The Gate of the Waning Sun. Southern District of Valarn, Fifth Ring.

"It's time we talk", said the slimy creature. It nestled itself around Tharia von Verholden's wrist and then pulled tight until her hand felt numb.

"A delicious morsel such as yourself shouldn't have come here. Now you're forcing me into action. I really quite appreciated just siphoning off your energy passively"

The voice came out of a tiny human-shaped face on the surface of a ball of goo sitting on her hand. The rifle suddenly snapped free and hung heavy in the carry strap: The last of the ooze had vacated its hideaway. Ouf of the corner of her eye, Tharia witnessed Annabelle and swallowed hard. The other woman had raised her scythe and took aim for her hand. The slime noticed it too.

"Oh oh. Would you really cut of this delicate hand, just to spite me? We can't have that!"

The black lump suddenly scurried up Tharia's arm. The young woman tried to brush it off but the slime was far too fast. It quickly made it's way up her arm, slithered along her biceps before it traced her collarbone. There it lingered but for a quick breath and then suddenly leaped up. With a snap, it snuggled itself around Tharia's throat.

"Give me the divine spark, my lovelies", it said as it took on the shape of a collar and continued, "It's the smart thing to do. Do that and two out of three people walk away from here"

As if to accentuate its threat, the leather collar suddenly started to grow hundreds of tiny spikes around its edge. Each and everyone ever so slightly brushed against Tharia von Verholden's throat.

"And the third one, well morsel, you'll live", it said.

Tharia glanced sideways at Annabelle. Someone not familiar with the deity would have said she'd be dead as a doll. The young lady of the Verholden house knew her, however. She saw the barely noticeable movements of the lips as they turned into momentary frowns. There were the tiny eyes movements that betrayed a sea of emotions, all communicating one thing: Helplessness.

The young lady Verholden took a deep breath and tried to blend out the spiked collar for a brief moment. There truly was a thin line between healing and poison, hope and despair. For a gift of health, the divine flame had truly given her endless suffering. She could walk - but it meant pain to do so. She could heal - but her family abused it as a parlor trick. It was a chain of hope that yanked her back into despair at every chance. Suddenly her pulse quickened. A sadistic idea had formed in her mind. Tharia put on the most diminutive of masks. She lowered her head and even shed a tear. With quivering lips, she whispered quietly.

"There's no other way. I will do it"

She saw Annabelle frown. It was one of those rare moments when her divine friend had led slip her emotions. The collar however shivered in anticipation.

"It will be a warm feeling as if all your weary wounds heal", Tharia managed to press out between her lips while exhaling deeply. She let her shoulders hang, the black collar somehow seemed amused by that. It wasn't that it showed one way or another but Tharia just knew. She reached her hand up towards the slime and then wrapped her fingers around the collar. Much to the credit of the slime, it had pulled back the many spikes along the edge.

Holding the hand to her neck, Tharia von Verholden walked over towards one of the toppled over carriages. She allowed herself a masterful gap of hesitation. She stopped just long enough for the ooze to become impatient, then quickly slumped down onto the footrest of the vehicle. One more brief hesitation. Don't be too obvious, she warned herself. With a sigh, she then decoupled the divine flame from her spine and just like that, all feeling and control had left her lower half. The collar was abuzz with anticipation.

"Delicious, tasty, give me, I must have it"

Tharia willed the flame upwards and like before, she made a show out of her struggle. She let it dip back here and there and groaned.

"I SAID GIVE IT TO ME", the ooze screamed at her with surprising volume.

Upon hearing it, she knew just the right amount of meek attitude to smooth it over and then proceeded to push the flame further up her own body until it reached the base of her neck. Once there, she poured divine energy into the collar. A subtle blue glow appeared on her fingers, along with a tiny flame dancing on top of the knuckles. At that sight, Annabelle's eyes grew wide with realization.

"Aahhhhh", groaned the collar, "this is simply wonderful"

Tharia von Verholden suddenly felt dirty as the creature's noises sounded inappropriate. This however spurred her schadenfreude and with that, she intensified the energy. The blue flames ran over the liquid creature and wherever they went, there came a sudden sparkle and sheen in the collar. Warm but not hot flames passed into the ooze and the blue glow on Verholden's hand intensified steadily.

"More", the collar begged, "just hand it over. More. More. More"

Still more light emitted from the hand until it was a stark blue aura that blinded the eye. As the slime gained health, it started to evaporate a slight fog but before it could manifest completely, it suddenly happened. It started with tiny pustules at first. The slime grew irregular with energy but the creature was too enraptured to notice. Tharia, however, felt how the thin membranes within the creature expanded. They grew strong - at first. Quickly the healing energy pushed them past their limit and still, they grew. The pustules turned into something that looked like warts and then quickly gestated into thick, misshapen tumors.

