Clam Cove

“This is as far as I can take you,” said Captain Astra.

We’d dropped anchor in Clam Cove, which hosted a wide beach that looked like it might indeed have a few clams and not much else. There was a small community of houses and what looked like a cannery. As far as I was concerned, that was enough. I just wanted to get off of the boat. The cove itself was covered in a thick layer of snow, and what looked like sheets of ice closer to the shore. We had dropped anchor farther out, with a small skiff being prepared to take us into town.

“Many thanks.” I tried to stand, failed, and had to use Apis as a support. “Do you- are you- how can we get back,” I managed. Duran was still suspiciously cheerful, staring out at the cove and grinning. I couldn’t find it in me to match his energy.

“I’m sure someone at the cove could take you back,” she said. “It’s actually a rather large town in shipping season, once the lanes are open. Worst case, you’ll have to wait for summer. They have a few tourists come through for clam-catching tours.”

Fantastic. My way home, dependent on tourists. “Thank you,” I said, because I wasn’t about to question a free trip. Then, because I might as well lean into being a paladin, “Andrena bless you?”

“I certainly hope not,” she said. “I’ve never been much for her sort.”

“Not even pickles?”

Before we could continue the argument, there was a shout and a splash. The skiff had been thrown into the water.

At least the water in the cove was nice and calm as they rowed us into the dock. I stared out at the ship as we were rowed in. It was actually nervewracking leaving it, as much as I’d disliked the trip up. Now that we were being taken to land, I would have no way back. Not until spring, and who knew what would happen in between now and then?

With a thump, we hit the ice. I stood up, stumbling, and readied my pack. “You’re sure this is the best way?”

“We don’t have an icebreaker,” said the crewman who’d rowed me out. Maybe I should have learned their names. I shouldn’t have been so distracted by my seasickness. I stared down at the boat, then towards the shore. It was only ten feet or so.

“Ah…” I really didn’t want to step on that ice. I hadn’t made it this far in life to fall into cold water and freeze to death. It just didn’t seem dignified. I hesitated, then pulled out the sword and tapped at the ice. It broke underneath the tip of the sword. “I’m not stepping on that.”

Apis leaned back further into the boat. Duran didn’t comment at all; he was staring up at the sky for some reason.

The crewman just sighed. “If you can break the ice, I’ll bring you closer to shore. Does that work?”

Well, it was a start. We made it one foot, then two, then eventually halfway. It was only a few paces away from the shore before the boat finally tapped against ice too strong for me to break.

I swallowed. I could make Duran step on it first, but…

Admit it. You’ve got soft. I was just better at swimming than he was. I gave the ice one more attempted swing. When it didnt break, I stepped onto a section. A hesitant attempt. It held my weight.

My heart racing, I tried another step. Still holding strong.

One more pace, and I was on the shore. When I looked back, Duran and Apis were already on shore and the crewman was rowing away. “Didn’t even stay to see if we made it,” I said.

“Well,” said Apis. “It was just a couple of steps. I think we could have made it even if the ice broke.”

“Don’t curse us like that.”

I pulled my pack a little closer and stared up at the cluster of houses. Well, Andrena? You said you wanted me to go north, so here I am. What do you want me to do.

I sense a presence still, she said, clanging as usual. If she was going to keep banging around in my head, the least she could do would be to quiet down a little. You’re going in the right direction. That’s all I know. It’s not as if they gave me an address.

Well, you’re a goddess. You can’t just… look?

She didn’t seem to think that was worthy of a response. I began to hike up to the town, heading towards warm food and a warm bed. Maybe I could get a clam out of the deal.

We headed up a cobbled road that seemed to serve as the main street. Offshoots were all dirt (or, well, ice and snow) and served a few houses, but otherwise all ten or so of the houses in Clam Cove were within spitting distance. I wondered if they even had a boat of their own. I could see a few sheep up on the hill, but only one of the houses had smoke coming out of the chimney, so I made that my first destination.

Other than being a little bigger than the other houses, it didn’t seem unusual. It was just one of the ramshackle houses along the street.

What was the worst that could happen? I knocked.

Katla opened the door.

I reached out and closed it again before she could say anything. Then, for good measure, I pulled back on the doorknob and put my back against the wall.

“I thought she went back north?” I hissed at Apis.

“This is north,” said Apis.

He made a good point. I glanced over my shoulder. She was staring through the window at me. She tapped on the glass, made a series of hand gestures I didn’t recognize, and then made a vague begging motion.

She was begging me?

I glanced down at the sword. Surely not. Had I been that good, to scare her?

“That’s weird,” said Apis. I stared over at him. While I was defending the security of our group, he was standing casually, hands behind his back, like a tourist. Classic. “Why is Katla in a temple of the beetle?”

“I’m sure she took over. With her, uh, necromancy powers. Destroyed all of their godly sanctuaries, and trees, and beetles.” What else did beetle temples keep?

“It just seems unusual. The temples up north are sparsely staffed, but not abandoned. I question if they would have been destroyed by a single necromancer.”

Before I could begin to remind Apis about the fact that Katla had, last we’d seen her, been traveling in a group, there was a crunch on the frozen snow. Katla had opened the window and pulled herself out.

“You can’t tell them about my past,” she said. “Whatever you need, I’ll pay it. I’ll be in debt to you.”

I stepped back just in case, hand on my sword, trying to understand what she’d said. In debt to me? Before I could say anything, Duran spoke. “Tell who?”

