Jackal Among Snakes

Sarikiz stared down at the four assembled elven gods. Then, in sudden motion, she lashed out fiercely and her foot descended on them with tremendous weight. Merata, Ghan, Ujin, and Gunlik and joined the strength of their projection to catch the attack.

“Stop it!” Argrave shouted out, stepping forth behind the gods. “If we wanted to fight, we wouldn’t have stopped to say ‘hi’ beforehand!”

Sarikiz looked at him, her golden dreads waving before her eyes as she half-crawled away from them. “Is refraining from a sneak attack doing me a courtesy?”

Anneliese stepped up with Argrave. “Even following that logic, you are being discourteous by attacking without provocation. It has been a thousand years, Sarikiz, and the cycle of judgment is here once again. Please, heed them.”

“A thousand…?” she said in disbelief, and then slowly settled onto her rear. “I’ve been… hah,” she laughed, shaking her head. “A millennium lost to me. Who are you two? You are not their kind—why do you speak for them?” Her radiant white eyes scanned them quickly.

Argrave looked over to the four. Ghan had collapsed to his knees from the blow, and Ujin helped him as Merata and Gunlik stood guard. Between Chiteng’s betrayal, Ghan’s injury, and the fact that he conversed with these people as… well, as people, the question about what was truly divine about divinity rose to his head. He supposed it wasn’t truly different from Heroes of Berendar, but at the same time it felt wholly so.

After a long while, Argrave answered, “They were a bit busy being kicked. That’s the only reason I spoke.”

“But we are here…” Ghan said hoarsely from his point of weakness. “We are here at his suggestion. We are here to end the last cycle. It’s the only way we can advance and fight this one, Sara.”

“Do not call me that any longer,” Sarikiz slammed her fist upon the ground with emotions still raw after a millennium. “Sara was a slave, and I am not.”

“It is just a name,” Ujin urged as she supported her husband. “The only name we knew you by.”

“That has always been the difference between you and I,” Sarikiz crossed her legs, and then placed her hands atop her knees. “You accept the name. I grow beyond it.”

As Argrave looked upon them, he felt a strange sense of déjà vu. They’re a family, he realized in his head. Might be a family as ruined as the Vasquers, but they’re a family. It’s like watching Orion and Elenore argue. Lord knows I’ve seen enough of that…

And as in all of their conversations, it seemed to be leading nowhere. That is, unless Argrave intervened.

“The two of you worked together to topple a tower. It collapsed. Why do you debate about the direction it fell, and what to do with the crumbling stones?” Argrave stepped between them, his glare giving neither leeway in this situation. “This divide between you came about for a simple reason. Sarikiz wanted to do away with the imperial structure of the empire. Ghan and his family wanted to preserve it. At the end of the day, it has dissolved completely. The empire is gone,” he finished loudly.

Perhaps his voice was small before the divine. But big or small, he was heard.

the centaurs. You sought their freedom—their total freedom, unconstrained by any system or laws,”

are you?” she narrowed

to that. He straightened his back and then said, “I’m a little like you, Sarikiz. Erlebnis and Kirel Qircassia have teamed up to make a right mess of this continent. And me? I’m not content to let my people, let my wife’s people, simply accept that fate. As a matter of fact, I’m trying rather hard to keep this faction cohesive in putting

A struggle

their words,” Argrave pleaded, gesturing to the

new regime. And as a result, our people moved on from us. Yours

long while to think on it, I see. But the wounds of our fight still persist, and the betrayal hurts most of all. I

could argue that you were the…!” Gunlik began, but Argrave

Argrave shot him down.

to you thusly. What has

has changed, Sarikiz. Nothing at all. The world

helped me… learn of your intentions,” Sarikiz

against each other. He wanted an internecine struggle, that he might harvest all he pleased from the now-ancient elven empire. My son… my son Chiteng wounded me, and now works for him. His emissaries now hunt us down. Kirel Qircassia’s servants are weaker,

help,” Sarikiz toyed with one of her

you to have land for yourself, for your centaurs,” Ghan shook his head. “And it comes at the expense of Kirel Qircassia. He builds the would-be

your conviction wavered, Sarikiz?” Argrave asked

the anarchist flag one last time, Argrave begged with

#####

he might run across the sand without his feet sinking inside. When he saw the elven god Chiteng kneeling there and looking upon his blade of bone, he knew

ran, the emissaries started to walk out of the sea. One, five, thirteen, fifty… they were innumerable.

at once. “Doubtless you know

among them nodded. “We do,” it confirmed. “We witnessed it through

and with the dryads help, with the confines from the centaurs’ cavern…” he shook his head in faux despair. “Her dryads overtook

doing?” the emissary

but I’m certain she intends to sabotage

the emissaries retracted within themselves, communicating what he’d said to Erlebnis. Finally, five of them stepped forward. “We

both. The emissaries were incapable of using it, but he’d seen Onychinusa do so and concluded that