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Metamor Keep: Divine Travails of Rats
by Charles Matthias and Ryx
Pars IV: Infernus
(d)
Saturday, May 12, 708 CR
What way is that? Charles asked, turning from the prairie dog to the Åelf.
The pearl gray being smiled in a subtle but
gentle way. There are two additional ways to
reach beyond. We are in what is known as the
Axis. The heavens above and hells below, each
realm being the demesnes of a particular aedra
and daedra lord. The Axis serves as a means by
which they harness spiritual energy and maintain
their power. The Axis also serves as a way that
they and their minions can easily move from one realm to the next.
Craig nodded. So I was told. But you cannot use
the Axis. They guard all the entrances.
Their minions do guard the Axis and it would be
very foolish to attempt to use it. But there is
another way to pass from one realm to the next.
Charles has already done so and I followed him
here. At certain places in each realm, there are
bridges that span the gap between them. Passages
that siphon spiritual energies from lesser
sources, that never passes through the Axis.
Energy gained through lies, if you will, which
sustains the darker spirits of the lower Hells
whose worshipers are far fewer than those of the
Aedra. If you can find one end of the bridge you
can reach the next realm, either ascending to the
heavens or descending through the hells.
Understandably, there are more leading down than
up. It does mean we must travel great distances
in each realm to find the bridge. And there is no
guarantee that a bridge will not be guarded.
Could we use these bridges to escape this
place? Craig asked, a curious wonder touching his voice.
Not in great numbers, Qan-af-årael admitted
with a measure of regret, reserved but real.
Your night mistress will not take well to her
livestock escaping. And the only bridge I know to
enter the Dreamlands will be guarded by now.
Nocturna knows the passage and will be waiting on
the other side, ill-disposed at Charles' chicanery.
But how does this take us Beyond? Charles
pressed, shifting about and rubbing his tail where it had been
The only ways Beyond are from the highest heaven
and the lowest hell. Nocturna guards the way up.
If you wish to go beyond, the only way is to go down.
Down? Craig asked, his chittering voice rising
an incredulous glare. Down where it is an even
worse than this place? Charles, think! You cannot risk that!
He turned and stared at the Åelf for several
seconds. Qan-af-årael's regard was calm and
assured. There was no suggestion of fear in his
angular features nor diffidence in his golden
eyes. Charles felt a subtle affirmation in his
friend's countenance. A faint smile stretched the
rat's snout and cheeks; with this he returned to
answer the prairie dog's admonition.
I can and I must. If it is the only way then it
is my way. Qan-af-årael is powerful even in death
in ways we cannot imagine. I will be as safe as I
can be here while in his company. I hope that I
can have your help as well to reach the next
bridge. I have no idea where it might be.
It is not far, Qan-af-årael noted with a faint
pinching of his lips. I can see it in a way
though I fear there will be danger to reach it as we must cross a plain.
The plain? Craig stammered.
Charles blinked. You know of it? What is it?
A place too dangerous to trod. If you think the
beasts you've seen here in the forest are
terrifying, then you cannot imagine what makes the plain its home.
If we are quick and subtle we should be able to
reach the bridge with the denizens of the plain
ignorant of our passage. We are small and not worth their regard.
Craig shook his head and turned once more to
Charles. There was actual agony in his expression
as he held out his arms. Charles, please,
reconsider. I have never heard tell of anyone
returning from the plain. It is better to spend
eternity hiding in these holes and lightless
forests than to dare the dazzle of a cloudless
night for one twinkling star on that derelict plain!
He could see his dead friend's anguish and for a
moment felt some pity for him. But he steeled his
reserve against such temptations and shook his
head. I am resolved to do this, Craig. You can
either help me or not, but I would prefer your company a little while longer.
You are so stubborn! Craig growled beneath his
breath and shook his head, glaring down his
snout. I will not help you destroy yourself. Not
I. If you intend to cross the plain then you must do it on your own.
Charles stood and stretched. Then I suppose we
shall take our leave of you, supposing we have
your permission to do that! He asked, leveling a
glower at his fellow rodent Keeper.
Craig reached out a hand and grabbed the rat by
his tunic. Charles, don't you understand? If you
are killed here, your soul will not escape the
daedra. You will be theirs to torment for as long
as they wish. Do you understand this? His angry
words ended in a breathless hiss, the gaze in his
dark eyes almost desperate with panic that his
old friend realize the risks he already knew well.
