Chapter 15
Dark Water / Eldest / He'll find you and he'll kill you
—August 2nd 128 CR
Privant, the pawn pokémon. A bug- and ground-type, it can evolve into several pokémon near level 25. A reginant will spawn hundreds to serve her and establish the hive.
Sarjant, the sergeant pokémon. A bug- and ground-type, it evolves from privant with balanced battle statistics near level 25. They work together well and can produce vast excavations in the earth, and they can overwhelm attackers through sheer numbers.
Pyrant, the bishop pokémon. A bug- and fire-type, it evolves from privant with high special attack values near level 25. It uses its fire breath and sting to repel attackers, but it can become frenzied and continue attacking after the threat has been neutralized.
Soldant, the knight pokémon. A bug- and steel-type, it evolves from privant with high attack values near level 25. Its hard, sharp armor facilitates striking attacks while protecting it from injury. It consumes iron ore to maintain its shell.
Rhinant, the general pokémon. A bug- and rock-type, it evolves from privant with high defense values near level 25. They are peaceful and prefer to build and tend to fungi growths, but they will defend the hive ferociously. Old individuals are covered in rare lichen.
Quarzant, the castle pokémon. A bug- and crystal-type, it evolves from privant with high endurance values near level 25. Its crystal growths serve as armor, and can produce tones that confuse opponents and beam attacks to damage them.
They went down into the dark beneath the earth.
Ant pokémon had swarmed them, pouring out of hidden tunnels. They were a riot of colors and types, the majority of them drab workers the size of small dogs, while the soldiers were fewer and larger. Moriko's pokédex chimed helpful blurbs as they came into range.
She and Matt had argued briefly, deciding who should stay with Russell, only to see the ant pokémon leaving with him, supine on a many-legged bed. They scrambled after them, starting and stopping as they left some of the bags behind. Did they need them? Who'd take them, anyway?
A meditant investigated Russ as they marched, her dexterous claws and antennae dancing over his body; she walked with a humanoid posture, with two arms folded and two touching him lightly. The paraslit's antennae twitched and strained at the duct tape holding them.
Meditant, the archbishop pokémon. A bug- and psychic-type, it evolves from privant with high special defense values near level 25. A large growth behind its head is the source of its psychic powers. It can detect psychic waves at a distance and produce powerful barriers.
The tunnels were dry and cool, large enough for them to walk upright, and for Vleridin to not catch her antlers. There was a lone rhinant, tall and hulking, and the tunnels seemed to have been made on her scale or better. Rufus walked ahead of them, his spirit fire casting a flickering glow onto the tunnels' proteinaceous reinforcements. At the head of the column, Russ lay in state, funerary with a six-legged honor guard.
"I am Thanasanian," an oberant said, introducing herself. "I am afraid there is no time to instruct you upon proper protocol for meeting the queen, but you are outsiders and this is something of an emergency, so the usual procedures will be waived." She was mothlike, with scaled wings and fluffy white fur with red markings, and stood upright as well. "Please conduct yourselves as if"—she waved her claws expressively—"as if you are meeting a human person of great authority. You would be respectful, no?"
Oberant, the chancellor pokémon. A bug- and fairy-type, it evolves from privant near level 25 if its speed and special stats have good potential. It has a cute appearance but can be mischievous and unpredictable. It serves as loyal opposition and advisor to the queen.
A breeze pushed against them suddenly, incongruous, and then the tunnel opened into a massive cavern. Rufus' flame could not illuminate it fully, but merely cast a shine onto the ponds in the stone and onto the glittering quartz crystals jutting from the walls and ceiling, which continued far away into darkness.
"Ah," Vleridin said, studying the water, but she turned away. "Too much earth-type energy," she commented.
The procession continued into another tunnel, and they began to see more activity: privant and sarjant scurrying here and there; tunnels where excavation was proceeding; soldant and crystant patrolling. The path sloped up and they passed a few chambers that had a glimmer of reflected daylight, with pyrant and fulgurant coming and going.
They came at last to a large cavern; it was smaller than the geodic one they'd passed through, and had a whiff of staler, lived-in air. Chitin creaked in the darkness, and the reginant appeared.
Reginant, the queen pokémon. A bug- and dragon-type, it evolves from any one of privant's possible evolutions near level 55 and retains the statistical balance of its previous form. They are rare to see in the wild as generally only one will lead a nest. They are long-lived and are figures of wisdom as well as destructive power.
She was the size of an aircraft, with a long prothorax giving her a dinosaurish look, and spiked carapace striped in loud colors.
"Be welcome to Kalamatos hive, humans," she said, her rumbling voice shot through with a buzzing, flanging effect. "We trust that our lieutenants have treated you comfortably?"
Matt stepped forward and bowed. "Thank you very much, I must compliment your hospitality and the impressiveness of the tunnels and caves we've seen."
"Ha! An unsubtle courtesy, but honest. Show us the afflicted human," the queen declared.
The soldant and crystant in the procession took up guard posts around the sarjant carrying Russ's pallet. The meditant and Thanasanian went to the reginant and conferred with her briefly. They seemed to be the reginant's proxies, smaller pokémon that could traverse the tunnels easily.
