Yallia

The walk to the water rift after Neils proclamation was a quiet one with seemingly no one wanting to break the silence. I probably would have started talking if I could have made myself understood, but the only time I had talked to a Lamia I was sent to a hole on the top of a mountain so it was probably best I keep my mouth shut for now.

Neil looked to be lost in thought as he led us through the corridors seemingly not concerned with the two Lamia who were whispering amongst themselves as they trailed after us.

Stopping suddenly enough that I almost walked into his back I saw Neil was looking on his left into a small alcove with a pensive look on his face. Looking in over his shoulder I saw what looked to be an old fire pit and signs that someone had been camping there but nothing else.

I turned to ask Neil what he had been looking at but he was already halfway up a set of stairs that led to the rift. Hurrying after him I followed Neil up the stairs and marveled at the ruins here. I hadn’t managed to get a very good look at them on my first trip here, what with everything else on my mind. Now that I was able to walk through them I could see the Human influence in their design.

The rooms were much smaller than a Lamia would create, the hallways too narrow, the stairs not very useful with their tails. From what little I had seen of their village Lamia preferred larger buildings, most likely communal living spaces with extended family. This was likely a Human settlement at one point, and given how crude it was probably just a temporary settlement while people built the cavern underground.

Jogging up the stairs, the sound of running water lead me on, despite my tension and exhaustion I started to feel a little happier, the Lamia behind us hadn’t made any aggressive moves and we were above ground again, and I would get to see a genuine dimensional rift!

When I crested the top of the stairs I could see that Neil was already half naked and removing the rest of his clothes. Given how shy he had seemed when I had joined him in the bath I had assumed that he or his people had a taboo against nudity, perhaps I was wrong. Or perhaps he had simply stopped caring.

Although I too wanted a bath pretty badly I was worried about the Lamia. I didn’t care so much about being nude in front of people but rather the fact that disrobing would put my knives out of easy reach. While the two Lamia hadn’t made any more aggressive moves since we had run into them I still wasn’t certain that they were trustworthy.

As Neil had demonstrated his water magic probably made him the most dangerous person on the mountain and getting into a pool of water could almost be interpreted as a threat.

Sitting on the edge of the pool I rolled up my sleeves and cleaned my hands and arms as best I could as I looked at the rift and the geyser of water it was spraying. With the mountains in the background and the small pool emptying down the mountain to fall far below it was a beautiful spot that was only ruined by the naked human standing in the water with his head under the spout of water with his mouth open.

Collapsing in the water Neil cleaned himself quickly before turning to look at me and asking. “Hey Yallia, do you have any more Kallaz? Or anything else to drink?”

“I thought you didn’t drink?” I asked confused. Although my memories of the night we got drunk were fairly hazy I was pretty sure I remembered him saying he didn’t drink. It was part of the reason I felt so bad for giving him the alcohol. I didn’t like being a negative influence on people.

“I’m starting to see why people drink. It would be pretty relaxing to have something now.” He said.

“No I only had the one bottle and we threw out the last of it and used the bottle to hold a potion.” I said.

Nodding Neil looked back at the two Lamia who were standing awkwardly at the top of the stairs. The taller and more muscular of the two looked confused while the smaller one just looked suspicious.

As Neil finished cleaning and sat back in the water he began addressing the Lamia in their language. Taking off my shirt so I was in my small clothes I tried to clean up as much of the blood and ichor as I could, but unless I was willing to strip naked and follow Neil in I wasn’t going to have too much luck. Hopefully this would at least prevent me from smelling like a slaughter house to any wild animals.

Their conversation went on for several minutes and two times Neil began to get heated until the Lamia explained something and calmed him down. Neil taking the offensive in the conversation surprised me a little, he had usually been fairly calm, and reactionary when we had talked.

Neil spoke for a few more minutes and pointed to the river beside the mountain that led all the way back to Puna where I started my trip on the island. When he finished speaking both Lamia began talking loudly and almost sounded panicked and began gesturing to the edge of the mountain closest to their village. I heard what sounded like the name Esther a few times in their response.

After several more minutes Neil stood up and got out of the water. Using his towel to dry off he began talking to me in my language so suddenly, I missed the first few things he said.

“They’re willing to bring us down the mountain to their village to talk to the elders.”

Frowning I looked at the two Lamia who looked back at me, the larger of the two Lamia was eyeing me with obvious interest and the other looked at my bare shoulders with a little more subtlety. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what they were thinking. “Can we trust them? They sent me into the underground as soon as I had arrived in their village, and they banished you down there as soon as they found out about you as well.”

“I asked about that. Apparently they seemed to think that you knew me, you asked for me as soon as you arrived they said?”

Shaking my head I answered. “Bullshit, I just pointed at the mountain, they were the ones who used your name, I just repeated it afterwards.”

“Well it seems that Hallice is the only one in the village that really hates outlanders, most other people are varying degrees of indifferent. They were also pretty worried about the Empire expedition you mentioned and they said if we mention it to someone called Esther we should be able to talk to the Lamia.”

“And you believe them? They could just be lying to us to bring us into a trap, get us some place that we’re outnumbered.”

“I don’t think so, they were friends of Shasaala’s so when they say they want to help us I believe them. Our only other option is to take our chances in the jungle, which would be tough because we would have to stay close to these ruins anyways to intercept the expedition.” Neil said.

Thinking about the deep jungle I had walked through with the Lamia hunting party I considered our options. When the Empire came here they would almost certainly make contact with the Lamia, if only to try and force them into providing cheap labor for their excavation, or trade for food. If we could convince the Lamia to not help the Empire or even be antagonistic towards them it would make rescuing my father all the easier. Even though I had promised not to start a fight between the Empire and the Lamia, I was fairly confident that the Empire would find a way to annoy the Lamia enough to start a fight on their own. Even if they didn’t, we could use the time we had before their arrival to learn the lay of the land and make plans to rescue my father.

“How confident are you that we can escape from the Lamia if they aren’t as friendly as you hope they’ll be?”

“Pretty confident, I have some ideas for using water as a shield, and I’ve realized that if I use my mana to manipulate water that already exists rather than make water from mana and then use it, it’s a lot easier.” He said raising his arms in the direction of the pool. As he did so a solid wall of water raised out of the pool. Holding it for a moment the two Lamia looked somewhat stunned before he lowered his arms and it fell into the pool with a plash.

“Alright, we’ll try it your way. But I think we should have a few more potions ready just in case we need to run like hell.”

With a nod Neil said something to the Lamia and ran down the steps.

“Where are you going?”

“To get potion stuff! I’ll be back in a minute! You just chill with your new friends!” He called back.

New friends? I didn’t even know their names. Still it wasn’t like this was the first time I had to pick up a language.

Looking at each other awkwardly for a few moments I finally broke the silence. “So, I’m Yallia, who are you?”