Charles rested his hand atop the other, his claws
pressing beneath each finger to pry them loose
from his tunic. I understand and I will risk.
You cannot keep me here, and you certainly cannot keep Qan-af-årael here.
Craig's face contorted with anger for a moment
before the rictus melted and the prairie dog
could do aught but release him. Very well, if
that is your wish. Before I show you the way, I
must ask one thing of you, because once you leave
this cavern it will not be safe to speak.
Charles nodded for his fellow Long to continue.
How are my wife and daughters? And... is Caroline all right?
The rat's expression softened, and this time it
was he who placed a paw on his friend's shoulder.
They are all well. Caroline was rescued and
recovered and she visits your wife and daughters
every week. I'm told the eldest just changed into a prairie dog like you.
Anna... a prairie dog like me?
She even has a little sable stripe down her back and tail.
Craig's eyes brimmed with tears even as a smile
of hope and warmth filled him. My little...
thank you, Charles. He took a deep breath to
steady himself, even wiping his cheeks and eyes
with the back of his wrist. Once dry, those dark
eyes fixed on the rat. I will gather some of the
others and we will show you both a secret way
toward the plain. We will go no further than
that. I can only hope that you are as fast and as unregarded as you claim.
----------
Charles and Qan-af-årael remained in the little
cave with leaf and feather mattresses. The rat
played with the blue light dangling from the
ceiling while they waited. He could make it curl
around his claws but no matter what he did to it
he never felt the slightest sensation of heat. He
wondered if he could convince Kimberly to conjure
a blue witchlight, and for a moment he felt a
surge of love well in his heart. Her arms slid
beneath his and her head pressed against his
chest. Her warmth, her delicate scent, her inner
strength, her very humility, all of it washed
across him as if she were actually there.
And then he felt Qan-af-årael's steadying hand
and the vision broke. Your friend is returning.
Craig and five human men stopped at the entrance
to the little cave and waved for them to follow.
Rat and Åelf were lithe on their feet, offering
only a cursory glance at the array of bridges,
lights and ladders filling the cavern. They
stopped before an ominous dark hole leading away
in a new direction and the prairie dog put a
finger to his snout. Charles, these are the last
words you will hear us speak. If you have
anything to ask, do so now because you will not speak again in this realm.
He shook his head and swallowed. I do not think
there is anything I need. I trust you will not lead us awry.
Much as I wish to deter you from your course, I
will not lead you falsely. His shoulders rose
and fell with a weary sigh. Very well then, stay with us and say nothing.
The eight of them plunged into the dark passage
at a brisk pace. After the cool blue light of the
cavern, the tunnel felt oppressive and complete
in its darkness. Charles felt a twinge of
claustrophobia and could not help but recall the
bleakness of the tunnel beneath Metamor that took
them all the way to the forested hills north of
Glen Avery. At least then they had brought lights
to illumine the pearl black walls. Here he had
only the sensation of those around him brought to
him by his whiskers to guide him.
But his eyes adjusted after a few minutes, and
soon he recognized the overhanging walls of
roots, dirt and stone as much the same they had
seen on their way down into the caverns. After a
time that may have been five or fifty minutes,
they emerged from the tunnel into a dense forest
of oak and beech intermingled with nose-tickling
pine. All of them tensed and wrapped their hands
about axes and heavy clubs. Charles wrapped one
hand about the shrunken haft of his Sondeshike
tucked into his tunic as he warily glanced above and to every side.
The perpetual gloom of the night mistress's
demesnes had returned and with it he felt his
tongue fix fast to the roof of his mouth. Not a
murmur would pass the rat's lips while they
remained here. He could only hope that the bridge was not far away.
Craig led them through a series of winding hills
and down a small slope, staying always within a
little cleft that protected them on either side.
Charles sniffed the air afraid that the
five-headed monster would be waiting to ambush
them, but he never detected that sweet odor nor
any others save the prickling of the trees. And
where the trees of Glen Avery felt safe and
comforting, these felt ominous, as if they
resented the passage of anything at their feet.
When the cleft finally opened out and the hills
stopped, Craig and the other humans did as well.