Kalamatos swept her antennae over Russ and the paraslit protested, convulsing his body. Matt covered his eyes and turned away, and Moriko drew close to Rufus.
"Enough," the reginant said, and a powerful hypnosis wave pulsed from her head. The paraslit's antennae fell limp at once, and Russ's body relaxed.
Moriko sighed in relief and felt a treacherous hope that Russ might yet recover.
Eventually, the examination over, the sarjant drew Russ's pallet away and Kalamatos turned to Matt and Moriko.
"This is a thing not seen in this country for thousands of years; it is a thing from legend, from the age of gods and demons. It is a confirmation of dark rumor. Demon servants walk the land once again."
Matt stepped forward. "Permission to speak?" he asked, quite calmly, although Moriko could see him shaking.
"Proceed."
"What is this thing? What is a demon servant?"
"They are elementals, like any of us, but they possess a rare power, the power to use humans' energy."
"Would that we all could," the oberant said, to some chuckling. "A jest!" she added, at Moriko's expression.
"This one, least, nameless, turns to energy and dissolves itself in the body of a host—and then reforms, embedded in the flesh." The queen's antenna brushed over Russ' back illustratively. "It will consume his energy until its change comes, and he will die."
Matt spoke again. "What is a demon? Where do they come from? They are… gone? Hidden?"
The reginant shifted, her antennae flickering through the air in Matt's direction. "This is basic lore," she said, with some incredulity. "It is unknown to humans?" She looked over the pokémon, Maia and Vleridin and Rufus, standing with them. "It is unknown to you?"
"I've told them of demons," Vleridin said, a bit defensively. "Although I admit I was… unfamiliar with this particular variety."
A whispering, a hurried consultation with the meditant advisor. "Very well," the reginant said. "Hear, then: the true tale, as it was told by her who was queen before me, who heard it from the one who was queen before her, and so on into days forgotten.
"In an age long past, at the dawn of the world, gods walked the earth, rode the wind, ran dark currents beneath the sea, and bathed in fire and ice and light and shadow, and we were their servants.
"The gods quarreled amongst themselves and fought often, and forgave one another just as quickly. They were all equals in strength: each battle a draw, and they grew together and none could master any of the others. They battled like youngsters, for the joy of it, without fear or pain or wound. They would sleep easy and awake renewed to battle again. They embarked upon long journeys and saw many strange and wondrous sights that no eye had ever yet seen, and every day was new, then at the dawn of all things.
"The ordinary peoples were their servants; they ranged the world and brought back tributes of strange energies and powers and sweet and savory foods for the gods, and battled feebly for their amusement, and built monuments and palaces for their glory.
"And then one day, the eldest god killed the youngest, and drank its spirit, and became as two gods, as more than two, suffused with that energy.
"No one can say how the eldest came to that dreadful inspiration. The world was filled with energy in those days, was replete with it, and hunger or want of shelter was unknown. But after that first murder—first, greatest—none of the others could stand against it, and they fled when defeated so it would not consume them as well, and they hid in the earth to recover.
"The eldest god sought the secrets of creation, the secrets of the powers that had come before them, but it was only able to create mockeries, to twist and shape people into different forms, and to nourish them on powers it selected: and so it created the first demons, the first of its great servants, who would come to sow terror and destruction for an age to come.
"The other gods met in secret and grew themselves, drinking energy in vast draughts and fighting with a new purpose, that they might use their combined power to defeat the eldest, and they heard how it had created lieutenants and assembled a vast army, and they did the same. And they agonized over the dark power that the eldest had discovered: should they sacrifice their servants and consume their power, or sacrifice one another, and let those remaining become each as two gods? As four? More? But they could not—they loved one another with a fierce, bright love, and they mourned their youngest sibling and their eldest too, even as they cursed it.
"Their war scorched the sky and blighted the earth, and nearly all the energy that had been freely available was consumed and destroyed. Exhausted, they defeated the eldest, and its lieutenants and minor creations fled to distant lands. And all the people who had fought mourned their dead and the death of those first bright days, and they went out into the world as well, in search of energy that was now elusive and valuable.
"And there was not enough for the gods, so they withdrew to secret spaces, to places beyond time, and they left."
Moriko felt the weight of years as the tale ended, of histories unknown to modern humans and terrible and ancient. Vleridin seemed impressed; Moriko wondered if she were committing it to memory, to add to her own demon stories.
Matt cleared his throat. "We've heard rumors, heard of and seen victims of strange murders. Is it true, then? Have demons returned?"
"Their servants have," Kalamatos said, her antennae sweeping over Russ's body expressively. "It is our responsibility to plan for the worst—a demon lieutenant, perhaps, ravening and consuming anyone it finds. Perhaps merely servants, creating discord, inspiring others to kill, and scavenging the energy liberated."
"What can we do for him?" Moriko asked.
The meditant stepped forward. "What has been tried?"
"Battle remedies—potions, antidotes—and dark-type energy, but it became violent at that," Moriko said.
Another inaudible conference between the oberant, the meditant, and the queen.
