//------------------------------// // Parasite // Story: The Immortal Dream // by Czar_Yoshi //------------------------------// The inside of the ziggurat felt like walking into a tomb - and, at the same time, into a heart. A combination of high ceilings and flat metal walls displayed both an ambition and a lack of imagination, the lobby that greeted us spreading wide to both sides. Despite its vastness, it had a complete and claustrophobic lack of windows, made all the more jarring by how it was right up against the edge of the building. Someone could have given it windows. The outdoors were right there. But they had chosen not to, and even without the desolation and green fog, it felt like walking into an enormous griffon hand that was grasped around me. While you are here, the architecture seemed to say, nowhere else matters. You are mine. And then there was the fog. Whatever forces outdoors could dilute and disperse the fumes, in here, they weren't at play. Fog slithered and seeped from random objects, not only the seams between the metal plates on the floor but from dead light fixtures, from uncomfortable-looking rows of chairs in waiting areas, from the line of sterile reception desks along the wide back wall. When one jet of fumes stopped, another sprang up from somewhere else, over a dozen active at any one time, like the building was breathing and changed its mind about where its countless noses were every few seconds. A tiny revenant skittered across our path, smaller than a hoof and made of bolts and paper clips and other metal bits. Rhodallis smashed it beneath a sabaton before I could tell if it was hostile, or actually this place's version of an insect. "Hold up," he warned, his voice low enough not to attract the attention of the room's other revenants - some were patrolling, others were standing eerily in place, and one was even sitting at a reception desk, doing absolutely nothing. I glanced over. "Things work differently in this place," Rhodallis muttered. "The further we go, the less certain you can be that anything you see is real. It's not that your actions don't have consequences, but that those consequences might not be what anyone would expect. So be careful. And don't even think about trusting your own feelings." I swallowed. Great talk, pirate king. Rhodallis took the lead, getting us through the lobby without another fight. Beyond, things grew even more claustrophobic, square metal tunnels with walls exactly as wide as the ceilings were high leading us deeper into the ziggurat. Occasionally, enough damage had occurred to the metal plates that I could see underneath them at the seams, but every time there was nothing but concrete. It seemed like whoever had built this place just cast it in place, and then added the monotonous metal for aesthetics. "Where'd they get all this metal, anyway?" I whispered, uncertain if this was the time for conversation but wanting more and more to distract myself from the muttering in the mist. "Gyre's steel industry," Rhodallis growled softly. "The old government wanted rapid industrialization, but they couldn't find enough buyers in time. So, they became their own customer. Such a waste..." Huh. A green glare reflecting off the fog gave us warning before the next revenant rounded the corner, and Rhodallis swiftly passed Coda's cart to Bernard. This one was flying, two propellers above the front and back of its sausage-shaped torso, with no legs and two arms with long, needle-like claws... At least, that was the impression I got before Rhodallis struck. He lunged at it faster than my eyes could track, ramming a hoof deep within the thing's burning core. Rhodallis stood frozen, a crunch of metal reached my ears, and after about a second, the revenant's glow faded, its parts falling uselessly to the floor as scrap metal. Rhodallis kicked the scrap aside and continued walking without a second glance. Much as I felt like asking how he did that, this time, I held my tongue. We pressed on. It should have been pitch black, in absence of any revenants' light, but for some reason, that wasn't the case: the green fog itself seemed to provide some basic level of illumination, except it was incredibly inconsistent. The fog slithered, and our hundreds of shadows danced across the walls and ceiling and each other, in ways that should have been impossible with ambient or even many point sources of light. The shadows looked queasy, undulating with the mist during their brief time in existence before they were left behind and new shadows came to replace them, and if I stared at them too long, I began to feel like my head was swimming, too. Eventually, we came to a staircase next to a burned-out elevator shaft, one of its sliding doors halfway open, the