Episode 66

We like to think that places don’t change

Mountains are fixed and valleys stay the same

So the towns that we love can be left with their culture

Frozen in time like a painting or sculpture

But mountains do move on magma plates

Valleys are carved at glacial pace

And so do towns change in their way

Moulded by them that leave and those who come to stay

It is a commonly known fact that when you are waiting for several things to happen and you’ve already waited quite some time, and then you wait a little while longer suddenly everything you’ve been waiting for happens all at once. It is unknown whether the gods or fate do this intentionally, as if giving you everything you want all at once is meant to teach you some cosmic lesson about greed or something. Or if desire itself works like a sort of dam, piling things behind a wall of time until it becomes overwhelmed and everything spills over and then it is you who becomes overwhelmed. For Lilian Lausanne this moment came four days after her encounter with the twisted sisters in The Fox and Octopus. She had spent that time adhering to Mrs Thoreson’s strict training regimen which consisted of running up hills, bathing in freezing water and practising gloaming. Mrs Thoreson was a more patient instructor than Mr Attorcop but this meant that she tended to take the long way round when explaining or demonstrating complicated things. Her mastery of gloaming was unquestionable and Lilian badgered her endlessly for more demonstrations, but most of the time she refused.

“If I keep showing you my method, then you will be influenced too much by me. You must find your own way. Try again!” Lilian felt as though she had hit a wall and had to remind herself that she had come quite far in the short time she’d been working with Mrs Thoreson. She no longer fainted when she reabsorbed the golden light of gloaming, she could slip quickly and easily into a state of focus that filled her body with strength and her mind with sensory information. She had tried to access the lunar essence in her wrist only once and although she had succeeded in making it glow she did not fully become the night being she had been in the palace when fighting Nicholas Telson.

At around midday on that day she became frustrated. This was happening quite regularly now and each time it did she would feel the time until Sage Fenric’s big event slipping away which would make her feel even worse. She had managed to reabsorb the golden light and accessed her focused state but she could only maintain it for a few minutes before having to shout the remaining energy out of her body.

“What are you expecting to happen?” Asked Mrs Thoreson.

“I don’t know!” Replied Lilian, “Something different, something big!” She threw her arms in the air and walked away from the Padda Stone pond where she had been practising. She heaved a heavy sigh and dropped to a crouch. Her head was pounding and she felt like a failure.

“Lilian,” Mrs Thoreson walked over to her and lowered her voice, “Do you remember what I said a few days ago about choice? You are filling up your body with power but you are expecting it to decide what to do with it on its own? What do you need? What do you want?”

Lilian thought on the question for the umpteenth time that week. She shook her head, “I need power, I need focus, stealth and the ability to fight quickly. I need to be able to protect my town and my friends.”

Mrs Thoreson nodded, “Power, focus and loyalty. Good. And what do you think of when you think of these qualities? What do you associate with them in your mind?”

Lilian took a moment to think. Her mind gave her a quick idea but it felt strange or silly somehow. So she searched some more and thought about her friends, about Kilde, even about Mr Attorcop. But for some reason, none of them seemed to embody all those qualities as much as her initial thought.

“Go on,” Mrs Thoreson encouraged her.

Lilian overcame her shyness and her fear of sounding stupid and admitted her initial thought, “I suppose,” she began, “when I think about those things, about strength and loyalty, I think about Fritha.” She glanced over at the feinhound who was resting on a large rock nearby, her eyes were closed and Lilian watched her stomach rhythmically rise and fall. She smiled. The strange beast had come into her life just near here, just a few yards away where she and Mr Attorcop watched her swim towards them from across the pond. From that moment on she had been by her side. Exploring, hiding and even fighting with her. Lilian had watched the feinhound take on enemies that outnumbered her many times. She’d shared victories and losses, nursing her back to health when Telson and his men had come after her in Freedos. Fritha had always been there and she had always inspired her.

Mrs Thoreson nodded, sagely, “good,” she said, “now, try again and when you have the light back in you, think of Fritha and let the light take her shape.”

Lilian stood up and took a deep breath.