Craig offered Charles a few scouting signs and
the rat knew that this was as far as they would
go. Charles signed that he understood before
clasping the prairie dog one last time. Craig
returned the gesture with a firm and determined
grin, holding Charles by the shoulders at arm's
length for a moment. With a smile he nodded his
head slowly for his old friend to go in peace
before incongruously sketching a brief sign of
the Tree upon his own breast to wish Charles
well. Without a word or a whisper of sound he and
the humans all melted back into the shadows
within the cleft, wary eyes ever watching above.
Together, Charles and Qan-af-årael continued in
the direction his friend had gestured. The trees
continued at their lofty, impenetrable height for
several minutes more before coming to an abrupt
end. Even the gloom of darkness seemed to lift,
offering them a view that stretched for miles
before them. And so too did the plain, vast and
endless and completely flat, it stretched from
the boundary of wood until consumed by the
darkness in the distance. Charles turned to the
Åelf who appeared to be concentrating, as if his
eyes could pierce not just shadow but earth and rock as well.
The moment lasted only a few seconds before the
Åelf offered Charles an affirming nod, angular
features betraying nothing of what he felt. As
one they stepped out onto the plain, their
strides purposeful and their aim sure. Tall
blades of grass rose up on all sides to the rat's
waist, and its velvet touch made his tail shudder
with a chill. The earth beneath their feet was
soft as if it had rained a few days before.
After only a few minutes of walking Charles
glanced behind them to see that the forest was
only a smear on the horizon. If he stared above
them he could discern a blanket of clouds, but
all else was lost in the darkness. How anything
at all grew here he neither wanted to nor could
he fathom. The only thing that remained different
in the sea of grass where every blade looked the
same as all the rest was his friend. He walked as
closely as he could to the Åelf.
They traveled this way for some time without
sight, sound, or scent of anything else on the
plain with them. Charles had no way of knowing
how long it was except that it felt far longer
than their journey from the caverns to the edge
of the forest. His body ached in strange ways, as
if his muscles were sore though he was in no need
of rest. He continued to put one paw before the
other, tail curled close to his back to keep it
from brushing against the grass, and hoped they'd reach the bridge soon.
By the time it started they could see nothing but
the plain in all directions. Whatever sense that
Qan-af-årael had to find the bridge led them
inexorably forward, though what direction forward
was Charles had no idea. He dare not leave the
ancient one's side for even a moment lest he
become lost in a field of grass in which every
direction looked exactly the same. And just as
the paranoia of an endless sea of grass began to
burrow into his heart, he felt a faint tremble in the ground.
The first few he dismissed as the fluttering of
his heart. But its pace did not match the beat
within his breast like a fist jabbed between his
lungs; it was slower, heavier, and felt
altogether distant and separate. It pressed
through the callused flesh of his long toes and
narrow feet with a single broad pulse, rising up
through his legs, hips, chest, head, until it
rebounded from the tips of his ears back down to
vibrate every scraggly hair growing from his
tail. A few seconds later, its energy spent, the
pulse would come again but with greater vigor.
It was getting closer.
Qan-af-årael touched the rat on the shoulder as
they walked and then extended his arm ahead of
them. He pointed at something in the distance and
Charles squinted as he tried not to dwell on the
ever-growing thrum of the earth beneath them. In
every direction he saw only the tall grass
swaying with a wind he could not feel. But where
the Åelf pointed he saw something gray smearing
the horizon as if they were nearing some
structure that rose up from the plain. The bridge?
With another jolt beneath his paws, Charles
stepped faster than before, pushing the grass
aside with his hands in his anxiety. Qan-af-årael
matched his pace and then resumed his position
just ahead to lead them both by whatever
invisible arrow he followed. The trembling of the
earth carried with it a sullen echo now, as of
something impossibly heavy. Charles turned his
ears to listen for it, all the while keeping his
eyes on the gray something ahead of them.
What was before them grew in size as they
continued to move faster. But louder still the
footfalls coming toward them. After a minute
Charles felt convinced that whatever it was
approached from their left. He turned his head
that direction for a moment and immediately
wished he hadn't. In the distance still and
wrapped in shadows so that he could make out
nothing but an outline were two legs so large
that even the redwoods they climbed through were
but saplings in comparison. The legs rose up into
the gloom and there the rat could see nothing but
a senseless shifting of line and contour.
Shapeless and amorphous yet with mass beyond
reckoning, whatever this abomination was, it headed straight for them.
Gasping and nearly choking as he tried to catch
his breath, Charles grabbed Qan-af-årael's sleeve
and gestured wildly with his left arm at the
perfidious horror. The Åelf glanced that way, and
the gray of his face blanched.
