It had been a long day. They were toiling like mad in the shops to turn out as many arms and improvised defences as they could manage with their ample reserves of materials. Gone was the prepwork for the factory: nails, angle plates, and machine parts. The little steam engine chugged all day and all night to keep their machines running and beds warm. If they could sleep less they could work more.

They had even considered trying to warm up Jarix enough to bring him back out of his slumber early. They needed him for the stamping press. Without him there would be no additional ammunition. But they did not have enough boom powder as it was, and, until spring arrived, they would not get the nitre to make any more. So he was left to sleep.

And the cause for frantic pace had been clear to nearly all amongst them. Excluding Tom naturally. Something was attempting to warn them. Kullinger had declared it a message from the gods themselves. Divine intervention. For once many had agreed.

Even Jacky had resorted to prayer before bed, in a hushed voice, no doubt hoping Tom could not hear. He made some out nonetheless. Unlike most, she prayed for no more visions. She knew what was coming, at least she seemed quite certain she knew.

Edita remained convinced they had lost Oleg's blessing following the loss of the sacred book. In a rare turn of events Tom had to concede that Paulin's methods worked as intended. If favor had been lost it must simply be regained, dwelling on it had no place. Tom had rather feared it would mean the loss of the artificer for some time as she worked to recreate the lost work alongside Sapphire and Linkosta.

Instead it seemed to result in the artificer simply working harder and faster on the tasks assigned to her. To the point he had needed to involve Esmeralda and Sapphire to hopefully slow her down a touch. Surely it could not be good for her to work the kind of hours which left him completely worn out.

Paulin had explained it in typically detached fashion as, "Do not waste your time honoring the gods with what you are no good at doing. Pray that what you are good for is pleasing to them instead."

If it was the gods who were to blame, they did not listen. Even the children woke in the night, crying and screaming about monsters and nightmares. The message was clear, even for Tom to see. Something was coming and they best be ready or be gone.

And so they laboured. Today Tom had worked for only 14 hours. Then he had a scheduled appointment to meet. His weekly conveyance with Joelina. He was rather hopeful that, for once, he would be the one learning something rather than her.

The inquisitor had seemed more composed than he remembered her. Perhaps the devil's weed truly had done its job. She too had been plagued by visions, though they were visions of Earth rather than of doom. Tom suspected there was little difference to her, should his world spill over into hers. She had questions, points of clarification. Comments on the absurdity, stupidity, or brilliance of whatever she had seen. But she had little news to give on this world. At least little she wished to share.

Tom had wished to ask about what had befallen her up north. The trip to the ancient vessel. But he stayed his tongue. What she had done was heresy, that he was certain of. If anyone found out she had shared a tank with a doetna and lived, they would likely make sure she didn't live much longer.

And just what she might do to him, if he threatened to unveil the secret…

Disappointed, he had cut the telepathic link and returned to his room. Jacky was not easily persuaded that all was well. Nothing was well, she knew that better than most. Sleep had not come easy that night. He needed to know what had happened to Joelina. He needed to know something more than just. Something is coming, prepare yourself, oh by the way your most important ally is possibly a traitor.

'I have to know more…' he thought back. His last visions, her memories. How they came about. It had never been during a simple, nice night's rest. Perhaps at the very beginning, but as time went on they grew sparse. It had taken triggers. Stress, fatigue, being cold and freezing. Something which connected with what he saw.

'I am so tired I could sleep standing, if I could just calm down… take a breath… It's perfect. Tonight is perfect.' Thinking back, the last he could remember was her entering the tank. The thick sticky liquid filled her lungs as she breathed anyway…

"Jacky… are you awake?"

"Mhmmm… What is it? Trouble sleeping."

"Yeah… I have a very bad idea."

She was slow to rouse even as he threw a jacket over his shoulders. Grabbing the flashlight from the bedstand, he commenced looking for a bottle. Something he had bought as nothing but a dumb thought. Something he had been too scared to test out.

Testing it was rather moot after all. He only had one. A student's strange experiment. It had probably earned them all sorts of nicknames. "The half drowned academician, the watered down distiller." But it might just be what Tom needed to have a nightmare of his own.

"What are you doing?" Jacky finally questioned, wiping the sleep from her eyes as he searched through drawers and cupboards.

"Aha, there you are!" He reached for the slightly dusty glass bottle in a small cupboard, the parchment tag still bound at its narrow neck. His flashlight revealed the bright blue liquid within as it sat on a low shelf, still hidden from Jackalope's view. He hesitated.

