NOVEL NEXT Chapter Twenty-Five: The Deep One
The Deep One
We stumbled into the unusually cavernous classroom and found ourselves in near total darkness. What light there was came from bioluminescence, a feeble, green-tinted light coming from a half a dozen pools of water just underneath the floor of the room. There were grates on the pools, and inside them, the bobbing, gagged heads and sometimes shoulders of the human prisoners. They were all packed into these pools, some of them nearly not tall enough to breathe, faces strained up towards the air. As we entered, the prisoners became agitated, moved towards us, muffled screams passing the cloth gags in their mouths. Their hands must have been tied too, as none of them raised theirs above the surface.
There were other shapes too in the darkness, twisted, jerking forms of the different fish-creatures that Clarence had described; their large black eyes and slick scales reflecting the luminescence of the waters beneath, but never enough to make out more than rough, lumpy shapes. And then there they were, the creature that must have been the apprentice to the creator of this Tower. They reminded me of a few specific creatures from my tabletop games, but the octopus head was more distinct, literal, it had no human facial features to it at all, and it shifted like camouflage from orange to brown and green. On their- forehead? The body of the head?- there was a single glowing rune, blazing in strange black-and-orange intensity, and it said 'discarded' and when the creature spoke, it spoke directly into my mind, even as I heard the incantation of a spell coming out of the mouth in clutching, wet expulsions of air.
"Here come the heroes of Earth, rescuers of your innocents," he said. His voice was distinctly male in my head, and I had to assume that was intentional.
"Don't talk to it," Artemis said and began moving forward. As she did, there was the sound of bubbling, and the water level in the pool cages rose visibly.
"We will be talking, delicious friends, for that is the only way I will not be drowning these air-breathers," the octopus faced creature said. The incantation was constantly repeating, clearly transferring the words directly into our minds. I memorized the words, but as I didn't know the sigil I couldn't speak back in the same way. But what the hell, it seemed like it understood Artemis.
"What is your name?" I said.
"Glouach Tyrhrhvyr Clhchlk Ahlwlrh Khk, Prince of the Fathom Depths and the Nine Hundred and Ninety Nine Thousand and Ninety Seventh Apprentice," he said.
"What do you want, Glouach?" Aretmis said. She was frozen, half-step into the charge, not daring to advance.
"We will be talking, you will be explaining to me what the master saw in you, why did he throw me down in here with you, to sieve and grind and sort and mulch you. Why you, what is so special about this Earth. The air-breathers I have here show no special promise. The few that we had time to process had not a sinew of potential in them," Glouach said.
"We don't know. We do not want to be here, we did not ask to be brought here. If it was up to us you and your friends could go back to your master or wherever it is you want to go," I said.
"If you do not know the reason, you will figure it out. If you are lying to me," Glouach let the bubbling of the waters under our feet be the response.
"Not lying," Hannah said.
"Look, all we know is that we came to this demi-plane of heroism less than two days ago, none of us were expecting it, and we don't know why we were brought here. We are all from the same country, but visitors have also been sent here. None of us even knew there was magic. That is why none of the humans you are hurting are anything special," I said.
"What is Earth's Progression?" Glouach said, and made it sound like a threat.
"What progression? I don't know what you mean," Artemis said.
"The words that you are saying make no sense to us. There was nothing like the journal on Earth, there was no magic at all," I said.
"Gods then. How did your gods lead you to power?" Glouach said.
"There were no gods on Earth," I said. Look, whatever arguments about theology and divinity may say, I was pretty sure that there were no gods on Earth giving us magical powers for completing quests or whatever.
"Liar," Glouach said and the water resumed rising. A few of the people were starting to spit and gag.
"I swear, only in myths and stories, some people believed them, but nobody was given power by gods," I said.
"It is cultural, some us exclaim or curse with religious words, but nothing like the magic we have seen here was done on Earth, gods or no gods," Artemis said, a tremble of fear in her voice.
"You must be lying or mistaken. What use does the Master have for a bunch of primitives from a non-magical universe? You wouldn't even know how to advance," Glouach said.
"Maybe that's why. New perspective," Hannah said.
"Unlikely. Billions of perspectives among the multiverse. Millions happy to serve him. So why you?" Glouach said.
"Think about what you're asking and who you're asking it to," I said, "We know nothing about the multiverse, about your Master, or what he wants. How could we possibly guess why he chose us, if we know nothing of his goals?"
"Spit on you," he growled and spat with his actual voice, not in our heads, "your logic is not flawed, human. Unless you are lying. We will find out soon enough. If you cannot tell me with words, I will learn from your psychology and biology. I will process my prisoners, and then you will be interrogated. I see you have levels far above the rest of the humans I have here, and you, Coward, will speak. Your class demands it."
I almost didn't notice when his sputtering incantation moved from one spell to the next. Then, from the darkness, black, hooked tentacles sprang out and grabbed us, grappling and tying us down, and dragging us to the floor and separate corners of the room.
I lay there in the darkness as my eyes became further accustomed to the low light and shapes in the room became clearer. I remembered too that two of our party had remained undetected. The fear was still in my heart, pounding, but I had more room in my mind than before, I could keep thinking even while a small voice was crying in panic at the back of my brain.
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There were the moving shapes of the monstrous captors. Not a massive group, ten people including Glouach. There was also a strange collection of jars, vials and alembics, along with tools of stranger purposes in the back of the room- a lab of some sort. There was a smaller pool by it, and it was empty.