She went back over to the water’s edge, but this time instead of staring out over the ponds, she turned to the right and moved her body to face Fritha. She took the same stance she always took, an adapted Atarap ready stance, her right foot in front and her left foot back taking slightly more of her weight. She raised her hands slightly, closed her fingers and twisted her palms down. She found this helped her to guide the light that she let out from the soles of her feet. She grounded herself in the rock and mud, closed her eyes and took a deep breath. In just a couple of seconds she was back in focus with her heart’s golden light shining brightly in the dark space of gloaming. She guided it down and out into the ground through her feet and watched it consume and take on the energy of all the various minerals and roots around her. Her practise had got her to the point where she could displace an area of light roughly the size of a large dinner plate out around the base of her feet. She watched it explore the earth like ink spilled on a pebble beach. When she was satisfied with how much she would be able to take back without feinting, a little more each time, she relaxed and watched it zip quickly back into her body. Just before it was all gone from the ground, at the very last moment before she had to focus on not letting the power overwhelm her, Lilian opened her eyes and looked directly at Fritha. She was also sure to have the feinhound front and centre in her mind while she attempted to control and withstand the massive rush of power entering her stomach, chest, head and every limb, finger and toe. Fritha must have sensed the attention because at that moment, she woke up, raised her head and looked directly back at Lilian. The two friends shared eye contact for a few seconds. And then, just at the point where the gloaming light would normally become unmanageable Lilian began to experience something different.

The power in her body did not make her sick or like she couldn’t breathe. Instead it began to spread all over her body like a comforting warmth, as if she was lowering herself into a perfectly judged bath. Not too hot but nowhere near cold. Lilian felt that she could breathe easily and freely and that she even found herself enjoying the warm sensation. She let it spread all over her and knew somehow at the back of her mind that it was trying to change her. She did not fight the change, she let the warmth into her muscle fibres, in the pores of her skin and the follicles that made up her hair. Slowly, the dull cloudy day began to transform all around her. The sounds and smells of the mountain became sharp. She could hear a bird flapping its wings at the top of a tree, she could smell a mole sleeping underground nearby. It was a little like the times before in Freedos when she had explored the city at night after practising gloaming, but this time it was so much more powerful, and within her control. If something was too loud her ears would automatically shift away from it without her having to focus on dampening the sound. If something smelled interesting she could turn her nose to it and breathe in deeply. She looked at Mrs Thoreson and did just this. She could smell what the old woman had eaten that morning, there were some crumbs on her shirt that stood out like bright stains against the musty dust smell of her clothes. She could smell other things too, like where Mrs Thoreson had been walking, what she had stepped in on the way here and… and… Lilian breathed in some more, there were knew smells here, smells that she could not even describe using references from her own experience. It smelled the way pride felt. But that was too strange, one could not smell emotions surely.

Suddenly, Lilian stepped forward, wanting to gain more information and something else caught her attention. Her steps were light and quick. And when she looked down the ground seemed to be further away from her than normal. Had she grown taller just now? Lilian nearly gasped then as her eyes fell on her hands. They were… different. Her fingers would longer and her nails were dark and sharp. What arrested her most was her skin. It seemed to be covered in some kind of fur. The strands glistened when they caught the light and cycled between various colours. Lilian watched the back of her hand go from azure blue to dark black and then jade green all within a few moments. She rushed over to the edge of the pond and looked down into the water at her own reflection.

“Seven heavens…” she whispered.

She heard Mrs Thoreson chuckle behind her, “Indeed!” she said, coming closer. Even Fritha got up from her nap to come and have a look at what Lilian had become.

“I look like Fritha,” Lilian could not help but say the fact out loud. The eyes staring back at her from the pond were bright yellow with dark, slitted pupils. Her nose and jaw had descended a little and her ears were markedly more pointy. The fur was all over her face as well which was by far the most alarming new feature. Looking at herself in the water’s surface she realised that she was no longer all human, but not one hundred percent animal. She was somewhere in between. She felt a pang of sadness when she found herself wishing that she could show this to Mr Attorcop. Putting those feelings aside for a moment she turned back to Mrs Thoreson.