other jammed off its rails and mostly closed. Instinctively, I stepped towards the stairs leading up, but Rhodallis shook his head, hefting Coda's trolley again and starting on the ones that went down. I glanced up, and then down. Below us was still that strange blotch in my vision, something I now suspected was a point in space that I could see through walls. Was that where we were going? Getting back outside, perhaps on the roof, would be so much nicer. And the more I stared at the blotch, the harder it was to look away. But Rhodallis continued his course. And, eventually, after several more stairs, we found something. It was a room inscribed with complex patterns of runes, most of which ran in straight lines that intersected each other at odd angles, changing directions whenever they hit an edge between the floor, walls and ceiling. I couldn't tell what they were drawn with - some sort of ink, luminescent and sparkly. Long-lived candles lined the walls, and at the back of the room was a wooden door where most of the runes converged, obviously installed in a custom frame long after the rest of the city had been gutted by flame. The fog was less prevalent here, most of the room's light coming from the runes instead. As I stepped closer, taking care not to walk on the runes after seeing Rhodallis do the same - Bernard didn't bother - the muttering from the fog faded slightly in my mind. It felt... better. And yet there was still something strange and unnatural about it, in an entirely different way that I couldn't put my hoof on. "We're here," Rhodallis muttered, stopping in front of the door. Then, raising his voice, he called, "Open up!" The door swung inward, the lines of runes that crossed from its frame to its surface glittering brighter as they were disturbed. From inside, a small griffoness wearing a starry black cowl peered out, nodded, and wordlessly beckoned us inside. Beyond the door, my boots found carpet. The metal had been removed from the concrete walls, and the concrete had been papered over, warm orange lighting flickering from candles and magical lanterns. Initially, refurbishing this area must have been a rush job, I could tell. Some of the foundational work was hasty, as if done by ponies with a sword held to their throats. And yet, bit by bit, it was in the process of being redone, ornate wooden trim covering up some of the seams, one wall barren with the supplies for remaking it laying out on the floor. The runes were still present, as well, tracing along the edges of walls so as to not get in the way, trailing off out of sight through a connecting hallway. There were also a few large weapons near the door, sitting in what had to be a hoof-crafted weapon rack. Altogether, it felt like a cross between an old mare's house, a construction site, and a guardhouse. And even though the green was gone, some other feeling had grown up to replace it, filling the room and turning its air into a hard, heavy, fragile shield. I tried to parse this new feeling, but my mind was too strained and addled from resisting the effects of the green fog, and I couldn't even get a hint before my faculties walked out in protest. The griffoness closed the door behind us, the room feeling somewhat cramped between me, her, two pirates and a block of ice. She glanced to Coda, her curiosity partially masked by a perpetual solemnity, and then turned to Rhodallis and bowed. "The Night's Boon bids you welcome," she said in a soft, scarred voice. "Are you here for our usual covenant, or something else?" Rhodallis shrugged. "As misfortune would have it, I'm here for both. But let's not negotiate here. I have better things to do than repeat myself." The griffoness bowed again, motioning for us to follow her down the hallway. "Then please, follow me. Though I should mention that you are not our only visitors today. Please remember our rules, and try not to cause trouble in the consecrated areas." "Oh...?" Rhodallis raised a heavy eyebrow, towing the trolley as he followed. She led us through an area that was laid out more like a large home than the labyrinthine dungeon comprising the rest of the ziggurat, to a degree where I suspected the walls were entirely customized and this compound was built inside a large, open room in the ziggurat's basement. The runes followed us through the hallway, reminding me of the guide markings in Icereach to help scientists not get lost. Except they were clearly more functional than that, on some magical level, relating to this place's freedom from the green fog... As we walked, I took a deep breath and tried once again to get a read on this place's feeling. It was confusing, and almost contradictory. There was a strong negative vibe in the air, feelings of frustration or pain or