Day 31

Clarissa Evans

The days after returning to Hall from the top of the Tunnels were strangely normal. A sort of familiar routine that the world before set itself to. Work a shift and then make the most of the time you had. Stuffing that good stuff in between obligatory sleep and unfortunately necessary occupation. Clarissa found the whole thing surreally hilarious and was conflicted when the Council meeting was set. It meant that Malachi had decided their time of rest was over.

On one hand, the redhead was thrilled to find more exciting targets soon. The little Ratsins were simply lacking any challenge. From the beginning really, but, Clarissa had a bet with herself that she could take out a Goliath on her own. Something the archery commander very much wanted to enjoy, as an experience one or another.

On the other hand, was that the current good times would have to come to an end. Mostly minor stuff, fun and social. There had been some engaging duels and discussions that were the talk of the Hall. She was partial to the fights.

Additionally, the most exciting of events was the disgrace of Warner. It inspired many a wide eye stare and whisper in the corner. Loud taunting would have been involved too, but their bearded leader was annoyingly convincing. Or thought so. Really it was for Julia’s sake she kept the man happy. Lucky him.

With the Council gathering, they were on the eve of their toughest battle. The archery commander was ultimately thrilled, even if she mourned the end of their little period of peace. Looking at those sitting at the table, not everyone had her mental equilibrium. Gloomy and thoughtful was the mood of the day. Clarissa felt the devil in her bubbling with laughter, wanting to see them sharing in or taking it. She muted the mischievous aspect as the timing wasn’t right. Thoughtful pessimism was a good place to start with trouble ahead of them. Giant fire-breathing rats were serious business. Apparently.

Few could see the humor of the everyday, much less the fantastical.

The gloom king was, of course, Warner. For him, she almost let the gremlin that was her humor, out to play. Also lucky for the big man, Clarissa was a merciful goddess. Not hard to hold back when he looked so pathetic. A pained look was now his norm, when not stealing anguished looks at Molly. The cool-eyed woman had finally shown her smarts and skedaddled. The woman herself seemed not to notice as she stood off with Julia in a quiet conversation. It was doubtful the acolyte of curses wasn’t aware. Such a smooth operator was just ignoring the desperate man. So no, the redhead didn’t need to taunt the fool as this scene was already deliciously set.

She hummed to herself, pleased for the moment. Her own glance found that Malachi was still fiddling with the control panel. Based on mutters and a quick uninformative(boring) explanation, it would apparently be very useful during their planning secession. Giving aid to their most dire of questions, how does one kill a dozen giant rats and their colossal overlord? The subject matter was exciting, but the idea of a PowerPoint presentation was not.

Phelain entered in his normal boisterous way, smiles and loud greetings. Thus did he signal that the meeting would begin soon. The wannabe knight had been sent on a quest and Damian entering after showed that it had been successful. Everyone except the obsidian acolyte had shown up on time. Being that there was every reason to have the magic man’s input, the Council was forced to wait. Now the boring part could finally start. Clarissa would gladly sit through this if it meant she would soon meet new and interesting monsters. And shoot them.

“I have returned with our wayward member!” beamed Phelain as he took his customary seat between Vincent and Warner. It made sense for the meatheads to sit together. The proximity allowed them to pool resources for the occasional(so rare!) sensible thought. Better the muscle brigade stuck together.

In the lull after greetings and everyone taking a seat, Damian said, “Pardon my lateness. I did not realize I was a permanent member. It was my assumption that my appearance before was a temporary consultantship. While I am flattered to be on the Council, I feel I should ask… Am I truly the proper choice? My social skills are, after all, not the best.”

“I believe I can speak for everyone in this when I say, we absolutely believe you belong amongst us,” smiled Malachi. Everyone nodded their agreement. Even emo Warner gave a mopey one. “Your expertise in Mana is a valuable and necessary addition to our resources. The guidance of the Council would be limited without you.”

“So, I am a kind of department head?” asked Damian, his tone taking on the muted tone of being excited and flattered.

“In a manner of speaking,” acknowledged Molly. “I can bring my experience as a spellcaster, but your knowledge does outweigh my own. Frustratingly so.”

“Excellent!” said Damian, happily rocking. “Do we get titles?” His tone changed as he spoke suggestions, reminiscent of an announcer, “Like, King Malachi, Leader of the Sixty or Vizer Molly, Mistress of Logic? What would mine be?”

“I don’t like the idea of this suggesting that we’re setting up a Monarchy…” grumbled Malachi.

For the sake of fun and the drama, Clarissa ignored the boring beardie and declared, “Wizard Damian, Supreme Mana-antor!”

“Heh, like Sorcerer Supreme?” asked Phelain with much merriment.

The redhead rolled her eyes, “Pshaw, wizards are way cooler. Forever! Period and Forever!”

“Those two things seem kinda contrary don’t you think?” observed Vincent. “One is a concept of endlessly and the other a single ending point.”

