Kallen
Kallen wasn't sure what had all been mixed in with the spider blood covering him. It hadn't just been blood, otherwise, it would have crusted over in seconds. There must have been at least water, saliva, and sweat, though he didn't remember.
He also must have been constantly circulating the liquid with his aspect while fighting. Odd he thought. But while he ruminated over this, the haunting dread of Ariel's whispers hissed like steam on hot iron.
She's afraid of you."
Kallen clenched his jaw even as his teeth ached, focusing instead on the weight of his sisters hand in his. An anchor to keep him from drifting back into the lingering haze of the matriarch's venom.
He glanced at Sunny, hearing Ariel whisper his fears as well. Kallen had long figured out that he had a flaw relating to being unable to lie. Every time he laid eyes upon the pale boy, he was told some version of the his fears, and it was enough to put together that he had a true name as well as something that forced him to obey someone who spoke that name.
Well, it didn't really matter. Kallen had no plans of doing anything of the sort.
Sunny walked backward in the direction they headed, arms crossed. "So let me get this straight, your grand survival strategy was turning yourself into a flammable spider-blood monster?"
Kallen shrugged. "Worked pretty good when I was kicking your ass."
Sunny mumbled something about ambushes being unfair, and about how Kallen had technically lost the fight, but Kallen ignored the wiry Sleeper as he navigated the corpse-laden tunnels. He moved without thought, his body remembering what his mind wished to forget. Every winding route, every tripwire woven from steel-strong silk. His territorial markings stood out like scars on the webbed walls.
Kallen decided to ask what had been on his mind ever since they'd helped him get his bearings.
"Why exactly are we retrieving my stash of soul shards? You guys mentioned something about a human settlement… but I'm not exactly up to date here."
He had gone along with their request without question initially. They had asked him if he had a stash of soul shards anywhere. But they hadn't mentioned why.
Sunny shared a look with Nephis behind him. She walked up and spoke: "Because the leader of the bright castle… the leader of the human settlement northeast of here requires soul shards as pay to live there."
Kallen frowned. "Is there no gate out of here?"
He swept his gaze across the cohort, pausing as it passed Caster.
"He's afraid that Nephis will find out he's here to spy on her."
Kallen had heard this already, and chose to ignore it. Of course there were more sleepers sent here to kill her. Maybe he could let Caster do all the work for him?
"There is a gate," Nephis said. "But it's not one we can get to for a while."
~~~
"Hey, so why exactly were you covered in that spider blood?" Sunny asked.
"I covered myself to help me better use my aspect."
Sunny shrugged, but didn't press further. Kallen tightened his grip around Seren's hand, walking well under his own power. Though his steps were slow, he was mostly fine now.
The burns and scars that littered his body were healed away by Nephis and her strange, wondrous aspect ability. Kallen had protested against it, but he lacked a valid reason to tell her no.
Not that he didn't want her to heal his skin, but because he felt guilty. He was likely going to be forced to fight her to the death one day. He couldn't afford to put himself in her debt. Well, more than he already had.
Let's see, she and Sunny escorted my sister across the treacherous reaches of an unexplored area of the dream realm. Gathered several powerful sleepers together to come rescue me. And together with those powerful sleepers, had to fight me off because I'd been corrupted by spider venom. Oh, and she personally cured me of that venom.
And to top it off, she healed my wounds afterward. Great. A debt I can't ever repay.
Kallen was surprised to see Caster with them. He walked positioned next to Nephis. It was nice having him here. He was a dependable fighter, and a welcome level head. He certainly contrasted sharply against Sunny, who was a lot more rough around the edges.
It often took a while for anyone to speak to Kallen. The weight of what happened—how he'd tried to kill them would not be easily forgotten. But still, someone had to break the long silences.
"So then," Sunny said, keeping pace with Kallen and trying to make easy conversation. It was odd that the aloof boy was taking the lead since he'd been so reclusive at the academy. "You were covered in all those burns… were you lighting yourself on fire?"
"Yes."
Seren shot him a concerned look. Kallen didn't return her gaze. "It was a good deterrent in the nest."
Sunny couldn't help but bark a laugh. "Yeah. Real effective strategy. 'Hey, let's light myself on fire to scare the bugs away.'"