"Wait, what are you doing?", the slime suddenly shouted. It tried to grow firm but the slimy body didn't listen anymore.

"No, no, stop this!", it demanded and Tharia took that as her signal. Without mercy, Tharia used the highest amount of healing she could project outwards. Within seconds, the collar grew out of control. A shrill shriek could be heard before it suddenly lost all cohesion. Exploding in a shower of black goo, it ran down her neck and onto her clothes. A tiny nucleus rolled out of the mass and cracked into uncounted pieces.

"Healing really can be poison. Or is it the other way around?", Tharia said while the black liquid made her look like something out of a nightmare - again. A sudden and creepy smile found it's way on her lips. She had just healed a living being to death. To her confused mind, this was utterly hilarious. An elated rush washed over her. Seeing her friend stare at her with that dumbfounded expression made it all the funnier. She burst into laughter.

"I healed it dead!"

The voice had a barely perceptible shiver to it. That was when Tharia von Verholden felt a sudden soft touch on her chin. It instantly froze her laughter. Annabelle stood in front of her with but the faintest trace of expression on her. It seemed like her friend wanted to look away as if to avoid her, the shoulders were slumped just a bit and the lips were pressed into a thin pencil line. Annabelle was visibly uncomfortable and that was a rarity in itself.

"This isn't you", Anna finally said. Concern coated her voice.

Don't look at me like that, I'm not broken, Tharia screamed inside her own head. Outwardly, however, she nodded meekly and replied with a simple: "You're right, Annie"

Just the simple touch calmed the young Lady Verholden down. Annabelle lifted her head up until she directly gazed into her eyes.

"Little fairy, It's alright to be hurting. I'm here for you, I promise"

Tharia instinctively pulled back and looked off to the side. Here? As in when Annie had run off to marry her prince? Here, when she had choked her? But then her thoughts changed pace. Here, as in she was still here after those hurtful words. Here, when she was losing her mind before they had even entered Valarn. Tharia broke down and hid her face in her hands.

"I don't really hate you", Tharia whispered and earned a soft pat on the head for it.

"I know Tharia, I know", Annabelle said and then pointed towards the many carts, "Let's find you something else to wear"

Was that last part actual snark?

Tharia shot one final wary glance over her new clothes. She wore a weird red and gold uniform jacket with a low cut blouse underneath that revealed much of what little she had. The floral lines along the jacket all led to a symbol of wings with a stylized pillar of light at their center. The trousers were a much better fit, although they were just simply black. She sighed.

"What even is this?", Tharia said with exasperation, "Some performer's attire?"

For once she was thankful for the stone calm visage of her friend. Annabelle shot her a glance and then nodded towards the gate. Annabelle spoke up.

"I can feel one of the Betrayers. It's past the outer district, I think"

Tharia blinked and then kicked into word-overdrive.

"That's a decent amount of time to get ready. Are you ready? You sure look like it, although you really need to try and get a better weapon. What kind of weapon is a scythe anyways? You know, my brother had one of those, all decorated with shiny symbols. But it was just a flat-out terrible thing. Impractical. Why didn't you pick the sword instead? Yes, I couldn't use it but you could, surely..."

"Reach", was all Annabelle replied to the storm of words. As usual, it didn't stop the tide either. Tharia's nervous habit had kicked into full gear. Sentence after sentence left her mouth as they neared the outer gate. The other girl was circling around Annabelle and even bounced here and there.

They finally reached the gate. Up close it was an even more impressive sight. The walls were domineering. A short assortment of stylized vault-ribs bridged the gap towards the inner gate. This one looked much sturdier with thick and practical walls. There were crannies atop with swivel pots for boiling oil and battlements that had been upgraded to accommodate the recent upgrade to muskets and rifles. Missing, however, was the actual wooden gate.

Although missing wasn't quite the right word, because the state of the inner gate wasn't in doubt. It was simply gone. They had to climb over piles of wooden debris that vaguely looked like a former gate in a small sea of sawdust. An assortment of carriages and wagons formed a makeshift barrier in place of the gate. Their sides were singed and scorch marks littered the ground. Most unsettling of all: There was no soul in sight. They entered the capital in eery silence - even Tharia contributed to it.

Merkander's Hofplatz Near the Gate of the waning Sun, Fifth Ring.

Annabelle kept her eyes on Tharia while they walked through the gate. My little fairy is deeply troubled, the girl with the silvery hair thought. Perhaps, even unhinged. Annabelle would need to find a way to stabilize the girl's mind before it went off course. Slay her. Flay hear. Devour. What were these thoughts? Where did they come from?

