Lateral Movement

by Alzrius

813 - Suffer the Children

Lex didn’t bother trying to remain upright, sinking to the ground as exhaustion and his injuries caught up to him.

But Solvei was already there, their enhanced connection having warned her of his imminent collapse, resulting in her scrambling off of Sissel’s corpse in order to catch him as he fell. Master, she whined softly, and Lex didn’t have to look at her to know that she was wincing, eyeing where his severed leg had fallen.

It’s alright. Go check on Yotimo.

But-

I cut one of the legs off of that creature which attacked us in Darkest Night; the one I later merged with, interrupted Lex, forcing himself to stand upright. It barely slowed down, which means that I possess that same level of resilience.

He didn’t mention that the beating he’d taken from Sissel now easily eclipsed the damage he’d dealt to that eight-legged thing in the Night Mare’s realm. Nor was Solvei convinced, keeping her arm around him. At least give me the power to heal your injuries, or even just recover your stamina, the way you did for Silla after he’d lost his leg.

Lex hesitated for a moment; they still needed to recover the other adlets, which meant that conserving power was a priority in case they ended up encountering Hvitdod. But he registered Solvei’s anxiety spiking as she sensed his reticence, and he relented; in his current condition, he knew he wasn’t much good to anyone. “Healing and recovery,” he murmured, directing the Charismata’s power into her.

A moment later she fed it back into him, and Lex couldn’t hold back a grunt as he felt his wounds closing-

Just in time to hear another grunt come from Sissel.

Lex went rigid in shock, and he felt Solvei do the same, unable to believe that the snow giant was still alive. Then Solvei was rushing toward her as Lex began casting a spell; even if the snow giant’s body no longer shone with the light of aristeia, she was still an extremely dangerous-

“Wait...”

Sissel’s plea came as she turned her head in their direction, blood trickling from her lips. “You’ve bested me,” she groaned. “I surrender.”

“Oh you do, do you?,” spat Solvei, her features twisted in a hateful snarl as she reached for Belligerence. “Well guess what. We don’t accept-”

She stopped speaking an instant before Lex teleported her away from Sissel, reading his intentions even as she vanished, reappearing alongside him with a whine of dissatisfaction. Master! You’re going to spare her?! After everything she’s done?!

Sissel’s pained chuckle rang out before he could answer. “I have information,” she croaked, making no move to try and extricate herself from where Belligerence was pinning her to the ground. “Aren’t you curious? About what aristeia is? About Mother? I’m the one she left in charge. I know what she wants. What she’s planning. I’ll tell you everything, in exchange for my life.”

Master, this is some sort of trick! whined Solvei telepathically. We should kill her right now, before she tries something else!

Lex paused for a moment as he weighed his options...

Then he slowly approached Sissel. “Divulge all of the information you have, and then I’ll decide whether or not it’s worth your life.”

Another dry laugh came from her then. “Which is to say, you’ll listen to everything I say and then kill me.”

“If you don’t talk,” growled Solvei, moving to hover near Lex protectively, “then we’ll just kill you anyway.”

“It’s a quandary, to be sure,” answered Sissel, apparently unfazed. “If I don’t talk, then I’m of no use to you. But if I do talk, then there’ll be no more reason for you to keep me alive. And somehow, I don’t see you sparing me, no matter how valuable my information is.”

“Suggesting that you’re stalling for time in order to enact some other alternative,” concluded Lex, and his eyes lit up as black crystals grew around Sissel’s arms, legs, waist, and neck, leaving her immobilized. “Something which will be difficult now that you’re unable to make the somatic gestures necessary to cast a spell, nor have aristeia to help you break these bonds.”

“And if you do try something,” added Solvei, moving up to stand over the snow giant as she grabbed Belligerence, making no move to draw it from Sissel’s abdomen, “then you won’t live long enough to regret it!”

“Which means that your only recourse is to reveal everything you know,” finished Lex, “and avail yourself of the hope – however unlikely it may be – that it’s sufficient to change my mind.”

But even then, Sissel’s poise didn’t falter, and she met his gaze steadily as she replied. “Not so. There’s one other option.”

Lex felt Solvei’s uncertainty then, and it mirrored his own. He glanced around, cycling his vision through thermal, ultraviolet, magic, and several other spectra just in case she was making some allusion to someone coming to her aid. That was an imperfect response, of course; magic could easily defeat any of those modes of sight, the same way she’d used it to overcome his and Solvei’s sense of smell before.

But just as he was about to use the Charismata to imbue Solvei with heightened powers of detection, Sissel expounded on what she’d meant. “Your sworn oath.”

Lex’s lip curled at the suggestion. “You want me to formally pledge that I’ll spare your life in exchange for your information?”

“You and your servant,” corrected Sissel, canting her head in Solvei’s direction. “And anyone or anything else that you summon or control, like those slugs you used on Vidrig.”

