Medio: Choreomania

The man with the enormous boar mask flew in the air, after doing an impressive jump that sent him flying dozens of meters in the air over the city walls. In front of him the sun was trying to go down the horizon, but something seemed to have stopped it in place. Behind him, the moon tried to rise, but was stuck all the same.

He spent the last days running without rest from the village of Sueño, his mind dazed in a whirlpool of questions he couldn’t seem to answer no matter how much he tried.

“If the end is the same, then what truly matters is what comes before it, is what you find true value in before you get there.”

The words of the Goddess of Wisdom bounced in his mind again and again, trying to find the thing that truly mattered. In a way, he knew the answer from the start. When thinking of Raz and Herm, he had no doubts that they were the thing that truly mattered the most, but that led to a more difficult question.

What would be better for them? Staying back and protecting them, or having gone on the expedition with the other Gods? Was there truly a way to change fate?

“What I did here was merely a favor for you”

Mors had dismissed him, as she had done so many times before then. In his mind, she was an incomprehensible being that brought him enormous amounts of pain ever since he met her, ever since the hunt of the boar.

But then again, why is it that no matter how much pain she brings, how much she ties him to a world he never wanted to be part of, she seems to care about him? Why did she order him to not go on the expedition with the Gods? Why does she come back to help him again and again, even when he tries to deny her at every step?

Landing in the city, he ran to the city center to find that he may have arrived too late. In the plaza, where the people were stuck in an endless choreomania, dancing with no awareness of what was going on around them, three figures stood tall looking at him. He could see the expectation, and in it, a slight twitch of envy. Envy for that power that he never wished to have.

“If you refuse to do anything with it, how can you call yourself worthy of it?”

Standing tall in the plaza, looking at the three telchines, the words of the hero of the sea came back to his mind. He could not find his answers to any of the other questions that assaulted his mind, but at the very least, he now had a new chance to answer that one recrimination.

“You have finally arrived, child of the death!” Announced the telchine with the priest robes, doing a small bow.

“Not now, let me handle this.” Said the telchine with the queen’s clothing, stepping forward.

Ases looked at them, honestly scared, but with far more experience on the matter than he would have liked. Knowing that the first thing that matters in that kind of situation is to show confidence, he stepped forward into the plaza, as if he actually wanted to meet the telchine with the royal clothing.

“Not that close, Ases, that’s enough.” She said, when she noticed that he did not stop.

Now Ases was in the center of the plaza, just barely outside of range of the gigantic telchine that was looking at him with curiosity, with an empty glare on its glassy eyes.

“I know how the saying goes, if you see blue, the town is doomed. It doesn’t have to be true, at least, if we both listen to each other as two reasonable, thinking people.” Said the royal telchine, raising her voice, as wind started to roar around them.

Storm clouds formed on top of the city, a signal of the deluge to come.

First step, project confidence, what did Mors say was the second step?

“Where is she?” Asked Ases, making his voice slightly more hoarse, tilting his head slightly forward. His face was in the place of the boar’s mouth, but when he tilted, it looked as if the boar was looking down at the person in front of him.

Clearly, an intimidation tactic, or at least something meant to distract her and confuse her, thought Halia when seeing the gimmick. Unfortunately for him, she only found it endearing.

“She? You’ll have to be more specific than that.” She said, trying to hide the slight tone of amusement in her voice.

“You know who I am talking about.” Responded Ases, trying to be as curt as possible.

‘Get as much information as you can without revealing your own hand, like one of those games of cards you are so fond of’. That was the instruction Mors had given him for the second step. For once, he wished she had been more specific about how to go about it.

“Mors is safe, you don’t have to worry about her. I would never hurt her, that you can be sure of.”

‘Mors? How did she manage to get captured? She’s the goddess of Death, if anything, she should have dealt with these telchines a long time ago’ thought Ases.

Even then, although it was a bit of an insensitive thought, he was glad for the answer. If they knew his wife and brother were in the city, they probably would have used them as a bargaining chip. If they only have Mors, then he actually has some leeway.

After all, if there’s one thing she always repeated, incessantly, no matter how many years passed was:

“I can take care of myself, you idiot”

And until now she had never been wrong.

“But although I don’t plan to hurt her, I do have this city in my grasp, so if you want to see everyone in here safe…” Started Halia, still wanting to make the deal with diplomacy.

Without giving any warning Ases lunged forward, hoping to grab the royal telchine by the neck and interrupting her before she could even do her offer. She expected the attack and jumped back, throwing him a small bag she had hidden in her hand. Ases noticed it and covered himself while lunging forward, but the bag broke in contact and released the dust it contained in his face.

Immediately, he felt dizzy. His heart was beating in his ears. Suddenly there were not two telchines in front of him, there were four, then six.

“Fighting has never been my forte, diplomacy is the weapon that a true leader uses. But when that does not work, well, poison is always an excellent second choice.” he managed to hear, the voice sounding as if it was getting farther away each passing second.

The gigantic telchine was distracted, but once he noticed that Ases tried to attack his boss, he used his gigantic palm to pin him into the ground while he was coughing from the poison cloud he had breathed.

“I told you it would have been quicker to attack first.” Said the priest, quite amused, looking at Ases twitching in the ground.

“I had to try, although really, at this point I wonder why I bother.” Said Halia, sighing, discontent with the whole situation.

“But now we got everyone, if we take him back with us, we can find a way to share the blessing of undying.” The priest continued excitedly.

“The blessing against violent death, specifically. Mors still has the protection against peaceful death, so we can’t exactly get that part.” Said Halia, correcting him, starting to get even more irritated.

“We could, she’s still right here."

“No, we can’t. And I will remind you, you are here to work under me, so my orders in this aspect are absolute. You will not touch Mors.” Responded Halia with finality.

While the two telchines discussed, the storm grew in strength.

“We always disagree, don’t we?” Said the priest, who seemed to be even more amused with how the discussion was turning out.

Halia was about to respond, but with the corner of her eye, she noticed that someone new had now reached the plaza.

From the mansion of the lord of the land, leaving two sleeping telchines on her wake, a woman in a completely black attire, but with completely white pale skin was walking towards them. Her steps were shaky, as if she could barely stand straight and her eyes were completely closed. She was sleepwalking.

The priest started to laugh.

“Look at that, it seems like Mors wants to take part of the conversation herself!”