Jackal Among Snakes

At an unspecified time, Argrave found himself in an unspecified place. Considering he’d jumped into a pit, that was the intended outcome. But this was a little different than falling, he could tell—rather, it was like he fell out of the world they’d been standing atop rather than falling into it. He’d found a tiny crack in the firmament and slipped through like water.

“Parasite.”

Argrave couldn’t look around, not really. But he heard a voice. It came from somewhere in the direction of everything all at once. Or perhaps it was just behind him. The two weren’t mutually exclusive.

Though he tried to speak, he didn’t have a mouth anymore. He didn’t really have anything anymore. It couldn’t be some delusion, either—the Ravenstone was meant to protect him from all mental interference, all the machinations of the psychic and the divine. Yet somehow, the question he’d been intending to ask emerged from somewhere.

“Who’s talking?” Argrave’s tone was a strange combination of the voice he’d become and the voice he’d once had. “What is this?”

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Argrave remained rational enough in this strange trance to puzzle out that whatever he was conversing with was directly related to Sandelabara. And if he hadn’t died following the psychopathic Alchemist into an untested pit, there was knowledge to gain from this encounter. “What exactly am I parasitizing?”

“You’re the first to arrive. Move quickly. If you cannot, more than your light alone shall be snuffed out. It would be better to accept a parasite than fall into a abyssal chasm.”

#####

Argrave once again found himself in a specified place at a specified time—namely, falling through the same pit that he’d jumped into moments ago. The wind magic that the Alchemist had cast to shield his body lowered him gently with his will, and finally, this vast pit began to open up into something grander. He looked around at the others floating about him frantically, but could tell at once that this experience was his alone.

“Anneliese,” he called out. “Look at me closely. Do you see anything off with your [Truesight]?”

Anneliese watched him as she descended, catching his unease. She did study him closely, but then shook her head. “What happened? You look pale.”

“Got a message. Just a message, I think,” Argrave looked down below, where the Alchemist continued to descend. “I’ll… I can’t even describe it with words,” he managed, shaking his head. “But there’s something here. Called me a parasite, yet urged me to hurry all the same.”

“Gerechtigkeit?” Master Castro questioned, listening closely as they descended.

“I know what he sounds like, and that wasn’t it. There was always something vaguely mortal about Gerechtigkeit, but this… not a chance,” Argrave shook his head. “I’d only be speculating if I guessed further. That something, whatever it is, knows we’re here. And I’m not entirely sure what that means for us. Considering I’m whole and healthy, maybe it’s nothing more than empty words.”

Without much to go on, all speculation ceased as the widening opening became a vast cavern and stunned them all into quiet observation. Argrave could see isolated pockets of magma still persisting in the drained chamber, but other than that, this vast place had been completely purged of all molten rock. As in the magma moat where the dwarves persisted, miles away magma slowly encroached back to fill this empty cavity. It would take days before it came close enough to threaten them, yet still it came.

Everyone focused where he did. Argrave could barely see it at first, but as they floated near, he spotted her too. She wore a plain brown dress and a cowl, and rocked the baby. They headed her way as quickly as they could. Her movements were jerky, too, and Argrave thought he might be able to study this phenomenon more closely. Yet then… her head turned as she noticed them. She saw them, and her head pulled back in alarm. She opened her mouth to speak…

And then her head was turned again, and she rocked the baby.

Everyone froze in the air, yet the Alchemist proceeded. She turned her head again as his huge body cast a shadow over her… and like it never moved, her whole body shifted back.

“She’s returning to the same point,” Argrave realized. “Back where she started.” He looked back at the seagulls, and finally found some reason in the madness. Every time they teleported, they returned back to where they began their flight.

Argrave heard a scream, then looked back to see the woman crawling away from the Alchemist with her legs while shielding her baby. She returned once again, screamed once again, crawled once again… and this cycle repeated as he watched, standing above her. Looping infinitely, trapped in time.

Their party came to join the Alchemist as he observed, watching in abject caution. Their arrival made her only more afraid—Argrave supposed from her perspective, a group of freaks came to stand over her as she rocked her baby. Argrave saw things for a picnic—a basket, some food. Beyond the looping time, it all seemed rather ordinary.

“Every five seconds, she returns,” the Alchemist observed. “Five and one twelfth seconds, exactly.”

Anneliese floated near, barely suspended above the woman. She was greeted by a scream. “Can we communicate, do you think?”

Onychinusa scoffed. “Five seconds? What could you get from that?”

Anneliese hesitantly touched the woman’s leg when she returned once, then narrowly avoided a surprised kick. Anneliese floated above the tree, studying the realm around them.

The Alchemist, on her next cycle, ruthlessly slammed his obsidian staff down, killing the woman and her baby instantly.

“What the fuck?!” Argrave shouted.

Then… she returned. She saw them, she screamed, and she backed away, the same as ever. The Alchemist slowly pulled away his staff, studying it. “No blood, no gore. But her reappearance forcibly relocated the staff. Curious.”

“There are non-sentient things you might test that on,” Argrave reminded him, then shook his head with an alarmed sigh.

As everyone looked all around in stunned silence at this place trapped in time, Anneliese hovered back down and tried to communicate. It was pointless—five seconds wasn’t enough to say anything, let alone get a proper and coherent response from a woman frightened by their sudden appearance.

“I can’t make sense of this,” Argrave floated high up into the sky, studying the area. Everything moved for only five seconds before returning to where it came. The smoke from distant chimneys, the tides against the coast, the horses on the meadow, the birds in the sky—they were trapped in a loop, ignorant and immortal.

“Yet we have to,” the Alchemist reminded him. “We know what to be cautious of. Now, let us find where Gerechtigkeit’s energy resonates strongest.”

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