“I’ve got a better idea!” Tightening her grasp on Belligerence, Solvei slowly rotated the weapon, causing Sissel to let out an agonized gasp as its barbs raked across her innards. “We make you talk, and then-”

“STOP!” roared Lex, rearing up on his hind legs in order to point his wire-wrapped foreleg at Solvei, the Charismata freezing her in place. “Solvei, we do not torture our enemies! Ever!”

“She deserves it!” With their heightened connection, he could almost feel her self-control slipping now that the adrenaline rush was wearing off, grief and rage coursing through her now that she had the cause of so much of her misery helpless before her. “She killed me! She maimed Silla! She kidnapped Toklo and the others! And she...she made Yotimo...”

“That was Grisela,” groaned Sissel. “I never touched him!”

“You think that makes it okay?!” screamed Solvei. “You knew what she was doing to him, and you didn’t do a thing to stop it, did you?! DID YOU?!”

Her voice broke at that last part, turning into a sob, and Lex could see tears forming at the corner of her eyes. The sight – and the realization through their augmented link that she was on the verge of breaking down completely – spurred him to action. “Solvei, go check on Yotimo. Right now.”

“But Master-”

“Confirm that he’s not in any danger, do what you can to help him, and stand guard over him.” He held his remaining foreleg out toward her, an application of the Charismata making it so that she had no choice but to obey. “Now.”

Her breath hitching, Solvei didn’t look at him as she released Belligerence and turned away from Sissel, heading toward the other side of the canyon. But when she reached the edge of it, her voice crept through Lex’s mind just before she turned the blind corner.

Please, she begged, don’t let her live.

Her words were still lingering in his mind when Sissel coughed up a mouthful of blood, drawing his attention back to the snow giant. Despite Solvei’s having aggravated her injuries, she managed a smile. “Can I take your calling her off to mean that you’re interested in my offer?”

Lex stared down at her, making no effort to hide his contempt. “Your desperate efforts to preserve your own life are truly pathetic. You betrayed and murdered your sisters, treated your captives with a level of indifference that can only be called depraved, and are now willing to sell out the one you call Mother. And yet now you think you can conduct negotiations in good faith, as though you were an honorable foe worthy of my respect.”

The smile dropped from Sissel’s face immediately, and long moments passed before she replied. “It’s easy for you to say that, isn’t it? You’re in service to a god, which means that so long as you stay in their good graces, your reward is guaranteed. I don’t have that luxury, which means I have to keep living, until I can find a way to secure my afterlife.”

The complaint served only to deepen Lex’s disdain. “Even without worshiping a deity, the souls of the dead go to a realm appropriate to their conduct. If a congenial hereafter is what you wanted, you should have comported yourself accordingly.”

Sissel snorted. “If only that were the case.”

Not giving Lex a chance to respond, she sighed. “Consider this a tidbit of what I’ll tell you if we can come to an arrangement: as one of Mother’s children, my afterlife is set, and has been since before I was born.”

The statement ran counter to everything Lex had read in the Libram of Ineffable Damnation, to say nothing of what the Night Mare herself had told him, and his only reply was a mocking laugh.

Sissel frowned at that. “It’s true. Or did you think it was a coincidence that we summoned daemons for help?”

“The implication being...?”

“Mother has a deal with the daemons: all of her children’s souls are theirs upon death.”

“That deal is unenforceable,” retorted Lex, his thoughts turning back toward what he’d learned from studying Thermal Draft’s infernal contract. “No one can sell something they don’t legitimately own. Regardless of whatever deal your mother made, your soul would still acquire its own numinous gradient and be drawn toward the corresponding plane of existence upon your death.”

But even as the words left Lex’s lips, a sliver of doubt was already crossing his mind. It was the same one that he’d felt when Silla had told him that Sissel was using venedaemons, reminding him of what Prevarius had said about pony souls ending up as commodities on netherworld markets...markets which Lex was aware, thanks to the Libram of Ineffable Damnation, were primarily run by daemons.

Venedaemons can summon cacodaemons, which are themselves able to capture the souls of the recently deceased, he knew. And there are other daemons which can abduct souls during their journey from the mortal realm to the Outer Planes. If this ‘Mother’ is the one turning the souls of captured ponies over to the daemons, it’s not impossible that she’s also arranged for them to take the souls of her children when they die.

“Where your soul is supposed to go doesn’t matter,” interjected Sissel, echoing Lex’s thoughts. “Daemons will take it anyway. It’s what they do; they’re an entire race of soul-hunters. Mother bargained for their help, and she owes them souls to pay off her debt, and that includes us. It’s why she hates it when her children are killed, since souls grow and gain value through life experience, so an early death means a soul that’s worth less to the daemons when they snatch it from the Astral Plane.”

Lex paused, digesting that. “And she’s also sold the daemons the souls of the ponies your cabal has abducted, hasn’t she?”

“She needs to pay down her debt,” answered Sissel. “You really think she’d let those pony souls go to waste after their bodies were eaten?”

Lex’s claws clenched at that, tearing up the ground beneath him. “And you still saw fit to serve this mother of yours, despite her abominable treatment of everyone around her?”

