Death and taxes (17 & 24 July 2018) – Taffeta
Jul 30, 2018 18:21:28 GMT
andycd, Tugark (Retired), and 4 more like this
Post by Malri 'Taffeta' Thistletop on Jul 30, 2018 18:21:28 GMT
1495 DR, 24 Flamerule
Nerry finds Taffeta sitting on the roof, looking out to where the sun is slowly easing up past the tree-tops.
‘There you are, my squirrel! What’s up, love? Apart from yourself, I mean.’
‘Nerry…’ She stops, and seems to put aside what she was going to say. ‘Are the girls awake yet?’
‘No, it’s only us and the birds.’ He waits for her to say something; she doesn’t. ‘I thought we might have pancakes for breakfast. What do you think?’
‘That sounds nice.’
Neither of them moves.
‘Nerry, I… don’t feel good about what I did yesterday.’ Taffeta pauses. Nerry waits.
‘I just never questioned it. Nowhere, Rholor, Aurelia, Dorian – they’ve been searching for nearly a year, trying to find where the xvarts were trying to get to when they… And at last they’d found it, and their god, this Raxivort, was probably there, and Nowhere was going to go there and confront him, and he asked… No, I suppose he didn’t really ask for help. He just told us he was going. But I thought… I mean, the xvarts killed so many people, and this was their god, and anyway Nowhere’s helped me before, so… And anyway, he and Aurelia and the others, they’re so smart and so powerful, and they’d worked so hard to track him down, and why would they do that except to…?’
Nerry eases himself down onto the sloping roof next to Taffeta and puts his hand on hers. ‘Come on, love. Take it slow.’
‘Well, the way Aurelia explained it, this Raxivort used to just be a demon who worked for one of the demon princes, but he stole something from him that made him into a sort of god, and then he made all the xvarts to try to help him hide from the other demons. Anyway, now they’d found the plane where he was hiding, Nowhere was going to cross over and… I don’t know. I realize now that no one really said anything about why. They all just seemed to agree, you know? They had some kind of plan. I didn’t ask what it was. Nowhere had come back to the town specially to do this. I guess I was glad he was back. And he asked who would come with him. Tugark, Leocanto, Daisy, Varis, Barden, Demik, and Lady Sunday all said they’d go. It seemed important. So I said I’d go too.’
‘Sounds like you were in good company.’
‘Yes – that’s what I thought, too. If all of them thought it was a good idea, it must be, mustn’t it?’
‘So Aurelia teleported us all to this other plane. It was a very strange place. I mean it felt strange. Not like the feywild or the plane of earth or anywhere else I’ve been – flatter, somehow. Less real. I suppose the closest I’ve felt is the shadowfell. A feeling like… like giving up. But the shadowfell feels like giving up after a long, hard life. Giving up *on* life. This place was more like… I don’t know… like a child giving up on making a mudcastle because it’s too difficult to be fun.’
‘At first everything was very fancy and rich, with gold walls and velvet carpet and platinum statues. A great big mouth appeared in the air and talked like we were at the circus or something, like it was going to be a wonderful show, but we had to give a password first. Well, I thought that was it, ’cause for sure no one had mentioned a password or seemed to know what it was. But Tugark just shrugged, stepped forward, and said, “Raxivort is great”. And right away, the mouth said, “Password accepted,” and vanished. I thought he must have been here before, but he said he just guessed, and the odd thing is I think he really did.’
‘So we went through the door and there was just this enormous city, as far as we could see both ways. Nowhere reckoned it seemed like a copy of a demon city where this Raxivort had come from before he ran off. But it was like it wasn’t finished. Some parts were very real but a lot of it was just flat and blank. And as we went through the city we kept finding places that we’d already passed, but we hadn’t: it was just like the exact same buildings and streets had been copied and put in different places. And there was no one there, even though we could see some of the buildings had furniture and things inside. There were some rats there, though, and they seemed a little aggressive until Daisy and Tugark talked to them and they backed off.’
‘Ha! Do you reckon they’d like to come round here and talk to the rats that keep trying to get into the larder?’
Taffeta smiles. ‘Actually I expect Daisy would be happy to do that if we asked.’