even agony, but they were intrinsically woven through with strains of joy, pride, stubbornness and accomplishment. Part of it felt like the celebratory buzz that came with overcoming a strenuous, rewarding challenge, only the afterglow was squished in together with striving during the trial, and even dread and anticipation before it. But that was only one of the feelings making up the atmosphere in this place. There were also threads of wild abandon, of living like there was no tomorrow, a passion and vigor that cared nothing for consequences. Alongside them were feelings that there really was no tomorrow, helpless and trapped. And beneath all of it, there was peace. Baffled, I resisted the urge to scratch my head, Faye helping to parse through the feelings that were pressing on my senses. What could be causing all of this? What could make someone feel this way, all at the same time? Despite how many things I had listed, I knew I had just scratched the surface of what was in the air. And it was also more alive, less a memory like the green fog or the feeling in the Icereach chapel, and more like what I remembered from touching the crystal heart in the Crystal Empire, except much more jumbled and not nearly so strong. Even if it wasn't that strong, it was still strong. We passed a door in a hallway that over a dozen rune lines connected to, and the feeling peaked as I looked at it. Whatever was making the place feel this way, odds were decent it was behind that door. For better or worse, the griffoness led us past that door without a word as to its purpose. Probably for the better. With all its conflicts and contradictions, the pressure this place exerted on my mind was overall a neutral force, neither good nor bad. That was a lot better than the green fog, which was clearly evil. It was also worse than something actively good, and my preference was for things that left my mind alone entirely and didn't feel like anything at all. We entered a bigger room, which stood out for several reasons. First, it was populated, with half a dozen ponies and griffons in starry robes sitting, kneeling or pacing around it. Some were quietly meditating, while others were painting or sculpting, most with an unhurried veneer of productivity. Second, it was the best-decorated area I had seen so far, artwork of varying quality hung from the walls, with hoof-made furniture that had too much time spent on the details. The room cleanly answered its own questions of where all this art came from, and what all of the Night's Boon members did down here. They took care of their space, gave it more attention than it could reasonably deserve, and tried their best to beautify it. This must have been their idea of cleansing the land of the memory of what had happened here. And, for a moment, it felt like a surprisingly good and effective idea. I could almost imagine myself as this building, repaying their care with gratitude. Except, whatever the thing behind the rune door was, it was still doing its thing. And the feeling I got from that outweighed anything else these creatures could be doing here. Whether they cared for this space or not, it was the dominant force here, not them. All of that was almost interesting enough that I could overlook the giant, jet-black suit of armor standing patiently in the corner. Almost. Rhodallis didn't. His gaze drifted to the armored creature, their broad shoulders almost rivaling his own stature, their face and eyes and every feature concealed beneath polished, lacquered steel. His eyes narrowed. "I know you. From the Wilderwind Resistance. What are you doing in a place like this?" "Waiting," the black knight said in a voice I couldn't place between masculine and feminine. "For you." "Are you, now?" Rhodallis leaned on one shoulder, his voice back to dripping with its usual condescension. "And why's that?" The black knight's helmet turned slightly towards Coda. "Consuls have loose lips. I heard what you're trying to sell." Rhodallis raised an eyebrow. "Are your masters interested? Think they can afford my price?" "I didn't come to negotiate," the black knight said. "I'm only here with a warning. You're trying to sell something that isn't property. She's a pony." Rhodallis shook his head and snorted. "Frankly, I couldn't care less what you think this is. To me, it's a means to an end. If you want it, make your offer now or forever hold your peace." "I only came to warn you," the black knight said, leaving with a clank-clank-clank of armor. Some of the Night's Boon creatures looked relieved. Bernard gave himself a satisfied smile. "Well, I haven't an idea who that was, but bold threats do make for entertaining gestures." "I'm glad you think so," Rhodallis grunted, stepping towards a lone door