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,” Argrave continued, pointing at her face.

you?” she narrowed

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

and then did chuckle slightly. “I cannot tell how much you fabricate… but indeed, it was a dire struggle maintaining cohesion in our slave rebellion. A struggle that failed. A struggle that sent me into a sleep lasting one thousand years,” she looked back at the elven gods just

to their words,” Argrave pleaded, gesturing to the four

can admit that now, admit it freely. We were caught in delusions of grandeur, of seeking to recreate the empire we toppled with a new regime. And as a result, our people moved on from us. Yours stayed true to you even in your long slumber. There is…” Ghan closed his eyes and sighed deeply. “There is a lesson in that. And that lesson is one you

let it wash over her. Then, quietly, she responded, “…you have had a long while to think on it, I see. But the wounds of our fight still persist, and the betrayal hurts most of all. I am

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

you shouldn’t argue,” Argrave shot him down. “Remember why

marveled at him. “That man is rather bold to speak to you thusly. What has changed in my time absent? Are men so great that they demean

nothing has changed, Sarikiz. Nothing at all. The world conspires against us.” His red eyes fell on Argrave.

helped me… learn of your intentions,”

that you’d learned of our intentions,” Ghan nodded. “Just as he’s done here, he’s played us 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, but

toyed with one of her dreads,

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

your conviction wavered, Sarikiz?”

one last time, Argrave begged with

#####

that he might run across the sand without his feet sinking inside. When

out of the sea. One, five, thirteen, fifty… they were innumerable. Their numbers had grown substantially

“Doubtless you

“We do,” it confirmed.

us,” he said. “Her wound was already recovered, and with the dryads help, with the confines from the centaurs’ cavern…”

is she doing?” the

I suspect she’ll pose as an ambassador, but I’m certain she intends to sabotage the alliance somehow,” he

not notice the difference, every one of the emissaries retracted within themselves, communicating what he’d said to Erlebnis. Finally, five of them stepped forward. “We move. The lord declares this matter must be resolved with immediate

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