Devilish Uncertainty Ch. 02

Note: They/them pronouns are used in this chapter. Deal with it.

*****

The garden was nestled behind the Rakshasa embassy so close to the streets that Daliyah could hear people passing by on the street through the wall. The little sanctum was beautiful, housing tall trees with pale blue foliage, and various other exotic and well-groomed flora. The flowers and plants were so perfect they looked like they were the result of someone's meticulous obsession, there was no way an underpaid gardener had accomplished all of this. It was the trees that Daliyah couldn't help but stare at, however. They were so familiar, and she'd seen them before, but she couldn't place exactly where. That was what was making her so sad just now, the fact that her past and childhood were so distant that she couldn't remember where she'd seen these trees before.

She walked over to one of them and placed her hand on the trunk. It was smooth as glass and if it wasn't strangely warm, she wouldn't have known it was alive at all. She turned around and sank to the ground, resting on the grass with her back to the tree, enjoying the warmth nestled into her back. Was this something she'd done, before? It did seem familiar.

She conjured, drawing on her magic and starting to evocate something. She made a very simple knife, and let it hover there in the air in front of her. The pale yellow, translucent object felt almost like a part of herself, and moved as though it was an extension of her body. She watched it float and spin at her whim, moving it with no clear intention other than just to see what she could make it do.

"If you were taught magic, we can trace your teacher back to a noble family. We can find out where you're from." Daliyah looked up and saw Talvizsa approaching her. The older woman's eyes flickered to the collar around Dellie's neck, and her nose wrinkled like she'd smelled something unpleasant. "Blacksmith hasn't arrived, yet?"

"Nope," Daliyah shrugged. She wasn't especially eager to get the collar off, so long as she got it off eventually. It didn't bother her so much as it was an impediment.

"Who taught you magic. Do you remember?" Talvizsa came a little closer, reaching out and inspecting the leaves of a nearby fern.

Daliyah laughed softly. "Yeah, Lin'qa did. I made her teach me. It's how I was able to escape."

Talvizsa looked over at Daliyah, frowning like she'd done something immoral. After a brief stare, she gave out a resigned sigh. Daliyah had noticed that Talvizsa gave those out quite often. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised or angry, with all that's happened to you. Lin isn't supposed to be teaching just anybody magic. Noble lines all maintain their own specific magical teachings and traditions. You're supposed to undergo a ceremony pledging your fealty to House Talla before we teach you our traditions..." Talvizsa sighed and looked up at the sickly green sky. She wrinkled her nose a little, like she was mulling over an unpleasant idea. "You used our magic to escape captivity, then?"

"I suppose. I created one of these like Lin'qa taught me to kill my jailer. I made an illusion the way she taught me to cover up the collar and the bands, afterwards."

Talvizsa let out a resigned sigh, and crossed her arms, frowning. "Well... that could be a problem, but tell you what, dear, I'll overlook all of our magic you've used up until today. Hmm... Maybe we can officially make you one of our Dreamers, if you're willing to work for us. It'd be a bit of a bending of the rules, I suppose but that never stopped me."

"I don't know what a Dreamer is, Miss. To be honest, I'm not sure if I really want to work for your family, I want to try and find Lin'qa and make sure she's okay." Daliyah said it and blinked a little, confused at her own words. She was going to try and track Lin'qa down? She hadn't honestly thought twice about what she was going to do, but the words just fell out of her mouth and she realized they were true. That was the plan, or at least, it was now.

"You know... I think I can work with that idea." Talvizsa looked over at her, smiling slyly like Daliyah had just inspired her. "Dreamers are servants and protectors of the family. You can be Lin's guardian and keep him out of trouble for us. Otherwise you'll have to refrain from practicing magic, casting spells without the familial association of the House that taught you will brand you as a 'Feral Rakshasa.' I'd hate to see something like that happen to you, given your... extreme circumstances."

"And... what happens if I'm branded a Feral?" Daliyah frowned, not liking the implication. She didn't like the idea of being branded as anything, not again.