at the narrow end of the room. "Because if we don't strike a deal, you'll be guarding Coda solo up here while I show Halcyon the Core." Bernard's smile became worried, both self-deprecating and self-aware. Before Rhodallis could knock, the next door opened, moved by the aura of a unicorn who had to be pushing ninety years old. His snow-white mane sagged around his wizened shoulders, and he regarded Rhodallis with cloudy eyes and an eventual nod. "You're here for our usual arrangement, I take it." "Among other things," Rhodallis said, gesturing to me. "I suppose we'll need introductions... This is Halcyon, my newest curiosity. Halcyon, this is Lente. He's the leader around here, and a business associate. Now then." He trudged into the office on the other side of the door, still pulling Coda, motioning for Bernard to stand watch outside and for me to join him. The office had a carpeted floor, wooden walls and a papered ceiling. Lente took up a chair behind a heavy oak desk, watching for Rhodallis to begin negotiations. And for my part... I had no idea what to do. That introduction was apparently all I would get. Here I was, party to discussions even Bernard wasn't a part of, ostensibly to sell Coda but who knew what else on top of that. So far, we hadn't met enough ponies for it to matter, but I got the vague impression I was supposed to sit back and let Rhodallis take the lead. But now, if that was still the case, shouldn't he have confirmed my instructions explicitly? Or at least given me a better briefing on the plan? Maybe he suspected I would react poorly, since I told him I wanted to free Coda and he was trying to pawn her off. But if so, why bring me here now? If it was supposed to be some form of torture or power play, he would have given me more explicit instructions not to interfere. But it was almost more like... this was a test, and he cared less about negotiations going smoothly than seeing what I would do. "Right," Rhodallis said, positioning Coda's trolley front and center, "let's get down to business. The thing in this ice block is Chrysalis's daughter. She's a changeling queen, just like her mother. Everything I've been doing for you, she could do a thousand times better, and without the need for ongoing contracts." Lente frowned at her. "You think this filly could act as an emotional sponge for the horrors of this place?" My blood ran cold. How had I missed this? In all my speculation about this place, I had completely forgotten to ask myself what a group like the Night's Boon would want with a changeling queen. But now that I thought about it, it was chillingly obvious. The green fog was probing me because it was attracted by my emptiness, like opposite poles of two magnets. I could choose to embody this place if I let it in, just like Chrysalis did... and just like Coda could do too. And the Night's Boon wanted to clean this place up. The emotional scars here were literally leaking out into the air and possessing inanimate objects. So what if they gave them someplace else to go? Like into Coda. I couldn't let this happen. "Well?" Rhodallis asked. "A changeling queen was able to hold all this once before. Sure, she's already a little filled up, but even if you can't cleanse the whole city, you could dramatically expand your working area. Maybe even clean it up enough that the revenants leave you alone." "No way." I dropped my forehooves on the table, hard. "Isn't trying to stuff all of this into one person what caused this whole mess in the first place? Do you want to make another Chrysalis? What if she explodes too, and makes it twice as bad? And even if it did work, could you ever live with yourselves for forcing a kid to pay the price?" My heart was pounding. I was exhausted from the fighting, the walking, the heavy armor and the constant pressure of the green fog. I had no cards to play, no chips on the table, but I had just entered the game regardless. I had to. Lente glanced at me, and then at Rhodallis. "She has a point. Both a practical and a moral one. But what do you gain from her making it?" He focused again on me. "Why bring someone like this to such a discussion, Rhodallis?" Rhodallis shrugged. "I have my reasons. But you don't have any complaints about giving the energies of this place to me." Lente turned back to him. "You take them of your own free will." "Free will is an illusion for the likes of me," Rhodallis growled, gesturing at Coda. "I am what I am. But that goes double for her. She wants what you make her want. Changeling queens are vessels. They're giant trash cans for all the things that don't belong in the rest of the world, a few wretched sacrifices so everyone else can live better lives. Prioritizing the needs of the many at the cost of a few... Isn't