‘Well maybe if the traps don’t work. Anyway, what happened next?’
‘We were almost through to the other side of the city when we ran into two black dragons. They weren’t too happy to see us. One almost killed Demik with an acid blast, but Leocanto managed to get him back on his feet. I got inside a building and took a few shots from a window. I couldn’t see what happened to one of the dragons but I think Varis managed to kill it. The other one was up on the roof opposite, fighting off two or three bears. I think one of the bears was Daisy. The others started laying into it as well, and pretty soon we’d finished it off too. Daisy made pretty short work of skinning them after. I’ve got some scales and a few teeth and claws, in case we want them for anything.’
‘Hmm, dragon-tooth pie… Not sure it’ll be a big seller…’
‘No, I suppose not.’
‘Well, next there was a giant floating gold castle. I can’t even describe it. It didn’t seem to make any sense. There were a lot of parts of it that didn’t seem to have any use, and the same with the things inside it. It was like someone had just tried to make what they thought a castle should be like. Out of gold, for some reason. And there was a sort of servant made of gold as well, and he tried to take us on a tour. I couldn’t see the point of most of the rooms he showed us. There was one room with a lot of posters and writing everywhere, and when we got there the servant started using a lot of words like “innovation” and “disruptive” and “solutions”. I couldn’t really make head or tail of it but Tugark and Sunday seemed very interested.’
‘Then all of a sudden the floor we were standing on sort of curled up at the edges and started going up into the air, taking us up to the top of a tower where Raxivort was waiting for us. Big blue fellow, must have been nearly ten times our height, with a big pitchfork in his hand. He seemed quite angry and defensive, kept wanting to know who were were and why we were there, saying we must be wanting to kill him. Then Tugark started asking him about the room we’d seen down below. Raxivort said he was trying to make a new load of gods. Said he could give us the powers of gods if we’d agree to be loyal to him.’
‘That’s when Nowhere started talking. He talked about an orphan growing up begging on the streets, and then meeting someone who offered to help him. At first I didn’t understand what this had to do with anything but then I realized he was talking about himself, his childhood. This person agreed to help him, and gave him a book. The book that he’s had chained to his back ever since we’ve know him. I was standing behind Nowhere when he was saying this, and when he mentioned the book, I actually saw a hand stretching through the cover, like it was trying to break out and couldn’t. Then Nowhere told Raxivort that he knew his patron was the one that Raxivort had been hiding from, and asked why he shouldn’t kill him. That made Raxivort pretty grumpy. He took out this glowing, spinning thing and looked like he was ready to defend himself. When Nowhere said he’d taken the xvarts away from Raxivort, the big fellow made out like he’d given up on them anyway and was planning to kill them himself soon. That’s when Nowhere really started to insult him. Said there was nothing wrong the xvarts and he’d got them building a whole town – said the problem was that Raxivort was a bad leader and nothing but jumped-up middle management. That got him really angry. I don’t know what he’d have done, but just then Lady Sunday ran at him, and suddenly we were all fighting.’
‘It got pretty chaotic. Nowhere’s book was burning with green fire and he seemed much more powerful than usual. He also conjured up some kind devil creature he called Pascal, who fought along with us. Some of the others were doing amazing things too - Sunday and Varis especially seemed to be hurting Raxivort badly. Sunday was telling him he wasn't really a god at all, and Nowhere kept taunting him about being a middle manager. And all the time he was shouting “who are you?” and “why are you doing this?” but nobody answered… except Sunday, who just laughed and said, “Because it's fun!” That was the first time I realized I didn't know why we were there. But I thought, well, there must be a good reason, mustn't there? Aurelia and Rholor and the others - they wouldn't make all that effort… Nowhere wouldn't risk fighting a god - or whatever he was…’
They sit quietly for a while, watching the shadows shorten and the sun fly free of the trees.
‘So,’ asks Nerry eventually, ‘they did… beat him?’
‘Killed him. Yes. We killed him. Tugark climbed up his back and pulled off a kind of amulet he was using to for magic, then started trying to hack his arm off. Varis cut his legs out from under him. Then he jumped up and put his axe in Raxivort’s head. That was it. The body lay there on the ground and started shrinking until it was this ordinary, confused looking, tired looking blue man, dead on the floor.’