"It's a criminal offence. You'd have to live outside of U.R.F. influence or try to claim asylum elsewhere. Ultimately, it would be House Talla prosecuting you, since you'd be appropriating our intellectual property. But that ugliness aside, I really don't want to threaten you, dear. I'll overlook your use of Talla magical traditions to escape your captivity no matter what you decide. If you choose not to take me up on this offer, then I'm afraid I'll see any further use of my family's magic as a Feral act. Please don't force my hand on that." Talvizsa's voice became chilly and not threatening, but not indulgent either. Daliyah was beginning to see that Talvizsa was a woman who could pivot on a coin.

Daliyah dismissed the corporeal knife, and gave Talvizsa a very dishonest warm smile. "Thank you, Ambassador. Can I have some time to think it over?"

"Of course. Go spend an entire Cycle travelling the multiverse and then come back to us and give your decision. As far as I'm concerned, so long as you don't use our magic without an oath then we have no problem. Enjoy the garden, dear, I'm going to go see about that blacksmith. The sight of that ghastly collar offends me."

***

Lin'qa let out a little sigh as she inspected the banged up little airship, if it could even be called an airship. The vessel was basically just a gravstone engine with a room and basic controls attached to it. It was actually exactly what she was looking for, she didn't need anything fancy. More pragmatically, on her budget she wouldn't be able to afford anything more. Now that she was seeing it, though, she was having second thoughts about trusting her life to the hunk of junk.

"I know she's a lil banged up, but she's been flying great for years." The orc, or, maybe three-quarter orc who was selling it put a hand on it and smiled proudly at her. He gave his head a little flip to get his mohawk to fall across the other side of his face and looked at her with a warm smile, but Lin'qa sensed the apprehension behind the facade. He was worried she wouldn't buy it. He needed her to buy it.

"If it's so great, why are you selling it, Captain...?" Lin'qa frowned, trying to remember his name.

"Maruk! Maruk Grimnka. My cousin and I just got offered some new cargo contract and we were running this old boy as close to his weight capacity as we could get it already. Won't work with the new contract, we'll exceed the weight allowance by over double if we try. We kinda need this money to put the down payment on the new vessel." Maruk relaxed and smiled more as he spoke, and Lin'qa found herself believing him.

"Show me the inside," she said, trying not to sigh too deeply. Her mind was already made up before Maruk hastily showed her the inside. Well, it was made up barring a total catastrophe upon inspection, anyway. It was just an engine room connected by a hallway to a cockpit, but Lin'qa didn't see any reason to pass on the ship; it looked like it would get her to where she was going. Beyond that, she was also getting nervous that someone from the embassy would see her and recognize her. If that happened, word would get to Felida, and then who knew what she would do.

"She'll act in self-preservation..." The thought chilled Lin'qa, but she knew it was true. She was a threat to her sister's position, and she'd seen first-hand what her sister did to perceived threats. If she sent more goons after her like Go'a and his band of kidnappers, she could fight them, if she saw them coming. It was a long shot, but maybe she could fend them off this time. What if she sent some of the family's Dreamers, though? Could she fight Thais? Could she kill him, to save herself, or the family?

"Nice doing business with you!" Maruk grinned wide when Lin'qa handed over the money, his shoulders relaxing visibly. "What was, uhh, your name again? I gotta talk to the dockmaster and let him know who owns it now."

Lin'qa was quiet for a while. Should she give a fake name? It probably wouldn't matter, she'd be away from the city tonight. No, that was dumb, what good would it do to leave a trail? "My name is... Lin'qa... Lin'qa Talla." She answered honestly anyway, not entirely sure why she was doing it. It felt good to say it out loud, either way.

"Talla? Weird. We brought some prissy noblewoman in from the Clans named Talla a few weeks ago. Well, whatever, I aint digging into your family's business." Maruk scratched his chin and gave her a friendly wave before ambling off, humming happily to himself.

Lin'qa frowned. Maruk had brought in someone from her family to Lek a few weeks ago? That had to be Felida, but what had happened that she'd been forced to catch a ride on this hunk of junk? Part of her wanted to stay and find out what had happened. Maybe there was a new weakness now that she could exploit. But... no. She just wanted to back off, to take an easier path. It was tempting to call the whole thing off now, but she was dedicated. She was going.

