Episode 11.4 - Feelings Acted Upon At Last

"Ha! This went better than I hoped. Look at that Eshu, I can’t find any more still moving, kids have thrashed ‘em all!"

"Yes, Mistress Lila, they've really grown, haven't they?" Eshu replied softly, her posture withdrawn.

"You can say that again! And you too, this sickness didn't even stop you from helping out today, be proud of ya'self. Watcha’ looking at over there anyway? You ain’t spotted one still kicking, have you?”

“Eh-he no, just watching Sek and Ko. I think they’ve finally said it.”

“Hmmm, said what exactly?” Lila replied, trying to glance over the ramparts and get a look for herself.

"Something important. Can we go down now?”

“Oh, ya sure! You must be feeling a little left out, eh? Heh, to think I’d be second place to Ko, you humans wound my pride.

Patter, Patter, Patter.
    The two took to the winding stairs down the tall tower, the footsteps of one accompanied by the victorious humming of the other. After a couple of flights, Lila took note of her companion's muteness; a trait that worried her greatly, one that had developed out of the girl’s recent condition, so at odds with her old personality.

“Say, Eshu, you feel like telling me a bit more about your ‘illness’? If not now, then soon. The others haven’t noticed, but I’m pretty convinced you know more than you’re letting on, right? Ko might have been the one who started it, but I made you my blood sister as well. I’m here to listen.”

“Eh-heh, you're pretty acute, Mistress,” she smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes.

“Well, I do have more experience than you guys after all, I can tell when a girl is hiding something.”

“That just makes you sound like a play-boy.”

“Pft, true. So, fancy ‘flirting’ with me via mode of backstory delivery?”

Eshu slowed her step, reaching a hand inside her cloak as she spoke, “You are right that I know something. Actually, I know exactly what's wrong with me; I pretty much always did. But it's okay now, everything's all wrapped up neatly with no more loose threads, so it doesn’t matter any longer. I was too weak to do what I needed to do for them before, but now I think I can.”

“Huh? I’m gonna' need a little more than that.”

“What if I told you I’m not so different to those drones? That I haven't changed with the world either, that I'm still the exact same as I was. That I see things in my mind I know I didn’t do, a life that isn’t mine. That all I want, Mistress Lila, is to die?”

The Grand Demon stopped dead in her tracks, “I, if, ah… If that's the case, we have a lot to talk about. But look, now that you’ve said it, that's the most important thing, that's the first step. We can work through this.”

"You really are very kind,” the young woman smiled, coming to a stop and turning to face the demon, hands tucked behind her back. “I'm glad, truly. I don't have to worry about those two sliding backwards or getting screwed over by things bigger than themselves with someone like you watching over them. They’ll be able to grow even further, become so much more than they are now - truly fulfil their potential as people. I couldn't possibly hope for more. Really, thank you, Lila."

Tsrrrr!
     A glint of metal against the light accompanied the subtle shrieking-whine of the pistol blast.

"Gah, you shot me!! What the hell have you done to that thing? Since when could it stun?! The fuck are these floating words?! Am I having a stroke?! I can't move and-- Hey wait, Oi! Come back here, Eshu! Eshu?!”

Patter patter patter.
    Tsrrrrr Tsrrrrr Tsrrrrr Tsrrrrr Tsrrrrr.

"Ah, son of a– that stings! Eshu, Eshu come back here, damn it all!" the demon called, rooted in place by a selection of floating characters - unrecognisable to a denizen of a fantasy world, but perhaps to a gamer, as missing asset text alerts - a common practice for displaying something when a texture file is absent from a game's files. The sort of placeholder to appear for a hastily coded ‘invisible wall’.

From the demon's perspective, that was nothing but a distraction, for a cold hand had clutched her in that moment; a terrible sinking feeling she had hoped never to come from one of her precious underlings. Her arm rose against the strain of the strange effect, pushing forward and reaching out as though to grab the back of her rapidly departing sister.

****


“Not bad, partner, I was worried that you two were bottling something up, well handled,” Mike jeers, shouldering a beet-red Sek repeatedly.