Immediately behind the gate, the road abruptly widened into a circular Plaza. In the middle of it stood a fountain. The many beast statues on it had gained an unsightly extension: Seven dead bodies were propped up on puppet stands, with wires keeping their poses. Wings made out of rags had been stuck into their backs, they had quickly tainted red. A hunched over human figure scurried around between the seven grotesque statues and adjusted pieces of cloth and equipment here and there.

"Muse! Oh, Muse, Let me back into your embrace", it shrieked with a voice that was neither male or female. It climbed off the fountain and then danced around it in a merry jig.

"My art calls for you. I bet you, let me in", the figure shouted before collapsing onto the floor. Next came loud sobbing. Annabelle gave the weird thing a wide berth but was interrupted by an abrupt metallic clicking sound. She stared at Tharia and saw the girl aim through the scope of the Otherseer.

Annabelle reached out and mouthed the word don't with her lips. This was the moment the figure had noticed the two women. It suddenly sprang up on its legs again and directly stared at them. From this distance, it looked like the face of an animal. The head sniffed the air.

Tharia groaned and Annabelle narrowed her eyes to try and make out why her friend looked so sickly pale all of a sudden. Was it the pain? The figure, on the other hand, perked up even more. It looked directly towards the two women.

"You! And her too! Them! Yes", the voice sounded quite different to the one before, more like that of a rat given voice, "Must tell Master Verholden. Must also tell Muse. Must tell, who do I tell first? Muse will know. Muse must know"

Shrieking loudly, it collapsed back on all fours and then ran away while chanting the word 'Muse'. Annabelle looked back at Tharia and saw the girl shiver with dread. Her finger repeatedly pressed the trigger but without any black powder in the ignition pan, nothing happened. Click. The young lady Verholden pulled back the hammer to load the spring and pressed it again. Click. By now the figure had been long gone.

“Tharia?” Annabelle rushed back to her friend while thinking she had finally snapped. Just as she came to stop in front of her, a sudden dark hunger welled up inside of her. Being this close to the divine spark set her nerves on edge. With conscious effort, the deity pushed all that aside and focussed on her friend.

Tharia had wide open eyes and a creepy smile on her lips. Annie reached for Lady Verholden's shoulders but found the other woman pushing her away. The rifle now hung loosely on the makeshift strap while Tharia pointed at the fountain and its company of seven corpses.

“The Verholden Family welcomes you to its very special kind of insanity”, the human woman spoke while suppressing a chuckle, “I present to you most humbly: Our family crest”

Tharia reached into the rucksack and pulled out a signet ring. She slipped it on her finger and then ever so slightly tilted her hand as if she were offering the ring for a servant to kiss. Annabelle examined the ring closer. It was a simple ring, safe for the sigil itself. Central to it was a well of light, framed by two creatures with wings. Seven human spirits with feathery wings circled the well. Annabelle took another look at the fountain and felt renewed revulsion. It really was a grotesque depiction of the family crest.

“I’m done”, Tharia whispered, “Done being scared. Done being naive and childish. Not anymore. Let’s go. We have monsters to kill. Let me show them what a true Verholden really can do. Open wide the gates of madness and let slip this mad girl on a hunt”

She watched Tharia break into a quick pace and much to Annabelle's surprise, she could barely keep pace with the girl. That red uniform was a stark contrast in the moonlit plaza and it was accompanied by cheerful whistling. If it weren’t for a sudden change in notes here and there when the pain visibly overwhelmed her friend, Annabelle would have sworn a changeling had replaced Tharia.

Like this, they left the plaza and continued down the main road. The path ahead proved difficult. Here too, someone had set up various barriers. Even a crooked metal fence blocked the path. It too hadn't stopped whatever it was that wanted through. Scaling several barriers, they came upon a sudden light. A massive pyre, several meters high, burned brightly. The stench in the air was vile and a strange fluttering noise echoed from it. Abruptly, a shadow fell onto the road and caused the two women to huddle behind a wardrobe turned barrier. The fluttering sound came from the shadow as it descended from up high.

At first glance, it looked like a massively oversized moth with a shining white fur. But a single horn marked its ugly head and eight boneless two meter long appendages dangled from it. With these, the moth-like thing brushed over the ground while closing in on the fire. The fluttering noise intensified and a second and a third approached the fire.