“This feels incredible. I can smell everything, and the sounds all around me are crystal clear.” She began hopping from one foot to another, “and I’ve got all this energy! I want to run and jump and swim and smell and hide and kick and…”

Mrs Thoreson interrupted her, “So go!” Lilian took a second to gather herself and then, she was off.

She ran up the stones on the side of the Padda Stone kicking off her shoes, which had become inexplicably small, as she went. Her newly clawed feet gripped the slippery stones perfectly and she felt no trepidation as she scaled the rocks. She reached the top pond within a few moments and looked back at Fritha running up the hill to join her. Together they sprang into motion, racing up the mountain and through the snow like icicles down a drain pipe. Lilian felt the wind whip through her hair, stopped to smell a pine tree which shone like candlelight, dove into a plunge pool under a waterfall nearby and barely felt any colder than she did on dry land. Cold was not even something she considered now, her body temperature regulated easily by her fur covered skin. Finally she hopped from rock to rock down the river and jumped onto the head of the Padda Stone. There, looking out over the landscape with Benlunar in the foreground and the valley stretching out into infinity Lilian took a deep breath and shouted. It was a loud and long shout, more like a howl really. It was not quite an animal’s howl, she still had her human voice, but she didn’t care. This feeling, this new body it was all so much. For the first time in weeks, she felt very happy and what’s more, she felt hopeful. And that good feeling would continue when she climbed back down to where Mrs Thoreson was and saw Serena and Peter there waiting for her with some very interesting news.

“Lilian!” Peter exclaimed when he saw her, “you look… different.”

Lilian laughed, “Ha! Yes you could say that. I feel different too. I feel strong and quick and…” Lilian’s dark nose suddenly twitched and her attention fell upon the hessian bag by Serena’s side, “ooh,” she said, “have you got pastries?”

Serena glanced down at her side, “oh, yes! We just picked some up from a baker in town. He seemed very happy to see us, probably glad of the business. But wait…” she shook her head, as if just remembering the real reason she was here. By now Fritha had smelt the pastries too and was busy trying to stick her nose in the bag. “No Fritha, not for you,” said Serena before adding, “Lilian, I’m sorry to interrupt your morning and your training but we’ve got some news.”

“No need to be sorry,” Mrs Thoreson walked towards them from near the Padda Stone carrying Lilian’s shoes, “as you can see, Lilian has made some excellent progress today.”

Lilian smiled at her and then closed her eyes, took a deep breath and relaxed her muscles. The image of a waterfall sprang into her mind and she watched the power leave her body and return to the air and earth around her. She began to feel chilly again and when she opened her eyes and looked at her hands, she saw that they were back to her normal, small hands with her dirty fingernails and pale skin. She smiled and went to put on her shoes. She thought that returning to normal would feel bad, like she had lost something or lost access to the hidden world of sounds and smells around her, but she actually enjoyed being back to her normal self. It was like putting on a pair of old boots after trying on a fancy leather dress shoe. And it felt good knowing that she had access to that world anytime she wanted.

“There we go,” said Lilian, slipping on her second shoe, “now, what did you want to tell me?”

Serena and Peter shared a look, a look of barely contained excitement, Peter motioned for Serena to speak, “Lilian,” she said, “I think I may have solved the riddle.”

Half an hour later they were back in the Fox and Octopus. Lilian had insisted on getting out of the snow and going to find Doran and Brother Thomas before hearing what Serena had to say. Mrs Thoreson had decided to join them which was a rare treat and once everyone had ordered drinks and food the six of them fell silent and listened to what Serena had to say.