that why your order is here? Squandering your chance to live lives outside of this accursed pit so that someday, it won't exist anymore?" Coda stared back, unblinking, from within her block of ice. Lente folded his hooves and sighed. "Why don't you let her out of there so she can weigh in on this for herself? Talking about free will is meaningless when she's completely captive." "No can do, old stallion." Rhodallis slowly shook his head, teeth gritted. "She was like this when I got her. There's no helping it. You can use her, or you can walk away with your morality intact and the same horde of revenants at your door that's always been there." My mouth hung open as my mind put up a final bastion of resistance against saying another possibly stupid thing. "If you really want to do the right thing, what about buying her off Rhodallis and then letting her go free?" Once again, Rhodallis didn't do anything to stop me from speaking my mind. Lente looked at me sideways. Eventually, he chuckled. "So that's your game. Trying to get me to buy her from two opposite angles. Making it look like a binary choice, where either branch results in a purchase! You're good, you're good. But I notice you haven't even given your price. Might as well put it on the table and get it over with." "...Nothing you'd be willing to part with," Rhodallis said, standing up. "And nothing I'd be willing to accept. Right now, I just need the Neo Everlaste Consulate to think I'm serious about finding another buyer after they turned me down. Which isn't to say I'm not serious about it. I just knew I could come to you to keep up appearances while looking for other options that are more likely to pan out." He fixed Lente with a look. "If anyone comes looking, we closed the deal and you're currently using the thing in the ice block as a mop head for your floors. That's the gist you should send, but be evasive and don't make any binding statements. I want the act to last for about a week, at least long enough for rumors to spread before the truth gets out. If those rumors make it to Ironridge, all the better. Think that'll sit easy enough on your precious conscience?" I blinked, taking all that in. "And in return?" Lente asked, looking entirely okay with being asked to spread baseless rumors about abusing Coda, even if he backpedaled from actually doing the deed itself. "The customary Core cleansing and checkup," Rhodallis said. "Plus a dozen scrapped revenants on the way here, and plenty more on the return trip. Anything else you want on the side? This is a bit of a special order." Lente nodded. "The Black Knight. If I'm to insinuate that we closed a deal on your changeling queen, I need some insurance that they won't show up here to make good on their threats." "They're actually called the Black Knight?" I stopped myself, remembering too late that my own role here was probably done. Fitting, though. Rhodallis ignored me. "I don't have the resources to track their every move. If they show up here again, you can let them in on the truth. But I'll make Wilderwind my next stop. If I run into them there, I should be able to head off any trouble." Lente proffered a wizened hoof. "Then we have an accord. I will prepare the lift to the Core. Your associates are welcome to stay in our sanctum until you are finished." Rhodallis bumped it, sealing the deal. "Thanks, but Halcyon's with me for this." Lente's eyes went wide. "You're taking a sarosian into the Core? You of all people ought to know how dangerous-" "Hah!" Rhodallis barked out a laugh, cutting him off. "It's like you don't know who you're dealing with. She'll be fine with me." I swallowed, following him out of the office. Minutes later, with Bernard standing solo guard over Coda, I left the relative safety of the Night's Boon's sanctuary, and the green mist returned with a vengeance. I didn't want to admit it, but... I liked Bernard. Sure, he made a show of acting affably evil, had a doubtlessly crooked past, scammed his friends and could shank me in a heartbeat if he ever felt like it, but without him, I was alone with Rhodallis. Rhodallis, I had much less reason to trust. Inscrutable as he could be, the only reason he had to keep me alive was that I was useful to him, and I didn't understand why that was. Even if he merely abandoned me, I would be screwed, tired and on my own in a cursed, twisted labyrinth beneath a blown-out, haunted city in the middle of nowhere on a continent far from home. Maybe I could find my way back to the Night's Boon and make some sort of deal to enter under their protection... maybe. But if he actually turned on me, I would be toast. We crossed another revenant, this one tall and bipedal, walking at a swaying slant that would have tipped over if it was