"Yes, I suspect it will just do damage to your friend to try more energies—fire-type or air-type are available to us, or ghost-type, if you have any such partners," the meditant said, thinking aloud.
"I have a thought," Thanasanian said. "Consider: a direct attack inspires fierce resistance. But if we make the servant's environment inhospitable, it may leave on its own—and we can seize it for questioning."
The meditant: "What are you proposing?"
"Darkwater—make the human drink it."
This set all the pokémon of the hive in the room to hissed, uneasy conversation, and even the reginant seemed discomfited.
"Sorry, darkwater is…?" Matt asked.
"In our many excavations we have discovered beautiful caves and sights unseen for many an age, and ancient fossils and relics from times far-gone and long-forgotten, and energies crystallized and ready for consumption. We have fought with other hives and other elementals for control of certain border treasures, but…" and here the queen's bombastic tone subsided, and she motioned for them to come closer.
Matt and Moriko drew close to the reginant. She was an enormous pokémon and even more terrifying in reach of her enormous jaws, but she dropped her voice and spoke more personally to them.
"We found something that was not meant to be found," she said. "There is great energy there, and plentiful, so we were attracted to it initially. There is… a substance… in that place, which we named darkwater. We suspect it is pure ghost-type energy, and in fact, if enough is consumed, one can change one's type temporarily."
"What's wrong with it?" Matt asked.
"There are… side effects," the meditant said, looking at Kalamatos for confirmation. "Those who took it were often unwell afterward, prone to melancholies. I'm not sure what would happen if a human took it. Probably nothing—it's hard to hurt humans with energy—but its presence should drive out the demon servant since it is a psychic-type."
There was a silence as they considered this, and Moriko said, "There're no other options?"
"A human doctor might cut it out or drive it out with drugs, but I would judge that he hasn't the time," Kalamatos said softly.
Moriko nodded. "Let's do it. Better to be sick, than…"
"One of our lieutenants will show you the way."
"We have to go get it?" Moriko asked, surprised. "Wouldn't it be faster for one of the poké—for one of your people to go?"
The queen turned an eye on her. "We… think it better that it is handled by humans, who may be less sensitive to its effects. Haladana will go with you since she is… less likely to be tempted. Your friend will be safe here."
Matt hesitated, and then nodded. "I think he will be in good hands with your people. Could you please keep it asleep, if possible?"
"Of course. Run, humans. Time flies for your friend."
x.x.x.x.x
They followed long, long tunnels, disused and filled with stale air. Rufus and Maia grew tired of walking and the meditant, Haladana, made orbs of light to see by.
Shortly they came to an appalling precipice, a fall into absolute darkness.
"I felt the darkwater first," Haladana said. Her inflated thorax and wings gave her the look of a tall, hunchbacked person in a long coat, especially when she crossed her arms while walking. "I felt it, calling—I didn't realize what it was, then. I thought it was just energy. Great wealth still lies under the earth, you see."
"Crystallized energy—it's things like rare candy and evolution stones," Matt said to Moriko.
The meditant hummed a confirmation. "It is a concentrated source of power—we collect it and save it, share it carefully with the hive. Most privant become sarjant—they have a balanced potential and they feed on earth-type energy. Others with different potential can be induced to make their change at the right time, so it is useful. We have fought with other hives over it.
"And so, I thought I sensed a new source—down, down in the dark."
They released Liona and Sylvia, who inspected the mohole and indicated that it was likely entirely stale air, long-equilibrated with no strange currents.
"The fulgurant usually just fall straight down vertical shafts, and use their abilities to slow their descent at the bottom. I will go first, with the light, and call when we are close to the bottom," said Haladana.
"Will you wait here, Vleridin?" asked Moriko.
The mooskeg snorted. "Oh please, and let you have all the fun? I want to see this darkwater. I expect this hole goes to the center of the earth."
Vleridin turned to energy and dissolved into Moriko's body with far less ceremony than the previous day. Haladana watched with interest.
"I thought humans usually made use of those capture devices?" the meditant commented politely.
"We have a… particular working relationship," Moriko said.
Liona and Sylvia used air-type energy to modulate their long fall—slowly at first, then to terminal velocity as Haladana emphasized the distance they were to travel. They'd need the energy for the ascent. Moriko hugged Liona's neck and gripped her sides with her knees, and pressed her face into the nigriff's faintly spicy-smelling feathers.
Soon, Russ. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Soon.
Eventually Haladana's psychic voice pierced their reveries, and the rush of the air faded as the two flying pokémon slowed. They landed lightly at the bottom of the shaft. Haladana's light seemed to struggle against the darkness: Moriko wondered if it contained dark-type energy, but Liona didn't seem interested. The stone floor was totally smooth, quite unlike the hive excavation roughly cut by privant and sarjant claws, though there was a fall of boulders scattered around. A tunnel stretched away in front of them, and in back.
"We dug straight down," Haladana said, "and we broke open into a cave that no one could sense."
"That is… unusual?" Matt asked.