The nameless ship rumbled to life after a series of quick pre-flight checks and authorization from traffic control. She lifted off smoothly, checked her compass, and set a southeastern course. It wasn't an especially long trip down to the edge of the massive plateau that Lek was built upon. Once she cleared it, she began to descend, going straight down. There was a strange verticality to the astral plane that she found very disquieting. After a few hours of constantly descending as fast as she safely could, she couldn't see the top of the plateau above her, or the ground below. The side of the cliff looked like one of the massive prairies she'd visited at home, except made out of stone and tilted ninety degrees.

She followed the landmarks that had been described to her, a stretch of glassy green stone that was shaped like an arrow, and further down, a strange sprawling tree-like vegetation that branched out five different ways as it crawled across the stone of the plateau. It was broader than the ship ten times over, and she followed the bottom left branch along the side of the endless expanse of stone.

A crack in the rock came into view a while later. It was much taller than the ship but only about twice as wide. Zhrek'ahalle had told her that she may have to moor the ship just inside the crack and walk through. Given that she'd deliberately sought out such a small airship, she could probably pilot it straight to the rift and avoid a cross country march through the Hells.

She took it slowly, nudging her ship inch by inch into the darkness that was only weakly dispersed by the ship's lights. Once she was fully inside, she waited. Zhrek'ahalle had said it wasn't far inside, and she didn't want the ship to be torn apart by the rift when it opened. It'd be open for twenty minutes every five hours, or so he'd told her. She set the ship to hovering, and walked through the hallway to the engine room. She knew that she had plenty of fuel, but she wanted to check anyway, just for something to do. The needle on one of her engine's readouts told her that she had thirty two hours of flight time left. That meant she'd probably been flying for about four hours, since the ship would use less fuel controlling its descent than it would to ascend or to fly straight.

It took her two hours to get hungry enough to unpack the food she'd brought with her and start eating. It was Laniwyn's cooking, of course. She'd left her friend behind with a note of apology, a note explaining that she had to stop her sister. Her stomach tied itself into a knot as she thought of Laniwyn, and she pushed the ruminations aside. Laniwyn would probably slap her silly when she got back. She could cope with that, she'd accept the elf's anger in retribution for this. It was the right thing to do, after all, and her friend would understand in the end.

It almost felt scripted, the way the cavern filled with an angry red light the moment she put the plate away. The entire rift seemed to transparently shimmer into existence all at once. The strange, jagged gash into another plane was an angry red colour. The rift led to ashen black clouds and crimson skies over a molten hellscape. With a determined exhalation, Lin'qa set the craft to ahead standard, piloting it through the narrow opening. Given that the rift was small, infrequently periodic, and located out of the way like this, she wasn't surprised that it hadn't been found and sealed shut by the Lek authorities. Or at least, it hadn't just yet. Hopefully it stayed open long enough for her return trip. Maybe she'd report it afterwards, it couldn't be safe to have a rift to the Nine Hells this close to the city.

Even inside the cockpit, she felt a wave of heat wash over her as she crossed the threshold into a new plane. The faint smell of brimstone and ash seeped in past the flimsy insulation that had probably been minimal to begin with and then not maintained properly throughout the ship's lifespan. Her compass spun and whirled wildly as soon as she got clear of the rift, and Lin'qa reached for the one Zhrek'ahalle had made for her that was stashed in her bag. The device was more or less the same, she'd bought a compass and brought it to the Devil. He'd replaced the needle with one made out of obsidian. It didn't make any sense to her how it could work this way since obsidian wasn't magnetic, but the needle of the obsidian compass pointed steadily 'north', whilst her normal one continued to spin irrationally.

Zhass'roalle's tower was another three hours away according to her instructions, so she set a course just as soon as her new navigation equipment oriented itself properly. The barren, scorched land was rough, rocky and jagged. Four volcanoes oozing lava dominated the horizon in several directions. The streams of magma all merged into a single river that flowed past her into the distance. From her height, she could swear that she saw a slight curvature to the landscape that she hadn't ever noticed on the Astral or Prime Material planes. Perhaps the Hells were about the same size as her home plane, she mused.

