There were few offshoots from the main corridor which Damon, Ria, and Vel walked along. When they did reach a juncture, it was never more than a split between two paths, with one of them often leading to a dead end. It was perplexing, if somewhat of a relief, given how linear it made their search.
“Why would whoever built this place have included so many useless paths?” asked Vel. “Do you think it was left unfinished?”
“Perhaps some of the corridors were once filled with traps?” guessed Ria. “A trapped hallway need not be extensive to trick the unwary into setting off a trigger.”
“What a comforting thought,” muttered Vel.
“Shh…” Damon squeezed Vel’s hand, pulling them to a stop. “Did you hear that?”
There was a beat of silence, followed by a terrified scream, the kind preluded by the sucking in of a heavy, haunted breath. Damon instantly broke into a run, pulling Vel along with him, Ria matching his stride on Vel’s other side.
They didn’t have to go far. Down at the other end of the hallway they were following was an archway leading to another open chamber. Two figures stood facing one another within the swirling mist that occluded the space’s visibility. One clearly human, one clearly not.
Damon drew his sword, sliding to a stop and getting a real view of the scene. He hesitated, seeing a naked woman shielding herself with one arm defensively against the monster. The fact that she was naked was entirely secondary to the fact that she looked so much like Vel.
Not Vel. Lilian .
The monster was vaguely humanoid shaped, with tattered, inky black hair, putrid, shriveled skin. It was also naked, with knots of grotesque muscle visible within its frame and sagging, wrinkled breasts. It made a hissing noise and swiveled its head around, baring a mouthful of dagger-sharp teeth.
It attacked, surprising Damon with its speed. He dodged sideways but still took a thin claw strike across the neck. Blood beaded in a hot line across his skin, but not enough for the wound to threaten his life.
Ria swung her spear, battering the monster, rather than stabbing it. It fell backward, twisting up to its feet with unreal speed. Damon slashed with his sword, but only found empty air. His slash left a cut through the mist and he spun around, searching for the monster within the shadowy space.
“There!” shouted Ria.
She threw herself sideways, pulling Vel out of the way of a lunging surprise attack. Damon slashed again with his sword, but again, he was too slow by half. He remembered his earlier bickering with Ria about reflexes and himself wondering if she might have been right, as annoying as it was to admit.
He stooped down next to Lilian, making sure she wasn’t in a vulnerable position for the monster to attack next. There was a pause in the action as Ria pulled Vel to her feet and the four of them drew together. Damon stared into the mist around the outside edge of the chamber, unsure of where the enemy had fled.
“There!” hissed Ria.
She hurled her throwing knife, and Damon followed its path with his eyes until it disappeared into the haze. A gurgling hiss told him that it had struck true. He slowly approached, weapon drawn, making out the profile of the monster pinned by the knife through the shoulder, writhing in pain as it attempted to pull free from the wall without damaging itself.
“True Divine…” he muttered. He looked back and forth between the monster, a zanyadai , if he had to guess, and Lilian, who covered herself with one arm. “What happened here?”
“I don’t know,” said Lilian. “When I breathed the mist… it was as though my body was split in two. All of my clothing tore to shreds as it happened, and then this… this… thing just started chasing me.”
“The monster was your zanyadai half?” asked Vel.
Lilian looked away.
“How do we… proceed here, exactly?” asked Damon.
Lilian walked up to him and set her hands on the hilt of his sword. He didn’t stop her as she gently took it from his fingers. She walked toward the monster with slow steps until she was nearly within the reach of its clawed hands.
She took a harrowing breath and screamed, hacking into the zanyadai with the weapon over and over again, all fury, no technique. Blood coated the blade, her hands, small streaks across her face. She didn’t stop, not even when it became clear that the monster was dead. It was as though Lilian was trying to unmake it from even resembling a living thing, rather than just killing it.
Several minutes passed before she seemed satisfied with her work. A small chunk of shoulder and arm still pinned to the wall by the throwing knife was the largest identifiable remaining part. The rest lay in a pile of gore and shattered bone. Lilian spat on it before taking a few final, heavy breaths, walking unsteadily as she made her way over to hand Damon his sword back.
“You don’t understand,” she muttered as she looked at the rest of them.
“We don’t have to understand,” said Damon. “You have our support, regardless.”
“That thing was… a part of me.” She closed her eyes, looking so young, so much like Vel. A tear-shaped drop of blood clung to one of her cheeks. “The part I hated . Just because you accept a change within yourself and become used to it… doesn’t always mean it’s for the best.”
Damon pulled a rag out of his traveling pack which Lilian used to clean herself up. He took off his overshirt and gave it to her to wear. Vel had an extra skirt to go with it, though Lilian would still have to make do with bare feet.
“I’m here for you, Lil,” whispered Vel. She held Lilian’s hand and gave her a supportive smile.
“I’m fine,” said Lilian. “Better than fine. I’m me again.”
“If this happened because of the mist, what does that imply about what we came here to do?” asked Ria. “Lilian had this… corruption within her. If the Ocean Klykia produces essence, and it can save someone from such a curse in its condensed form, is the choice to dampen it as wise as it seems?”
It was a good question, one Damon didn’t have an answer for.
“She’s not wrong,” whispered Myr. “It’s a matter of… volatility, more than good and evil. I still think it’s the right course of action, but the choice is yours, Damon.”
He stayed quiet, letting Lilian have another minute to rest and recover.
“We should keep moving,” he said. “We still need to find aesta and the Ocean Klykia.”