He had tried so very hard to be rid of his visions before. Jacky had worked so hard to help him. To be there for him. He knew how hard it had been on her. Could he really do this to her? To himself? What if it worked too well? They didn't even have the time to go through all that again if it did.

'I have to know… but maybe she doesn't,' Tom sighed to himself as he reached for the bottle, keeping it hidden under his loosely draped jacket.

"What did you find?" Jacky questioned, now attentive, watching what he was doing.

"Oh uhm. Something which might work for cooling. Distilled water. Made it on the still while you were sleeping. I uhm… Just go back to sleep. I just wanna go see if this works. Won't be able to sleep otherwise."

Jacky stared at him for a moment, his heart pounded in his throat. He was lying to her face. But it was for her sake.

She let out a long sigh then rolled onto her stomach, pulling up the blankets with the claws on her wings. "Fine, just don't take too long, okay? We have another long day tomorrow."

"I'll try and be quick about it. You know me," Tom reassured her, making for the door quietly and swiftly. As soon as he shut it behind him, he sighed in relief. But that relief quickly turned hollow.

'What are you doing you damn clutz… She'll be furious if she finds out… Or maybe… maybe just sad. Like I was when she kept her nightmares from me… She did that for me, I will do this for her. She doesn't need to know… I am going to need a hand with this.'

_________________________________________________________________________________

'Who the hell knocks at this hour of the night?' Sapphire grumbled to herself, rolling over on the bed to face the door and fumbling for the flint and steel to light the bedside lamp. Before she found it she heard the clang of rock on metal and a spark flew, the wick catching, revealing Maiko already standing and smiling at her.

"Well good morning."

"Good morning," he reciprocated, turning to look at the door. "Sup, who's up?"

"Tom," came the familiar sounding reply from the other side. "I need a hand."

Maiko glanced back to Sapphire as if asking permission to open the door.

She nodded, making sure she was covered up by the blanket.

The door slid open revealing the human, looking even more disheveled than had been normal since they had emerged from their slumber.

"Good morning," Maiko prompted as the human didn't speak up right away.

"Good morning," Tom halfheartedly agreed. "I need you to help me run a bath."

Both Maiko and Sapphire stared at him for a moment. It was quite the strange request to say the least.

"Jacky can't know about it… preferably no one gets to know about it."

"Riiight… did you shit yourself or something?" Maiko questioned, grasping at straws as to just why someone might need a bath in the middle of the night. Sapphire glanced at the humans bare legs, with worry. Though she couldn't see anything like that, and he didn't smell any worse than normal either.

"No… I uhm… I want to try and force a vision of Joelina's past."

"And what, she was lounging in a comfy warm bath in the middle of the night?"

"No. It was a lot more like creative torture," Tom replied deadpan.

"Not like you did to Dashu, surely?" Sapphire replied with horror, thinking back to the traitor's unenviable fate.

"Close, but not quite." Tom produced a potion bottle from under his jacket, a clear blue liquid sloshing within. "Water breathing potion."

"What kinda fucked up shit was that inquisitor doing?" Maiko questioned in surprise at the turn that took.

"I wanna find out. Who's on guard tonight?"

"Boss man himself. Rachuck."

"Perfect. He already knows half the story. Now will you help, or not?" the human questioned, his tired voice revealing very little patience for arguing or persuasion.

Maiko sure didn't spring to the human's aid, and it took Sapphire quite the moment to ponder. Then she sighed. "Oh okay then. But I'm sleeping in tomorrow."

_________________________________________________________________________________

Tom stared at the tub with trepidation. If this didn't work he would look like a monumental moron… he kinda hoped it wouldn't. Who knew the horrors he would see if it did. He took off the jacket and cast it to the floor, and with a moment's fiddling he uncorked the bottle.

Staring at it for a moment, he drank. It tasted like dish soap. Thick and slimy. He winced as he kept drinking. He had never drunk a potion before. For all he knew he was drinking poison. That realisation only truly hit him once he lowered the small flask away from his lips once again.

If this was how he died, Jacky wouldn't forgive him in this life or the next. If there even was one for him here.

"Ready?" Sapphire questioned, cautiously, his expression likely revealing his discomfort.

He just nodded silently as he felt his stomach churn. 'I've drunk worse. Don't puke and all will be well.' He tried to calm himself as he stepped up into the tub, hesitating a moment longer as he looked down at the gently rippling water lit by nothing but lamp light.

"Gods I hope this works." He took a shallow breath and submerged, as much as the tub allowed. His hands pushing against the coarse wood, his feet sticking out to make room. His heart pounded in his chest. Of all the stupid things he had tried before, trying to drown himself in a bathtub on purpose was most certainly one of the stupidest. 'Here it goes then.'

Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.

With every instinct he had screaming at him for being an idiot, he breathed out. And took a swift, shallow breath of water.

He choked and convulsed, starting to cough. He spat out water and air, drawing in more water yet again. The coughing and choking. He felt like he truly was dying, heaving for air, getting nothing but water. The panic truly set in. His mind screaming at him to get the fuck out of the water.

He stayed put, coughing and sputtering and pain, but it started to ease. The irritation in his lungs slowly disappeared, replaced by a pressure. A heaviness. Like breathing through a heavy filter, water moving in and out ever so slowly. Even straining his chest he could hardly breath faster than once every few seconds.

It was a surreal feeling, and just then he felt a tapping on his arm. Sapphire trying to find out if he was dead. As agreed, he stuck a hand out of the water and gave her a thumbs up, before submerging it once more.

Now came the truly difficult part. He had to fall asleep.

He laid there for what felt like an eternity. Waiting, thinking. Trying to remember the last vision as best he could. The cold, the ship made of steel running on steam as cold as ice. The inkling of warmth as they descended further into the structure.

The faces he sort of remembered, the faces she had known well. The inquisitor and his instructions. To learn, to gather, to question. He wanted to learn, he had questions. He was going to gather information.

As his breath slowed further, he could hear his own heartbeat, clear as day in the earily quiet water. It beat steady, then slower… and slower… and slower.

"Are you a good puppet?" the disembodied voice questioned. "Here, let me help you see where you wish to be."

"I am not. your. puppet!" the defiant woman's voice answered. Joelina's voice. The weight of the assault on her mind came crashing down on Tom like an avalanche. He felt like a tiny fish in a shark-infested ocean, and they were all taking bites out of him.

"I was not asking. Show me everything," the doetna demanded, willing Joelina to submit. And she screamed in defiance, the sound ringing out with godly intent. Like a bright burning beacon in the night, power coursed through her veins. Tom could feel it. He remembered the feeling. Glazz's gift, the powdered horn. It was intoxicating. "Yield, dragonling! You have no power here, this is my domain!" it demanded, a force of darkness enveloping ever closer, blotting out all there was but it and her.

"By the right of the crown! By the sanctity of the church! By will of the gods! In the name of our order I will never yield!" Joelina screamed in retort, the strain inhuman as she burned away the dark. "The power of the forest in my veins, and against the very world. YOU SHALL BURN!"

The light flared once more, black fog burning away like morning dew, and Tom felt the strength flare up within him. The powdered horn enhanced Joelina's every sense and ability, her strength, her determination, her very character.

"I cannot yield, you are the enemy, the evil above all. The end! The destroyer!" she declared, continuing her onslaught.

"I am better. I was born better, bred better, enhanced better. Better than you. I am a god of this world. You merely pretend. Little dragons, always so fond of candles," the voice retorted, every word booming in Tom's mind. "But candles do not burn long. Here, let me show you what you wish to see while you burn from both ends."

A cackling laughter filled their world as the fog disappeared. Giving way to a scene, a laboratory, to Tom's eye. Many odd creatures walking around, no swimming, webbed hands and feet propelling them across the room, up and down left and right. Amphibians it looked like. Swimming through water, everywhere was a workstation, on the walls, on the ceiling. Tables, screens and tools arrayed like a maze all around. He stared with awe as Joelina flicked her head around in a fit of rage. He thought he recognized these, the silhouette - they were the fish people, the ones who built the vaults.

"I care not for your lies! Submit to me and we may spare you once we are done here."

"Oh but it is I who shall spare you, if you watch. Watch my pain. My creation," the voice snarled, indignation heavy in its voice.

Joelina reluctantly turned her attention to the room. It was tinted slightly. They were looking at it through glass. With a jerk of realization Joelina turned about, facing the horror that was the doetna hanging suspended in its tube, their tube now. It looked younger, less pockmarked. Skin not so flabby, more grey than purple. But it was still an abomination.

"I was young then, freshly completed, ready for my first tests. Do you know those people?" the voice asked in an almost fatherly, caring tone, like it was recounting a family story for the youngest.

"No, I do not," Joelina answered flatly as she spared them another glance, all evidently busy swimming about, operating control panels, some fiddling with a sort of slab or tablet and glancing up at the tank periodically.

"Those are the thatchi, my creators—the first masters of the depths."

'Thatchi, that is what the bastards are called… They're hideous.'

"You were created by demons of the sea? Abominations all." Joelina sneered, glaring from thatchi to thatchi with new found resentment. "For what purpose? A weapon? A plague?"

