Fragile Shard 16. Luchi Musaal.
The man-city Part-con-Divor walked slowly along the evening road, which ran through a dense thicket of fir trees. After a hot day, the light coolness of the sunset forest, smelling of pine needles and eternal moss moisture, was a real joy for a weary traveler.
The time was approaching sunset, and Part decided to set up a camp for the night. Since the road was almost deserted, and all around was a dense spruce forest with octopus roots, the traveler, as on previous nights, set up his small camp right in the middle of the road.
From his shoulder bag, he carefully took out a magic fire — a tiny magic burner with a fiery demon imprisoned in it, which generated an even, bright, and hot flame. Part waved the demon amiably through the round window in the bronze wall of the burner. The demon responded with indignation, showing the middle finger and turning away. Part had to turn a screw, triggering the brushes, which made the demon child rage even more and emit flames. Selective bass swearing was heard from the flask, but the fire began to comfortably illuminate the place of the halt.
The city-man warmed up a small portion of food concentrate on the fire, which a strange robot he met a couple of days ago shared with him, along with an equally wonderful spiball. They had walked together through the Canyon of Black Thoughts, exchanging news from different parts of the First Demon Empire, and then parted ways — the strange duo headed toward the once-gloomy city of Ek-Bura Sapan with the remains of the Black Market, and Part was heading towards the Faceless Station, hoping to reach it no later than mid-autumn.
Having refreshed himself, con-Divor unfolded his cloak, using the weeds as a kind of shelter, and, putting his hands under his head, began to observe the stars twinkling in the black sky through the branches of fir trees. This sight invariably pacified him, and very quickly, the man-city fell asleep, and the city itself inside him also slowly drifted into a dream.
He woke up suddenly, not from the most pleasant sensations. A strange feeling that someone or something was watching him closely made the dream evaporate like a morning mist. Although the morning was still far away — the darkness around was thick as a demon.
“Hello,” Part greeted the gloomy darkness around him, trying to keep his voice from trembling, “I should immediately say: I don’t have anything of value, I am skinny and tasteless. Besides, I haven’t washed for a long time, I have no evil intentions, I eat exclusively vegetable food. But if you are a living tree, for example, then I won’t eat you anyway — I’m also a pacifist.”
The darkness all around seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, then formed a silhouette that slowly approached the faint flame of the demon burner.
“To be honest, I thought so from your appearance, but I was too shy to approach while you were sleeping. It’s good that you woke up yourself,” the voice of the figure was a little hoarse but definitely female, “my name is Luchi. Luchi Musaal.”
“Very nice, Luchi. I am Part-con-Divor, a man and a city. I’ll actually be more comfortable if you sit by the fire. Then we can talk in warmth and light,” Part squatted down next to the burner and twisted the screw, making the little demon’s light a little brighter.
“I’m not sure you’ll feel comfortable. Consider this a fair warning.”
The vague figure separated from the rest of the darkness, and the light revealed a new acquaintance to Part.
Mr. con-Divor had seen a lot in his life — he had visited all the more or less interesting places of both demonic empires, lived for some time at the Faceless Station, visited Speetarsabarg, and even visited Ek-Bura Sapana several times. Everywhere he met a variety of demons, monsters, and just strange creatures that were completely impossible to unambiguously identify. But even with such rich experience behind him, he was amazed by what he saw to the point of being dumbstruck.
Luchi Musaal was beautiful. A face with sharp, noble features was framed by short pastel-pink hair with silver curls, pointed ears, and purple eyes with a vertical pupil, unmistakably betraying her belonging to a rare species of fairies. But it wasn’t beauty alone that struck Parth. The girl had a beautiful figure, very favorably emphasized by the leather multi-layered armor of green and golden hues.
However, she had no limbs. There were no arms at all, and her legs were replaced by two pairs of metal three-part spider legs with sharp spiked ends. The quiet hissing sound that the strange creature made when moving indicated that the limbs worked, like real spiders, due to hydraulics. Most likely, some kind of terrible mixture of water magic, alchemy, and robotics — obviously, one of the outstanding masters of the dying underground Lost Empire worked here.