Kallen shot him a glare. "You try fighting a nest of sentient spiders with barely anything to your name."
"Hard pass," Sunny said, flashing a grin. "I'll stick to—"
"Sunny," Nephis said, exhaling sharply. Her mood had been sour. Well, more sour than Kallen had remembered it from the academy. The tension continued to crackle between Kallen and Sunny, then settled.
Caster, cleared his throat and then said, "So, the blood thing?"
Kallen stiffened. Sunny had asked earlier, but the question had sort of died away since there hadn't been a clear answer.
"My aspect only works when there's water covering me in some facet." He sighed. "It's my flaw. There, happy?"
Sunny eyed him. "So… your Aspect only works when you're wet?"
Kallen's jaw tightened. "Unless I'm submerged or covered in liquid, my Aspect might as well not exist."
He wasn't too eager to go around announcing his flaw, but Kallen had noticed the way the group looked at him. He needed to prove that he wasn't a threat, and maybe gain a little trust while he was at it.
Plus, his lack of aspect abilities while on land were bound to lead to him being found out anyway. Maybe if he had multiple powerful Memories to help him cover it, but at the moment, he did not.
If he started making up excuses now, he was sure he'd never gain their favor, which was a huge mistake so early on in his career as an awakened.
Telling others your flaw is also a huge mistake so early on in your career as an awakened, Kallen.
But… if they had escorted his sister this far, they were trustworthy people. It wouldn't do good to treat trustworthy people badly.
Nephis glanced at Kallen, her storm grey eyes studying him, appraising him. "You turned their own strength numbers against them in a way. That was smart."
"I did what I had to."
"And apparently more, isn't that right?" Sunny said.
Kallen gave him a strange look, then realized he was referring to the venom.
"Nephis assumed that it was some sort of venom," he said, nodding to Kallen's shoulder. "That's what made you go all murder mode?"
Kallen nodded solemnly. "I had to fight the Matriarch. I had been at war with the damn things for months, and I was running out of food and my burns were too much to keep going. I took a risk."
"You let yourself get bitten?" Caster asked.
"I did. To give myself an opening, and when it bit me, I shoved my sword through its face. I thought I could extract the venom in time to stop it from paralyzing me—since that's what I figured was its purpose—but the psychoactive bound to me too quickly."
"And then you tried to fillet us." Sunny added.
"I wasn't—" Kallen cut himself off, exhaling through his nose. "I didn't know it was you."
Sunny remained quiet for a few moments, and then said. "But you have a water aspect, right? I know the dark sea is full of terrible abominations, but why didn't you just… swim away?"
"You're right. I could have. It wouldn't have been easy, but I don't doubt I would have found that human settlement eventually. In hindsight, things probably would have turned out better if I had. But there's still the chance of running into a Corrupted Nightmare Creature and dying before I even knew what happened. The nest was a known quantity. I could study them, know what to expect… I could plan for that."
Sunny seemed to accept this answer.
"He's afraid Nephis did not completely purge the venom. He's afraid you're mimicking being human."
Kallen heard Ariel's dreadful whispers and pieced together what Sunny's plan was. He was testing the limits of Kallen's patience… intentionally, most likely. To see if he was really fine, or he'd snap.
He glanced at Nephis. I wonder if she put him up to it?
"What about you guys?" he asked, shifting topic. "What's your journey been like?"
Caster answered first, saying that he landed close to the bright castle. Then Nephis told him that she, Cassie from the Academy, Sunny, and Seren all ended up pretty close to one another.
She talked about their perilous journey, from the coral labyrinth, to the Ashen Barrow, to finding out about the bright castle not housing a gateway. Kallen listened intently, and finally spoke when she finished.
"Thank you guys," he said, not looking back. "Truly."
Their group passed a series of territorial markings made by him.
"Of course," Nephis said. "Did the spiders often make marks like this?" she added. "I didn't see them closer to the entrance."
"Ahh… no. I actually made those."
Kallen glanced around, noticing Sunny giving him a strange look. "Are they territorial markings?"
