Outside Influences

“Blow up something else,” Orseis urged.

“No,” Bel replied firmly. Then she pursed her lips and reconsidered. “Not unless we’re someplace safe.”

“No,” Cress agreed, “no loud…” She gestured with her hands, clearly searching for a word. Her snakes rattled their tails with soft frustration.

“Explosion,” Bel supplied.

“Fun,” Orseis said simultaneously.

Bel turned to her shorter companion and shook her head in disbelief. “You need to work on your survival instincts, Ori,” she scolded. “I don’t know how you didn’t get eaten when you were little.”

Orseis shrugged and flicked her tentacles. “Survival when you’re small is all about luck.” She tilted her head and squinted at some distant memory. “Luck and hanging out with a bigger fish. Living on land is easy in comparison. Now blow something up.”

Bel flicked her in the head. “If you want to pretend to be grown up, at least try to act like it. Cress says no more explosions, so I’m not doing another one out here.”

Orseis trilled her lips, but when she saw the stern look on Cress’ face she decided to keep quiet. Cress was quickly pulling them away, clearly eager to get away from whatever would investigate the loud noise. She kept pulling until they emerged onto a wide, flat path that something had mowed through the forest.

The area had been covered in the same tall, spindly trees as the rest of the area, but they had been recently cut a few strides from the ground. The air was heavy with the scent of sap and shattered wood, and the ground was a flurry of activity as small scavengers ran through the mess of newly felled timber in search of an easy meal. Bel observed the strange creatures with interest; they were a mix of monkeys, birds, and monkey-sized wasps that were picking through the disaster. Cress didn’t seem overly concerned about the activity, although she made sure to guide the group around any area that looked too busy.

“What do you think knocked all these trees down?” Bel asked.

“Probably that titan, right?”

Bel followed Orseis’ pointing tentacle. The Titan was several thousand strides ahead of them, mowing through the forest with a large axe. A large, blue creature followed after him, munching on the grass and shrubs that where freshly exposed. Bel looked around and realized that all of the softer vegetation in the path had been picked clean. She looked around and saw a footprint too, although it was so wide and long that she hadn’t realized what it was at first.

“The perspective of this place is crazy, right? Wouldn’t he normally be below the horizon?” Orseis marvelled.

Bel tore her gaze away from the enormous footprint. “Yeah, I think so.” Instead of descending below the horizon, the Titan had moved upwards with the inside curve of Olympos. “I have no idea how large he is, other than by comparing him with the trees,” Bel said, glancing from the giant to some of the felled trees around her. She took a step forward to get a closer look at one of them, but Cress grabbed her by the shoulder.

“Wait,” the other gorgon instructed.

Bel watched with interest as the other gorgon pulled a strange metal device out of her pack. It consisted of a small, metal looking tube that was attached via a straight rod to an arc of metal with several gradations marked on its surface. Cress pointed it at the Heart of Olympos and then began adjusting a few different knobs. She scratched something into the ground and then pulled out a large, rolled up map.

“What on – er, what in Olympos is she doing?” Orseis wondered.

“I think she’s navigating. James mentioned that ancient humans from his home navigated the open ocean by measuring angles to the stars.” She shrugged. “I’ve never anyone doing it though. It’s worthless in Satrap where Technis’ Barrier doesn’t really let you get far away from land.”

“Huh.” Orseis rubbed her chin, pondering that information. “In the Golden Plains, we would ask a bird person. Seems simpler.”

“Yeah, but the Golden Plains doesn’t have much forest to get in your way,” Bel pointed out. “James says that in the modern world their phones tell them where to go, so they can travel to places that they’ve never been.” She tapped her earring. “Maybe he can figure out how to build something like that here in Olympos.”

One of the large wasps flew at Orseis, but she waved her spear at it threateningly unly is buzzed away.

“Speaking of James,” Orseis said once the wasp had lost interest, “why isn’t he calling you?”

Bel rubbed her earring. She chewed on her lip as she remembered how long it had been since she’d spoken to her brother. “I don’t know,” she said, suddenly worried. “Maybe his signal doesn’t work down here? It’s only been a little longer than a day though.”

“But he said he was going to call twice a day after how long you disappeared in the mountain, right?”

Bel glanced at all of the Pillars poking towards the Heart. “He used that one Pillar to carry the signal, maybe it doesn’t make it through to the underworld.”