Haladana looked at him for a moment, as if trying to decide if he was being sarcastic, before continuing. "That does not happen—we have, all of us, superb earthsense. Something was done to the cave to make it hard to find, except by accident—the diggers swore, they swore that there was solid rock on the other side of the wall until suddenly the layer they were on crumbled. But the energy called to me…" Haladana paused and looked at Liona. "Please do not let me understate the… unwholesomeness of darkwater. Your allies should stay in their capsules—and in fact I think the dark-type should stay here."
The nigriff raised her brow ridges. "I think I should go along—I'm the only one with darkvision."
Haladana's wings buzzed a little. "Please understand, the darkwater is a… temptation, and all the more to those with a type mastery over it. But even a dark-type cannot overcome its effects. Please. We have experience."
Liona tilted her head at this, and then shrugged her wings. "If you insist—but make a picture, Moriko, so you can show me later."
"I'll wait here too," Sylvia said. She looked up the mohole and whined a little. "Hurry, will you?"
They shuffled pokéballs; Matt put Tak and Celeste's capsules onto Russ's loose trainer's belt and draped it around Liona's neck. "Is it much further?" he asked the meditant. "Should we leave them some water?"
"Only a few more moments. Follow."
"The tunnels go on and on for days," Haladana said as they walked. "They twist and turn and defy earthsense and direction. If they have some exit, I cannot imagine where; our scouts have never found such."
"In antiquity," Matt said, "the purpose of a labyrinth was to keep intruders out… and to prevent escape. If the darkwater is meant to be hidden, how did you sense it?"
"We suspect that it—this structure, the darkwater—is of great age… and aged things decline and fail, unexpectedly."
The meditant's light barely illuminated a few paces in front of them, so they were quite unprepared to step into the room and have the darkness suddenly relent.
It was enormous and circular, with a raised dais at its center surrounded by a pool of a black, glistening liquid. Other tunnels ranged around the entire circumference, utterly black mouths in the stone walls of the room. There was a strange prickling in the air, an electricity.
"I would recommend that you put a small amount into a container," the meditant said tightly. "And then let us leave."
Matt took a canteen down to the edge of the black pond. Moriko looked at her reflection in the water, and had to shuffle away quickly, pretending that she was inspecting the walls of the room.
Did you see it too? Vleridin's voice, the private voice in her ear.
I looked… very strange, Moriko thought out loud.
Matt wrestled with the darkwater, trying to scrape it into the canteen with considerable difficulty. "Are you sure this is energy?" he called to Haladana. He grunted. "This is like tar, or molasses—"
The meditant buzzed her wings in reply. "Hurry, please! I think—"
A light, dark red, began to glow within one of the far-off tunnel mouths. Matt collapsed, the canteen hitting the floor hollowly.
"Matt!" Moriko darted forward. "Are you okay?"
Matt shivered uncontrollably, his body curled up tight and painful.
"Haladana—can you—"
The meditant levitated him. "We need to hide," she said sharply. "Now."
Moriko snatched up the canteen, putting the lid on with effort over the sticky oil, and scrabbled over to the cave mouth. They huddled behind a reflect technique, Matt shivering on the floor as Moriko tried to remember first aid—was he having a seizure? Haladana extinguished her light source, plunging them into total darkness.
A weird light oozed out of a far tunnel, the darkness receding reluctantly, and it cast everything in dark red. Two figures appeared: one was upright, wreathed in smoke and blackened with ashes, with bright embers falling all around. It dragged another along, unconscious, limbs at wrong angles, and a broad, wet streak of black trailing behind on the stone. Behind them air sighed out of the far tunnel mouth, stirring the embers as they floated to the ground.
Without much ceremony, the standing figure hurled the prone one into the darkwater. It didn't make a sound as it slid under the surface. The standing figure conjured globes of firelight as the darkwater finally claimed what Moriko suspected was a corpse.
"Who—?" Moriko whispered.
"Quiet! Please!"
There was a noise. Afterward, Moriko couldn't say if it had been a real noise, or if it had been a sensation that just arrived in her brain without bothering to travel through the intervening air. It chilled her right down to the marrow; it sounded like screaming and the earth groaning and huge sheets of steel being rent apart, and it sounded like a long, relieved exhalation.
A thing heaved itself out of the darkwater onto the dais and Moriko nearly screamed: the darkwater clung to it like tar and blood and earth, like a rotting skin, glistening with decay. The darkwater slopped its banks and moved, following the figure, drawing up onto it with a strange attraction contrary to gravity.
The figure on the other bank watched with interest, circling the pond. As it drew closer, Moriko saw that it was a human, with carbon-black skin and bright orange hair in ashy ropes, and it had eyes like two pinholes into a furnace. It had some kind of traveling clothes on, burnt beyond recognition, and it was barefoot.
The thing on the dais writhed, its figure growing more distinct as its darkwater coating shrank, drawing into its body. It stood up straight, shaking out curtains of matted steel-gray hair.
"No no no no no no no no," Matt was murmuring.
It was a man in a loose black tunic and trousers, ragged and travel-stained, with gray-white skin and purple eyes that glittered with reflected light like an animal's.
"Matthew! My old friend," he said, and with a gesture the reflect shield was torn off them, and Matt screamed.