“Think of Tellis in Dermador. Treyant in Custer and then remember Horbling. It’s strong but loves a bargain. Then all that’s left is Brava’s army. It all started when I considered everything we know about the characters and stories from the riddle,” Serena reflexively reached up to touch her shoulder, Lilian had almost forgotten that the scars were still there. “That’s nothing unusual,” she continued, “I’ve been doing that for days. What was different this time was thinking about them in the particular order that Cromwell wrote them down. It’s like you said Lilian, it’s a set of instructions. So that’s how I treated it.” Serena reached down and pulled out a piece of parchment from her hessian bag. She then got out an ink well and a crow feather quill and began to sketch out a plan. “The first story we need to consider is about Marian Tellis. Hers is a tale about the sculpture she makes coming to life. I kept wracking my brains for signs of sculptures or statues we might have seen or heard about from Sage Fenric’s grove. But when I went there the other day I couldn’t find anything of the sort. So then I thought, well, what if it’s not just sculptures, what if it’s just art in general.” Serena scribbled the words, ‘art’ and ‘life’ on the parchment. “This would make a lot more sense as we saw a huge amount of artwork in that strange underground church. So…” Serena drew an arrow out from the words and then wrote the word ‘servant’. “The next section is about the play The Gilded Mirror where a Lady and a servant swap places. The head of the house is called Lady Agatha but Mr Attorcop did not write her name. He said ‘Treyant in Custer’ instead. So he wants to consider the servant.” She underlined the word on the page and then continued. “The next story we haven’t figured out yet, the one about Horbling.” She put a question mark on the page and then moved on, “but we know the ‘it’ probably refers to whatever it is that Fenric is serving. Well, we don’t know that for sure but we can assume, seeing as he says ‘it’s strong’ and we know that whatever we’re dealing with is probably very powerful. Finally we’ve got Brava’s army. We know that that story is about a king who surrounds himself by powerful warriors.” She looked up from the page where she had written the word ‘bodyguards’ and smiled at Lilian, “sound familiar?”

Lilian did not need to think hard, “he’s talking about the sisters.”

Serena and Peter nodded, “But it’s good news,” added Peter, “tell her what you worked out,” he looked at Serena with such a proud look she might as well just have given birth to their first child. Serena blushed at the attention.

“Well I was just playing with the order of things really and I noticed that it all seems a little backwards. Think about it, when you go to storm a castle or confront an enemy, you would assume you fight the soldiers or in this case, bodyguards first right?” Lilian nodded, “Well then why put them last in the riddle? I think, that whatever it is we think is the problem, isn’t the real problem.” Lilian was starting to get confused.

Thankfully Doran was the one to ask the question, “I’m sorry Serena, you’ve lost me. Our problem isn’t a problem?”

“No. Well, yes. Hang on. Look, we all think this big scary thing that Fenric is working for is going to be our main issue. We’re solving riddles, learning everything we can and running in circles trying to find out what it is and how to defeat it. But what if that’s not the massive problem we think it is? Look,” she referred everyone back to the parchment in front of her. “The art comes to life. But the servant and Lady, or the master, swap places. It’s strong but loves a bargain, so we offer it a bargain and then all that’s left is the bodyguards. Lilian,” she looked at Lilian with a serious expression and finally delivered the news she had been waiting on, “I don’t think we have to defeat this thing. I just think we need to offer it a better deal than Fenric is. It lives in art, we know that. So we might be able to find it there and speak to it. Once we give it something it wants, it won’t be a problem. Then we just have to beat the sisters, which I know won’t be easy, but it sure beats killing a demigod or a demon or something.”

Lilian leaned back in her chair and considered everything she’d just heard. True she would rather fight human beings than whatever this thing was, but something wasn’t sitting right with her. “But what could we offer it? I don’t want to work for the thing that killed Mr Attorcop.”

Now Serena looked really excited, “That’s just it!” she exclaimed, “you don’t have to, none of us do. Look,” she pointed at her second piece of writing, at the word servant, “I don’t think Sage Fenric is working for it either. I think it’s working for him!”

Lilian considered this for quite some time. Everyone did, in fact. They all stared at their cups and half finished meals and tried to mentally poke holes in Serena’s theory. But the more they thought on it, the more it made sense.

“It links with Brava too,” Brother Thomas piped up and everyone looked at him, “think about it. The story of King Brava is about a man who makes himself seem stronger than he is. All Brava had to do was hire the best soldiers and eventually no one would be able to challenge him for the throne. Think about Fenric, everything he’s said and done. The people he chooses to surround himself with. It’s all an act. He’s always pointing away from himself. ‘Think of a wish, think of the garden, look at your life, look at the people who don’t believe. He’s there, but it’s never about him. And so when it comes time to show some real power, what would make more sense than to contract a demon or something? Tell everyone it’s the boss when really it’s just doing what it’s been told to do.”