“We need to get off this road”, Tharia whispered and then ran over towards a narrow alley. Annabelle cursed as all three of the moth monsters perked up and let their tendrils slither in their direction. She quickly gave chase and made it in just in time before something the size of a trunk smashed into the houses at both sides of the alley. Annabelle dodged pieces of brick wall flying her way, slid across the floor and then darted away at full speed. The oversized moths struggled to squeeze themselves into the alleyway but didn't fit. Pretty soon, weird and loud sounds could be heard as they tore into each other in a sudden feeding frenzy. Annabelle quickened the pace and caught up with Tharia. Once there, she reached out and pushed herself in front of her friend.

"Close combat first", Annabelle said and held up the scythe.

"It's too narrow to swing your toy in this alley", Tharia snapped back. A moment later the girl exhaled and the rage turned into the sweetest of smiles.

“Sure thing, Annie. You’re right. Go first. I'm sorry”.

Seeing Tharia change this abruptly, did something strange to Annabelle. It sparked the hunger to just simply kill the girl and steal back the essence. They had gone down several alleys before she realized just how dark her thoughts had gotten. With conscious effort, she pushed it aside and dug deep within her own mind. There were memories of a better time but looking at them in retrospect, Tharia seemed to be hurting back then too. Had she really been this oblivious to the suffering of her friend? These memories still felt a bit strange to her but at least they quelled the murderous hunger.

Walking away from the central road meant tumbling down the social ladder in leaps. The first few rows of houses still had that sheen of care. Sure, the fall of the capital had done some damage to the facades and there were perhaps a few too many smashed in windows, but otherwise, the many archways and occasional buttresses reaching out from them still looked fine. The next few rows were in various degrees of disrepair. The narrow alleyway looked like a riot had passed through it and the occasional Gallows spoke volume about what had happened to the inhabitants.

But it took until the pauper's district to finally see actual life. Not in person but behind barricaded walls. The buildings here were only held together by good will and an ample amount of dirt, excrement, and trash. They heard whispers all around them and the various lights were quickly snuffed as they got closer. Annabelle tried to continuously steer her direction towards the fourth circle but the houses were built in a way that mostly led them the other way.

As they turned a corner, they stumbled upon a woman with a child barely a few weeks old. The stranger looked to her sides and then realized she had company. She let out a terrified shriek and fell backward onto the ground. Instead of getting up, she placed her baby in front of her as if it were an offering.

“The muse protects me”, she muttered and then abruptly got up to dash away. Tharia let out a loud groan and forced herself past Annabelle to give chase but it was a pointless endeavor. She then picked up the baby and held it like it as something dirty.

“Take your damned child along! Will you!”, Tharia shouted after the fleeing mother.

But the mother was gone and they were now equipped with a very loud and very irritated baby. Tharia hobbled back towards Annie and held the kid in her direction.

“Carry it”

“No”, Annabelle replied. It was then that they noticed the whispers around them getting harsher. They were loud enough to make out details.

“They took the baby”

“Monsters”

“Gonna eat the poor thing”

“We should do something”

“No chance, they’re whole”

Tharia listened on. With each whisper, her expression turned sourer. It changed from slightly miffed into one of open hostility. Finally, she held the baby high up above her head and shouted at the top of her lungs.

“If none of you fuck-nuggets takes this idiotic shit-flinger off my hands, I’m going to see just how bloody far I can throw it"

Annabelle stared at her friend and felt the hunger within spark again. Just kill her. She deserves it too. It’s not your friend anymore. Surely she fell like all the other humans. Just look at her. Kill her, take what is yours.

Loud metal thuds broke her dire train of thought. The bars on one of the doors were pushed aside and it opened with a creak. A pockmarked hand reached out of it and the word ‘Muse’ was repeated several times. But instead of just handing over the baby, Tharia clasped one hand around the wrist and snarled.

“Who is the mother?”

The inhabitant gave a name Annabelle had never heard and going by the look on Tharia's face, neither had she. But it seemed to satisfy her either way.

“Good. You will take this blasted thing and give it back. Don’t hand out babies to strangers you bloody wankers”, the young woman said and finally lowered the baby into the waiting hand. She then let the hand go. With surprising speed, the baby was pulled into the house and the door was locked but a short breath later. The whispers around them finally died down.

“I get the feeling”, Tharia said breathlessly with a sudden sick pallor on her skin, “We should find this Muse character and have a stern talk”

Annabelle nodded quietly. Tharia once again took lead and she walked after the other woman, too lost in thought to bother. She had just misunderstood her friend. She wouldn't throw an innocent child, would she? The uncertainty sparked more thoughts of murder and left Annabelle confused. Why did the mind of murder feel more comfortable than memories of joy? Annabelle shivered and noticed how her own expressionless face had momentarily shown a sneer.

Break her. Kill her. Eat her.

End: At the gates of madness | Coming up: The forlorn Muse