Dark Water / Eldest / He'll find you and he'll kill you
—August 2nd 128 CR
Privant, the pawn pokémon. A bug- and ground-type, it can evolve into several pokémon near level 25. A reginant will spawn hundreds to serve her and establish the hive.
Sarjant, the sergeant pokémon. A bug- and ground-type, it evolves from privant with balanced battle statistics near level 25. They work together well and can produce vast excavations in the earth, and they can overwhelm attackers through sheer numbers.
Pyrant, the bishop pokémon. A bug- and fire-type, it evolves from privant with high special attack values near level 25. It uses its fire breath and sting to repel attackers, but it can become frenzied and continue attacking after the threat has been neutralized.
Soldant, the knight pokémon. A bug- and steel-type, it evolves from privant with high attack values near level 25. Its hard, sharp armor facilitates striking attacks while protecting it from injury. It consumes iron ore to maintain its shell.
Rhinant, the general pokémon. A bug- and rock-type, it evolves from privant with high defense values near level 25. They are peaceful and prefer to build and tend to fungi growths, but they will defend the hive ferociously. Old individuals are covered in rare lichen.
Quarzant, the castle pokémon. A bug- and crystal-type, it evolves from privant with high endurance values near level 25. Its crystal growths serve as armor, and can produce tones that confuse opponents and beam attacks to damage them.
They went down into the dark beneath the earth.
Ant pokémon had swarmed them, pouring out of hidden tunnels. They were a riot of colors and types, the majority of them drab workers the size of small dogs, while the soldiers were fewer and larger. Moriko's pokédex chimed helpful blurbs as they came into range.
She and Matt had argued briefly, deciding who should stay with Russell, only to see the ant pokémon leaving with him, supine on a many-legged bed. They scrambled after them, starting and stopping as they left some of the bags behind. Did they need them? Who'd take them, anyway?
A meditant investigated Russ as they marched, her dexterous claws and antennae dancing over his body; she walked with a humanoid posture, with two arms folded and two touching him lightly. The paraslit's antennae twitched and strained at the duct tape holding them.
Meditant, the archbishop pokémon. A bug- and psychic-type, it evolves from privant with high special defense values near level 25. A large growth behind its head is the source of its psychic powers. It can detect psychic waves at a distance and produce powerful barriers.
The tunnels were dry and cool, large enough for them to walk upright, and for Vleridin to not catch her antlers. There was a lone rhinant, tall and hulking, and the tunnels seemed to have been made on her scale or better. Rufus walked ahead of them, his spirit fire casting a flickering glow onto the tunnels' proteinaceous reinforcements. At the head of the column, Russ lay in state, funerary with a six-legged honor guard.
"I am Thanasanian," an oberant said, introducing herself. "I am afraid there is no time to instruct you upon proper protocol for meeting the queen, but you are outsiders and this is something of an emergency, so the usual procedures will be waived." She was mothlike, with scaled wings and fluffy white fur with red markings, and stood upright as well. "Please conduct yourselves as if"—she waved her claws expressively—"as if you are meeting a human person of great authority. You would be respectful, no?"
Oberant, the chancellor pokémon. A bug- and fairy-type, it evolves from privant near level 25 if its speed and special stats have good potential. It has a cute appearance but can be mischievous and unpredictable. It serves as loyal opposition and advisor to the queen.
A breeze pushed against them suddenly, incongruous, and then the tunnel opened into a massive cavern. Rufus' flame could not illuminate it fully, but merely cast a shine onto the ponds in the stone and onto the glittering quartz crystals jutting from the walls and ceiling, which continued far away into darkness.
"Ah," Vleridin said, studying the water, but she turned away. "Too much earth-type energy," she commented.
The procession continued into another tunnel, and they began to see more activity: privant and sarjant scurrying here and there; tunnels where excavation was proceeding; soldant and crystant patrolling. The path sloped up and they passed a few chambers that had a glimmer of reflected daylight, with pyrant and fulgurant coming and going.
They came at last to a large cavern; it was smaller than the geodic one they'd passed through, and had a whiff of staler, lived-in air. Chitin creaked in the darkness, and the reginant appeared.
Reginant, the queen pokémon. A bug- and dragon-type, it evolves from any one of privant's possible evolutions near level 55 and retains the statistical balance of its previous form. They are rare to see in the wild as generally only one will lead a nest. They are long-lived and are figures of wisdom as well as destructive power.
She was the size of an aircraft, with a long prothorax giving her a dinosaurish look, and spiked carapace striped in loud colors.
"Be welcome to Kalamatos hive, humans," she said, her rumbling voice shot through with a buzzing, flanging effect. "We trust that our lieutenants have treated you comfortably?"
Matt stepped forward and bowed. "Thank you very much, I must compliment your hospitality and the impressiveness of the tunnels and caves we've seen."
"Ha! An unsubtle courtesy, but honest. Show us the afflicted human," the queen declared.
The soldant and crystant in the procession took up guard posts around the sarjant carrying Russ's pallet. The meditant and Thanasanian went to the reginant and conferred with her briefly. They seemed to be the reginant's proxies, smaller pokémon that could traverse the tunnels easily.