They ran.
The gray mass to which they ran grew before them,
spreading out in a wide arc before them though
still distant. The legs strode with unerring
malevolence, thundering with each step so that
the ground now shook and threatened to tumble
them over. Charles felt queasy from the almost
rolling lurch of the earth as he tried to stay
upright and on course. He wanted to avert his
eyes from the doom stalking them, but with
hapless perversity his left eye ever trailed to
those gargantuan legs. The outline of their shape
had at first seemed smooth at a great distance,
but as they neared the rat could see that they
were anything but. Almost liquefied in their
peculiar shape, they flowed and gibbered as if
composed of thousands of gaping mouths, opening
to moan and ooze, before slipping shut with
nebulous almost turgid insouciance. Those maws
heaved and spewed mucous, murmuring obsequious
and insane slobbering cries. The only solid thing
he could see on those legs was the black, cloven
hooves which were drenched in the leprous puss
squishing out of each suppurating rent in its rubbery flesh.
Charles ran as fast as his legs allowed him.
The gray smear ahead of them took on structure
and soon Charles was able to discern its shape.
Rising a short distance into the sky it appeared
to be an ordered collection of stone slabs each
over a hundred paces in length on their long side
and twenty paces on their short. These were
layered together cross-ways to create a large
stepped pyramid that rose at least fifty feet
into the sky. It may have been higher but the
gloom was too deep that far up for the rat to see
clearly. Qan-af-årael guided them around to the
right, one hand outstretched but never touching the stone.
The towering beast was now so close that Charles
did stumble with every one of its steps. He could
hear more than just that thunderclap of each hoof
striking the ground and flattening the grass.
Above the length of its legs where his eyes could
not see he heard the yammering palpitations of
its pitiless mouths and something more. It
sounded like the sliding of fish-like blubber
over one atop another as if the whole upper body
were a writhing and shapeless mass. And it was a
mass that Charles was thankful disappeared behind
the stone pyramid as they raced around to the right side.
Qan-af-årael stopped abruptly halfway along the
length of an otherwise unremarkable slab of
stone. Charles felt an inchoate desire to plunge
himself into the protected depths of stone, but a
horrible vision of his substance trapped with
only to be slobbered for aeons by profane
tentacled evils slaughtered the nascent thought.
The Åelf bent toward one section of the stone and
extended his arms, fingers tracing invisible
runes in the air as his eyes narrowed. Charles
clutched to his robes like a frightened child to
his mother as the beast began to move around the
pyramid. His legs felt like jelly, and it was
only the Sondeck that kept him from falling into
a pile and quivering like a feral rat.
He gasped aloud when above them the gloom parted
like a rent in fabric. The clouds broken asunder
and the sparkling blue light of stars danced
above, bringing with it a moon's illumination
across the pyramid and the field of grass.
Invisible before, runes of a particularly
loathsome sort, suggestive of violence and blood,
reflected that pale light all across the stone
slabs in a profusion that scattered the remaining gloom for miles around.
Charles chanced a glance upward, stunned and
blinded by the radiance, and then shrieked,
shrinking in on himself with Metamor's curse to
make himself a normal rat. His tunic, breeches,
and cape grew loose as he shrank inch by inch
away from the horror now revealed in full. Rising
to a titanic height lost amidst the remaining
clouds, the legs, a sickly pale hue, were joined
to a writhing mass of tentacles each of which
seemed to be fashioned from smaller interwoven
tentacles. Now that it was leaning over them he
could smell the charnal miasma of unearthed
graves. Two of the tentacles slid down across the
stones, leaving a trail of mucus, before pressing
into the ground and withering the grass, sliding
with a gasping, sucking sound toward them. Their
width would pulverize them before smothering them
in its grip. With luck they would be dead before
they were squeezed to jelly and smeared into the
gaping mouths drooling a chalky puss.
Insensible from fear, the rat shrank down as if
he could make himself small enough to be of no
notice. Another tentacle slithered its way down
the pyramid of evil light, its tip, a corpuscular
amalgamation of little mouths all opening and
spluttering, aimed for them without err. A hand
grasped Charles on the back and thrust him
forward toward a yawning opening within the stone
slab. A hideous gibbering peal erupted above them
before the darkness swallowed them whole.
----------
May He bless you and keep you in His grace and love,
Charles Matthias
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