Ecdysis

Chapter 8. Things That Go Bump in the Forest

“This creature was slain by Aikerim herself,” Sulla spoke beside me, “When she had done her border duty.”

I could see the gouges on the white carapace and tiny lines where the exoskeleton was cleaved apart, only to be glued back together at a later time. The texture of the shell reminded me about that white scale mail Aikerim wore during the Collectors’ attack.

So it wasn’t some unusual metal but shards of the carapace. Either chipped from a similar specimen or harvested from smaller creatures. Maybe I should reevaluate my decision on incorporating something like that to my own scales, but it might work in my favour too, in case I needed to impress someone by the gear I carry. While it might attract some greedy eyes, it was not something that a thief could easily swipe from one of my storage rooms.

Some might try to stab me in the back to take it, but not wearing it at all would be even more foolish. I just had to make sure that I would wear some extra layers on top of it and avoid them being seen altogether.

“Nature truly loves certain designs,” I chuckled to myself and turned to Sulla, “what about fish?”

“What?”

I waved at the crustacean-like monstrosity in front of me, “Well, there are trees of the Forest, a couple of which Domina permitted for me to plant and study within the bounds of my estate. White bark and red pine needles. And now I see this body structure. I might not have a lot of experience with alien lifeforms but, from my knowledge on evolution within a single planet, Nature surely loves to invent trees, crabs, beetles, and fish.”

Sulla stared at me unamused, “I am not here for a jest. If you see a creature like this in the Forest you are a dead man walking. Domina had tasked me to oversee your training so that you will come back with your head on your shoulders and without your insides getting sucked out. You might have enhanced your strength and resilience but these monsters aren’t just big. They know Flow, they breathe Flow, and they use it better than most wermages ever could.”

“Right,” I awkwardly scratched my head, “I was just… Nevermind. I am sorry, this is not a time for my musings right now.”

“The reason this corpse is hidden deep inside the Manor is so that the new generations of Kiymetl can train while knowing what they would face out there,” He grumbled as he nodded at the suspended behemoth in the room, “So burn this view into your memory. So, when you see it next time, you will run. Or hide behind a shield, hoping that a nearby wermage would be able to drive it off.”

I silently turned and looked at it again. Not at the remains of an alien lifeform, curious and mysterious, but at the body of a fearsome beast, the likes of which the parents of Emanai used to scare their children into obedience.

And built huge walls on the borders and around major cities.

The carapace colour meant it would blend in well with the white trees of the Forest. A segmented body that kept all its soft targets hidden within and multiple appendages that could crawl, grab, stab, and even chew its prey. It definitely copied a chapter or two from the book of Arthropoda, resulting in huge segmented legs and a mouth that looked more like a horror show of protrusions rather than something that you put food into.

Especially if said food might be crunchy Erfs.

Four whip-like appendages were extremely long, flexible, yet fully covered by armour and were conveniently placed near that maw. It probably used them as arms to grab, hold, and pull in its prey. Multiple sets of what I assumed to be eyes were spread across the front giving it a wide field of view. All but the single articulate pair in front were rather small, however.

Standing in front of it, I felt like I was thrown into a microscopic world on Earth so that I could meet the true owners of the world. There was a reason why bugs were the dominant animal lifeform everywhere humans had managed to colonize. If these monsters had even a fraction of their strengths and abilities scaled to this size, I expected them not to be trifled with even without Flow.

There were space-wide laws against creating insectoid beasts, designed for direct warfare. While they heavily favoured the machine-leaning colonies, I still approved of them.

There had been incidents in the past.

My eyes slid onto the main body. While mostly white, it was nevertheless littered with small red lines of intricate patterns. They appeared to be a part of the body and were likely the product of evolutions over millions of years. But they weren’t just for camouflage.

These were runes.

Hundreds of them covered the main body and the legs. The ones I could decipher were basic. Strength, speed, toughness. But there were others that I haven’t seen in the book. These were probably either still unknown or weren’t allowed to be recorded. And either of these options didn’t promise anything good.

I frowned. It looked like a nearly impossible foe, both strong and resilient, something that should’ve overwhelmed Emanai a long time ago. Yet they did not. They were killable. The trophy in front of me was an undeniable proof of that, as well as the fact that Emanai still stood undefeated. Or even got a foothold to begin with when it got founded.

“Do they have any weakness?” I asked my guide, “Maybe they are rare? Migratory? How did Emanai even claim the land from them?”

“By the miracle of the Divine. Ask these questions to these, who would train you for battle. I have lived in Kiymetl Manors all my life and the ones that faced them would tell you more. What I do know is that they are beasts true to the word. They might not know mercy but they do not seek revenge either. Nor do they understand the concept of a country. A tall border wall, staffed by murks is often enough for them to ignore it.”

“Murks specifically?”

“Yes. They have their own Sparks and feel Sparks of others just as wer and wermages can. Creatures will attack the walls if they feel the Spark behind it or if they otherwise spot any movement. Murk guard can observe them from afar without luring them in and, if one decides to come closer, they could sound an alarm to call mages over.”