Kalamatos swept her antennae over Russ and the paraslit protested, convulsing his body. Matt covered his eyes and turned away, and Moriko drew close to Rufus.
"Enough," the reginant said, and a powerful hypnosis wave pulsed from her head. The paraslit's antennae fell limp at once, and Russ's body relaxed.
Moriko sighed in relief and felt a treacherous hope that Russ might yet recover.
Eventually, the examination over, the sarjant drew Russ's pallet away and Kalamatos turned to Matt and Moriko.
"This is a thing not seen in this country for thousands of years; it is a thing from legend, from the age of gods and demons. It is a confirmation of dark rumor. Demon servants walk the land once again."
Matt stepped forward. "Permission to speak?" he asked, quite calmly, although Moriko could see him shaking.
"Proceed."
"What is this thing? What is a demon servant?"
"They are elementals, like any of us, but they possess a rare power, the power to use humans' energy."
"Would that we all could," the oberant said, to some chuckling. "A jest!" she added, at Moriko's expression.
"This one, least, nameless, turns to energy and dissolves itself in the body of a host—and then reforms, embedded in the flesh." The queen's antenna brushed over Russ' back illustratively. "It will consume his energy until its change comes, and he will die."
Matt spoke again. "What is a demon? Where do they come from? They are… gone? Hidden?"
The reginant shifted, her antennae flickering through the air in Matt's direction. "This is basic lore," she said, with some incredulity. "It is unknown to humans?" She looked over the pokémon, Maia and Vleridin and Rufus, standing with them. "It is unknown to you?"
"I've told them of demons," Vleridin said, a bit defensively. "Although I admit I was… unfamiliar with this particular variety."
A whispering, a hurried consultation with the meditant advisor. "Very well," the reginant said. "Hear, then: the true tale, as it was told by her who was queen before me, who heard it from the one who was queen before her, and so on into days forgotten.
"In an age long past, at the dawn of the world, gods walked the earth, rode the wind, ran dark currents beneath the sea, and bathed in fire and ice and light and shadow, and we were their servants.
"The gods quarreled amongst themselves and fought often, and forgave one another just as quickly. They were all equals in strength: each battle a draw, and they grew together and none could master any of the others. They battled like youngsters, for the joy of it, without fear or pain or wound. They would sleep easy and awake renewed to battle again. They embarked upon long journeys and saw many strange and wondrous sights that no eye had ever yet seen, and every day was new, then at the dawn of all things.
"The ordinary peoples were their servants; they ranged the world and brought back tributes of strange energies and powers and sweet and savory foods for the gods, and battled feebly for their amusement, and built monuments and palaces for their glory.
"And then one day, the eldest god killed the youngest, and drank its spirit, and became as two gods, as more than two, suffused with that energy.
"No one can say how the eldest came to that dreadful inspiration. The world was filled with energy in those days, was replete with it, and hunger or want of shelter was unknown. But after that first murder—first, greatest—none of the others could stand against it, and they fled when defeated so it would not consume them as well, and they hid in the earth to recover.
"The eldest god sought the secrets of creation, the secrets of the powers that had come before them, but it was only able to create mockeries, to twist and shape people into different forms, and to nourish them on powers it selected: and so it created the first demons, the first of its great servants, who would come to sow terror and destruction for an age to come.
"The other gods met in secret and grew themselves, drinking energy in vast draughts and fighting with a new purpose, that they might use their combined power to defeat the eldest, and they heard how it had created lieutenants and assembled a vast army, and they did the same. And they agonized over the dark power that the eldest had discovered: should they sacrifice their servants and consume their power, or sacrifice one another, and let those remaining become each as two gods? As four? More? But they could not—they loved one another with a fierce, bright love, and they mourned their youngest sibling and their eldest too, even as they cursed it.
"Their war scorched the sky and blighted the earth, and nearly all the energy that had been freely available was consumed and destroyed. Exhausted, they defeated the eldest, and its lieutenants and minor creations fled to distant lands. And all the people who had fought mourned their dead and the death of those first bright days, and they went out into the world as well, in search of energy that was now elusive and valuable.
"And there was not enough for the gods, so they withdrew to secret spaces, to places beyond time, and they left."
Moriko felt the weight of years as the tale ended, of histories unknown to modern humans and terrible and ancient. Vleridin seemed impressed; Moriko wondered if she were committing it to memory, to add to her own demon stories.
Matt cleared his throat. "We've heard rumors, heard of and seen victims of strange murders. Is it true, then? Have demons returned?"
"Their servants have," Kalamatos said, her antennae sweeping over Russ's body expressively. "It is our responsibility to plan for the worst—a demon lieutenant, perhaps, ravening and consuming anyone it finds. Perhaps merely servants, creating discord, inspiring others to kill, and scavenging the energy liberated."
"What can we do for him?" Moriko asked.
The meditant stepped forward. "What has been tried?"
"Battle remedies—potions, antidotes—and dark-type energy, but it became violent at that," Moriko said.
Another inaudible conference between the oberant, the meditant, and the queen.