The ship lurched, and Lin'qa squealed as the walls shifted and one of them crashed into her. There was a horrible, vertigo-inducing sensation as things spun and objects fell onto the wall that had just become the floor. She desperately tried to check the controls to make sure she was still flying, hoping to get the ship out of whatever state of freefall it had gotten into. It only took a few seconds of stillness before she realized that she wasn't plummeting to her death, the ship was somehow at a stable altitude. It was just sideways, and bobbing up and down steadily like she was on a naval vessel not an aeronautical one. There was a loud sound of groaning wood as everything shifted a little, and gravity reoriented itself again to be angled towards the cheap glass of the front window. She wedged herself between the floor and the wall, and tried to look out the window without putting too much stress on it, lest it fall out of its frame under her weight. For the most part, she was looking directly down at the ground, but as she looked to the side, she saw it.

For a brief moment, something massive and black flicked into existence, pushing downward even as the ship lurched up a tiny bit. It came repeatedly, and it wasn't until the 10th cycle that she realized it was the beating of a massive leathery wing. Whatever was carrying her ship didn't take her far, she saw a sprawling settlement of black iron buildings built along the side of the river of magma drawing closer, and she knew it most certainly did not match the description of Zhass'roalle's tower. The ground drew steadily closer as they descended, until the front glass of her window hit the smooth paved stone of what looked like a landing pad with a crunch. The glass shattered under the impact, and Lin'qa shielded her eyes as the ship shrieked, tilted, and crashed into the ground. When she uncovered her eyes, she saw that the new floor was the ceiling. The ship was upside down, and thankfully she'd somehow managed to avoid getting hurt.

"Hey! Humie! Come on out before we carve that hunk of junk open and drag you out!" A rough, gravelly voice called from the outside, and it was accompanied by a chorus of jeering laughter. Lin'qa gingerly walked along the curved ceiling, kicked the door open, and peeked her head outside. The first thing she saw was a massive, raven-like creature, except it had bat wings, and two heads. One was staring at her quizzically, whilst another preened a wing with its long, sharp beak.

"Down here, Humie," The same voice called, and Lin'qa looked at the approaching quintet of figures. They were tall, lanky, red-skinned humanoids with long curved horns and elongated canine faces. At first, she wasn't sure how to gender them, but then she saw some subtle feminine curves on the one who was taunting her that the other four didn't share.

"Idiot!" The Devil in the middle smacked the one who'd called to her in the back of the head. "That ain't no Humie that's one of the cat people! A shasa!" The first devil snarled, and let out a braying sound that vaguely resembled a bark. The two glared at one another before the recriminated one backed down and averted her eyes, grumbling to herself.

"So, Shasa. What you doing here in our little corner of the Hells and what's your best domestic skill, since you're my pack's new servant." The 'lead' Devil smirked at her hungrily as he spoke.

Lin'qa let out a breath, calming herself. She knew what to say, Zhrek'ahalle had coached her a little. "I'm already Zhass'roalle's servant, and you're making me late." She glowered at the devils from the upside-down door frame. There was a moment of shocked silence as the five devils looked at one another silently, as if one of them knew what to do and was withholding it from the group. One of the crow-devil's heads cawed at them indignantly, breaking up the silence.

"You're full of shit," The female devil finally spat at her, brandishing a crude curved sword in Lin'qa's direction. "You think name dropping will get you out of this, mortal?"

"Hey! Hey! Speak for yourself, fuckhead, I am not risking making Zhass'roalle angry just to get my hands on one mortal!" One of the Devils angrily stepped forward, puffing his chest out at the one accusing her. A murmur of agreement spread throughout the ranks even as the one dissenting devil glared daggers at the rest of them.

"Come on out of there, we'll get your ship flipped right way around. Hey!" The lead devil gestured to her for a moment, and then turned around and started to caw at the giant raven-devil. Both heads snapped downward to regard the devil addressing them, and both of them let out a single squawk in unison. The two (or, three?) argued like that in bird noises for several moments before the creature bobbed both its heads up and down for a moment and started hopping over towards Lin'qa's airship.

Lin'qa carefully climbed down and out, stepping away from her airship as rapidly as she could as the crow devil hopped closer, each little jump sending a tiny tremor through the rock. It reached out one clawed foot, and flipped her ship over onto its belly with a crash. As soon as it was done, one of the heads looked at the lead devil, and cawed at him one last time. He waved his hands dismissively, and the bird spread its wings and started to fly away, the downdraft nearly knocking Lin'qa off her feet.