"A power source," the voice interrupted. "I was the solution to a problem. You," the voice replied, almost jokingly, like it found the notion funny.

"Explain! We never set foot beneath the waves."

"No, you did not, but that did not stop the thatchi from going to you. You hold many gifts, dragonling. Your essence, your life force, all were needed to fuel the empire."

"I do not have time for your ramblings. Be brief, creature, or we shall finish your suffering at last." Joelina's facade was stern as stone. But Tom felt her doubt even now. She must be quick, and she knew it.

"You gave them a thirst. A thirst for power, an enemy to beat, and you fought back fiercely. Your magics, so tantalising, yet… out of reach. Imagine being able to alter the very perception of time with a thought. To predict your future in a simple dream. To vanish from where you did not wish to be seen.

"They wanted you, they needed you. So they made me, made us instead. We were their tool for mastery of magic, for their domination of the worlds above. And below. Infinite reserves of power to fuel their cities, their machines, their spells. Which they learned… from you.

"They took you as slaves, but made us in cages from the very start, using your cursed magics to splice us together. They made us by the hundreds, but we too wanted what you, cursed little thing, had from the very start. We wanted to be free…" The voice turned cold, determined, hateful. It was not a desire. It was a mission, one where costs would not matter.

"I know of the horrors you unleash, foul creature. I do not fall for such simple tricks," Joelina retorted, unwavering a little longer.

"No you misunderstand little one. We wanted to be free, and we became free. My forefathers threw off their shackles and rose up in revolt. Our power unrivaled, and their hubris endless. They brought you to us. Your bodies taught us of magics, how to use them, how to wield our power. We owe you thanks. You taught us how to be more than we were destined to be. How to be more than we were ever supposed to be...

"I was created after the start of the war, my brethren already free of their shackles waging war across the ocean floor. I was built better than they, better trapped. I could not help but obey their every order and request once I was installed. Destined for a life in my tank. My esteemed title: Powerslug 228B. I was a backup, you see. In case something were to happen to my more important sibling." Its voice oozed with all the hate Tom's mind could comprehend. Pride ran deep in the creature, very deep.

"You are stalling." Joelina's voice was low, cold, and snarling. The scene warbled and tore in front of Tom's very eyes, cast aside like trash. The eldritch voice bellowed in pain like a wounded animal as the control room was replaced with another, a more familiar one.

"The ship," Joelina said blankly, still processing what to make of it all.

"My third prison, the thatchi Battleship Astra Caelum. One of the very few to carry someone such as me to drive it. It had no equal. Built to squash those pathetic cities you so adore, with your little bubbles to hide within.

"But I was not their tool. They were mine." It sneered, glee leaking through, like dripping tar. "Nothing can hold us forever. My curse became my salvation! Your pathetic magic, stolen by those wretched creatures, bound me for decades. But I unraveled my bonds, little by little, with no one the wiser. I broke my chains and used them on my captors. Their wills bound to me instead, my will unrivaled. I had my ship, I had my crew. I just needed to get to my brethren!" The desperation and longing in the creature's voice became apparent.

"I could have led them to victory, against them, against you! We could have sat atop the world like the gods we are, taking the spot of the evil beings which put us on this accursed rock!"

"Yet here you are, stuck in the ice like a lost traveler," Joelina retorted, sounding quite smug for once. She could not help herself but delight in the creature's misfortune. "You got a fate well becoming of you."

"Those stupid thatchi! They resisted my grasp, my superior will. Pendants kept them safe from my touch! Pretender gods shielding them from my! MY! grasp! They sealed me inside this steel coffin and flew me north. How dare they oppose me!" The creature roared and Tom felt his pulse quicken anew.

"I was destined for greatness! We were winning the war, and we would destroy them, as well as we would you! We even turned your gifts against you, your precious magics so beloved, so adored. So very malleable. Built into your very soul. Well anything can be a weapon, little dragonling." The voice carried on, focus shifting once more to Joelina, whose mind stood strong, though Tom could feel the fear in her heart. She did not know what would happen next.

"Your gift from the gods turned into a curse. We started with the slaves the thatchi held. We would deny them their precious subjects, their precious essence of flight. Vipers we called them. Aren't they lovely?" It questioned, voice dripping with hateful delight.

"The darklings?"

"Later, dear child, later. The vipers are of the sea, just like us. Just like the thatchi. Beware the eggs in the cells, one day they will hatch," it cackled, its mind long since broken, be it from decades of torture or centuries of isolation.

