Lateral Movement

by Alzrius

788 - Those Who Protect

I’ll grant you this boon, my Champion, but be warned: your follower’s interstitial state will not last indefinitely.

With that, the glowing eyes of the Night Mare’s image had dimmed and gone out.

The abruptness of it all had left Lex momentarily nonplussed, only dimly registering the sudden release of tension in the cathedral chamber. While he hadn’t expected the Night Mare to make a gaudy display of power, the terseness of her reply was in stark contrast to the other times that she’d seen fit to communicate with him. As it was, if it hadn’t been for the fact that she’d spoken to him directly, he’d have wondered if she’d seen fit to answer his request at all.

But that makes sense, he decided after a moment. Our other conversations were either a result of my summoning her, or her appearing in my dreams. But while the former necessitated direct communication and the latter had been because she’d wanted to make herself unambiguously clear, this ceremony was different.

Held in front of a congregation of her faithful, it had been as much about his ability to perform such an elaborate service – gathering and securing the obedience of so many willful and dangerous creatures, asserting authority over this consecrated area, remaining steadfast as he’d recited the liturgies even while the neart a’staigh had cut him – as it had been about the Night Mare herself.

That was, according to what he’d read in the Auctoritas Caliginous, an expression of how the truly faithful resolved the paradox – worshiping a goddess who exalted self-reliance – that lay at the heart of the Night Mare’s religion. To that end, it wasn’t surprising that her response to his entreaty had been direct and without flourish; it fit perfectly with her dogma of helping those who helped themselves.

As if to prove that, a low groan came from Woodheart, stirring on top of the Night Mare’s altar as her eyes fluttered open. “Nnngh....what....?”

“Remain calm, Woodheart,” intoned Lex quietly as he changed his vision so that he could see fluctuations of positive and negative energy. “You’ve just been revived after having been comatose for several days.”

As expected, the goddess had done as he’d asked: Woodheart was now showing the excess of positive energy expected of a healthy living creature, while Thermal Draft had both positive and negative energy in a state of equilibrium.

It had worked.

Or rather, it had worked for now, according to what the Night Mare had said. As for how long he had...

Several seconds of examining Thermal Draft revealed no clues in that area, and with a sigh, Lex returned to using his darkvision. As far as visual acuity went, the ability to see via life force was a far more limited spectrum than any he’d made use of so far, having a range that was not only markedly short but had virtually no periphery to it. That sharply restricted its use as a detection tool, even if it served as a useful diagnostic instrument.

For her part, Woodheart sat up slowly, groaning softly as she put a hoof to her face. “Days?” she muttered, rubbing her eyes. “Why was I...?” Pausing as she pulled her hoof back, she sucked in a sharp breath as she suddenly rubbed her eyes again, blinking frantically. “I can’t-, I can’t see anything!” she blurted. “What’s going on?!”

Cursing softly at his having overlooked how anyone would likely panic if they woke up in total darkness, Lex moved to Woodheart’s side as she started flailing about. Reaching out, he caught one of her forelegs in an iron grip, stopping her from inadvertently striking Thermal Draft’s unmoving body. At the same time, he called upon his horn, causing a candle’s worth of fluorescent light to illuminate his face. “I said calm down.”

Naturally, Woodheart – seeing a monster with slit-pupils, sharp teeth, and jagged claws grabbing her, as well as the unmoving body lying next to her – did exactly the opposite.

Sighing as the druid let out a bloodcurdling scream, Lex immediately clamped his other claw over her muzzle, forcing her back down onto the altar when she started struggling to free herself. Fortunately, his new body made it easy to restrain her, holding her down with no more effort than it would have taken him to subdue a kitten. Ignoring the distressed mare for a moment, Lex instead turned his attention to the assembled acolytes. “You are all dismissed.”

The assembled creatures wasted no time in leaving, and Lex couldn’t help but notice that Bagora was the first one out the door. A few paused on their way out, perhaps hoping to witness some brutality against the mare he was restraining, but all it took was a glare from Lex to send them on their way.