“Well, wizards are clearly both,” stated Clarissa seriously, but with a smirk trying to dance free. “They’re metaphysical after all. You hear that, Damian? You better start working on being temporally endless and a single point of time all at once!”

“I will endeavor to do just that,” replied Damian, very honestly.

Malachi cleared his throat to draw their attention (and kill the fun). “Let’s shelve the discussion on titles. I’m not sure we need them and, well seriously doubt we need them… Anyways, there is a more pressing matter at hand. The final obstacle is to clear the first floor. A pack of rats is in our way. Giants, they may be, but I want a plan to wipe out that problem. Completely.”

Clarissa frowned and made sure it was the right kind. No reason to let anyone think she wasn’t being serious. With this, the mood around the table had died again. She wasn’t happy about that. Sure it was a serious subject, but the redhead didn’t feel like there was anything wrong with having a good time discussing it. Best not to be dour until the world forces it.

Man, Malachi sure did turn into a sourpuss once he took the job seriously, complained Clarissa. Way better than whatever cult of personality Warner would have had going. Blah, boredom, or incompetence are terrible choices.

Silence and tension would just make the boredom worse, so the archery commander spoke up to keep things continuing, “Sooo, what I am hearing, and guessing… is that running in and throwing everything we got all at once is… not the answer? Cause we got a whole lotta boom… Pretty sure we can shred ‘em.”

“Reckless endeavors have proven to be ineffective,” retorted Malachi mildly. Anger flashed in his eyes if not in the tone. Clarissa grinned behind her hand so she could see Warner’s reaction. It was a treat to see. “We have come to the cream of the Ratsins, I would prefer us to approach them with caution and guile. What information I have demands that we do so at a bare minimum. Once the Council hears from Reuben and Warner directly, you will all no doubt agree with me.”

Malachi gestured at the scout to start them off. The man rose with a cocky wink that the redhead liked the spirit of. There was a kindred spirit there, someone else that hated this board room stuff. Maybe we need to bring beer and wine to these things? mused Clarissa. Good for a tavern room feel instead!

While she was busy with the dream of many office workers, Reuben moved over to the control panel. Using the sword acolyte’s visual guidance the scout was able to invoke a tablet of energy to appear in the air. Reminding her vaguely of a tv or projector screen. Though, at first, it seemed to be just a transparent shape of light and shadows. A neat effect, but seemingly useless. Clarissa didn’t buy that of course. Not with the amount of time Malachi had spent fiddling with it “for the meeting.”

Rueben picked up an oval object from the control panel and turned back to them. His face scrunched up in concentration as the tablet shifted into an image. Clarissa didn’t recognize the location, but the terrain was familiar. It very clearly displayed some part of the Tunnels. It was a disquieting and queasy picture. Stone and light seemed to cycle erratically. With each blink the view was different. The only stable feature was a distant hole in the wall. Deepest black highlighted with a blue so bright it was white.

“Right, so this is the Giant’s Lair,” announced Rueben. “A very disorienting place, weird as shit. The ground is more stable than it seems, but the lighting is in constant flux. That combined with the distorted landscape, we get this odd freakin’ effect. Good ambush country.”

“Hey, can I ask a question?” interrupted Clarissa with mounting excitement.

“Uh, yeah, I’m here to inform… after all,” replied Rueben with a shrug.

Very quickly the redhead released her curiosity in a spam of words. “How are you making that appear? Is it something you prepared before? Is it a memory? How hard is it to project it from your head to the air? Is it easy to put something up there? Are you concentrating really hard to keep other shit from appearing?”

“Ahh, shit that’s a lot of questions and off base too…” blinked the scout. “Alright, so it is pretty easy to do and the enchantment or whatever helps you out. Only let’s what you want to be up there. No worries about naked people or your nightmares popping into the show.”

A devilish grin made an appearance across Clarissa’s face, all the way up to her eyes. “How fascinating… Speaking of naked people, hand over that controller. Let me show you what I saw when Julia opened her door to my knock this morning…”

Something blitzed passed her eye. Very close to her eye and extremely fast. Behind Clarissa somewhere there was an ugly crack of stone. Neck moving like a rusty hinge, the redhead tracked the blur back to a tiny demon. The shieldmaiden’s eyes blazed with every promise of passionate hate. “YOU… will do… NO… such thing!” threatened Julia.

Clarissa nodded politely and rapidly several times. Showing that her tail was firmly tucked, turned towards Reuben as the image of a perfect student. The molten glare lingered hotly upon her skin, but eventually, the sound of someone sitting came from the right direction. She didn't have to be warned twice about not crossing a line and Julia’s had been very clear. While the woman would likely apologize for the outburst later, the redhead had no plans to push a grumpy badger any further than the first growl. Especially when whatever was thrown at her was currently firmly lodged in the wall. The thick stone walls that resisted magical attacks. It was time to take a break from tricks and laughs.