"Yes," he nodded. "I set up my base of operations in a small tunnel and killed everything that wandered into it. Soon, the spiders began to realize that anything that went in there died. So then I began to create markings… a way to signal an area of space was my territory. The beasts seemed to understand this, and thus avoided anywhere I claimed."
Sunny frowned for a movement, then nodded, as if pleased.
"And the whole nest was afraid of you?" Nephis asked.
"Not me alone," Kallen said. There was a puff of mist, and Puddle landed on his shoulder. "This little guy… my echo helped me out."
Puddle shoved his snout into Kallen's neck, clearly overjoyed that his master wasn't in 'murder mode.'
"He helped me create the illusion that a larger, more powerful predator was loose in the nest. I'm not sure if the spiders thought I was the predator, or its pet, or what. But the affect was undeniably valuable."
"R-right," Sunny said.
They then passed the corpses of a few arachnids Kallen had strung up in the earlier days of the Iron Silk Campaign.
"Oh, ah some of my traps might still be active, so I guess watch your step. And… make noise if you're suddenly launched into the wall, or trapped to the ceiling."
"Got it."
"Hey, Kallen," Seren said, speaking for the first time in a while.
"Yeah?"
"Did you eat any of the spiders while you were here?"
Kallen sighed. "More often than I would have liked. Although, as you could probably tell from earlier, not as often as I should have."
The bombardment of questions did not end there.
"How'd you lay the traps?" Caster asked.
"I got a memory pretty early on," Kallen replied. "It was a spool of that strong webbing. Then I got a ring, and then an armor set… before I knew it, I was practically one of the spiders myself."
He did not mention that he had begun to think and act like them as well. They of course, already knew this.
"What about your sword? Was it given to you by your clan? I know you got to train with the Nightwalkers before you went back to the Awakened Academy."
Kallen shook his head. "I got it from a Nightmare Creature I fought a while back in the dark sea. Most of my burns actually, were from it, not lighting myself on fire."
"Oh really?" Caster asked. He matched Kallen's pace, a curious intrigue in his eyes. "What was its rank?"
Kallen allowed himself a slight satisfied smile. "It was one class above the leader of the nest. An Awakened Tyrant."
Caster let out a whistle.
Behind them, Sunny's eyes widened, and even Nephis seemed a little surprised.
"You killed an Awakened Tyrant?" Sunny asked. "And an Awakened Terror in your first Nightmare?"
"What, like you didn't?" Kallen looked back at the boy and smiled.
"Well of course I did… something like that," Sunny said, returning Kallen's confident smile. "The Creature in my First Nightmare wasn't an Awakened Terror, but it was a Tyrant. And I killed it with just the flick of my wrist too, so technically, what I did is more impressive if you think about it.
Kallen laughed. "Well I used a weapon in my First Nightmare, so I guess you have me beat."
"Naturally."
~~~
Kallen led them through the winding tunnels of the nest, the jagged walls still smeared with old blood and scorch marks. Now that he was able to take a step back and truly observe, the nest was a complete warzone.
Sunny's shadow slithered ahead, scouting, but it was unneeded. Kallen knew every turn, every trap, and every corpse left to rot.
It was his territory after all.
It felt strange leading others through it. After three months of living here, it was odd to let others in. It was almost like letting your friends stay over at your house for the first time… only, he would never be back here after today. He was going to rejoin society.
Right.
Kallen could feel his sister glancing at him every few seconds. Checking to see if he was still there. Still him. He wanted to reassure her, but the words always stayed stuck in his throat. Soon, they rounded on a familiar corridor.
Pointing to a narrow side passage, Kallen said, "That's where I slept."
The others peered in. A hollowed out crevice, lined with layers os silk on each side. There were scattered bones, all cleaned of their meat, and a small, charred circle where he'd risked small fires.
Kallen smiled softly. "It was nice, but the guests were a tad disruptive at times."
With that, he went inside, motioning for the others to stay out. He grabbed a large sack of soul shards he'd been filling since the day he'd arrived, slung it over his shoulders, and kept moving.
He didn't bother to explain why he had such a large amount of shards gained. Likely, the others probably thought the House of Night had already filled his core and the shards were useless to him.