I stepped a bit closer trying to gauge its eyesight. Twin eye stalks similar to a crab and a few tiny auxiliary eyes around. It could probably see a lot without moving the body but Sulla was right, the creature didn’t appear to have remarkable eyesight. Granted these were just my basic assumptions but I didn’t think Aikerim would allow me to dissect and study her famous trophy.

“And what would a murk like me should do in front of one?”

“The point is not to be there at all or run away before it sees you. If it does notice you or even ambushes you — running would be useless. All you can do is keep it away from your body as long as possible while trying to hurt it as much as you can. Hopefully, you will last long enough for a wermage to step in, or it would deem you too bothersome to continue attacking. You might end up lucky and kill one too.”

His finger poked me in the chest, “Your trainer will likely teach you all about this but I will still repeat it. Stay in a group. Don’t split up and venture into the Forest alone. Learn the spear so you can keep it at bay and the kattar to have one last chance if it gets too close. Keep your armour on at all times as you travel and by Three Divine Horns - don’t ‘forget’ your shield and helmet. No matter how annoying they might be. If you do — better you forget your dream of being a freedmurk at all, or maybe forget your head back at the house.”

I nodded, making sure he understood I was being serious about it. His words, while being somewhat crude, were said for my safety. And I could easily see the wisdom in them as well. Yes, they were ferocious beasts but humans had things that made us just as deadly. We had soft skin but we could forge armour, our claws were weak but our blades were sharp. We might be weak individually but we were the communal species. And we drew our true strength in numbers.

And when everything was on the table and the current bet was your own life — every card would come into play.

So be it. I would train and learn the skills that they honed over centuries but I also had my own set of tricks. Some of which I already had and some I would need to start working on immediately.

“What about the rest of my family?”

“Hmmm. Usually murks would take the duty personally and serve continuously, but they don’t have the means to afford any breaks or support any dependants alongside them. You would likely be able to bring your sadaq with you or even have them fight by your side, while Domina is likely to expect your presence at this Manor at least occasionally.”

I nodded, “So I would visit Samat whenever they would let me, most likely. How much time do I have to prepare for this?”

Sulla shook his head, “The only one rushing is you. While you will start training as soon as possible, Domina had informed me that you will be occupied by other duties for days to come. And when you will start training in earnest, you will prepare until Domina is sure you will survive your duty. Slack off or show too much weakness and you will find yourself training indefinitely or have the offer rescinded altogether.”

XXX

“Are you sure this place is off-limits?” I asked my companion as I looked around the barn.

Irje shrugged, “It will be if you want. All major work on the building is done. Builders made it to your specifications, apart from the ‘greenhouse’ side of this shed — we still need to rebuild the furnaces and start making the glass panes.”

Initially, I wanted all four of us to be here and leave the lamia to oversee the furnace reconstruction. Workers were still building the basic kilns she was already familiar with and thus was able to spot any mistakes without learning anything important in the process. Unfortunately, Anaise was still the Lady of the House and had other things to do while Yeva was uncomfortable leaving Shahin unsupervised. And I still needed a bodyguard.

So Irje had to sheepishly take Viter’s spot since he was still healing from their sparring. He was a wer and would recover quickly, but not instantly.

While Yeva chose to stay behind and keep an ear on the recently enslaved snake.

“Make it so. The weather is fine enough that we can start growing plants now without the glass. And by the time winter comes we should have enough to cover all of them. Servants should be able to stock the water without entering too deep and I will probably have to do the rest myself.”

She scratched her head, “Is this really necessary right now? I know you have plans to rebuild your lab, as well as all these talks about a lathe with Wrena. And then you have brought these fancy ancient ores and keep mentioning that you want a forge too. How will you have time for all of this?”

“Come here,” I sat on a nearby bench and patted on a spot beside me. “I know what you are training for, by the way.”

Irje sighed and adjusted her position, putting her head in my lap. “I know you wish to get the title of freedmurk. Both for us, your family, and our future children. We all obviously approve but that doesn’t mean that we don’t worry either. While I can’t stop you from going to the border, I will be coming with you. And you won’t stop me either.”

I sighed and started to gently rub her ear, “Sulla showed me what I could face out there. While I would prefer not to put any of us in danger I understand the benefit of working together. And I would have no one else but you to watch my back.”

She grinned and nuzzled in deeper, only to frown. “That means you will be training soon. It would take even more of your time.”

“It would. But this is exactly why I have to do it. I have no desire to walk into danger without as much protection as I could acquire. I wanted to build a forge so I could make tools and machines with metal bodies. I still do, but the weapons are tools as well. I might not know how to forge a sword but I know how to make better steel.

And steel is not the only material I am after. These greenhouses would provide me with a different type of ingredients. Organic ones. Stuff that I would find nearly impossible to make with my own hands. And I would use them to keep us safe.”

My hand slid into a tiny opening on my stomach, nearly invisible to the untrained eye, and retrieved a large kernel from within. My nanites grew the abdominal pouch exactly for the things I wouldn’t dare to lose. Like bio-printer seeds.

