Atop a jutting fragment of stark white bone sat a figure of rippling red fabric. There was no face nor proper head, no core to her being, but the fabric and smoke that made her up suggested the curves of a woman. She sat, one leg dangling off the edge, the other up to her chest.

Orders… orders. Orders. She had orders from the lord.

As much as she had little interest in playing the lord’s games, she had no choice. What the lord said, had to happen. And they saw fit to investigate the small girl and her child friend further.

The ancient bone beside the group began to split and crack open at a small point, and the naga protectively tugged Alister and Wisteria back with two of its four hands. Ode and Jacob stepped up to either side of the crack, the three of them at the ready with Alister and Wisteria ready to cast. A crackling skittering noise dragged its way out of the bone and into the air, breaking forth as a disjointed centipede made of bone fragments shambled out of it.

Easily as large as Ode and Jacob combined, neither they nor Neth seemed to mind leaping into action. Jacob and Ode shouted at once, “Eldritch!!”

Ode held her staff out, keeping her body in front of Alister, which was in front of Neth as well as the naga was still covering them, “Leave here and tell your father about this, Alister!”

“Like hell if I’m leaving this fight!” He shouted in return, earning a frustrated huff from Ode.

“It’s an eldritch creature damn it. And not a bone zombie. Relaying information is just as important as fighting! Stop being stubborn and-“

There was a loud ringing, piercing enough that all of them had to grip their ears in pain. Ode, Morgan, and Wisteria were brought to a knee, and Neth would’ve been too if he had knees. Jacob stayed standing, barely, and Alister stumbled, shouting a rushed spell, “Mute!” giving himself a short moment of reprieve.

It didn’t matter in the end, since that pause was the only opening the strange red fabric eldritch woman needed.

With a droning whistle, a clear film formed itself around Jacob, Ode, Morgan, and Neth. This translucent box shaped into hard corners, covering the dirt beneath their feet as well so they couldn’t dig or magic themselves free. The woman, if she had a sex or gender at all, stepped lazily off the jutting bone and onto the roof of the clear box.

She gave a deep bow, fabric and smoke swirling as though a ball gown, “Little girl and little boy. Keen am I to see your progress. The Lord wishes to see your progress. Show me. Show the Lord.” Her limbs, strips of spiraling fabric, opened wide. The broken and chittering bone centipede clambered across the top of the box to stand up on its lower half beside the eldritch woman. She set a hand made of red smoke on the shards of bone that comprised its head. Two glowing black eyes on the beast seemed pleased, a vibrating, clacking purr of rattling bones loudly resonating out.

It crawled down the front of the box toward the two kids. Wisteria was shaking in fear, still on her knees, completely traumatized from the last time she encountered something eldritch.

“Alister! Wisteria! Run! Leave us here!” Jacob shouted, slamming against the box in a futile attempt to break it.

The woman sat and patted the box, “Hush loud human. They will not run. It is not an option. Mage human, slave naga, and noble human. Stay put. Box is for your safety. This is not your test.”

Alister couldn’t run even if he wanted to - Wisteria was terrified, and this woman thing was stronger than he was comfortable with. He could feel it. Disturbing energy was radiating from her that felt unlike anything he had felt before, save for the one time they encountered that grub. But this was a denser sort of energy. Dangerous.

Despite her clear strength, she was uninterested in fighting the two herself. Instead, the crackling centipede would be their opponent.

It rushed Wisteria while she was still on her knees. Alister grimaced and tackled her, barely getting the two of them out of the way of a grab by the centipede’s pincers. Crap. It was fast. The thing was long, about twenty feet or so, and it was linked by what looked like branches made of bone. Each of its legs was two pieces of solid bone connected by single, long branches. It stood three feet tall, in total.

As Alister got up, he noticed that as fast as the monster was, it wasn’t very nimble on its many feet. It took a good deal of effort to actually turn. Alister nearly jumped out of his skin when Wisteria spoke up. “I’m sorry, Alister, but I’m going to call upon the gods,” she said, knowing it would make him uncomfortable, but… she was scared, and she wanted to make sure she didn’t get hurt again. Last time that… thing… tried crawling in her ear. He agreed with a reluctant nod, stepping back as she began to pray and got to her feet herself.

Well, it was up to him to distract the thing for the moment, then, until she caught the eye of whatever god she was praying to. As it charged for her one more time, Alister let out a shrill whistle and summoned a wall of ice, making it ram itself onto a wall of spikes. It was designed in such a way that the impact broke the wall, but the spiked mass fell atop the monster. The thing seemed to sense Wisteria was up to something and did its best to maintain focus, but another ice wall stopped it in its tracks.

A frustrated chitter came from its pincers, and it turned towards the source of the whistle. The source of the damned walls. The creature shook off the initial chunks of sharp ice that had fallen upon it. The bone was too hard for the density of ice Alister could summon quickly, but the monster turned its attention to Alister once it became clear that he would continuously block any advances it made.

The centipede turned its attention to Alister then, charging him as swiftly as it could. Waiting until just before it would hit him, Alister dove to the side, putting an ice wall between the two of them. Tall enough to see over, but not so short it could just be stepped over by the abomination.

More aggravated chittering told Alister that he had its attention thoroughly, and he met it once again with another ice wall. Simple, quick, just strong enough to do the job. Another charge, another wall. Again and again. More than a minute passed in this back and forth. Alister began to become worried; not for himself, he could do this all day, but what was taking so long for Wisteria? Surely it wouldn’t be that hard to ask for a miracle?

What was she asking for?

It wasn’t much longer before he got his answer as a voice called out across the field, quiet like Wisteria, but echoing in his mind. “Go, boy. I can handle this,” said the feminine voice in his mind. It felt familiar, a chill rising up his spine.

Wisteria was approaching at a steady walk, suddenly calm as could be. The moment of distraction was enough for the centipede, who finally managed to grab Alister in its pincers, the bones digging into Alister’s arms and pinning them to the side. This was short-lived, however. A greatsword of pure light fell from the sky and pierced the creature through the head but moments after the grab. “Abomination,” spat the being in Wisteria’s form, “Return whence you came,” she commanded, and the blade exploded. The head holding Alister was shattered into many tiny pieces.

Landing with a soft “oof”, the boy stared at the goddess possessing his friend. And there would be no mistaking it - the oppressive warmth of essence like that was a sensation he’d never forget. The question was, “Who…?” he asked, eyeing her cautiously.

“Advera, the Sword-Saintess of the Heavens,” she said. The image brought to mind memories from his life as Raalin. Wasn’t she…? He shook the thought out. This wasn’t the time for that. “Why are you still here?” she chided him for not leaving as she said.

Alister clenched his jaw, getting a bit of distance as he tried to figure out what to do. “Because you’re in my friend. I need to help,” he argued, wracking his mind for options.

“Hmm. Bold, to defy the gods,” said Advera, who stopped the charging centipede with an outstretched hand. “But noble. I will allow it this time. But you must be helpful,” she said casually, grasping the centipede with both hands and ripping off the current front in a whip-crack motion, before disintegrating it. “My time here is limited. Be swift and aid me,” she said as the centipede changed direction.