‘Well, just as we were catching our breath, Nowhere’s book burst open and a big red horned fellow climbed out with sword and armour. Turned out this was Nowhere’s patron, named Yondroth or something like that. He said he was proud of Nowhere and had always known there was something special about him. Then he… I don't know what he did exactly… he sort of pulled the spine and skull out of Raxivort’s body and turned them into a staff, which he gave to Nowhere. He unchained Nowhere’s book, too. Then he scarpered through a portal.’
‘We didn't have much time to think about that, either. The castle started collapsing and turning into dirt, and then so did the city. We grabbed some treasure and other things and ran for it. But when we got back to the portal we came from there was someone there.’ Taffeta’s voice has dropped nearly to a mumble. Nerry squeezes her hand.
‘The first thing,’ she says, ‘was this slow clapping behind us, and this horrible feeling. It was like when you see a sword swinging towards you, or a burst of magic, and you look the other person in the eye and know that they’re going to kill you if they can. But there didn't seem to be any danger, just a tall, strange man smiling and clapping. And he…. congratulated us. He said we’d murdered a god for no reason. For fun, he said - just like Sunday had said before. I looked at Sunday and she was grinning ear to ear, like a child being praised by her favourite uncle. And all the time this awful feeling of danger - I could see some of the others were feeling it too. The man was saying we’d done one of the boldest, most brazen murders in history, and how he knew what he was talking about because he was the most famous god-killer of them all. Said Raxivort had done nothing to us, had nothing to do with the xvarts, was no danger to us at all. I kept looking at the others - Nowhere, Varis, Leocanto - waiting for someone to say, “No, you're wrong. We had a reason. We had to do it.” But… no one said a word. Sunday just trotted up to him and asked him to sign this strange hand crossbow she’d found in Raxivort’s stuff. And Varis gave him a key. Then the man said that to show us how proud he was, he was giving us a blessing. Then there was a pain in my back and I felt a sort of… power… and I looked around and saw an image hanging in the air behind each person’s head. A white skull in front of the rays of a black sun. It faded away and the strange man was gone.’
‘When we got back to Aurelia’s garden, I asked the others what had happened. Lady Sunday suggested we go for a drink at the Ettin, and she told me that man was a great god called Cyric, who killed the goddess of magic long ago. Sunday seemed delighted, but I… I can still feel that power, Nerry, and it feels… wrong… but also like I want to - no, not like I want to use it, really, but like an itch I need to scratch…’
As her voice trails off, Nerry puts an arm around her shoulder and gives her a squeeze. ‘I don't know about gods and magic, my dove,’ he says, ‘but I reckon if it feels wrong to you, you should trust that feeling. My grandad always used to say, “You can give me a gift but you can't make me keep it” and, well, if you don't want what this fellow’s given you, maybe some of the clever folks round here can help you get rid of it.’
‘Maybe. Maybe you’re right.’
‘It had to happen one day!’
Despite her worries, Taffeta smiles a little.
‘There's another thing, Nerry, love. You remember I said about the dragons? There was a moment, after the first dragon was killed - the second one was on the roof of a building, and I was in the building opposite, taking shots from an upstairs window. The others had the dragon surrounded and it was getting desperate. It was looking around, and then it looked right at me and tensed up like it was going to jump at me or blast me with acid… And… you know a few months ago when Idari took a crossbow bolt out of my case and tied a yellow ribbon around it, and said I should save it? When that dragon was looking me in the eye I suddenly remembered that, and I took out that bolt and fired - and just at that moment the dragon opened its mouth and roared. And the bolt flew right down its throat and killed it stone dead.’
‘Sounds like Yondalla had an eye on that bolt.’
‘Yes, but how did Idari know?’
Nerry shrugs. ‘Did you ask her?’
‘Not yet. Do you think I should?’
He shrugs again. They sit quietly for a while longer.
‘Tell you what,’ says the pie-maker, ‘why don't you ask your aunts to come and visit? Vatina knows a bit about gods, and she knows you and Idari better than any of these fancy magicians in Daring. And it'll be nice for the girls to see her and Chenenil again.’