“You’ve seen the scales on my body when I arrived,” I murmured as I stretched my arm in front of her. “I tasked the nanodendrites within my body to grow it in response to the Collector’s attack.”

I let her quietly watch as the black snakes of carbon muscles slid across my arm, covering it whole. “It would add power to my body and let me grow stronger than an average wer.” The rustle changed its tone as the white scales emerged on the surface, covering my arm in a pale-white sleeve, “It would also keep me safe from most hits and stabs, better than a plated steel armour would.”

“This armour looks alive because it is. It is almost like a plant that grows around me. That heals any damage without the need for a repair. My body nourishes it but also controls it like a limb I didn’t have before. Back where I came from we called such type of technology the living tech. A bridge between a machine and living thing.”

My palm opened up, “While I am limited to what I can grow on my body, mostly because my nanites are not designed for any drastic improvements, I have these seeds that I talked to you about. They will grow into a plant that could make me fancy silks for Domina but, at the same time, would make me stronger, harder materials that I could use for us. Materials that I desperately need yet unable to obtain anywhere in Emanai.

“At the same time, These greenhouses would be the perfect cover for it. If anyone sneaks in, they would only see the lush gardens that would thrive through the winter and supply us with fresh delicious fruits year-round. What they won’t pay attention to is a weirdly shaped overgrown tree. One among many, yet without any obvious fruits.”

Her fingers traced the scales on my arm, “Well, I can’t stop you if you do it for that kind of reason. Just promise me not to overwork yourself. It has been three days since you came back and you had been busy ever since.”

My fingers pinched her ear, “Yeah? And who was the reason behind my last troubles? Leaving me alone with Anaise like that? I know you felt her Spark approaching yet you even took Yeva with you!”

She squeaked and slapped my hand away, only to glomp me harder in return, “She would’ve demanded for us to leave anyway possibly causing an argument in the process, and it all worked out well in the end.” Her yellow eye glanced at me from my lap, “But I will need to be punished for that. Perhaps tonight?”

“Minx,” I chuckled, kissing her, “I still need to plant this seed and I don’t have the proper tools of punishment, yet. Perhaps we could visit that store again tomorrow.”

“Fine,” Irje tried her best to grumble despite the grin on her face, “And we also need a few more toys for you to carve the runes on. I have ideas.”

“As long as I don’t see flying dildoes around my bedroom, it should be fine.”

Her eyes got wide, her mouth open, “Oh!”

I rolled my eyes at her antics, “Behave, I need to concentrate here.”

“On planting a seed? Just stick it into the ground.”

“I wish. Despite it being alive I can’t just do that. In fact, it is designed not to germinate unless I program it first. If something like this could grow independently the consequences would be disastrous.”

Scales receded from my arm, quickly followed by the rest of the exoskeleton, and revealed a growing bulge on my wrist.

“Eugh,” Irje winced when Harald’s neuro-tendril broke the skin, “Is that the bug you want to put into Yeva?”

“No,” I was too focused on connecting it with the seed to get offended, “This is Harald, a separate ‘plant’ of sorts. It just grows within me rather than outside as the skinsuit does. Not only it is very much optional to have, but I also do not have any spares right now to give. All that Yeva would get from me is increased control over her body as well as the ability to grow a skinsuit similar to mine.”

“And what does this Harald plant do? Does it hurt?”

I gently pushed her curious fingers away from my ‘wound’ and the tendril in general, “No, and the skin would heal immediately after, this is temporary. Harald’s main purpose is to allow me to ‘talk’ to the other living tech. Some of them require direct control just as I am doing right now. I am technically connecting my mind to the seed so I could send my thoughts into it, telling it how I want it to grow and what I would require from it in the future.”

I sighed and allowed myself to glance away for a second, “Most living tech is basic and usually depends on something like this to operate or listen to commands. Others — I could feel directly in my head. Somewhere far away Lif, my tree-ship, grows. Probably deep in the Forest. I can just barely feel her on the edge of my consciousness.”

“You sound like you are talking about a lover,” Irje harrumphed, “Are we not enough for you that you are already seeking fourth after just claiming your third?”

“She isn’t like that. While she is capable of independent thought and action, Organic Artificial intelligence, or O-AI for short, are still limited in terms of independent drive. She is more than a mere machine or even assistant to me. More than a friend but not a lover like you. You can even consider her as a part of me as she takes on my emotions and my feelings as her own. So since I love you so does she. She is a part of me: one Navigator - one Ship. We don’t exist apart from one another. Without her, I would be a mere augmented murk. Without me, she would be a mere tree.”

I glanced down at her somewhat confused face and chuckled. “Perhaps I should tell you more of my history, but not right now. The rest of my sadaq deserves to know as well. But don’t worry about me changing drastically anymore. I might grow with time but the time of major change is long past. That was back then, when a slave murk picked up the fruit of Lif and ate it. Joining together his flesh, the memories of a Navigator and the nanodendrites of the tree-ship.

“And when all these parts combined together, what you now know as Erf was really born.”

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