“It’s good to see you’re alive, ma’am. Very fortunate for you that that wench inside the cavern took that moment to run out, screaming. I dread to think what happened to her, swarmed as she was. This really isn’t the place for frail people.”

Geela wanted to scream. How was VoidCrusherXX still alive? Some people absolutely coasted by on pure luck, but it just wasn’t fair that this man has survived so long. It was enough to make Geela wish she hadn’t killed Noire’s other kids if only so that their regions would have been sufficient to off him earlier.

The problem was, luck or not, clearly he had some proficiency with fighting or magic. There was a reason the rattish had coasted through him, a reason he’d survived the medusas’ lair, a reason he’d managed to get this far. Stupid, yes. Loud, certainly. Deserving of a blood-curdling, agonizing death? Without a doubt. But still, he was just good enough to survive, which meant he might be just good enough to take Geela out were she to try to attack him. She wasn’t a fighter, so she’d have to come up with an extended scheme to kill him, which was definitely on her to-do list—which consisted right now of: Save Darkos, Kill Noire, Torture VoidCrusherXX To Death. So it was pretty up there. She just… couldn’t do it right now.

So she listened instead. Listened and tried not to scream.

“How have you not sssslit its nassssty throat and be done with it?”

At first, Geela thought the low, wheedling voice was just her conscience and ignored it. It took a full ten seconds, and another whisper of “Do it. You know you want to. Cut off its nassssty head,” for Geela to remember she didn’t have a conscience.

She cranked her head around, looking over her shoulder to find that her cloak, still bundled around the rattish, had maneuvered its way up her shoulder.

“How can you talk?” she hissed at it. “I tied your mouth shut.”

“I don’t need a mouth to speak, ssssilly.” Its voice slithered in her ear, and she shuddered. “I simply need to know your most inner thoughtssss, and I can give voice to them.”

“You think killing him is my most inner thought? I could not be clearer about my intentions.” Geela’s eyes snapped up to where VoidCrusherXX was strutting, still prattling on about some past expedition where he’d killed seven plagued deer or something incredibly boring.

“Then do it.” The voice was so miserably unpleasant to listen to, all wet and nasally, that it managed to make the idea of killing VoidCrusherXX less enjoyable. “Wring itssss filthy neck.”

“Do me a favor and shut up,” Geela said.

“Ma’am, I’m going to have to ask you not to speak to the prisoners,” VoidCrusherXX said. “They’re wiley for sure. Why, last time I took a prisoner, she managed to sweet talk me so well I ended up in the cell and her free. She was quite cunning.”

“Did she ask you to free her?” Geela asked.

VoidCrusherXX chortled condescendingly. “Ah, I’m not quite so simple, little lady. No, rather she promised me great riches if only I slipped her my key. I was young and--”

“Stupid?”

“I beg your pardon!” VoidCrusherXX clasped a hand to his chest. “You have no idea what it’s like to be in that position.”

“I do, actually. Just a few months ago.” Geela shifted the rattish so that it slipped off her shoulder and bounced against her back. “Except I was in the cell to start. And by the end, I had blown up the entire castle.”

VoidCrusherXX took great pause at this and managed to shut up for a whole several minutes, while Geela fished out her map and took a look. Her eyes flicked at the various regions before landing on Noire’s nest. A chill ran up her spine as she took it in for the first time.

It was the darkest thing on the map, which was impressive given the whole thing was pitch black. But the nest itself pulled at light, life, and matter itself, marred only by some odd blurs surrounding it. The blurs shifted, alternating between shrouding it and revealing it in its hideous glory. After a second or two of staring, she pulled her eyes away from it and forced herself to find her next destination.

She’d put a pin on Nefaria’s rat city, and Hari’s medusa metropolis was well marked. That left three regions on her map, two of whom were Bugsquito’s weird towers and Scout’s mindless frogzone. The third was the final region, her last chance to gain an edge on Noire.

She needed to make sure she was heading the right way.

“I’m actually trying to get rid of them,” she said to the still very stupified VoidCrusherXX. “I’d originally kidnapped them with the intent to get them to bring me to Noire but now that I have this map, well, what do I need them for?”

This seemed to snap him out of his stupor. “Wise decision. I’d say I was surprised that you didn’t come in with a map, but I’m not really. It’s a rookie move to be sure, but that’s okay.”

Geela’s fists tightened. “Well, if you have a map you’d be willing to share--”

“Oh no, you seem to have it handled.” He did step closer though, peering at hers. “Yours is a little undetailed though.”

“I figured we could drop Bugsquito off here.” She jabbed a finger at one of the unmarked regions, “then we could drop off Scout there.”

“Why bring a froggert to the Wolve’s Den?” he asked, blond eyebrows touching each other as he tried to understand Geela’s reasoning. “Unless… Did it ask you to drop it off? Ma’am, could you be doing its bidding?” VoidCrusherXX’s chest inflated with indignation.

