Down into the darkness the party did travel, climbing down by hand. One of Kalyani's staves carried a spell that allowed Maraja to imitate Ling's natural climbing.
"Do you really do thhiss every week?" asks Kalyani, carrying her entire weight on her hands alone, "Care to ssay why, dear?"
"Plant research," says Ling, climbing slow enough to keep pace while also carrying the priestess' bag, "I'm experimenting with biolumies in the Cave."
"Bio loomies?" asks Kalyani.
"Rocks and shrooms that glow down there," says Ling, "Trying to find a way to farm in the dark."
"For what purposse?" asks Kalyani, "The food crississ issn't from lack of light."
J: It is odd that you started there. L: Well, it's all I could afford at the time.
"If food can grow in the Caves," answers Ling, "That's a reason to get those b*****ds down there to stop raiding other parts of the Glow."
"Iss thhat why you moved here?" asks Kalyani, "And from where?"
"From Ozzel," says Ling, "Went to Lemonbum's Wiz School. Thought my accent would make it obvy. Where ya from, Sister? Ya don't sound local either."
"Her eyess led me here from thhe cloudss of Shheshhaparvata," says Kalyani, her voice more melodic, "Every few yearss, I-"
"Breathhe, dear," says Kalyani, "Move one limb at a time."
The light from above suddenly ceases to be; Bobbobo had closed the dome.
J: Why didn't you have any light with you? L: Ya think seeing how far down it was would help? Or seeing the light be swallowed by the abyss? The temptation of looking down would've killed her. J: Point taken.
"Mate, panicking is just making ya slower," says Ling, "Which means ya're up here longer. I'd be bottomside already if I weren't watching ya. Remember why ya're here."
"Then I'll jump after ya," says Ling, "I'm a wizard; I've a spell to save ya."
"If I use it too soon, it won't work."
"Remember, what shhe ssaid yessterday," says Kalyani, "Disstractsion. Tell uss more about thhiss lady we're following."
"Okay, okay," says Maraja, trying to calm her breath, "I can... do that."
The two blessed women approach the house of Dr. Ling. The nagi priestess, Kalyani, wearing a leather jerkin and cloth shirt, and the undine champion, Maraja, clad in her armor, both carry the vertical eye icon of Vanessa; Kalyani's on a pendant and Maraja's on her shield.
"Are you sure this is the place?" asks Maraja at the sight of the windowless brick building, "And where is this hole?"
"Look at the ssign," says Kalyani as she points to the plaque by the door, "Food Wizzard; thhiss musst be herss."
Before they can knock, the door swings inward, "G'day, mates," says the gecko clad in dark leather armor and a new (equally ratty) wig, "Ready for the Hole?" She pats the small bag tied to the base of her tail. "Ya do have supplies, right?"
"Yess, dear," says Kalyani, who points to a large bag sitting on the floating disc behind her, "Tent, food, water, sspell sstavess, everythhing we'll need."
"Where's your's, wavey?" asks Ling, eyeing the champion.
"I'm so grateful that you are both taking this seriously," says Maraja, "But don't we have enough?"
L: Can you believe that? Sheila's on the quest unprepared, but the nun's ready in a day.
"Ya ever been to the Underdank?" asks Ling, "There's barely any water, the temperature alternates between extremes, and everything edible is poisonous, ravenous, and/or explosive."
"That-"
"And further on are the gravity waves and seismic shifts, so the whole thing can rearrange while you're down there."
"I unde-"
"And the b*****ds living there: orc barbarians, Vrow huntresses, dweorg slavers, kobold pranksters-"
"I GET IT!" shouts Maraja, "Everything is deadly and terrible, but I can make water." She raises her sword and says, "And I can handle monsters." She swings and points it. "If you can guide me through the caves."
L: I knew it was going to be a hard quest, this one.
"Sister," says Ling to Kalyani, "Anything to say?"
The priestess shakes her head and the two head toward a blue dome about fifty meters away. The champion races after them.
Stationed there stands a smallgoblin in blue leather. His gaze is unfocused as he chews on the end of a wooden stick, its tip alight. The sound of footsteps drags his attention back to reality. "'Ello, Ling," he says, dry.
J: Is that how Mr. Snarbly was back then? L: People tend to be happier not standing near a death pit for eight hours a day. J: I'm glad he quit then. You taking his job at least made someone's life better.