‘You're a wise man, Nerry Shortcrust. Thank you.’ She kisses him on the nose and stands up. ‘Let's go in. The girls’ll be up soon and there’s the washing to be done.’
Nerry finds Taffeta sitting on the roof, looking out to where the sun is slowly easing up past the tree-tops.
‘There you are, my squirrel! What’s up, love? Apart from yourself, I mean.’
‘Nerry…’ She stops, and seems to put aside what she was going to say. ‘Are the girls awake yet?’
‘No, it’s only us and the birds.’ He waits for her to say something; she doesn’t. ‘I thought we might have pancakes for breakfast. What do you think?’
‘That sounds nice.’
Neither of them moves.
‘Nerry, I… don’t feel good about what I did yesterday.’ Taffeta pauses. Nerry waits.
‘I just never questioned it. Nowhere, Rholor, Aurelia, Dorian – they’ve been searching for nearly a year, trying to find where the xvarts were trying to get to when they… And at last they’d found it, and their god, this Raxivort, was probably there, and Nowhere was going to go there and confront him, and he asked… No, I suppose he didn’t really ask for help. He just told us he was going. But I thought… I mean, the xvarts killed so many people, and this was their god, and anyway Nowhere’s helped me before, so… And anyway, he and Aurelia and the others, they’re so smart and so powerful, and they’d worked so hard to track him down, and why would they do that except to…?’
Nerry eases himself down onto the sloping roof next to Taffeta and puts his hand on hers. ‘Come on, love. Take it slow.’
‘Well, the way Aurelia explained it, this Raxivort used to just be a demon who worked for one of the demon princes, but he stole something from him that made him into a sort of god, and then he made all the xvarts to try to help him hide from the other demons. Anyway, now they’d found the plane where he was hiding, Nowhere was going to cross over and… I don’t know. I realize now that no one really said anything about why. They all just seemed to agree, you know? They had some kind of plan. I didn’t ask what it was. Nowhere had come back to the town specially to do this. I guess I was glad he was back. And he asked who would come with him. Tugark, Leocanto, Daisy, Varis, Barden, Demik, and Lady Sunday all said they’d go. It seemed important. So I said I’d go too.’
‘Sounds like you were in good company.’
‘Yes – that’s what I thought, too. If all of them thought it was a good idea, it must be, mustn’t it?’
‘So Aurelia teleported us all to this other plane. It was a very strange place. I mean it felt strange. Not like the feywild or the plane of earth or anywhere else I’ve been – flatter, somehow. Less real. I suppose the closest I’ve felt is the shadowfell. A feeling like… like giving up. But the shadowfell feels like giving up after a long, hard life. Giving up *on* life. This place was more like… I don’t know… like a child giving up on making a mudcastle because it’s too difficult to be fun.’
‘At first everything was very fancy and rich, with gold walls and velvet carpet and platinum statues. A great big mouth appeared in the air and talked like we were at the circus or something, like it was going to be a wonderful show, but we had to give a password first. Well, I thought that was it, ’cause for sure no one had mentioned a password or seemed to know what it was. But Tugark just shrugged, stepped forward, and said, “Raxivort is great”. And right away, the mouth said, “Password accepted,” and vanished. I thought he must have been here before, but he said he just guessed, and the odd thing is I think he really did.’
‘So we went through the door and there was just this enormous city, as far as we could see both ways. Nowhere reckoned it seemed like a copy of a demon city where this Raxivort had come from before he ran off. But it was like it wasn’t finished. Some parts were very real but a lot of it was just flat and blank. And as we went through the city we kept finding places that we’d already passed, but we hadn’t: it was just like the exact same buildings and streets had been copied and put in different places. And there was no one there, even though we could see some of the buildings had furniture and things inside. There were some rats there, though, and they seemed a little aggressive until Daisy and Tugark talked to them and they backed off.’
‘Ha! Do you reckon they’d like to come round here and talk to the rats that keep trying to get into the larder?’
Taffeta smiles. ‘Actually I expect Daisy would be happy to do that if we asked.’
‘Well maybe if the traps don’t work. Anyway, what happened next?’