“No no, silly me. I must have gotten the bug world and the ‘Wolves’ Den’ confused. My mistake.” She marked her new destination on the map and snapped it shut. “Come along.”

“It’s a common mistake to make, mixing up the void regions,” VoidCrusherXX said.

“Are you going to be accompanying me this whole journey?” Geela asked. “Don’t you have some void crushing to do?”

“It wouldn’t do to let someone as hapless as you go alone. My code wouldn’t let it.” He shook his head, golden locks waving dramatically as he did.

“If you are to accompany me,” Geela said, “you’re going to have to keep up.” Without giving VoidCrusherXX another moment to respond, she tapped her foot and melted through the floor, prisoners in tow. She hopped her way through another five walls before coming to a stop to catch her breath. But she only rested for a few minutes before taking off at a light run. Gods, she needed some actual sleep but with VoidCrusherXX on her heels and Darkos slipping closer and closer to Noire, who was either getting stronger or weaker, she just didn’t have the time. She ran for another half hour before finally coming to a stop and pulling out her map again.

“Where to now, little princessssss.” The rattish had crept back up her shoulder again, and Geela shivered, rubbing a hand where it felt like the voice was physically entering her ear. Then she shrieked as she felt something actually enter her ear. She hurled the rattish to the ground.

“Why in the most damned of hells would you stick your gods forsaken tail into my ear.” The bundle of cloak shifted around on the ground as the rattish tried to escape. Geela grabbed the monster in one hand, by the head so it couldn’t get away, and with the other hand fashioned her cloak into a seamless bag. It wasn’t too hard to add some stitches, since she’d more or less invented the cloak as part of her apparition, so after a few moments of pressing edges together, she had her sack. Then she dumped the rattish into it and sealed the top.

“Release me, mortal,” it hissed. “Releassssse me at once.”

“Nope. You want to be a rat, you can stay on the end of a leash. You want to be a snake?” She tied the bag to the pole where Bugsquito’s cage hung from. “You get to stay in a bag.”

“I am no sssssnake,” the rattish said, drawing out the letter til the hairs on Geela’s arms stuck up. “Reptiles are not allowed in the Void Realm.”

“Really?” Would be quite an odd rule but Geela couldn’t disprove it. She hadn’t seen any reptiles, after all. Amphibians, bugs, mammals, fish, but no reptiles. “What’s Noire got against reptiles?”

“Nothing.” Bugsquito crossed its arms, staring balefully at the bag that kept bopping its cage. “It’s just lying to you. That’s all they do, all day long.”

“Hmm. You really are a little snake, aren’t you.” Geela started on her walk again after verifying her direction.

“I am of the ratssss,” it said. “Responsible for plagues and disease. A creature with ignoble ancestorsssss and a great swarms of descentsssss.”

“I’d argue, but the last great plague of the land was started by me. And I did use rats.” Geeela paused for a second. “Not that a little serpent like you would know anything about that. You must be… Terha’s monster then.”

“I am no ssssuch thing. I am the child of Nefaria.” Its voice slithered around the word almost reverently.

“Ew. I met Nefaria, and I never saw anything particularly snakeish about her.” Geela shrugged. “I think you’re lying, just like you lied to me about reptiles in the Void Realm.”

“Yessss, okay, that was a lie.” Its voice was starting to sound a bit urgent. “But I assssure you, thissss is the truth. I am of ratssss. I am of Nefaria.”

“Well, I don’t know about that,” Geela said. “I haven’t met Terha’s monster yet.”

“I’m Terha’s monster!” Bugsquito’s voice shot up three octaves as it squeaked in rage. “I am the scourge of the islands. And I’m better at spreading disease than the rattish will ever be.”

“Snakes,” Geela corrected.

“Then the snakes will ever be.” Bugsquito stuck its nose in the direction of the rattish’s bag, perhaps trying to emulate someone sticking their tongue out. The little void scum really did develop its own personality the more it stayed away from its swarm.

“I am not a sssssnake.”

“You stuck your tail in my ear,” Geela said. She jumped through a wall, not giving her newest victim the chance to argue back. “That’s a real snake move.”

“What’s all this about snakes?” Scout’s voice joined the fray for the first time in a few hours.

“About time you woke up,” Geela said. “I was starting to wonder if you’d join us. I’ve kidnapped a snake.”

“Not a sssnake!”

“That sounds like a rattish,” Scout said.

“I assure you, it’s a snake,” Geela said, not able to keep the smile off her face.

“I asssssure you, I am not.”

“Hmm.” Scout sounded doubtful. “It says it’s not.”

“It’s trying to trick you,” Geela said. “Think about it. A true rattish would be trying to deceive you. That’s what they do. A rattish has no pride, it takes pride in its cunning. If it was truly a rattish, it would do everything but try to convince you it was a rattish. So it must not be one. It is, instead, something that slithers with no limbs, has long hairless tail, and hisses. Rats don’t do any of that anyway. Ergo, snake.”