"G'day, Bob," says Ling, expectantly waiting for the guard to open the gate.
He grasps the twig between a pair of fingers. "Reason for leaving?" His voice remains unemotive.
"Right," says Ling, "Different today. On a rescue." She jerks her head toward Kalyani. "There with me."
"Morning, Bobbobo," says Kalyani, as Maraja catches up, "May we pass?"
"Time to return, Sister?" He returns the twig to his mouth.
"Dunno," says Ling, "Maybe days."
Bobbobo claps the fingers of his right hand against its palm, then slaps the dome. The magic barrier become translucent revealing a large hole in the ground with a twenty meter diameter. "Be careful down there."
D: Oh, that's the hole outside! L: Yeah, same one. D: What happened to the dome? L: No one's around to maintain it. J: No one's around to fall into it.
"That's the way in?" asks Maraja, "How far does that go?"
"Four hundred metres straight down," recites Bobbobo, "The Township of Rankedge 'olds no responsibility for your safety. It is advised not to enter the Underdank."
"How are we to go down that?" asks the woman in platemail.
Ling wiggles her exposed fingers and toes. "Well, I'm climbing," she says, "But you could ride that disc."
J: Please, tell me she tried that. L: Nah, smart enough to avoid it. J: Shame.
"I do have a few sspellss to sspare," says Kalyani, adjusting her gloves, "The shhrine had thesse sspider glovess in sstorage."
The smallgoblin blinks slowly. "When you return-"
"Ring the bell. I know," says Ling, "We do this every week, Bob."
As the pair begin healing Ling, she attempts to laugh only to cough up charred pieces of her tongue.
"You're a loon," says Maraja, channeling her energy into the roast gecko's chest, "Truly mad."
"Horrifying," says Kalyani, "Yet captivating." She holds the sides of Ling's head, forcing life through her.
"I'm number three," says Ling, weakly, "I am number three." Runes begin tearing open her burnt skin.
The champion runs her hand through her liquid hair and begins rubbing the nearest arm. "Why is that your focus?" She scraps and the skin peels away. "Do you have any idea how long a list that even is?"
"At least three," says Ling. Her voice returning, she yells a spell and a new leg erupts from the scorched stump. "Important rule for keeping patient's calm and out of pain: distraction. Think about anything else." Dr. Ling sits up with enough force to fling the rest of the dead skin off of her front.
"You're a doctor?" asks Kalyani, "I thhought you were jusst the town drunk."
Ling hops up and shakes the rest of her old self onto the floor. "Of biochemistry, but close enough," she says, naked as a hatchling, "Meet me at my place tomorrow morn." She begins running toward the door. "It's the brick house by the Hole."
L: Crazy that she vaporized my clothes. D: Why would she do that? L: Like I said, it was boring adult stuff. Don't mind it. D: But how does- J: Gods are weird, Dalini. They did things like that all the time.
"What's the hole?" asks Maraja.
"I believe shhe meant the entrancce to the Underdank," responds Kalyani, commanding a small wind with a gesture to blow the ashes out. "I can shhow you thhere. Do you need a placce to sstay for thhe night?"
The chamber for Vanessa is as white as the rest of the shrine, but with a splash of color upon the pulpit coming through the stained glass window depicting the goddess' most common appearance: six winged eyes encircling a larger one, all wreathed in golden flame and squished as if concealed by unseen eyelids. A stack of prayer mats are tucked in the corner by the door. The altar stands less than a meter in front of the pulpit; it's supports resemble a bed frame decorated with engravings of the goddess' eyes with inset jewels for their pupils.
As Maraja approaches the altar, Ling slips up to the pulpit and stares into the window. Maraja and Kalyani begin praying and the eyes of glass give a brief twinkle.
L: Weren't really listening to what they were saying. It didn't look like it was working anyway, so, after ten minutes or so, I joined in as respectfully as I could.
"Oi, ya heavenly b*****d!" yells Ling, "Your girls need your help. Get down here!"
Kalyani gasps in shock.
"Hold your tongue," says Maraja, "You can't act like that here."
L: Though, my wizardly ways were less than appreciated.
Ling pounds on palms onto the pulpit persistently. "Ya dumb b***c," she yells again, "We came to see you."