"Yes, I suspect it will just do damage to your friend to try more energies—fire-type or air-type are available to us, or ghost-type, if you have any such partners," the meditant said, thinking aloud.
"I have a thought," Thanasanian said. "Consider: a direct attack inspires fierce resistance. But if we make the servant's environment inhospitable, it may leave on its own—and we can seize it for questioning."
The meditant: "What are you proposing?"
"Darkwater—make the human drink it."
This set all the pokémon of the hive in the room to hissed, uneasy conversation, and even the reginant seemed discomfited.
"Sorry, darkwater is…?" Matt asked.
"In our many excavations we have discovered beautiful caves and sights unseen for many an age, and ancient fossils and relics from times far-gone and long-forgotten, and energies crystallized and ready for consumption. We have fought with other hives and other elementals for control of certain border treasures, but…" and here the queen's bombastic tone subsided, and she motioned for them to come closer.
Matt and Moriko drew close to the reginant. She was an enormous pokémon and even more terrifying in reach of her enormous jaws, but she dropped her voice and spoke more personally to them.
"We found something that was not meant to be found," she said. "There is great energy there, and plentiful, so we were attracted to it initially. There is… a substance… in that place, which we named darkwater. We suspect it is pure ghost-type energy, and in fact, if enough is consumed, one can change one's type temporarily."
"What's wrong with it?" Matt asked.
"There are… side effects," the meditant said, looking at Kalamatos for confirmation. "Those who took it were often unwell afterward, prone to melancholies. I'm not sure what would happen if a human took it. Probably nothing—it's hard to hurt humans with energy—but its presence should drive out the demon servant since it is a psychic-type."
There was a silence as they considered this, and Moriko said, "There're no other options?"
"A human doctor might cut it out or drive it out with drugs, but I would judge that he hasn't the time," Kalamatos said softly.
Moriko nodded. "Let's do it. Better to be sick, than…"
"One of our lieutenants will show you the way."
"We have to go get it?" Moriko asked, surprised. "Wouldn't it be faster for one of the poké—for one of your people to go?"
The queen turned an eye on her. "We… think it better that it is handled by humans, who may be less sensitive to its effects. Haladana will go with you since she is… less likely to be tempted. Your friend will be safe here."
Matt hesitated, and then nodded. "I think he will be in good hands with your people. Could you please keep it asleep, if possible?"
"Of course. Run, humans. Time flies for your friend."
x.x.x.x.x
They followed long, long tunnels, disused and filled with stale air. Rufus and Maia grew tired of walking and the meditant, Haladana, made orbs of light to see by.
Shortly they came to an appalling precipice, a fall into absolute darkness.
"I felt the darkwater first," Haladana said. Her inflated thorax and wings gave her the look of a tall, hunchbacked person in a long coat, especially when she crossed her arms while walking. "I felt it, calling—I didn't realize what it was, then. I thought it was just energy. Great wealth still lies under the earth, you see."
"Crystallized energy—it's things like rare candy and evolution stones," Matt said to Moriko.
The meditant hummed a confirmation. "It is a concentrated source of power—we collect it and save it, share it carefully with the hive. Most privant become sarjant—they have a balanced potential and they feed on earth-type energy. Others with different potential can be induced to make their change at the right time, so it is useful. We have fought with other hives over it.
"And so, I thought I sensed a new source—down, down in the dark."
They released Liona and Sylvia, who inspected the mohole and indicated that it was likely entirely stale air, long-equilibrated with no strange currents.
"The fulgurant usually just fall straight down vertical shafts, and use their abilities to slow their descent at the bottom. I will go first, with the light, and call when we are close to the bottom," said Haladana.
"Will you wait here, Vleridin?" asked Moriko.
The mooskeg snorted. "Oh please, and let you have all the fun? I want to see this darkwater. I expect this hole goes to the center of the earth."
Vleridin turned to energy and dissolved into Moriko's body with far less ceremony than the previous day. Haladana watched with interest.
"I thought humans usually made use of those capture devices?" the meditant commented politely.
"We have a… particular working relationship," Moriko said.
Liona and Sylvia used air-type energy to modulate their long fall—slowly at first, then to terminal velocity as Haladana emphasized the distance they were to travel. They'd need the energy for the ascent. Moriko hugged Liona's neck and gripped her sides with her knees, and pressed her face into the nigriff's faintly spicy-smelling feathers.
Soon, Russ. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Soon.
Eventually Haladana's psychic voice pierced their reveries, and the rush of the air faded as the two flying pokémon slowed. They landed lightly at the bottom of the shaft. Haladana's light seemed to struggle against the darkness: Moriko wondered if it contained dark-type energy, but Liona didn't seem interested. The stone floor was totally smooth, quite unlike the hive excavation roughly cut by privant and sarjant claws, though there was a fall of boulders scattered around. A tunnel stretched away in front of them, and in back.
"We dug straight down," Haladana said, "and we broke open into a cave that no one could sense."
"That is… unusual?" Matt asked.