a real creature. Once again, Rhodallis killed it before I could move, piercing it with a hoof and watching as its essence drained away. What had he said while talking to Lente, about giving the city's energies to him? Weren't we supposed to be replenishing ammunition for the ship? My brain started spinning, churning out theories about how the green fog was the ship's ammunition, and Rhodallis could somehow absorb it... Was he a changeling queen? The impression I got from all the Ironridge Bishops, Lilith most of all, was that they were something similar, but not nearly the same. But was it close enough that Rhodallis could absorb the fog just like it wanted to do to me? If so, what did that say about him? The muttering, pounding at my skull, hating and lamenting and cursing and crying and despairing... Was that what he felt like, inside? Were these voices one and the same with his thoughts? Hopefully not. If their goals were the same, and the fog wanted me to embody it as a changeling queen, that would almost certainly mean he would do something to help it get in. Like taking me to this Core, where the fog would obviously be the strongest. Great. I tried to shrug it off the same way Corsica might ignore something that bothered her back in Icereach, but I couldn't remember my previous train of thought to return to it. I tried to tell myself I was just being paranoid, as usual, but I wasn't. My paranoia was reasonable, grounded in reality, reinforced by every time something crazy came along and ruined my day out of the blue, and yet everything still turned out alright in the end, from a combination of inexplicable miracles and the supernatural durability of my mind and body. But this time was different. Once again, as always, I was at the mercy of fate. I was armed and armored, and yet there was no way out of this save for a miracle, for the actions of everyone around me to inexplicably resolve in a way that left me fine and on my hooves. It was the same as it always was. And yet this time, I couldn't shake the feeling that my fear was so much more real than before, that everything I used to worry about was silly and trivial, and that my prayers were useless words on the wind. That there were no gods here to hear me. Maybe it was the stakes. Dying? I had faced death plenty of times before. Maybe even actually died once or twice. But never had I seriously faced becoming a vessel for a force I rejected; for things I didn't want to overwrite my mask on my blank slate and become the new me. Losing everything I was, being forcibly remade as someone else... That was terrifying. "Why so quiet?" Rhodallis asked as we walked. "There's no need for stealth. You've seen how I deal with these." "You want to answer more questions?" I raised an incredulous eyebrow. "Fine, then. Do you believe in gods?" Rhodallis chuckled. "Of course I do. I practically am one!" "Bigger ones than you," I countered. "That doesn't count." "Then it depends on your definition," he said. "There are powers that be just about everywhere you look. Some of them even make for good sport. And others are just a good way to die... if they don't ignore you altogether. But it isn't my job to be mad about that. That one is special." "That one?" I tilted my head. "That one what?" "When you think about it, even the Night's Boon is a god," Rhodallis went on, ignoring me. "This whole city is like a patch of dead flesh on the world, left to rot even as the rest of the organism goes on living. And then this parasite thinks it can spring up right in the middle of that, make this dead space its own and decide it can set the rules. But that's a special case, and probably not what you had in mind." I screwed up my gaze as Rhodallis impaled another propeller revenant. The Night's Boon was a god, and also a parasite, growing in the dead flesh of the world? Was he... talking about their sanctuary, whatever the runes were doing and whatever mechanism it used to keep out the green mist? If the world was alive... That was a concept I had started familiarizing myself with a while ago. But he made it sound like in the space around this city, it had died, and then something completely different was growing back from the Night's Boon's sanctuary to take its place. That was why their sanctuary felt so different. I shuddered. I had no idea what kind of implications something like this could carry. "What about the kinds of gods you pray to?" I asked, saying anything I could think of to keep Rhodallis talking. "Those have never existed," he spat. "And if they do, they don't listen. Not to Chrysalis, and not to the countless souls who stained this place before passing their wretchedness on to her. Scream all you like, kid. No one can hear us. I know that for a fact."