L: And maybe the drink had its say too.
The blessed women grab Ling and attempt to pull her from the room. She clings on, yelling at the window.
"Thhiss behaviour iss unaccceptable," says Kalyani, "You are more likely to incur divine wrathh thhan aid."
L: But it worked.
A bright light fills the room as the goddess Vanessa emerges from the glass, her eyes and wings shimmering and a weaving of colors spirals behind her.
L: I'll never forget what we first said to each other. I told her, "Your radiance is blinding."
"Hey, ya glowing c**t," shouts Ling, desperately covering her unblinking eyes with her hands, "The room's white as snow, ya drongo!"
L: I doubt any mortal's said anything like that to her.
J: You expect to believe she knew you already? L: Why wouldn't she? Of course, the Love Goddess'd heard of me. J: And you're proud of that? D: What are you talking about?
"Are ya going to help her or not?" asks Ling, her voice as flat as someone investigated by a blind elephant.
"I heard ya," says the wizard, "Ya can deal with me after ya help your champion rescue her girlfriend." She licks her eyes and resumes staring into the largest of Vanessa's.
Maraja resists correcting this statement, too afraid to speak in the presence of an angry god.
L: Angry's overselling it; irate, maybe?
L: It's an odd question, right? Took me a second to get it. Why wouldn't she just strike me down without being there?
"Ah, I see," says Ling, "This is a trial, right? Gods love trials. Ya already said ya knew me."
L: So we did a trial and I passed. D: What was the trial? L: Oh, uh, it was just some questions to prove... that I understood- understood... the concept of love. J: ... L: Shut up, Jevoi. That trial took several hours. Several long, glo- I mean, long, tedious hours.
The town of Rankedge's only shrine serves most gods, but the town's main patron, the smallgoblin war (and fire) god Shooty-quickly, is one of the few to have a statue. His depiction as a spry warrior stands atop the marble pyramid facing toward the hole into the Underdank. His drawn arrow's flame endures in any weather and serves as a beacon from anywhere in town. The other gods are depicted on stained glass windows on every tier of the structure, all with their own altar rooms. The structure is seven stories tall with two sets of doors on each and the grand stairway up them is flanked by ramps.
Ling leads Maraja up and into the complex's third floor and around a corner and around another corner and then, just to be different around a third corner.
L: I hadn't really been to the shrine before, so...
"Do you even know where you're going?" asks the bitter paladin as they pass the door she suspects they originally entered.
"Do ya?" snipes back the wizard, her attention stuck on the window of another open room they pass.
"I don't live here!" whisper-shouts Maraja, glancing about for parishioners.
L: It took a bit.
After wandering blindly for half an hour, the two finally meet a priestess who is reaffirming the magic runes giving the marble corridors their soft lighting.
L: The nagi was stretching herself to the ceiling so far that her tunic weren't covering those golden scales on her tail end. Her elven-esque skin was the same seductive shade too and that long braid of hair... oh, it was shaped like a smaller snake.
D: Was she one of your sleep friends, too? L: That's no- J: Sleep friends? You really haven't changed. L: That's not what it sounds like. We can talk about that later. J: Dalini, do Nana Ling's sleep friends ever sound like they're in pain? L: TALK! 👏 'BOUT! 👏 LATER!
"Hey, would ya know where the love room is?" asks Ling.
"She means the altar of Vanessa," quickly corrects Maraja.
"You're on the wrong floor, dearss," says the priestess, "Let me shhow you to the sstairss."
J: Why are you talking like that? Racist. L: It's how she talked. It's not racist, it's a lisp. J: Then, why are mocking her lisp?
The priestess leads them down around a corner and slithers up a ramp next to the stairs in the stairwell in the center of the shrine. The duo follow her up as quietly as they can with Maraja's armor clanking every step.
"The goddesss Vanesssa'ss altar iss on the fifthh floor," says the priestess gently, "Nexx time, you shhould enter from thhere."
"I'll be sure to remember that," says Maraja, "Sister...?"
"Kalyani," answers the nagi, "Priesstesss of Vanesssa, in fact."
"Sounds like I should be converting," mutters Ling to herself from behind the faithful as Maraja introduces them.
Sitting in a tavern, a gecko in a ratty wig sits alone at a booth in the rear. Dressed in a red shawl and leggings, she swirls her drink while watching the crowd hounding the flame-haired bartender. He pours, shakes, and passes drinks in an effortless dance.
