Fifteen

"Strong this Walker... strong indeed. The Old Gods themselves may even attend this one's ritual, methinks"

The voice pounded in Lexus' head as she gradually regained consciousness. She felt the bruise on her cheek swelling, one eye pushed shut for biting a captor. She felt... she felt... something licking her arm... her good eyed flicked open to see a Startler perched over her arm, its tongue dabbing the blood from her wounds. She gasped.

The pain as it pushed its teeth into the wound made her body arch, despite the other Startlers holding her down. The urge to scream out loud pushing its way to the front of her conditioning. She clenched her teeth and moaned and deep, guttural moan.

It was then that she felt the Wane. It barely touched her consciousness. It's voice was a whisper in her mind past the barrage of agony.

And so it is, my child. This is where the Watchers bring your kind, time and again, to suffer, to break your vow to the One God.

Fourteen

Pain lanced along Lexus' arm and up into her shoulder as the dull blade cut the skin on hand. She shuddered as it moved, staring wide-eyed in horror at the figures holding her down.

"Soon delicious, soon we will take those rocks from your head... soon"

She writhed under the gaze of the Startler, it's narrow-set eyes moving lasciviously across her prostrate form, resting on her uncovered legs.

"Very... delicious..."

As the knife moved to her wrist, she lost consciousness.

Thirteen

With Thievery pounding in her ears Lexus throws herself over the edge of the precipice. The air rushes up billowing her robes and her heart beat accelerates more than she thought possible. Thievery issues further particles of the sounds of her pursuit through the forest at the plateau's base, predators growling, birds shrieking, the Startlers howling and screaming frustration. She hits the lake with her feet and slips into the quiet of the water. Thievery changes tune, a bubbling, squeaking noise, and bursts back into the full rhythm of the pursuit as Lexus breaks the surface again. She gasps at the cold, and begins to drag herself through the water towards the edge of the lake, her robes heavy about her.

She had seen picts from the Accord of individuals leaping from heights to escape pursuers, and always thought the idea ridiculous, but necessity had outweighed her fear with a greater danger. She quickly checked her flank before glancing up to see if the Startlers were following her. At least three stood on the edge of the precipice waving their arms, one throwing a spear that, thankfully, fell well short. The wound to her flank was insubstantial, but ached. It would require treatment when and if she reached the waystation she knew was further along the shore of the lake, and down its draining river.

With her alarms issued to the Accord as yet unheeded, Lexus knew it would be a second day of hard running before she could reach the comparative safety of the waystation, or at least a centre of some sort, be it Feeders or Impress. She wrung what water she could from her robes, and set out, Thievery maintaining a rhythm to keep her heart rate high, and her breathing consistent (if not slightly laboured).

The ground is firm and slightly rocky beneath her feet as she runs, forcing her to pay close attention to her footsteps. She scans the forest line above her to her right, but the flora looks too dense to run easily in sodden robes. Suddenly alarmed, she checks her blade, and is relived to find it still stuck in its scabbard. She picks up the pace a little, Thievery responding with an accelerated beat as the yelling of the Startlers fades into the distance.

She stops. Ahead of her the open ground closes and disappears beneath the lake. The wall of the plateau has closed in and pushed a peninsula out into the water, which meets a low range of hills and bottle the water of the lake. She can see mist rising from between the two bodies of stone, and realising there must be a large waterfall or rapids where the lake drains. She looks back to see if the Startlers are still in pursuit, but can't make out any figures moving. Looking around up towards the tree line she sees a clear break in the forest, what could be a canyon of some sorts. She sets out towards it.

It is a rough climb up towards the canyon, leaf litter from the trees concealing numerous small rocks and potholes, but she labours on, and finally stands at the edge of the tree line. Again checking the Accord for a response, from any helpers besides the Watchers who seem merely note with interest the distress she has experienced since the initial attack, she finds no reply, and sets herself to climb into the canyon. Looking up, she can see that it runs flat for a distance before apparently rising up the the high plateau somewhere past the canyons first bend. She steps forward, and the ground gives way beneath her feet.

Winded, Lexus is laying on her front, her robes gathered about her head and shoulders, one ankle aching since striking the ground, when she hears an audible.

"There you are my delicious, waited such a long time, we have."

Twelve

Lexus woke early in the relative discomfort of the waystation and set out. She'd been making good time but knew there was still at least a days travel ahead. She refreshed herself, ate, and opened a groupmind with the Drone to discover its whereabouts. Thankfully, it has not wandered far in search of food, and was back in front of the waystation when she was ready to depart.

She heard the muffled sounds of her Communicative playing beneath the ambient noise of the Commons and turned up the volume slightly. Thievery had been her companion for many years, and she was enjoying its new-found excitement at sights and sounds it had likely never seen. She found it taking particles of sound from the Common's fauna and lacing them into its rhythms, and tying the rhythms to the pace of the Drone and its walking.

On the previous day Lexus had taken her blade and shaved the Drone's shoulders, only nicking it once or twice, and subsequently ordered it to bathe. She now found the travel far more pleasant, and had even rewarded the hard-working humanoid with a glimpse of the Accord. It's loyalty to her has jumped immeasurably as a result.

The day wore on slowly, and gradually the boundary forest of that marked the edge of the Majestic Centre's domain grew in the distance. Lexus knew that beyond and above the forest was a plateau, and on that plateau was the Lesser Centre. Her sponsor in the Transept had provided scant details of the exact path to the Centre, which rankled with her desire for certainty, but the assurance the Transept provided was enough to ensure her continued determination to reach the indicated destination in good time.

She rested near midday, and allowed the Drone to wander a short distance. A stream had come down off the plateau, and the Drone proceeded to drink, to bathe again as she had taught it, and to make small, happy noises. Lexus smiled when she saw it, and Thievery collected the noise, repeating it back to her in a simple tune. She felt the presence of the Watchers above her, noting her progress and seemingly enjoying the scene.

Lexus had barely stood to summon the Drone back to her when the noise rolled down out of the lightly sloped cliffs above her. The Drone turns from the water towards the cry, a low grunting shout, echoed by a harsh cry from a distance behind.

STARTLER Lexus shouts to the Drone. It drags its heavy and wet frame out of the water and lurches over the soft ground to her. She vaults up into its harness and draws her blade, while the Drone pulls up to its full height.

The Startlers burst from the treeline beyond the stream, screaming, wailing, flailing their bodies with their hands, terrible, adorned in rags and furs, armed with jagged blades and fire-hardened spears, desperate in their hunger to reach her. She sees their bodies painted in blues and reds, deep scars etched beneath. When they are with arms reach the Drone strikes out, grabbing the first to reach it with a colossal fist, snapping its neck with a horrifying 'ping'. The second Startler steps inside the Drones reach while it kills his comrade and drives its spear into the humanoids leg, before dragging its blade across the vast belly. The Drone roars, the first audible Lexus has ever heard a member of the Commons make, and falls forward onto the Startler, its weight crushing the hapless savage beneath it. Lexus, still shocked at the noise the Drone has made, finds herself rolling forward out of the saddle, her blade still in hand, as the noises of yet more Startlers roll out of the trees above her.

She stands, and runs, leaving the wounded Drone to its fate.