She gave him such a look of disdain I felt a secondhand sting. “Who do you think?”

“Are you telling us…” Apis stepped forward. “You’ve had a revalation, and you’re now following the temple of the beetle?”

I would eat my cloak before I believed that.

“…Yes,” said Katla. “Love beetles. Love trees. Let’s never speak about this again. Goodbye.”

Then, before I could ask her about hot water or clam soup, she’d spun on her heel and stalked off into the distance. I folded my arms. “Well, that was useless.”

“Good for her,” said Apis. “I don’t think necromancy is very good for your soul.”

“Does this mean we can’t fight her anymore?” asked Duran.

I tested the door. It pushed open, letting us into a warm, worn entryway. “I don’t care,” I said, and found that I meant it. “Let’s see what the temple of the Beetle keeps for supplies.”

A few hours later, and I decided that even if Katla was still a necromancer, maybe we could be friends. Thanks to her opening the door to the temple, we’d gotten bowls of clam soup, some stale bread that I’d toasted over the fire, some goat’s milk, and warm blankets to bundle up in. I could almost feel normal again.

Still. When I heard the door open again, I reached for the sword. Just in case. When a man came in, extremely blonde and willowy, I let myself relax. He was wearing brown robes and what looked like a green overcloak in the shape of a pair of beetle wings. Over all of it was a massive fur dusted in snow that he shoved onto a hook at the entrance, dusting himself off and removing an equally massive pair of snow boots. Even temple members, it seemed, had to change their dress code for the weather.

“Ah! Kat told us we had a set of visitors,” he said. “Enjoying the soup? We put extra beetles in it for you.” When Duran tensed, he winked. “Just a joke! We don’t eat the beetles.”

I ate another bite. “I’m Elysia. That’s Duran, that’s Apis. She was Kat?”

“Did she not introduce herself? I keep telling her, she needs to be more personable.” He leaned over and gave me another smile. This one was shiny. I couldn’t get a read on how old he was. At least late twenties. “Vragi,” he said. “I keep this place running. Or at least, I am right now. Sorry we didn’t have a proper introduction for you! Did no one else come out and say hello?”

I shook my head and ate more soup. Duran had retreated further into the blankets and had stopped eating the soup entirely, presumably due to beetle horror.

“We were busy,” said Apis.

“We thought it was empty,” I corrected. “We were pretty loud. Were there supposed to be temple members in here?”

“Oh, she’s here,” he said. Because he was monstrously tall- just thin enough to let the wind blow him over- he was able to reach up and thump at the ceiling without stretching. “Unnr! Unnr, we have guests!”

There was no response. He sighed, then shoved his hands into a pair of pockets deep in the robes. “Sometimes she gets deep in the beetles, and it’s a different part of the house, so she can’t really hear us from down here. I will go and retrieve her. Unless- would you like to see the tree?”

I glanced over at Apis. In cases of temples, gods, and anything religious, he knew what was happening more often than I did. He just shrugged at me. Helpful, then.

I considered it for a moment. “Why not?”

We had to climb a rickety, narrow staircase up to the second floor, where he put his ear to a locked door and knocked multiple times before beginning to unlock it. “It’s not that I’m not permitted within,” he said. “But if I pull her out while her mind is still too deep inside…”

“What happens?”

He made a vague gesture. “Brain out through the nostrils.”

On that cheery note, he opened the door and we stepped through.

The first thing I noticed was the air. It was noticably more thick, more warm. Above us wasn’t the thatch of the rest of the house- it was glass. They must have paid unimaginably for the expense. It was much warmer inside the room, too. The fireplace- which had been roaring the entire time I’d been in the house- fed to a second grate inside here, keeping it warm enough that I felt sweat beading up on my skin.

All of it was geared towards one thing, as far as I could tell. Pressing up against the glass were pale green leaves, still in the thick, humid air. The tree itself wasn’t large by tree standards, but for something inside a house, it still seemed massive. The trunk was as thick as my waist. I couldn’t see the color of the bark. Every inch of it was covered in swarming beetles- all the way to the lump at the bottom. As I stared, I could just barely make out a head, a pair of arms.

I swallowed. There was a powerful part of me wanting to turn around and run away entirely. No person in their right mind let themselves get swallowed by a beetle swarm. I managed to ask a question instead.

“How did you get all of the dirt in here?” I could imagine the house collapsing under the weight already.

“It’s actually filling a lower room,” he said. “We carted it in specially, after the dirt here was too acidic for our type of tree. Is it not a modern miracle?”

He wasn’t even trying to pull the woman out of the swarm. I cleared my throat. “Is the brain problem still a worry, or…”

“Ah! No. I was just distracted. My apologies- you deserve to be greeted!” He turned and walked through the churning beetles, lowering a hand to pat her on the shoulder. “Unnr! Unnr, our guest!”

As if she wasn’t inconvenienced at all, the woman rose and turned towards me. They dripped off of her like water, clinging onto her hair, her clothing. “Ah! Thank you for telling me.” As she got within touching distanced, she bowed. “Honored Paladin! You spoke with one of our order last summer. We are glad to know you are within our bounds once more.”

Now that she wasn’t covered in beetles, I could notice more. She was wearing those same unsettling glasses- the ones that had dozens of lenses, like beetle eyes. “One of your order?”

“It matters not,” she said, waving a hand. “A word to one of us is a word to all of us.” She clutched my hand. A beetle ran over my wrist. I shuddered. “You couldn’t have come soon enough. How do you feel about breaking and entering?”