‘We were almost through to the other side of the city when we ran into two black dragons. They weren’t too happy to see us. One almost killed Demik with an acid blast, but Leocanto managed to get him back on his feet. I got inside a building and took a few shots from a window. I couldn’t see what happened to one of the dragons but I think Varis managed to kill it. The other one was up on the roof opposite, fighting off two or three bears. I think one of the bears was Daisy. The others started laying into it as well, and pretty soon we’d finished it off too. Daisy made pretty short work of skinning them after. I’ve got some scales and a few teeth and claws, in case we want them for anything.’
‘Hmm, dragon-tooth pie… Not sure it’ll be a big seller…’
‘No, I suppose not.’
‘Well, next there was a giant floating gold castle. I can’t even describe it. It didn’t seem to make any sense. There were a lot of parts of it that didn’t seem to have any use, and the same with the things inside it. It was like someone had just tried to make what they thought a castle should be like. Out of gold, for some reason. And there was a sort of servant made of gold as well, and he tried to take us on a tour. I couldn’t see the point of most of the rooms he showed us. There was one room with a lot of posters and writing everywhere, and when we got there the servant started using a lot of words like “innovation” and “disruptive” and “solutions”. I couldn’t really make head or tail of it but Tugark and Sunday seemed very interested.’
‘Then all of a sudden the floor we were standing on sort of curled up at the edges and started going up into the air, taking us up to the top of a tower where Raxivort was waiting for us. Big blue fellow, must have been nearly ten times our height, with a big pitchfork in his hand. He seemed quite angry and defensive, kept wanting to know who were were and why we were there, saying we must be wanting to kill him. Then Tugark started asking him about the room we’d seen down below. Raxivort said he was trying to make a new load of gods. Said he could give us the powers of gods if we’d agree to be loyal to him.’
‘That’s when Nowhere started talking. He talked about an orphan growing up begging on the streets, and then meeting someone who offered to help him. At first I didn’t understand what this had to do with anything but then I realized he was talking about himself, his childhood. This person agreed to help him, and gave him a book. The book that he’s had chained to his back ever since we’ve know him. I was standing behind Nowhere when he was saying this, and when he mentioned the book, I actually saw a hand stretching through the cover, like it was trying to break out and couldn’t. Then Nowhere told Raxivort that he knew his patron was the one that Raxivort had been hiding from, and asked why he shouldn’t kill him. That made Raxivort pretty grumpy. He took out this glowing, spinning thing and looked like he was ready to defend himself. When Nowhere said he’d taken the xvarts away from Raxivort, the big fellow made out like he’d given up on them anyway and was planning to kill them himself soon. That’s when Nowhere really started to insult him. Said there was nothing wrong the xvarts and he’d got them building a whole town – said the problem was that Raxivort was a bad leader and nothing but jumped-up middle management. That got him really angry. I don’t know what he’d have done, but just then Lady Sunday ran at him, and suddenly we were all fighting.’
‘It got pretty chaotic. Nowhere’s book was burning with green fire and he seemed much more powerful than usual. He also conjured up some kind devil creature he called Pascal, who fought along with us. Some of the others were doing amazing things too - Sunday and Varis especially seemed to be hurting Raxivort badly. Sunday was telling him he wasn't really a god at all, and Nowhere kept taunting him about being a middle manager. And all the time he was shouting “who are you?” and “why are you doing this?” but nobody answered… except Sunday, who just laughed and said, “Because it's fun!” That was the first time I realized I didn't know why we were there. But I thought, well, there must be a good reason, mustn't there? Aurelia and Rholor and the others - they wouldn't make all that effort… Nowhere wouldn't risk fighting a god - or whatever he was…’
They sit quietly for a while, watching the shadows shorten and the sun fly free of the trees.
‘So,’ asks Nerry eventually, ‘they did… beat him?’
‘Killed him. Yes. We killed him. Tugark climbed up his back and pulled off a kind of amulet he was using to for magic, then started trying to hack his arm off. Varis cut his legs out from under him. Then he jumped up and put his axe in Raxivort’s head. That was it. The body lay there on the ground and started shrinking until it was this ordinary, confused looking, tired looking blue man, dead on the floor.’