Part considered himself a well-mannered person — it was not for nothing that he had been drilled all through his childhood by armies of tutors, nannies, and other useless parasites who were eating up his family’s fortune. Therefore, he did everything so that not a single muscle twitched on his face. Not a single movement betrayed fear, surprise, and even more disgust. But he couldn’t even get a word out.
Luchi Musaal definitely appreciated Part’s reaction — obviously, she was used to something completely different. She smiled embarrassedly and a little sadly, nodding in gratitude, and began to settle down opposite the traveler by the fire. With her dimensions, it was not very easy — in a straightened state, the spider limbs were at least two meters long. Finally, with a buzzing and rustling of her paws, she carefully folded them on either side of herself, landing on a small bump. It turned out that under a short cloak, just at shoulder level, there was another, third pair of spider legs, shorter and resembling hands. She stretched out one of her strange hands over the burner (the tiny demon, who had been watching the guest through his window all this time, blazed a column of fire a few meters up in horror, but Luchi did not even twitch). Parth understood that this was an offer of a handshake and, overcoming fear and some kind of vague disgust, firmly grasped the cold metal with his palm and shook it in a sincere greeting.
“I am very glad, Mr. con-Divor, that you did not drive me away. In truth, I have not communicated with living beings for a very long time, and this, perhaps, even saddens me a little.”
“Mutually, Mrs. Musaal…”
“Luchi.”
“…Luchi. Unfortunately, I do not have a very rich ration, but I can share dried meat, a couple of apples… Here, there is still wine, quite good.”
“Thank you, I don’t eat human food, I’m a fairy. But I wouldn’t say no to wine.”
Part rummaged through his bag and pulled out an almost full bottle of old, expensive, spicy wine that he had bartered at one of the forest fairs and kept for special occasions. Luchi deftly extended her thin metal paws and accepted the bottle from Part’s hands with surprising calmness and confidence. Apparently, the transformation took place more than one year ago, as she had learned to wield such dexterous limbs without fingers.
“Thank you, good sir,” said Luchi, taking a long, greedy sip, “since you woke up anyway and invited me to the fire, then I think we can’t avoid a little small talk, right?”
Part nodded vigorously and gestured with his free hand as he was drinking from the bottle at that moment.
“Well, it means that my social indicators have not completely atrophied yet,” the guest grunted with sad self-irony, “and it also means that I will be right if I spare you the need to ask me uncomfortable questions that probably torment you.”
Part nodded cautiously, looking intently into the eyes of his interlocutor, trying to understand if he had offended her.
“Well, I’ll tell you how it is. This is really my natural hair color,” the city-man blinked in confusion and could not find an answer.
“I’m joking,” the girl giggled softly, “I just wanted to defuse the situation. In general, depending on your mood and desire to communicate, I can tell a short version of my story, or I can go into more detail… For some reason, I want to share it with you.”
“To tell you the truth, I won’t be able to sleep now, so I’ll listen to the full story with great interest. ”
“Accepted,” the girl smiled, flashing her sharp teeth, “Well… Let’s go. During the last war, I served in a special detachment under the command of the famous General Ozod Otaki. Yes, yes, I went side by side with him throughout the war, and yes, I was next to him in the battle for Whale City when Panfilo’s assassins took him prisoner.”
“How old are you then, a hundred and fifty years somewhere? The war has been over for a hundred years now,” Part inquired.
“Two hundred twenty-eight. And a half. I’m a fairy, we don’t really age,” Luchi clarified.
“Exactly, I’m sorry. And, apparently, in that last battle…”
“Oh, no, not at all. I returned from the war fully equipped. Well, I suffered a little mental damage, of course, especially when I saw what Ozod had become after escaping. All of this is quite reliably described in the legends… Oh, wait. You’re probably sitting here right now thinking what kind of crazy stuffed animal is pouring nonsense on me… My silly head.”