Things went boring while she laid low, as would be expected. Reuben cleared his throat and continued his report. Blah, blah, blah…. The scout didn’t see much of anything as the Ratsins, despite being giants, stayed out of sight. One item of his account that perked up her interests was that the loud one had noticed the scout’s presence from across the cavern. This happened, despite him being in full cloak and never catching sight of the titan in return. That was a sign of awareness leagues above most Ratsins. Clarissa was intrigued and excited by the challenge.

Soon, but not soon enough, the scout ran out of things to say and the others of the Council ran out of questions he could answer. There was a little bit of a tense moment where everyone waited on Warner, but tried not to look at him. Death was something the Sixty had come to accept to some degree. It was a fact of The Pit. The brawler, though, had led his team to their doom on a lie and everyone knew that. The once rival of their leader was now in an awkward spot. Neither pariah nor outcast. Just in ill favor.

The big man got up under their curious eyes. The disaster was known, but the details had not been shared. Reuben passed off the controller and gave a reassuring pat before taking a seat. It was a somber stance that Warner watched them back with. The heartache Clarissa had glimpsed before was buried, even when his survey crossed over Molly. There was no acknowledgment of the drama between them from either of the two. Only silent professionalism. The air vibrated with their effort.

Calm over an edge of mournful, Warner summarized their experience assaulting. Explained what seemed to work and why they were ultimately overrun. This had Clarissa’s interest. Though lacking the usual entertainment that was the brawler’s usual bravado, she paid attention to every word. Her tactical mind devoured the information. She was careful to mask the focus by appearing to be devoted to making shadow puppets on the table. All along the big man’s talk, the floating screen presented various scenes. Like a clip show playing important moments. As the lecture came to an end, the final picture was of a titanic figure shrouded in blue shadows.

Warner drawled to a conclusion, “If I was to sum it up, the Goliath Ratsins are trouble, but something that can be handled. That titan is the real concern. So, in my opinion, we wanna break chaff quick as we can. It would be best to be finished with the honor guard before the king decides to step in.”

“Thank you, Warner,” acknowledged Malachi, tone tight. “I promise that the Sixty will give worth to this knowledge you were able to give us.” After the brawler took a seat, the bearded leader addressed the Council. “That is what we know. Around a dozen of the Goliaths and a mystery titan, on rough and disorientating terrain. Definitely feels like a boss level to me, but if we go in prepared there shouldn’t be an issue.”

Clarissa lapsed into thought. The titan rat was the kicker to the whole thing. It seemed that the Goliath Ratsins were in the same vein as every Ratsin before it. They were giant and strong, but little different than every hungry ball of horror in the Tunnels. Strength aside, the Sixty hadn’t had to fight something intelligent before. There had been a trap, but it was clear who had ordered the giants to set it up. She delved into several scenarios while the Council threw around ideas for how to take out the minions. Paying only enough attention to keep track of where archers would best be used.

The issue that stuck with her was that they didn’t quite know the dynamic within the Giant’s Lair. She wondered if any of the others noticed the change. From the beginning, the Ratsins had been hungry to the point of cannibalism and that dictated their behavior from then on. Even the variations they came across were a result of that all-consuming goal. The giants and their boss played by new rules. Cooperation and hierarchy had displaced strongarm supremacy. Racing for the best food was no longer the only plan of action. A dangerous shift in the ferocious monsters.

That meant that when the pack of Goliaths charged, it wasn’t a mob of individuals anymore. There would be unity in their intent. A mass moving together. She doubted that the Ratsins were smart enough to work as a good team, but they wouldn’t be fighting each other as much as the Sixty anymore. The titan would roar and its giants would listen. Warner had learned that first hand. There was a difference. Clarissa hoped that others would see it. Understand the difference.

Looking at the Council soothed some of her nerves. The archery commander forgot who she was working with. There are capable people, thought Clarissa. When I ran the town… there was a lot of working with or around stupid. Not to mention cross purposes against the few brain cells around. Here, yeah… it’s pretty nice how we’re all working towards the same thing. And how strange it is to be surrounded by competent people… sure Warner is a dumbass, but there’s a good head in there when he isn’t choosing to be a pompous ass. She smiled at all of them. Clarissa was happy to be here with them. A better adventure than one could hope for.

An outline had been more or less laid down for the Goliath Ratsins. A mix of overwhelming force and trickery. No doubt the minutiae would be debated for hours yet. Maybe days, but Clarissa was ready to talk about how to kill a nightmare titan.

“Alright ya’ll, that’s how to take out the trash, but what I want to know is thisss… how are we gonna tear apart that mother fucking titan rat? Are we going for a good dicing? A hellfire of magical arrows? Obliteration via spell swarm? Can we, or better yet, should we focus effort on removing one limb at a time? It would be fun to have a stubby man-rat wiggling on the floor!”

Several groaned at the imagery, but it got the subject change she wanted. Talking about the bigger problem would make it easier for her to encourage the right realizations. From there a solid plan was assured. Clarissa grinned like the devil and dove into the conversation.