Ferro raised his arms in triumph, laughing. Breathing. Laughing again. Enjoying the sweet air of Ayther in the desert he recognized.
And when he could laugh no more, he let his arms drop and spoke to the sky, one hand clutching the necklace he was wearing over his clothes.
"I’m free..."
"That’s nice," a voice said behind him, and he crunched upward and turned to find a four-ard demoness and a very gaunt-looking human staring at him from a few asures away. "Who are you?" the demoness continued.
Standing and turning, Ferro sized them up quickly. The human - No wait... what’s that extra limb on her back? - looked ready to fall down from a stiff breeze. The demoness seed... much tougher.
"I’m, ah, Ferrovia," he said, relaxing down to his tails enough to stand straight. "May I ask the sa of you?"
"I’m Anko. This is Malz," the demoness pointed two thumbs at the... other demoness?
"Nice to, um... et you," he started circulating his senses, assessing the local conditions in case he needed to defend himself. "What are you doing here?"
"Being lost," the dark-haired woman spoke. Her voice had a smoky quality to it that was quite different, accent-wise, from anything Ferro had ever heard.
"I’m guessing we’re in the sa boat then," Ferro looked down. He’d still been clutching his necklace, and small needle spikes of light pointed out from it, one for each of the won in front of him. "But, um..." He stepped to the left, and the needles continued to point at them. "I also seem to be where I need to be?"
The two won shared a look. "What does that an?" the demoness, Anko, asked. "Where the Hell did you co from?"
"Not Hell, I assure you. Um..." he looked around. They were obviously in the desert. And the only desert he knew was the Desert of Ends. The lack of moisture in the air felt like it, at least. "Would you believe if I said I was sent here from the deep Duat?" Reaching down, he picked up his satchel, shouldering it.
"Sent by whom?" Malz asked.
"By the sa person who gave this, I suppose," Ferro lifted the necklace, with its cylindrical, crystalline cage of light. "Aidaeb."
Anko raised an eyebrow as Malz quirked one of hers. "The creator god gave you a necklace?"
"Yes, um... Well... just the charm on it. They said it would point where I need to go for, um... what I want." Ferro replied. "The necklace ca from other gods."
"Excuse us for just a second," Malz turned around, then reached and pulled Anko into a huddle.
Ferro’s ears followed their voices, which were quite clear.
"A normal god would be one thing, but the Creator?!" Malz said. "This guy sounds crazy,"
"Obviously," Anko replied.
"Can you use manasight? Because I can kindof feel mana but I’m still too weak to use mine."
"Sure, yeah." Anko popped her head up and looked right at Ferro, who remained still. Then she returned to the huddle. "What am I looking for?"
"You should have asked before you looked!" Malz sighed. "The necklace. I swear it feels like it’s pointing at ."
"At us. It’s pointing at us," Anko said. "Hurts to look at."
"That ans it’s powerful," Malz hissed. "Did you see the portal that dropped him off? That wasn’t a normal perdition."
"I’m going to take it-"
"What?!" Malz squawked, but Anko was already standing out of the huddle and approaching.
Ferro held a hand up, spell ready. "Please don’t make shock you."
Instead of responding, she feinted with an upper hand, grabbing his wrist with a her lower one and directing it away as she simultaneously reached for his other wrist while snatching the necklace and pulling it off of his neck, snapping the twisting braid of chords free.
"Give that back!" Ferro shouted, struggling.
"Tell what it is first."
"I already told you! It points where I need to go!"
"Like a compass?" Malz asked.
A ringing sound started, one that only Ferro seed to hear.
Suddenly the necklace was no longer in Anko’s hand, but around his neck. Whole once more.
"What the-" the demoness let Ferro go as soon as the necklace disappeared, and he took two steps away, relieved that Aidaeb had taken steps to make sure he wouldn’t lose it.
"It’s like a compass, yes. That’s what they called it." Ferro answered the question, discharging his lightning spell into the sand in a way that caused a bubbling pillar of glass to reach about a hand’s length towards his fingers. The mont the lightning stopped, the fulgurite chipped and shattered.
"Aidaeb?" Malz asked.
"No, um. Aiko. Or Aikos? There were three of them."
"You an to tell us you talked to Eyko the Preserver too?" Malz’s jaw dropped.