Bel sucked on her cheeks. “I hope nothing’s gone wrong up there.”

Orseis offered her a reassuring pat on the back. “Well, we’re already in a hurry. Nothing more we can do, right?”

“I suppose,” Bel agreed without any conviction.

Another one of the oversized wasps flew past them and turned back to circle them aggressively, so Bel glared at it. Once it hit the ground and monkey from a nearby branch leaped from a fallen branch and eagerly ran to the disabled insect. A moment before the monkey reached it, another wasp landed upon its back and the two went rolling along the ground.

The monkey flailed and writhed in panic, but the wasp had wrapped its legs around the monkey’s arms, securely latching onto its back. Bel grimaced as the wasp inserted a finger-length stinger into the monkey’s back. The monkey arched its back in silent agony, but its struggles came to a slow halt over the next few seconds.

Bel looked away with discomfort as the first wasp recovered from its paralysis and worked with the second wasp to chew the monkey in half. In a few seconds they were flying off, each carrying away half a monkey.

“This place seems rough,” she said, watching the creatures around them with more concern than before seeing the brutal scene.

Orseis nodded. “Yeah, maybe it was just the desert in the Golden Plains that was easy. Other than being too dry, and the threat of Spearheads from above, there wasn’t much going on.”

“And the cat girls,” Bel remembered.

“Sure,” Orseis grimaced, “but who would go there?”

Bel suddenly found her vision blocked by her little flower snake. She pushed it aside with irritation. “Stop it, Flora. I need to pay attention.”

The little snake flicked out her tongue at Bel, but continued to squirm. Bel looked at what had drawn the spirit snake’s attention, but all she saw was another downed tree. Although… something about it was strange.

“There aren’t many creatures scavenging around that tree, are there?”

Orseis’ eyes narrowed as she looked it over. “Yeah. Seems suspicious.”

Cress put her tools away and looked up at Bel and Orseis. “There,” she said, confidently pointing in a direction.

Bel glanced at Cress’ path and then back at the fallen tree. “Ah!” she yelped with delight, “I get it! It’s a spirit! It’s pretending to be a tree!”

“Really?” Orseis cried, intrigued. “How can you tell?”

Bel rolled her eye and pointed to it. “Because it bent like leather instead of breaking. Also, that monkey on it has three arms instead of two.”

Cress reached out, but she was too late to stop Bel from rushing off to the tree. Orseis patted her arm smugly. “Don’t worry, Bel is just doing Bel stuff.”

She proudly pointed her tentacles at herself. “I’m used to this stuff, though. It’ll be fine.”

Cress shook her head and hurried after Bel as Orseis skipped along beside her.

“No, no,” Bel lectured the monkey. “You should have two arms – here, let me show you.”

Bel grabbed the fake monkey and slightly liquified the extra limb, shoving it back into the spirit’s body. “See? That’s correct.” She glanced at the face. “Well, more correct. Go play.”

The monkey opened its mouth, squawked like a bird, and ran after a group of real monkeys.

Orseis stepped aside to avoid the little spirit as it passed. “Uh, so what are you doing Bel?”

“They’re trying to play, I think,” Bel responded with a smile. “At least I think so. They aren’t actively destroying anything.”

Orseis looked at the misshapen tree and remembered her new patron. “What if they’re waiting to eat anything that comes close? That’s what a predator would do.”

Bel patted the tree. “Not every spirit is like Dutcha. Spirits can’t really die, they just break apart and come together, so they don’t think like we do.”

Cress reached forward and pulled Bel’s hand off the tree. “Danger,” she said seriously.

Bel laughed. “It’s fine, it’s fine.”

“I kind of agree with Cress on this one, Bel,” Orseis said. “Maybe we should leave these ones alone? Or did you want to grab one to stick on your head?”

Bel reached up and rubbed the bald area where she was still missing a snake. Then she looked at the tree. “No,” she said hesitantly.

“Sparky messed with my head a bit and he was tiny. I don’t want to mess with a strong spirit unless I understand their nature. The last thing I want is to stand around soaking up sunlight when I should be dealing with my quest.”

Bel stared at the tree for another moment and her eyebrows shot up. “Oh, I think this one is breaking up.”

She stepped back quickly, and pulled Orseis and Cress with her. They both readied their weapons, but Bel pushed their arms down. “It’s fine,” she reassured them.