When the cathedral chamber was empty, Lex turned his attention back toward Woodheart, who was now beating her free hoof against his chest in a pathetic effort to free herself. Ignoring the attacks – even without his magic items, his defensive enchantments and organometallic fur made it impossible for such feeble strikes to hurt him – he looked down at the earth mare calmly. “I understand you must be very confused,” he stated, making sure to keep his voice relaxed and even. “But a great deal has happened while you were unconscious.”

The words seemed to have the soothing effect that he was hoping for, as he felt her wild thrashing subside, though her breathing was still accelerated as she looked up at him with wide eyes. Deciding to take that as progress, Lex continued. “Now, if I release you, will you conduct yourself in a rational manner?”

A shudder ran through Woodheart then, but she managed to nod, and Lex slowly removed his claws from her. Swallowing, Woodheart took several deep breaths before she licked her lips. “Where are we?” she asked, managing to keep her voice level as she sat up again. “Where are my friends?”

“We’re currently underground, in a location known as the Shrine of the Starless Sky, which is considered holy to my goddess, the Night Mare,” answered Lex. “The rest of your comrades, as well as your familiar, are all here as well.”

“And...her?” she gulped, gesturing toward the mare lying insensate beside her.

Lex managed to suppress a grimace. It was no surprise that she didn’t recognize her traveling companion, as Thermal Draft’s loss of consciousness had returned her to her insectoid appearance, confirming that she truly was a doppelganger now. “She’s Thermal Draft, whom you knew as a pegasus.”

In the dim light, Woodheart looked her over. “So she’s really a doppelganger? I had no idea.” She paused as her eyes turned back toward him. “And you...?”

Instead of answering, Lex focused his telekinesis on removing the neart a’staigh. Slowly cleaning the vestments of the blood, he returned them to wardrobe where he’d found them, having brought it downstairs along with the Auctoritas Caliginous. Once it had been secured, he used the weak healing spell the Night Mare had given him – his small cache of divine spells having renewed themselves at the same time as the Charismata – to close the cuts. After that, he slowly donned his clothes and magic items, only answering Woodheart’s question once he’d finished.

“I underwent a trial in the Night Mare’s name. What you see now are the results.”

Woodheart digested that for a moment, before slowly climbing down from the altar. “What about-, oh! It’s slippery!” For a moment she struggled to regain her balance, looking down at the floor and wrinkling her nose. “Is that blood?!”

“My own,” answered Lex, slowly picking up Thermal Draft in his telekinesis, the expanded aura brightening the cathedral ever-so-slightly. “It was necessary to shed it as part of the ceremony that revived you.”

For a moment Woodheart didn’t say anything else, and Lex was about to take her to her friends when she spoke up again. “What happened to Toklo?”

That hadn’t been a question Lex had expected her to ask, and he furrowed his brow as he glanced at her. “The adlet?”

Woodheart nodded. “Is he okay? I wanted to save him.”

That statement made Lex scowl, recalling the circumstances that had led to Woodheart’s extended brush with death. “You were a fool to risk your life for that creature.”

He expected the druid to argue, but instead she cocked her head. “Maybe you’re right. I’m sure I caused a lot of trouble for you and everyone else if you had to do all this” – she gestured to the blood around the altar – “to bring me back. But I didn’t want Toklo to die like that.”

“You forget that he and his companions attacked us,” spat Lex. “He would have killed you and all of your friends had he been able, something which made his execution entirely justified.”

Woodheart looked down, seemingly saddened by what he’d said. “I talked to him a lot while we were marching through the snow. He told me about how happy he was to have been given his first mission, that he wanted to impress some of the girls back in his tribe, how much he was hoping to make his father proud and, well...”

She flattened her ears. “He just looked so scared when you threw that mask at him, it made me want to protect him.”

Raising her gaze, she met his eyes then. “And you, too.”

The biting retort Lex had prepared in response to her maudlin sentimentality fell away at that last statement, and he gave her an incredulous look. “Protect me?!” he sneered. “I need no protection! Especially not from meting out justice on anything that would dare harm a pony!”