Haladana looked at him for a moment, as if trying to decide if he was being sarcastic, before continuing. "That does not happen—we have, all of us, superb earthsense. Something was done to the cave to make it hard to find, except by accident—the diggers swore, they swore that there was solid rock on the other side of the wall until suddenly the layer they were on crumbled. But the energy called to me…" Haladana paused and looked at Liona. "Please do not let me understate the… unwholesomeness of darkwater. Your allies should stay in their capsules—and in fact I think the dark-type should stay here."
The nigriff raised her brow ridges. "I think I should go along—I'm the only one with darkvision."
Haladana's wings buzzed a little. "Please understand, the darkwater is a… temptation, and all the more to those with a type mastery over it. But even a dark-type cannot overcome its effects. Please. We have experience."
Liona tilted her head at this, and then shrugged her wings. "If you insist—but make a picture, Moriko, so you can show me later."
"I'll wait here too," Sylvia said. She looked up the mohole and whined a little. "Hurry, will you?"
They shuffled pokéballs; Matt put Tak and Celeste's capsules onto Russ's loose trainer's belt and draped it around Liona's neck. "Is it much further?" he asked the meditant. "Should we leave them some water?"
"Only a few more moments. Follow."
"The tunnels go on and on for days," Haladana said as they walked. "They twist and turn and defy earthsense and direction. If they have some exit, I cannot imagine where; our scouts have never found such."
"In antiquity," Matt said, "the purpose of a labyrinth was to keep intruders out… and to prevent escape. If the darkwater is meant to be hidden, how did you sense it?"
"We suspect that it—this structure, the darkwater—is of great age… and aged things decline and fail, unexpectedly."
The meditant's light barely illuminated a few paces in front of them, so they were quite unprepared to step into the room and have the darkness suddenly relent.
It was enormous and circular, with a raised dais at its center surrounded by a pool of a black, glistening liquid. Other tunnels ranged around the entire circumference, utterly black mouths in the stone walls of the room. There was a strange prickling in the air, an electricity.
"I would recommend that you put a small amount into a container," the meditant said tightly. "And then let us leave."
Matt took a canteen down to the edge of the black pond. Moriko looked at her reflection in the water, and had to shuffle away quickly, pretending that she was inspecting the walls of the room.
Did you see it too? Vleridin's voice, the private voice in her ear.
I looked… very strange, Moriko thought out loud.
Matt wrestled with the darkwater, trying to scrape it into the canteen with considerable difficulty. "Are you sure this is energy?" he called to Haladana. He grunted. "This is like tar, or molasses—"
The meditant buzzed her wings in reply. "Hurry, please! I think—"
A light, dark red, began to glow within one of the far-off tunnel mouths. Matt collapsed, the canteen hitting the floor hollowly.
"Matt!" Moriko darted forward. "Are you okay?"
Matt shivered uncontrollably, his body curled up tight and painful.
"Haladana—can you—"
The meditant levitated him. "We need to hide," she said sharply. "Now."
Moriko snatched up the canteen, putting the lid on with effort over the sticky oil, and scrabbled over to the cave mouth. They huddled behind a reflect technique, Matt shivering on the floor as Moriko tried to remember first aid—was he having a seizure? Haladana extinguished her light source, plunging them into total darkness.
A weird light oozed out of a far tunnel, the darkness receding reluctantly, and it cast everything in dark red. Two figures appeared: one was upright, wreathed in smoke and blackened with ashes, with bright embers falling all around. It dragged another along, unconscious, limbs at wrong angles, and a broad, wet streak of black trailing behind on the stone. Behind them air sighed out of the far tunnel mouth, stirring the embers as they floated to the ground.
Without much ceremony, the standing figure hurled the prone one into the darkwater. It didn't make a sound as it slid under the surface. The standing figure conjured globes of firelight as the darkwater finally claimed what Moriko suspected was a corpse.
"Who—?" Moriko whispered.
"Quiet! Please!"
There was a noise. Afterward, Moriko couldn't say if it had been a real noise, or if it had been a sensation that just arrived in her brain without bothering to travel through the intervening air. It chilled her right down to the marrow; it sounded like screaming and the earth groaning and huge sheets of steel being rent apart, and it sounded like a long, relieved exhalation.
A thing heaved itself out of the darkwater onto the dais and Moriko nearly screamed: the darkwater clung to it like tar and blood and earth, like a rotting skin, glistening with decay. The darkwater slopped its banks and moved, following the figure, drawing up onto it with a strange attraction contrary to gravity.
The figure on the other bank watched with interest, circling the pond. As it drew closer, Moriko saw that it was a human, with carbon-black skin and bright orange hair in ashy ropes, and it had eyes like two pinholes into a furnace. It had some kind of traveling clothes on, burnt beyond recognition, and it was barefoot.
The thing on the dais writhed, its figure growing more distinct as its darkwater coating shrank, drawing into its body. It stood up straight, shaking out curtains of matted steel-gray hair.
"No no no no no no no no," Matt was murmuring.
It was a man in a loose black tunic and trousers, ragged and travel-stained, with gray-white skin and purple eyes that glittered with reflected light like an animal's.
"Matthew! My old friend," he said, and with a gesture the reflect shield was torn off them, and Matt screamed.