L: It was a few months after I moved here to Rankedge. I's at Libby's having a pint.
J: Of course, you were. You were always at Libby's. So glad that place burned down.
L: How can ya say that? Weren't ya friends with Jr.?
J: Yes, and she hated working there. She didn't want to be saddled by her dead dad's dream.
Her wandering gaze is suddenly pulled by the sound of the door. A knight in shiny armor steps inside, looking about. The gecko slips out of her seat and sneaks across the tavern.
L: She looked like a scaly elf. A real beauty, too: skin blue like lapis and hair of water. Too soft in the face and too fancy a suit to have seen much action.
Ignored by most of the drinkers, the knight makes her way to the bounty board and attempts to pin her own parchment to it. "Come on," she says, "Get in there you... tack."
L: Naturally, I had to take a chance.
D: Were you always looking to help people, Nana Ling?
L: Y-yeah, I'd been helping everyone and their mum.
"Problem, mate?" asks the gecko, taking the page, "Going questabout, eh?" Her eyes dart back and forth from it and it's poster.
"Yes," says the knight, annoyed by the audacity, "But I have need of a guide into the Underdank." She looks the gecko over. "Doubt you'd be of any help."
L: The undine was in pursuit of her missing "roommate" from St. Chastity's. And ya know how the girls from there are.
J: St. Chastity's School for Lady Paladins?
L: The very same. Never been a straight lady in that building.
"Well, ya'd be wrong," says the gecko, "Name's Dr. Ling, local wizard and probo'solver." She hand the page back. "If your mate's up a gumtree, I can help. Ya got a name, lovely?"
"Maraja," says the knight, placing her fist over her heart, "Champion of Vanessa."
J: Vanessa? Really?
D: Who's that? Do you know her too?
L: I'm getting to that. Hold on.
"Champion? Then why ya looking for aid in a pub?" asks Ling, "We got a shrine up the way." She tilts her head at Marja's continued distrust. "At least let me show ya that far."
Maraja sighs, "Sure then." She shoves her paper into her bag. "Lead the way."
"You think I'll let you keep her in this hovel?" asks Jevoi, her eyes scanning the broken shelves and piles of refuse in the corners.
"As much as ya'd think I'd let ya take her to your fortress," says Ling.
"I'm willing to let YOU in," Jevoi's voice rises as small flames sparkle around her briefly, "I have a lab and a library."
"And I do not care."
Jevoi pauses. Her face slipping back into a smug malevolence. "There's also a pair of half-orc-"
"No."
"-Vrow twin-"
"NO."
"-Princess assassins-"
"n-n-no."
"-and their girlfriends are just dying to meet you."
The old lizard hissed and rasped. "Ya- ya- ya can't get me that easy." Ling pulls her hat down over her face.
"What else do you want?" Jevoi swings her arm into air. "Why would you rather live in trash?"
"This trash," seethes Ling, removing her hat, "Was your home. I spent half my life in this house and ya spent most of yours." She hops to her feet. "I built it. My life's work was done here." The room itself begins to shake. "Work ya destroyed."
Jevoi's eyes track Dalini, scurrying toward the back door. "Let's stay calm, Mum," she says, "We can still fix this. It's not too late. You don't know how many of your old friends are working for me now."
"Like who?" Ling scoffs, "Melandria? You think she's good for a brain?"
"She kept your old notes," says Jevoi, gesturing over to the glowing pod, "But there's so many others."
"Fine," says Ling, sitting down as the room stops shaking, "But first I need to tell ya 'bout how I met her."
"Why?" asks Jevoi.
"Story time!" shouts Dalini, racing back toward the fire.
"She's the first one to fund this," says Ling, "And we promised Dalini a yarn. So, sit down."
Jevoi summons an elaborate cushioned black throne to sit on; Dalini lies on the floor. "Oh, no," says the Empress, "Don't sit on the floor." She summons a matching stool which her daughter throws herself onto.
"Righto," says Ling, puffing up the fire, "Here's how I met the Shadow Queen."
"Do ya remember," asks Ling to Dalini, "What I told ya about the sun?"