"Yeah, he’s crazy," Anko said.
"I’m quite sane," Ferro protested, frowning.
"That’s what a crazy person would say!" the demoness shot back.
"Anko, please... I think we can all agree that sanity has been in short supply lately... Especially after what happened with Maledict."
"Maledict?!" Ferro raised his voice.
"You know him?" Anko blurted.
"I had a... companion who complained a lot about a demon nad Maledict... His na was Star. Um... Santina. We parted ways before I was sent here."
The two girls exchanged glances.
"I think we need to have a long talk," Malz said. "Preferably sowhere with food and shade."
"I agree," Ferro said, running his hand along the helixed, smooth tal around his neck. The mories of a goddess born thousands of tis over and over again lay within. And the key to saving his sister was attached to it.
Malz looked at Anko, who groaned. "Fine. Let’s start moving."
As soon as the three of them agreed, Ferro felt the compass shift. A single needle pointing through him.
"What is it?" Malz asked as Ferro turned, staring off at the horizon, which to his mory was strangely free of mirages.
"I think I know where we’re supposed to go."
*
After what felt like hours of walking, Anko was getting bored.
And with nothing else to do - following the kitty aside - she started to think.
Gods... Maledict is going to kill ... Why did I jump in that thing with Malz?"
After another few minutes of silent walking, she realized another worry.
I hope Kir rembers ...
Getting on his good side would probably be a matter of survival now... once Maledict found out she and Malz were gone. And it wasn’t like they could get back to Heaven, with how fucked up the escape-thing was by the landing.
With four hands, chewing her claws was a readily available expression of worry as she stayed behind Malz.
She almost ran into Malz at the sa ti that Malz almost ran into Ferrovia.
"Ouch! Watch it!" Malz called out as Anko’s fumbling smacked her in the wing.
After apologizing and backing off, Anko looked at their guide. "What is it?" she asked.
"I don’t understand," Ferrovia said. He took a few steps to the left and right. "It’s pointing straight down."
"I hope you don’t expect to be able to dig," Malz frowned. "If I had more ti to recover, I could blow the sand away but..."
"Let try," Ferrovia raised a hand.
The air started to swirl around as he pulled it in using mana. After a few monts, he started to pass it back and forth along the sand, pushing it away with one continuous spell.
Minute after minute passed,. While it was a bit impressive to see how long the catkin could keep up a spell, it also felt like he was getting them nowhere.
"This is getting us nowhere," Anko complained.
"Then how about you help?" Malz shot back, wiping her brow.
The day had steadily gotten hotter, which ant they’d landed in the morning.
"Alright then!" Anko cracked her knuckles, ignoring how lippy Malz was getting now that she was no longer imprisoned.
She stepped up to where Ferrovia was blasting away the sand and started digging. Clawing and scooping with one set of arms and then the other as she started to get into a circular rhythm.
In short order, thanks to her enhancent magic, she’d buried herself up to the waist with nothing to show for it but sand in her cut hand.
"Not as easy as it looks, is it?" Ferrovia remarked, having continue to blow away sand the entire ti.
"That compass thing still pointing down?" Malz asked.
Ferrovia sighed. "It is. But other than digging I don’t know what it wants us to - "
Thunk!
Anko had expected to strike water, but instead, she felt her claws impact a wooden box. She shoved her arms deeper, and discovered that her claws were scraping against a large sheet of canvas covering crate after crate of food and massive clay jars full of water.
And weapons. Crate after crate of weapons wrapped and oiled to protect them from the desert.
"Who put all this shit out here?" Anko asked as Ferro finished uncovering a few more crates, while over to the side Malz was stuffing her face with dried dates and stale, crumbly bread.
"There’s enough here for an army," Ferro said, his face falling.
"Prbfy frrn m rmmy," the angel said with a full mouth.
"Huh?" Anko raised an eyebrow at her.
Malz swallowed heavily. "I thought it would be obvious." She pulled up a piece of cloth and wiped her mouth with it. It was a banner, showing a pair of towers, one upside down. A crest that made Ferrovia’s eyes widen in recognition. "That’s because it is for an army."
"That’s the symbol of the Tower Lord," Ferrovia’s ears flattened backward.
"What’s he in charge of?" Anko asked.
"Aaru."
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