‘Well, just as we were catching our breath, Nowhere’s book burst open and a big red horned fellow climbed out with sword and armour. Turned out this was Nowhere’s patron, named Yondroth or something like that. He said he was proud of Nowhere and had always known there was something special about him. Then he… I don't know what he did exactly… he sort of pulled the spine and skull out of Raxivort’s body and turned them into a staff, which he gave to Nowhere. He unchained Nowhere’s book, too. Then he scarpered through a portal.’
‘We didn't have much time to think about that, either. The castle started collapsing and turning into dirt, and then so did the city. We grabbed some treasure and other things and ran for it. But when we got back to the portal we came from there was someone there.’ Taffeta’s voice has dropped nearly to a mumble. Nerry squeezes her hand.
‘The first thing,’ she says, ‘was this slow clapping behind us, and this horrible feeling. It was like when you see a sword swinging towards you, or a burst of magic, and you look the other person in the eye and know that they’re going to kill you if they can. But there didn't seem to be any danger, just a tall, strange man smiling and clapping. And he…. congratulated us. He said we’d murdered a god for no reason. For fun, he said - just like Sunday had said before. I looked at Sunday and she was grinning ear to ear, like a child being praised by her favourite uncle. And all the time this awful feeling of danger - I could see some of the others were feeling it too. The man was saying we’d done one of the boldest, most brazen murders in history, and how he knew what he was talking about because he was the most famous god-killer of them all. Said Raxivort had done nothing to us, had nothing to do with the xvarts, was no danger to us at all. I kept looking at the others - Nowhere, Varis, Leocanto - waiting for someone to say, “No, you're wrong. We had a reason. We had to do it.” But… no one said a word. Sunday just trotted up to him and asked him to sign this strange hand crossbow she’d found in Raxivort’s stuff. And Varis gave him a key. Then the man said that to show us how proud he was, he was giving us a blessing. Then there was a pain in my back and I felt a sort of… power… and I looked around and saw an image hanging in the air behind each person’s head. A white skull in front of the rays of a black sun. It faded away and the strange man was gone.’
‘When we got back to Aurelia’s garden, I asked the others what had happened. Lady Sunday suggested we go for a drink at the Ettin, and she told me that man was a great god called Cyric, who killed the goddess of magic long ago. Sunday seemed delighted, but I… I can still feel that power, Nerry, and it feels… wrong… but also like I want to - no, not like I want to use it, really, but like an itch I need to scratch…’
As her voice trails off, Nerry puts an arm around her shoulder and gives her a squeeze. ‘I don't know about gods and magic, my dove,’ he says, ‘but I reckon if it feels wrong to you, you should trust that feeling. My grandad always used to say, “You can give me a gift but you can't make me keep it” and, well, if you don't want what this fellow’s given you, maybe some of the clever folks round here can help you get rid of it.’
‘Maybe. Maybe you’re right.’
‘It had to happen one day!’
Despite her worries, Taffeta smiles a little.
‘There's another thing, Nerry, love. You remember I said about the dragons? There was a moment, after the first dragon was killed - the second one was on the roof of a building, and I was in the building opposite, taking shots from an upstairs window. The others had the dragon surrounded and it was getting desperate. It was looking around, and then it looked right at me and tensed up like it was going to jump at me or blast me with acid… And… you know a few months ago when Idari took a crossbow bolt out of my case and tied a yellow ribbon around it, and said I should save it? When that dragon was looking me in the eye I suddenly remembered that, and I took out that bolt and fired - and just at that moment the dragon opened its mouth and roared. And the bolt flew right down its throat and killed it stone dead.’
‘Sounds like Yondalla had an eye on that bolt.’
‘Yes, but how did Idari know?’
Nerry shrugs. ‘Did you ask her?’
‘Not yet. Do you think I should?’
He shrugs again. They sit quietly for a while longer.
‘Tell you what,’ says the pie-maker, ‘why don't you ask your aunts to come and visit? Vatina knows a bit about gods, and she knows you and Idari better than any of these fancy magicians in Daring. And it'll be nice for the girls to see her and Chenenil again.’
‘You're a wise man, Nerry Shortcrust. Thank you.’ She kisses him on the nose and stands up. ‘Let's go in. The girls’ll be up soon and there’s the washing to be done.’