With these words, the girl fished out an amulet hanging around her neck from under the layers of leather armor, slowly rose on her spider stilts, hung over the fire with Part, and showed him the pendant on a long silver chain. It was a very elaborate symbol of the Second Demon Empire, a crystal ball with particles of the Demon Mother’s ichor swirling inside. The ball was framed with the finest silver cobwebs, and around the circumference was the inscription “Luchi Musaal, an army captain. Courage. Devotion. Self-forgetfulness.” Having made sure that Part realized what kind of order it was, Musaal smoothly returned to her place, carefully hiding the order, and continued her story.
“So, I returned from the war alive and relatively healthy. Even the wings were there. I buried my comrades and mourned Ozod. Well, and then this tenacious demon returned from captivity, but I didn’t even have time to exchange a few words with him. While he was being interrogated, while he was being judged, they sent him into exile. They say that only the old witch Seema managed to see him face to face, but she never told me anything during this time.”
“Seema? Who’s the smuggler under the capital wall?” Part inquired.
“Yes, yes, she is. I used to work for her sometimes. Well, until I had to run off into the wilderness. In general, I was engaged in smuggling, dragging all sorts of different things from one subworld to another. A couple of times, even in the world of people, there was a mortal longing. And, probably, she would have lived if she had not met Him,” Luрci replied.
“Whom?” Part asked.
“Him. The Nameless One,” Luchi revealed.
“It can’t be,” Part said, sounding skeptical.
“You’ll have to take my word for it. He just appeared somehow next to me in a shabby bar, but then … It’s really impossible to resist his charm. I started working for him. Both in the main profile, well, and in … other areas,” Luchi explained.
“And what is he like?” Part inquired curiously.
“Hmm… He’s extraordinary. You will definitely not find another like him in any of the worlds. He is a genius. But absolutely, tightly, completely repulsed. Well, his connection with the spiders is something incomprehensible and disgusting. But you get used to everything. In general, I stayed with him for forty years, helped him restore the Coven Calcini bit by bit, and served faithfully. Although, of course, I did not support all of his actions, much less understand them. But I believed in him too. However, all good things come to an end one day. Once I returned from a mission to our castle, came to bow to him. He hugged me affectionately, kissed me on the cheek — and, can you imagine, there were tears in his eye. And then he said only one phrase: ‘Imagine, Luchi, but Ozod is alive, and this is your fault.’ I didn’t know then, and I don’t know now, what my fault was, but the punishment turned out to be in the spirit of the Nameless One. In his laboratory, he quartered me alive, as he did with everyone who, in his opinion, committed treason. But because he loved me with his strange love, he let me live. I spent five years without arms, legs, and wings and was, in fact, his toy. That’s what he called me — Mrs. Keychain. However, at some point, he got tired of it. He found himself a new personal assistant but, oddly enough, took pity on me. Gave me his favorite spider legs, which he uses to create Sentry Guards, and threw me somewhere in the center of Rotland. Well, actually, I’ve been hanging out in these lands for about a year. You are the first living being I have spoken to in all this time. So here it is, my story. Sorry,” Luchi finished her tale.
Part was stunned silent and tried to digest the information — as if the legends on which he had grown up came to life, met him on the untrodden paths of deep forests, and in fact, turned out to be terrible newspaper clippings.
“Well, that’s, in fact, why did I tell you all this, do you think? And no, of course, not just like that. Although I am a warrior, I am also a fairy, I think you have heard of our trademark wisdom. I felt you for many leagues and followed, watching you and looking at your city. I have an irresistible feeling that soon you, unwittingly, will be involved in very important events, and by all means, I will need to be near you. Therefore, having revealed my story to you, I ask you to accept my offer and continue the path together,” Luchi proposed.
“So,” the onslaught of the fairy — the warrior — the legend — the sage — the cyborg completely confused the thoughts of the man-city.
“That’s nice, Part, that’s nice,” Luchi Musaal cooed contentedly, “well, there are still a couple of hours before dawn — let’s take a little nap before the long journey.”
With that, she folded her spider legs into a compact structure, rolled over on her side, and covered herself with her cloak.
Part did not sleep that night, but silently and dumbfounded looked at the sleeping fairy.