Woodheart blinked, wearing her confusion openly. “But Drafty told me that how we met Toklo was almost exactly the same as how you met Solvei, and it’s obvious that you love her very much.”

Lex went rigid at that. “That’s not...the two situations are completely dissimilar-”

“And since the way you fought to save everyone back in that village made it clear that you care deeply about others,” continued Woodheart guilelessly, “I didn’t want you to be sad when you realized you’d killed someone who could have become your friend later.”

Despite his defensive enchantments, protective magic items, and his new body’s inherent toughness, Lex found himself completely skewered by what the druid was saying. Although he’d been able to justify his attempt to slay Toklo as a response to the adlet’s previous actions – vehemently denying that his own loss of control had been a factor in what had happened – all of his reasons were equally applicable to how he’d tried to kill Solvei when he’d first met her.

Which, in hindsight, had been one of the worst decisions he’d ever made.

And now, in light of what Woodheart had so casually mentioned, Lex could see that trying to kill Toklo had been another instance of extremely poor judgment on his part. Because if he had successfully slain the adlet, then in all likelihood he never would have been able to reach an accord with Yotimo, the leader of the war party who was also Toklo’s father. That deal had been something that Yotimo, in turn, had reported to the rest of his tribe, which had brought Akna running to join them.

Her presence, Lex knew, had not only been what had enabled them to find the Shrine of the Starless Sky, but was also the only reason he’d been able to bring Solvei back.

All because Woodheart had wanted to protect Toklo...and him.

“Is he okay?”

Woodheart’s question broke Lex’s concentration, dragging his attention back to the earth mare. “...what?”

“Toklo,” replied the druid. “Is he okay? You never said if I saved him or not.”

“You saved him,” muttered Lex, shaken. “He’s back with his people now.”

Suddenly wanting to put this entire conversation behind him, he brought Thermal Draft’s unmoving body over to him, standing upright to hold her in his forelegs. “Come, I’ll take you to your friends.”

He didn’t wait for her to reply as he walked toward the cathedral’s exit, keeping his horn lit, his thoughts whirling as he reviewed his recent actions, judging them in light of what he’d learned about himself and the Night Mare both.

But his thoughts came to a screeching halt as he left the building and looked across the open area at the center of the Shrine, a bellow leaving his lips of its own accord.

“WHAT’S GOING ON HERE?!”

Author's Note:

Reevaluating his past actions in a new light thanks to Woodheart's gentle nature, Lex is shocked by what's happening outside the cathedral!

What have the mares of Fail Forward gotten into now?

Comments

[Booster Spice]

Oh dear. For every success theres two Fail Forwards?

[Alzrius]

11476602 Ha! Hopefully whatever's happening now will result in moving forward, failure of not, for Lex and the others.

[TheAbsoluteRadiance]

Don't tell me Lex gonna realize that friendship really is magic.

[Not so New Brony]

One task accomplished and one pending...or rather, two tasks postponed and with another unknown time limit to boot. And then Lex now has another issue added to the pile. Hopefully this one can be resolved quickly and peacefully...well, as peaceful as one can be when dealing with hostile individuals...and I don't just mean the Keeper and his acolytes..

[Alzrius]

11476944 Oh, I wouldn't go that far.

One thing I wanted to slip into this chapter, but couldn't quite make work, was that what Woodheart's saying here actually dovetails with the Night Mare's religion. She's not a goddess of slaughter; that's Blaze, the war goddess. In her faith, killing should only be resorted to when there's no better use for a creature.

[Alzrius]

11477077 Well, at this point a lot depends on what exactly is going on with the Keeper, Teyu, Littleknight, and the rest of Fail Forward. Which honestly, when you describe them all, really sounds like it has the potential for some wacky hijinks. "What happens when you mix four blind mares, an irate almiraj, an overbearing talking skull, and a playful seven-headed-crocodile-wolf monster? We'll find out in today's episode of My Little Entropony!"