They were useless to him, but only because they didn't fill his core. Since he could only improve himself through the weird scale system, the shards were effectively glowing trinkets. But he still assumed they would have a good use.
And a good use they did. Kallen had enough for all of them to stay in this bright castle if they wanted.
Ignoring the incredulous stares, Kallen hoisted the bag higher up on his back and made his leave for the exit of the nest.
Puddle chose that moment to appear by his side, and Seren's eyes lit up when he did. The Veilray hopped from his shoulder to hers, licking at her hands as she tried to pet him.
He noticed Nephis of the Immortal Flame clan produce a slight smile at the sight of his sister. It sent a pang of guilt through his heart. Had they bonded through their shared journey together? Was Kallen really plotting to kill someone like that?
He shook his head and held up a hand. "Wait."
Kallen set down the bag, and Puddle flopped up beside him as he crouched, brushing his fingers over the nearly invisible strands of silk stretched across the path. With careful precision, he plucked one, and a series of clicks echoed through the darkness.
Seren recoiled.
"What the hell was that?" Sunny asked.
"A deadfall trap," Kallen said. "Would've dropped… corpses onto us."
Sunny looked up at the ceiling for a moment, then back to the rest of the cohort. "How come we didn't run into it on the way up?"
Kallen cocked a confused brow. He looked back to Seren, then Caster, and then Nephis. Not one of them seemed to know.
"Because we're not going the same way as before of course." He frowned. "You really couldn't tell?"
Kallen shrugged as they kept going. The tunnels grew damper as they continued, and the air thickened with humidity. His fingers still twitched at his sides. Three months of hypervigilance couldn't be undone in just an hour… every drip in the distance made the hair on his skin shoot up.
"How do you navigate this place?" Nephis asked, speaking for the first time in a while.
Kallen held up a hand, showcasing the ring on his finger. "I have a memory that helps me with my attunement to vibrations. I also have an attribute that helps as well… I sort of navigate the same way the spiders did."
"You really went all out, huh?" Sunny said.
"I had time to kill," Kallen responded. The joke fell flat even to his own ears.
They walked for a while in relative silence. It was an odd contrast to how he would have been if they'd found him two, three months earlier. The old Kallen would have been cracking jokes, trying his best to befriend those around him. Now, acting human was just about all he could do.
A sudden burst of movement. Kallen went into fight or flight mode. He moved before his mind caught up, Wyrm's Tongue half-summoned, but it was just Puddle, the Veilray emerging with something clamped in his jaws.
"Ah." Kallen relaxed marginally. "Thanks."
What his trusty helper had found turned out to be a rusted box he'd dug up on one of his forays into the dark sea. There were crude runes etched into it, and when he opened it, a few dozen vials of the venom he'd been saving were stored in it.
There were several hidden stashes of his scattered around the nest, since he couldn't just keep everything in one place. He'd momentarily forgotten about them.
"Just some souvenirs," Kallen joked, rummaging through the vials. "They were mostly for killing weaker sea creatures. I didn't use them too often, but I figured they were valuable enough to keep around."
Soon, they rounded a bend, and the air changed, cooler, fresher. Ahead, light streamed through the exit. Kallen's steps faltered.
Three months in the dark, fighting nightmares worse than his literal nightmares. The sky yawned impossibly vast above, he felt his knees lock.
Caster caught his elbow without comment. Sunny grabbed his other arm, "Whoa there."
Kallen's laugh came out ragged. The dim light painted stirpes across him from where the clouds sat overhead. There were no more scars littering his body thanks to Nephis's flames, but he still looked almost sickly.
"We'll go slow to start," Nephis said, taking point of their cohort.
And so they did.
Kallen regained his steadiness as they moved on. Puddle had taken to transforming into increasingly absurd creatures in his attempt to make Seren laugh.
Kallen kept a white-knuckled grip on the hilt of his gladius. No one commented when he overreacted to movement in the distance.
The metaphorical road to the Bright Castle stretched long before them. But for now, with Seren's hand warm in his, Puddle's delighted chirps, and the company of his new comrades, Kallen let himself believe that the worst was over.
But the worst hadn't even started.
A/N End of part 2 of book 1 (The Iron Silk Campaign).