“The possessions!” Everyone jumped in unison as Peter shouted the words, seeming just as surprised by them as everyone else. “Sorry,” he added, “but Serena,” he turned to his partner, “don’t you remember, when we were following Sage Fenric, he had all that stuff with him? And when we got into the church there were loads of things, like he’d been bringing stuff there for years. I assumed they were tributes of some kind but what if they’re not, what if they’re part of the bargain? Things that people love or need or something. Fenric gets to employ a demon but he has to make that horrible pilgrimage two or three times a year and give it a bunch of useless junk. When you flip the roles,” he tapped the word ‘servant’ on the paper, “it makes a lot more sense.”

Lilian’s right hand went to her side and absentmindedly stroked Fritha’s head. She found this helped to calm her and allowed her to process information more easily. After mulling it all over for a few seconds, she looked up and realised that everyone was looking at her. She felt Mr Attorcop’s absence then most of all. There was no one to make a plan, no one to gather this information and put it all to use. It would be up to her. She made a promise to herslef then, she would not let everyone down.

“I think you’re right. It’s a lot to go on and more than we’ve had in ages. Thank you Serena, and thank you everyone for all your help and hard work. If our thinking is correct, and I’m pretty sure it is,” she smiled at Serena who grinned proudly back at her, “then we need to summon a demon.”

“I know that Mr Attorcop worked with them sometimes. Whenever he spoke about them, he mentioned bargains. It’s how they live, it’s what sustains them I think. And look,” now it was her turn to tap the paper, “he repeats it here. It’s strong, but loves a bargain. If we can find a way to speak to this thing, probably through some kind of artwork, then we can learn what Fenric is giving it, and then… well… I’m not sure. But my guess is we’ll have to give it something even better. But let’s cross that bridge when we come to it.”

Now Doran shifted in his chair. He’d been uncharacteristically quiet these past few minutes so Lilian was anxious to hear his thoughts, “I can’t say I’ve ever actually done it…” he let the statement hand in the air as if hoping someone else was going to jump in and save him from the task. “But I’ve seen it done once and I am familiar with the basic sigils.” Lilian beamed at him, “I’m not making any promises mind!” he warned her, seeing the look on her face, “it’s a complicated business and not without its fair share of dangers.”

Mrs Thoreson nodded and added to the warning, “I never like that Cromwell went to Demons for help. They cannot be trusted and using them to solve your problems feels too…” she searched her mind for the right word, “easy. But I can provide a safe place in my house and I can oversee the procedure.”

Lilian took a deep breath and drummed on the table with her fingers, “right! Well then, let’s meet at yours after sun down Mrs Thoreson. Everyone go and get some rest, I have a feeling it’s going to be a long night.”

Lilian went home after their meeting and for the first time in many days she walked with hope in her steps. Her progress with gloaming was undeniable, they had finally solved most of Mr Attorcop’s message and they had an actual plan as to how to defeat Sage Fenric. The part about defeating Brava’s army, which they guessed Mr Attorcop was using to refer to any strong people who Fenric surrounded himself with, was weighing on her mind a little but she decided to give hope a try this evening rather than continually leaning on despair.

When she got back to her parent’s house she saw that there was candle lamp light coming from the kitchen window. She opened the back door to find her father eating a bowl of lamb shank stew. Lilian’s stomach growled at the smell of it and she gladly accepted a bowl when he offered it. Fritha had some meat tipped into a bowl for her and the three of them enjoyed a meal in semi silence. At one point during the eating, Lilian noticed the large bag packed and placed in the entrance hall.

“What’s that for?” she asked her father.

He faltered a little and hesitated before replying, “Lilian, please don’t get angry…” he stopped mid sentence and Lilian immediately guessed what was happening.

