always be.

And with that, the pistol in my hand completely dissolved, becoming a strange amalgamation of sparkles in the air as Masha grinned. “Oho~ you can turn them incorporeal? When did you learn that?”

“It was when I was in the Nawia. I managed to awaken my powers further to be able to transform weapons from their souls. And now, I can revert them too. I wonder if I could do the same to others, to those who are alive.”

Masha shook her head. “Maybe, but unlike people, they’re not given the breath of life. So it’s a lot easier to do it to an object rather than a person.”

That was right, it was the same reason why animals and golems couldn’t use Names. Or rather, that was the ancient reason. I believed there was another reason, but what it was, I did not know.

I carefully molded the glitter, placing it under my fingernails and into my body. It was almost like it was a part of me now. I smiled to myself before flicking my wrist, summoning it back into existence.

“Fufu~ this shall be good.” 

Masha then kicked open several crates, crossing her arms as if she were in an action film, even putting on sunglasses. “So, how much you wanna carry?”

I responded in kind. “All of them.”

The next few minutes were spent inspecting weapons and adding them to my arsenal. Of course, there were plenty of guns in the mix, pistols, rifles, and snipers, each of them chambered in their own caliber. I had to be careful, though. Unlike in the Smorodina, where there was essentially an infinite amount of souls, I couldn’t exactly get more ammunition.

Masha juggled a few bombs, laughing as she grabbed a pin of one before throwing it up into the air. I was about to duck for cover, but she opened her mouth, unhinging her jaw before swallowing it whole. It exploded, and she breathed out smoke with a grin on her face. “Gods, I love doing that.”

“Be careful. Some of them are infused with Drawings of Magick.” I grabbed two in particular. One of them was labeled HE,F and another one CEF.

“Oh? Those are the ones that summon in the spirits of cold and heat.”

“Hmmm, it would make sense that those would be the conversions in this land. In Phorash, they’re entropy grenades. One absorbs heat from the area, focusing on it, the other disperses heat, forcing objects to be cooled.”

I grabbed a third one called OFD. “This one is a lot more stable. All it does is blast the shrapnel out in a predictable pattern depending on the shape you choose.” It was my favorite one, simple and predictable.

“So many fun toys! Ooo, it’s so interesting to see the Magick of other worlds. Tell me, what of the suits then? What were they for?”

I walked up to one of the wardrobes where the bodysuits were, carefully tying up my hair into a ponytail before opening them up. “Well, they were for Magick, more accurately, they were made of a substance mined near Angelus, because of that, it was called Angelum. It was made of crystallized possibility, allowing it to resist change. Magick was nearly impossible to work on, and anything we could physically do would bounce off.”

Masha narrowed her eyes. “Then how’d you people get it out then?”

“Other connections. Even someone like me wasn’t privy to such information. But we weaved small bits of it into special suits for the Watchtower agents, but they would only wear it in times of crisis, testing, and of course…”

I then opened up one of the large shipping containers and looked up.

“When we need to pilot.”