“Her deal was in place before I was born,” shot back Sissel. “All I can do is keep surviving until I can gain enough power to figure something out. And since I didn’t realize how strong I’d get by using Vidrig and Grisela to gain aristeia, the easiest way to do that was to keep serving Mother...at least until you made it impossible for me to kill Hvitdod for her.”

At that last part, Sissel’s thin smile reappeared. “That’s part of why she needed to bargain with the daemons to begin with. She’s got big plans, and daemon mercenaries and Hvitdod’s death curse are only small parts of it. I can tell you the rest...if you accept my surrender and guarantee that my life won’t be forfeit.”

Lex regarded Sissel for several seconds, then looked past her at where Solvei had gone.

Through their heightened connection, he was aware that she was crying as she tended to Yotimo. That knowledge blended with the memory of Sissel torturing her only a few minutes prior, which in turn led to his recalling how it had felt when she’d died.

Please, don’t let her live.

Holding his remaining claw out, Lex silently recalled Belligerence, Sissel gasping in relief as the quill disappeared from her chest as her smile widened. “So, I take it we have a deal?”

Lex smiled back at her.

Then he stabbed her in the face with Belligerence, the quill’s barbed tip punching through her skull just below her left eye and bursting out the back of her head.

“When the daemons come to take your soul,” whispered Lex, placing his lips by Sissel’s ear as she gurgled, her body convulsing. “Give them my regards.”

Straightening up, he switched his vision so that he could see her life force, watching it ebb as her thrashing grew weaker. He didn’t so much as blink as the flow of positive energy in her body dwindled, falling to critical levels in seconds, before sputtering out completely.

Snorting, hoping that whatever fate the daemons had in store for her was exceptionally foul, Lex turned away-

And paused as he caught sight of another life force nearby.

Tensing up, he almost attacked on reflex, but stifled that urge as he noticed just how dim it was, indicating that its owner was severely injured. Switching back to his normal vision confirmed that, the life force’s location corresponding to a pile of rubble near the canyon wall, doubtlessly having crushed whoever was beneath them.

But when Lex cleared the rocks away, what awaited him wasn’t a cacodaemon or a venedaemon that had somehow survived the battle.

It was a tiny sphinx.

Author's Note:

Lex kills Sissel, only to find that Nenet is still alive!

Will he be able to get some answers out of her? Or is there no time before he and Solvei need to go save the rest of the adlets?

Comments

[Booster Spice]

Looks like Lex is setting up for a Genocide run. Thats going to be a Lot of demonic energy he going to have to deal with eventualy.

Recursion is going to be so intresting.

[Alzrius]

11542090 There's definitely a larger epic being revealed, and it seems likely that there's going to be some larger battles to play out...maybe. After all, this is a fight Lex only got drawn into reluctantly; if and when he rescues the other adlets, his priority is likely to shift back to Thermal Draft and going home.

Though whether or not he's given the opportunity to go back to his own agenda remains iffy.

[Not so New Brony]

On the bright side, Lex isn't going to torture Nenet for information though she doesn't know that and he already looks intimidating so maybe she'll spill the beans the moment she sees him?

Regardless, he still has a very time-sensitive rescue to enact to and Nenet could be of some use to ensure that he makes it before the adlets are metaphorically served up to Hvitdod on a silver platter.

Speaking of the dragon, I guess the main reason for killing it was to lessen Sissel's mother's soul debt to the daemons. Considering how ancient this dragon is, it is a very tempting soul for the daemons.

[Alzrius]

11542746 For all that Lex hated Sissel, it was consistent of him to hold true to his principle of not torturing his enemies, so in that regard Nenet is certain to be safe. Ideally it will be like you say, and she'll quickly reveal everything she knows. But time is of the essence, since the other adlets have been left out as bait for Hvitdod (and thus, by extension, Lex himself).

As for why Sissel's mother wants the dragon dead, there's a strong possibility that you're right; even in the basic overview of the soul trade (scroll down), it lists dragons as being examples of "grand souls," which have some of the highest costs. So it wouldn't be surprising that's why "Mother" wants the dragon dead.

...of course, that stuff about its "death curse" is a bit odd, in that regard.

[harts fire]

ok that was needed but cold even for Lex.
and i am interested about this little tidbit at the end,
A sphinx

[Alzrius]

11543460 There's no doubt that it was quite cold-blooded of him, though given what Sissel has done you can say it was entirely appropriate. I considered putting in a passage of Lex justifying his slaying her in terms of his adherence to the law (i.e. he's the only authority around, and so is empowered to declare a death sentence), and of not caring that Sissel's soul will be preyed upon in the afterlife (i.e. that he's not the one subjecting her to that fate, that he has no temporal authority over someone after they die, and that he's not bound to believe what she's said anyway), so as to make it clear that he's not contravening his moral code...but every time I tried to write that, it robbed the ending of its power. It just worked better for him to simply act, and let the reader assume the justifications he was using.

As for the sphinx, that's Nenet, who was introduced back in Chapter 672 - Dissension in the Ranks.