"Yeah," says the little one, releasing her grip on the wizard's robe, "The sun used to shoot light of the hole in it: shoosh." She wiggles her arms in front of her. "And it span around and around: woooo woooo woooo." The older geckos watched her twirl about. "But you didn't say why it stopped," she said, pouting and no longer rotating.
"Should we tell her?" asks Ling, "Why doesn't the sun shine?"
Jevoi scowls. "Sure, let's tell her... exactly why. Let's tell her everything about that happened that day." Jevoi's face contorted into a wicked smile. "Let's not leave out a single detail."
Ling looked away. "Maybe it's too soon."
Dalini hopped around into Ling's view. "But you said-"
Ling raised her hand. "That story's too... long."
"Dalini," says Jevoi, "We can tell that story later, like after you come home." She cracks a little smile. "Do you know what a palace is?"
Dalini shakes her head.
"It's a big castle filled with all sorts of things. We can go there and you can meet your other mother, my wife. We can get you new clothes and your own room and anything you want to put in it."
Dalini's eyes sparkle in the light. She inhaled an audible gasp.
"She isn't going," says Ling, "Without me."
"Very w-"
"I'm not going, so rack off."
The wizard's daughter loosened her posture as she stared into the dark backroom. "Please, come out here," she says, her eyes aglow.
At the sound of shuffling behind the wizard, the old gecko sighs, "Fine, do it."
A smaller gecko in a ragged brown dress scurries quickly next to, and hides behind, the wizard. "Nana Ling," she whispers, "Who is that?"
"Don't act like ya weren't listening," says the wizard Ling, her focus still on her own daughter.
Said daughter takes a few steps forward, around the fire, and leans down. "I'm Jevoi, your mother," she says, smiling for the first time in months. "What's your name?"
The little gecko leans out from behind Ling and looks at her nana. Upon seeing a faint nod, she says, "Dalini. My name's Dalini."
"Dalini," Jevoi repeats, "What a beautiful name: Princess Dalini." Dalini tilts her head in confusion. In response, Jevoi stands tall again. "That's right," she says, "I am the Dead Sun Empress, ruler of the Inner Dark." She pauses, looking over her little doppelganger. "And that makes you-"
Ling scoffs. "Still trying to rename Inner Glow?"
"It hasn't glowed in eight years, Mum," says Jevoi, her eyes darting to the wizard's bone-infused hat rim which masks her.
"And whose fault is that, Jevoi?" asks Ling, leaning back so that Jevoi could see her face again, the face they share.
In the half-buried atelier, surrounded by broken equipment and furniture, the two geckos continue to stare each other down. A soft red light faintly fills the room from the window of a large metal pod. Likewise, the bubbling from within it serves as the sound in the dead eternal night.
In front of the wizard, the remains a fire pit erupt back to life. She leans forward again. "Another cold summer day," she says with the faintest laugh, "Bring a gift? Or just more disappointment?"
"What I have brought are demands," says her daughter, scanning the room, "Where is she?"
"Look at you," scoffs the wizard, "Dressing like an elf, standing like an elf. Want me to turn ya into one?" She pulls one arm out of her robe; the long violet fingerless glove blend back into them, as she traces her finger up and down her daughter's image. "Nana Ning would be so disappointed."
"And whose fault is that?" exclaims her daughter, "The time I spent with her was measurable in days." She adjusts her fine black leather gloves. "And it's not as if you knew anything about us. How would you? But that's not the point. You're just trying to distract me from-" A shadow appears, just briefly, in the doorway in the back. "My daughter."
Under the blackened sun, in the half-buried remains of a town, walks a gecko in a regal military uniform. The gold trim of her dark suit matches the streak in the bangs of her long, straight black wig. A band of darkened scales sits across her face, pierced by her unyielding eyes.
"Back where we started," she mutters, as she approaches a the remains of an old stone alchemical store. Her boots kick up dirt as she marches, smashing through numerous magical barriers and wardings; her own power emanating from her (no fancy hand signs or magic words, just raw stubbornness) to clear her way.
She pushes open the battered door with a loud creak and steps in. The building is filthy, but not as abandoned as it appeared. Sitting in a chair of molded dirt in the dark is a figure in a robe and pointed hat. The wizard leans back to see under the brim of her hat and asks, "Came alone, did'ya?"
The intruder licks her eyes. "Yeah," she says, "Finally tired of running, Mum?"