“Ah, come on, man, don’t be like that,” he replies weakly.

I smile before turning to an approaching Tom, “Everything ok then?”

“Grak Grake,” he nods enthusiastically. Around us, Estolpfo crews have set about combing the packed rows of downed enemies. The last patch to check is right in front of us, and there's no sign of movement.

The sight ahead is conclusive; piles of machine parts are scattered, littering every patch of ground beyond the barrier. You can't find a single spot where a drone hasn't been blasted by the turrets. It really is a perfect victory.

Hold on, wait, just there. I see a pile of battered remains shift ever so slightly.

“Major, have the turrets aim over that way,” I order quickly, pointing to where I saw it.
Any hope it's just gravity's influence soon fades; slowly the rubble shifts again, and then one more time, until finally it slides aside.

A few more tense moments pass until a single drone emerges, wobbling out of the scrap pile. It's clearly taken multiple direct hits; bent and brittle, one tank thread has snapped, and its armour plates hang loose, dripping machine oil.
    Despite all that, it begins to trundle forward, weaving and waning over fallen comrades and tossed-up earth. I’ve seen wonky-wheeled shopping trolleys that were more graceful

“WHY? WHY DO I CHARGE?”
    We all look blankly at its sombre proclamation.

“Gren!” Tom shouts. I watch a pale blue blast of turret fire smash right into the beleaguered thing’s round body; liquid plasma splashes across its surfaces. That should be the end, and yet, it pushes through it, still trundling onwards, another deep gash and scorched paint, but moving forwards like some unconvincing 60’s TV prop.

"Hey Mike, you said these guys had some sort of leader, one with better armour?"

"That’s right!" he replies, his voice betraying obvious excitement at the prospect, "It will have a black top section, slightly different to the others,” he adds, beginning to jog over to me to get a better look, Sek not far behind.

"Roger that," I muse.
    Another Estolpfo unloads a second direct hit of laser fire. The black-topped drone spins a bit from the force of impact, but it doesn't break or explode; it rights itself and keeps on moving.

The turret operators look around apprehensively. I step forward, speaking to them directly, "Don't panic. Everyone take careful aim and focus, a barrage ought to--"

"KO, STOP HER!!" Lila's telepathic cry shatters my focus.

I turn slowly. I see the fortress doors wide open. I see Lila inside them, surrounded by ‘missing texture’ symbols. Not far off, I see the boys, close yet also painfully far off - because there's one thing much closer.

She runs. Just as the day I first met her, that enchanting, playful hair colour of hers sways in the wind. My vision is momentarily filled with a shock of magenta as she passes me by.

I turn far too slowly, far too confused, "Eshu?"

She sprints to and right through the shield. She runs and runs, right up to the last drone standing.
"Eshu!?"
    What the hell is happening?!

She throws her arms out wide, standing directly before the drone captain. Her voice cracks, but it's a roar all the same, "Go on then, do it! You need at least one win today, don't you? Can't have your whole army fall for nothing, right?! Well, here I am, your consolation prize for the taking!!”

And then she cranes her neck back, her eyes making contact with mine, "Sorry, Ko, this wasn't the best way I could have done it, hey? Eh-he, try not to hate me too much for this."

I take two shaky steps forward, barely even aware of the others coming up behind me, all in their own states of shock and confusion. I hold out my hand desperately, uselessly, completely lost.

"CORRECT," the Killer-Drone’s voice rumbles, cutting harshly through the air with its deep grating sound, "SOME MEASURE OF VICTORY IS REQUIRED."
    Its laser-gun barrel trembles slightly, lining up the shot.

"EMERGENCY TELEPORT!"

"What? No, kill me you stupi--" Eshu cries out, and it’s the last words I hear from her - perhaps the last I'll ever hear - as a white light envelopes her and the drone. They disappear.

"Eshu?" The word falls delicately from my mouth, as if the sound itself is something precious, an object of something lost.
    I fall to my knees, squelching in the dirt and mud below. I feel as though my mind has just gone white.

"ESHU!!!"