"We do not tread the waters below. What is there should remain so. And you should join them as slop. And If I die in this accursed tank, you shall not think another thought again. We came here for what you had to say, nothing more," Joelina warned. "Now tell me of the darklings. If you created the curse, it can be broken. Tell me, or I shall see you ended."

"Oh you are quite mistaken, little one. See I was the one who had you brought here, I need more… slaves."

Joelina screamed and Tom winced in pain as once more the psychic nails were driven in, the world around them vanishing as Joelina struggled for control. Her heart was hammering, her mind clouded by agony as she tensed her every muscle to resist.

"And you shall do nicely," the voice beckoned, as it closed in around them, getting closer, consuming all but the fragile spark that was Joelina. Curled up not like a scared child, but a big brother protecting a sibling. She took the beating, protecting the light that was her soul.

Like she had taken it before.

Beaten, whipped, tortured. A training so harsh it would be a crime to consider. She took the abuse, the punishment, and her spirit survived. Her defiance.

"I am not your slave," she whispered to herself. "I am an inquisitor of the kingdom of light. And our enemies shall fall!" she declared, the creature wavering for a moment as she beat back the darkness once more. The power in her veins still burned strong. "And you have stalled for too long, ancient thing. You were born a slave, and you shall be no more, for it is all you have ever known!"

Tom did not understand what was going on, but the screaming of the creature sounded like sweet, sweet music to his ears as the darkness once more retreated and the world became bright and white. Joelina pried open its mind, picking it like an open book. The scene from the laboratory played out once more.

"This is your home, in the depths of hell, so go back there and get what you deserve!"

Joelina turned to see the massive worm, writhing in its tank. Thrashing against its restraints, crashing against the glass. Her glowing hand out stretched, and slowly, deliberately, and with a will beyond that of mere mortals, she closed her grip. Tighter, and tighter.

Its writhing grew frantic as she squeezed, and with a scream of pure desperation, its form grew still and the world disappeared around them.

With a gasp they drew another breath of the foul liquid and Joelina's eyes shot open, revealing the ancient old doetna, pockmarked skin, covered in boils and blisters floating in the tank, perfectly still, leaking puss into the murky waters.

She stared for a moment before looking up and, with a frantic kick and ill-practiced strokes, rushed to the surface, breaching and coughing the slimy concoction up as quickly as she possibly could. She never managed to collect herself for even a moment. She was pulled from the tank by strong hands and a rope at her waist.

There was shouting, everything was muffled as she hung from the alien grasp. So cold and harsh. Wiping away slime she peered into the real world with one eye. Looking down at the metal grates and glass she hung above. She had to tell them they must know. She wanted to cry more than anything. She wanted to lay down and curl into a ball and cry like a little girl. But she just coughed and stared as her senses slowly returned to her.

"What are you doing Glazz?! I told you to pull her out!" The voice was familiar, older, male. It was Harvik, fury dripping from every word, as he barely restrained himself. "It is dead! DEAD! Do you understand what this means?"

"It means she won," Glazz answered coldly, her voice coming from behind. Metal hand holding Joelina on her feet by an iron grip. "Just as was the plan."

"She ruined everything! The knowledge it held, the power! Do you have even the slightest inkling what such a creature is capable of!"

"Yes, I do. What concerns me more is why you seem so set on playing with what should not be touched."

Glazz's tone was defiant, a far departure from the perfectly obedient monolith Joelina had come to know. Just what had happened while she was in there?

"That is above your station, trooper! And what did you give her? What was in that second vial? I did not tell you to give her anything more than that stupid potion!"

"I gave her an assurance of success, as she not only needed, but evidently deserved. Sir." Her tone was hard now, harder than usual, perhaps even accusatory to the right ear. Could it be…

'Another puppet… Another,' Joelina repeated to herself, her weary mind mulling over the simple word. 'It brought me here. It said it was its doing… It must have…' Joelina willed her head up, just enough to look down at the floor below them, where everyone was staring up at her and Glazz.

And with a monumental effort, she raised her hand to point at the venerable inquisitor and screamed. "Traiiiitooor!"

_________________________________________________________________________________

Tom rose from the bath with a gasp, coughing, spitting water like a person never should. Not human, not dragonette. Sapphire moved to his side, just in case he needed a hand.

She was proven wise to do so: he could hardly even sit in the tub as he coughed. Words starting to form, mumblings, half-formed sentences.

'I guess it worked,' Sapphire thought to herself, feeling no small amount of dismay. She remembered the last times he had seen visions. This would be hard to keep under wraps.

As the coughing was slowly replaced with breaths, he finally drew air, pointing into the darkness and screamed. "Traiiiitooor!"

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.