Cress gave her an uncertain look, but she lowered her heavy maul to the ground.

With a loud crack, the tree snapped into segments. Some of the larger limbs twisted their branches into legs and began crawling like large insects, and then a few of the leaves fell from the branches and warped into slightly misshapen birds. More copied them until an entire flock of slightly lumpy sparrows sat on the bare branches. With a flurry of wings, they took off. Then the trunk of the tree uprooted itself and began walking on its short roots.

Cress tapped on Bel’s shoulder and pointed back into the woods. “Go now?” she asked.

“She’s so impatient,” Orseis complained.

“I think she’s just excited,” Bel admonished. “Besides, we don’t know what shows up at night.” She glanced up at the glowing or that dominated the center of the sky. “If there is a night.”

She allowed Cress to lead them away, although her snakes peered behind her at the dispersing spirits. There was a loud clatter as they entered the unbroken woods, and the three of them looked back to see that several of the spirits were crawling after them. “It’s okay,” Bel assured her companions. “I’m sure that something else will distract them soon enough.”

She looked at her companions and was disappointed to see the distrust on their expressions. “Okay, I know that Cress doesn’t understand what I’m saying, but c’mon Ori, don’t you trust me?”

“Uh…” Orseis hesitated. “Trust you about what?”

Bel snorted and stomped forward. A moment later she came to an abrupt halt when Cress grabbed her arm and hauled her backwards.

“Danger,” the other gorgon warned. She pointed at wasp patrolling the ground in front of them. “Danger,” she repeated.

“The wasp?” Bel asked.

“Wasp,” Cress repeated. “Many wasp.”

Bel looked again and noticed that the first wasp wasn’t alone: there were several of them patrolling the ground. “Is there a nest?” she asked, but Crecerelle only shrugged in response.

Bel looked past the wasps on patrol and saw a translucent dome sticking out of the ground. It glowed with a familiar blue light. As she watched, a wasp carrying the corpse of some fresh kill landed on it. A moment later, the barrier warped to allow the wasp entry.

“It’s Technis Barrier,” she hissed angrily. “But it’s not even his ability. It’s just some trash he took from an insect.”

Bel shook off Cress’ hand and stepped forward angrily. The nearest wasp didn’t hesitate to lunge at her. Its wings buzzed angrily as it reoriented to jab its stinger through her abdomen.

With a flick of her fingers, Bel compressed the air in front of her and blew the insect apart with a liquid shockwave. The rest of the guards buzzed in unison, riled up by the sudden attack.

Orseis quickly jumped in front of Bel and tried to drag her back. “Whoah, Bel, are you okay? What are you so worked up about?”

“Even his ‘Great Barrier’ was a lie,” Bel spat. The words were like acid on her tongue. “He trapped everyone with the power of an insect. An insect!”

Bel blasted another pair of the angry wasps apart, but more spilled from inside of the barrier like froth boiling over a too-small pot.

“He’s just a lowly thief that steals from bugs,” she screamed. “Even the Dark Ravager was more honest!”

It made her angry. Furious. More enraged than she felt she could handle. Bel shoved Orseis back with one hand and reached up to rub Sparky’s fiery scales with the other. You know how to get angry, don’t you? she thought to her magma snake.

“Bel, you’re getting a little hot and glowy,” Orseis shouted desperately. “Maybe you should calm down?”

“I’ll be calm once I’ve burned this reminder of Technis into ash.”

Orseis blanched at Bel’s harsh, manic voice. “The wasps don’t really have anything to do with Technis–”

Bel growled as her body swelled with heat. Her claws burned the fire of her fury and the grass around her blackened and burned. Her skin swelled and broke apart, revealing a body of glowing magma.

The spirits that had been trailing after them responded to Bel’s angry shouts. Their wooden bodies burst into flames as they copied her, and soon Bel was joined by a pack of burning spirits all howling for revenge.

Cress stared in surprise and wonder, fascinated by the spirits’ reaction to Bel. Orseis had seen Bel interacting with spirits before though; she had a more practical response. She reached out several tentacles and grabbed Cress around the waist, desperately hauling the other gorgon away from Bel as the air in the area began to shimmer with heat. “Let’s just let Bel work this out of her system, okay? She’s got something against blue, glowing things, and she’s not thinking rationally at the moment.”