“You’re going to join her aren’t you?” he did not reply. Lilian felt a pang of shame when she thought about his response. Was she really becoming such a predictably angry person? Strangely though, she did not feel angry. Perhaps it was the delicious meal, or the fact that they were making progress, but when she realised what was happening, she felt more sad than angry. “It’s okay,” she said, “I understand.”

Her father looked up at her through bushy eyebrows, “you do?”

Lilian shrugged, “you miss her. I miss her too. I don’t like Sage Fenric or what he’s doing, but I know that mum needs support from us. I’m supporting her too, but I just can’t be with her. Dad, I’m going to expose Sage Fenric and drive him out of Benlunar. Mum and the others might hate me for it, but I don’t care. He’s planning to drain them of everything, to turn Benlunar into an empty ghost town and he’s enlisted some horrible demon to help him do it. He’s dangerous. He killed Mr Attorcop and he won’t hesitate to kill again if it means getting what he wants. You can’t trust him but… but mum needs us. She needs you. So, I think you should go.”

Her father’s eyes widened in astonishment, “he is really, so dangerous?”

Lilian nodded while spooning another portion of stew into her mouth, “Very!” she said with a mouthful of potato. “He goes from town to town and turns people into mindless idiots. They neglect their towns, their families, their own appetites and then he leaves.”

“Why?” her father asked.

Lilian could only shrug, “who knows! I have no idea and I don’t care. All I care about is stopping him. I’ve been warning everyone this whole time but no one believes me. It’s maddening.”

Lilian’s father watched his daughter eat with a new found understanding of her plight. He did not trust Sage Fenric but he had not feared him, not until now. He reached out and put his hand on Lilian’s arm. She looked at it and then up at him. “That must be very hard for you.”

All of a sudden, Lilian felt tears welling up under her eyes. She was not sad though, more relieved. She nodded, “it is! I keep warning everyone, I warned Mum, I warned the others but no one listens. They all believe his tricks and words and just go along with whatever he says. I grew up here. I know I’ve been away but this is my home. When they chose to go to the grove after I warned them I…” the lump in her throat had grown too big for words to get past it. She breathed deeply and tried to calm down. Her father’s hand squeezed her arm and she felt comforted.

“I can see why that was difficult. You’re amazing Lilian. I always knew you were strong but I never would want you to carry so much. People not believing you when you are right, that is particularly hard. You must feel like Horbling in the trial.”

Lilian nodded, “What’s worse is that when I tried to go and get Mum…” Lilian froze mid sentence, “wait, what did you say?”

“I said that must be hard,” her father repeated.

“No,” answered Lilian, “after that. Who’s trial?”

“Horbling. Freddr Horbling,” he repeated and then, seeing Lilian’s confused expression, continued, “you know the story?” Lilian shook her head and bade him tell it. “Freddr is accused of stealing goats and selling them to a traveller. He is put on trial but no one believes that he is innocent. He prays to Severen, the god, to help him but he does not. Freddr then curses Severen for the rest of his days and becomes a horrible, bitter man even after he is freed.”

Lilian’s mind was racing. What did this story have to do with Sage Fenric, how did it fit into Mr Attorcop’s riddle. Her father became confused by her silence, “Have I never told you this story?”

Lilian shook her head. She needed more information, “So, it’s about injustice? About Freddr’s deal with Severen?”

Her father shrugged and went back to his bowl, “my father said it was about not trusting the gods to solve your problems. But I don’t think that is true.”

“What do you mean?” Asked Lilian, now on the edge of her seat, her bowl of broth long forgotten.

“Well,” her father continued, “I think it’s more about the traveller. Many people forget his part of the story. You see, it was the traveller who stole the goats and he accuses Freddr to throw the town off his scent. Then when he hears Freddr praying to Severan for help, he enlists the only creature powerful enough to stop a god.”

Lilian’s heart was beating through her chest, “what creature? Who did he ask to stop Severan from helping Freddr?”

Lilian’s father looked up at her with a solemn and serious expression, “The demon that resembles a bull, the worst of them all, the one they trapped after he wreaked havoc on the heavens. The bovine king, Tauroc.”