“Hmm.” Scout sounded a lot less doubtful now. “That might just make sense.”

It absolutely didn’t, but Geela had long ago learned that if you talked long enough, people started ignoring what you had to say and just started listening to your tone.

“But… But… I am a rat.” The poor rattish now sounded almost as confused with its identity as Scout was.

“If you are a rattish,” Geela said, “then you’re a very bad one. But if you’re a snake, then you’re a very good one. Pick your poison.”

The rattish stayed quiet for a few seconds, before whispering, quite sadly, “Then I suppose I am a ssssnake.”

“Don’t be sad, Snake.” Bugsquito reached a single, pale white finger through its cage and patted the side of Snake’s bag. “She has dubbed us with similarly offensive names. We will stand tall through it!”

For the rest of the journey, Scout and Bugsquito assured Snake that it was okay to be a prisoner and that, all told, they really could hope for worse.

“After all,” Bugsquito said, “I think many of the other void monsters would have killed us by now, were we not with her. She’s from the mortal realm, they value life there.”

“Careful,” croaked Scout. “You speak dreadfully fondly of the foul witch.”

“I mean, yes, of course, she’s evil and horrible and we’ll kill her the moment we can.” Then Bugsquito dropped its voice. “But for now, we could ask for worse.”

“Ssssspeak for yoursssself.” Snake’s voice still sounded broken. “I can’t even sssssee.”

Grinning, now that she’d effectively broken another one of the void spawns’ pets, Geela hopped through another few walls before her exhaustion really caught up with her, and she had to admit defeat to the night.

Because VoidCrusherXX was clearly too dense to trigger a psychic ward, Geela had to be creative. She pulled a thin piece of thread from the waistline of her top and carefully began winding it around the hallway on both sides, anchoring it with little staples and keeping it as tight as possible. Then, when enough of the two sides were rigged that anyone who approached would trip the trap and cause the thread to tighten instantly, she took the ends of the string and tied them to Bugsquito.

“What’s this—”

“Shh,” she said, hushing it. “I’m going to sleep, and I need you to be quiet. Especially if someone tries to sneak up on me. My hearing is pretty good, so I’m not terribly concerned, but I just need you all to stay quiet if something sneaks up.”

Bugsquito’s eyes went huge before it began rubbing two of its free hands together, cackling under its breath. “Yes, yes, go to sleep. I’ll make sure if anyone shows up, I am as quiet as a pillow.”

Geela was honestly pretty proud of her trap. Though VoidCrusherXX was often noisier than Geela could believe, he had managed to be quiet enough to sneak up on her before. But with the tripwires Geela had woven into the tunnel, if he got within ten feet, he’d snap one, causing quite the whiplash on her little alarm system. Bugsquito would holler something fierce to ‘give him cover.’ From there, well, Geela could figure it out.

It didn’t end up mattering because no one snuck up on her in her sleep. She was almost disappointed but not actually because nothing would be worth needing to handle VoidCrusherXX.

The following day’s journey was reasonably smooth and Geela made a ton of progress. She had her static trapper charging, she was well refreshed and could pull out an illusion at need, and she was ready to fight whatever horrors lurked in the Wolves’ Den.

They reached the next region, ostensibly Sinistrina’s by process of elimination, about midday. It was impressively themed. The entrance to the cavern looked like a wolf’s mouth, carved out of stone. An icy breeze wafted out from within, chilling Geela to the core. Technically the wolves should be the weakest. They should be weaker than anything she’d fought thus far. If she could get to the heart and destroy it, take down two of Noire’s regions, that should be enough to cause it some weakness.

She could do this. Given she had all her senses about her, she was far less thorough in perparing. The fact that she could see allowed her to visually blink if need be, something she hadn’t been able to do with the dazzling lights of the medusa metro or the pitch black of the rat city. So she had the extra tool in her pocket.

She did, however, grill her little monsters a bit on what she might find inside.

“Inside lies nothing but ssssspiders and sneaksss,” Snake said. “You will be bitten within momentsssss and die of poissson.”

So she could rule out spiders and sneaks, but honestly, she’d expected wolves anyway, so this wasn’t helpful.

“I refuse to divulge the secrets of the great wolfkin,” Scout said.

“The wolfkin are the largest and most dangerous of all the monsters,” Bugsqutio said. “You won’t live a moment. You won’t.”

That was about all she got out of them, but she could work with this. If the wolves’ biggest strength was physical prowess, hopefully, they’d been worn down enough by Sinistrina’s absence that she could handle them.

Obviously, she didn’t make a ruckus or anything, but she didn’t send in an illusion first or anything. Time was short and it wasn’t necessary.

She had to make this quick.