What could I do against such overwhelming power? The simple spell that had summoned the tentacles to drag me to the corner and restrain me was quite unbreakable. I could barely move my lungs enough to breathe, even my fingers were held by tight tendrils. I could maybe have cast a spell, but to do what? There was a small chance I could kill Glouach in one strike with a sharp icicle; they had proved deadly before, but only against weaker, lower level monsters. I had finally stored the invisible wall spell inside my staff, but it was laying on the floor ten meters away from me and, again, what use would a wall be? Maybe I could create a barrier between Glouach, me and the exit, but three fish-men would still end up on this side of the wall, and I couldn't fight them, nor run fast enough even if I could somehow get out of my restraints.
I went through every piece of equipment, skill, spell and ability in my mind. And finally had a thought. The weird robe-shirt I wore could give a significant boost to charm and stealth skills, if there was fire between me and the octo-man. That on its own wouldn't solve anything, but the idea of fire between me and him got me thinking. Alright, step one, get free, step two, get my invisible allies in on the plan. I developed a shape of an idea, and started moving before I could stop myself. The one thing I could still do was speak, and so I said:
"I give up, Gloach, you win, I will tell you everything," I said.
Laughter followed the wet incantations in my mind, "And the Coward breaks, how typical," Glouach said.
"I'm sorry everyone, I cannot stand this any longer," I said. I was overacting, but I hoped that the octupus man wouldn't notice.
"Speak now, human!" Glouach said. Artemis got it.
"Alex, if you say anything to that bastard, I will fucking skin you," she said.
"Fuck. Gloach, look, I cannot, I cannot say anything when they can hear. They'll hate me for it," I said.
"Don't you dare," Hannah said.
"You will speak to me. Now," Glouach said, and raised his hand. The tentacles squeezed me tighter. Smaller ones made their way near my eyes and inside my nostrils. I didn't have to act afraid anymore.
"I can't it's a condition, it's called social anxiety disorder, if I think people will get mad at me if I say something, I cannot say it out loud," I said.
Glouach spat, and chanted a spell. I flinched, but it drew up some sort of a globular screen in front of his face, and he spoke in his strange, slopping language into it. The sphere responded somehow, and Glouach turned to me.
"I did not know humans were such cowards. Fine, if you can cast spells, I will show you the sigil of my speaking spell. If you try to do anything except to cast it I kill you and your friends," he said. Okay. Okay. Don't act relieved, don't you dare act relieved, I thought to myself.
"Yes, I know how to cast spells, I've heard you say the incantation. If you show me the sigil I can cast it," I said. And fucking score, he goddamned actually did it. The tentacles let me go, and I walked towards him, rubbing my wrists. He showed me the spell on a stone slate. The sigil was simple as I'd expected, it seemed a simple spell.
"Think only of me and the words you would say to me as you incant and the words will come to me," he said.
I cast the spell the first time, and I transmitted to him the plot of X-Men as well as I could remember.
On Earth there are humans, but that is not the only sapient species on the planet. There are those with the X-Gene, the mutants. They live among us, but they have powers that appear supernatural to us Homo Sapiens. They- the Homo Superior- can have powers like shooting lasers from their eyes or even telepathy, but it is not magic, but a result of mutation and natural selection, I transmitted. I had started the same monotonous rhythm of chanting the incantation that he had used.
"Pah, you had magic, but didn't know. That is all," he said, and I used the time that it took for him to respond to focus on Clarence- I really hoped I didn't have to see him for this to work- and transmitted Find as much flammable material from the lab as you can. On my signal make a line across the room with it as fast as possible. Then, as soon as Glouach finished his response I continued making shit up. I needed him to lower the water level in the pools, just a little, just to give people time to take a breath and hopefully enough that he couldn't drown them immediately.
I doubt it. We can tell these mutants apart from normal humans quite easily. Some of them look completely inhuman- they have fur, or wings, or even blue skin- but many just look like normal humans, except for one thing. I transmitted.
"So? Tell me what it is and you may live, at the expense of your friends," he said. In that time I sent to Chum: Chum, I need you to use just a little bit of your hellfire to get a fire started. You can get out of the way when the fighting starts. Wait for my signal.
To Glouach I transmitted: It is a simple mark, I am sure some of the people you have captive here have it. It is a birthmark in an X shape underneath their left nipple. It is a sure mark of a mutant. I am sure you have seen birthmarks on your captives before, just look for an X shaped one and single them out- they will surely use their powers to defend themselves then, so be ready.
Glouach slouched around the room, making suspicious gurgling sounds towards me for a few minutes. But then, he seemed to come to a realization.
"Oh what difference does it make. If you are lying, you are dead," he said, and he raised his hand, and there was a bubbling of water, and the level of water in the pools began to drop. I used that time to send Get ready to Hannah and Artemis. He walked over to one, and knelt by it, and said "Reveal your nipples, humans," which, uh, was not a part of the plan, but I had to hope everyone was in position.
"Now!" I shouted, as I dove for my staff, and a moment later a barrel of gasoline-smelling liquid rolled through the middle of the room, trailing its contents from a wide hole on its side. At the same time there was the cackle of hell and the smell of sulfur, and the gasoline caught fire. The room came ablaze, as it was split in two by a wall of fire, me on the side opposite to Glouach.