Outside Influences

Beth paused at the entrance to the tunnel to give her eyes time to adjust to the near darkness. There weren’t any torches placed along the wall, but a strange, dimly glowing moss covered the moist rocks. The weak glow highlighted the uneven ground in an eerie green glow.

The center of the tunnel was bare of moss, a sure sign of frequent travel. Not seeing any other options, Beth followed the obvious path. The tunnel twisted and turned in a disorienting maze; Beth soon found herself almost bumping into a group of elves coming in the opposite direction.

She couldn’t see any colors in the monochromatic light, but their clothing looked festive and was covered in designs of leaves and water. They were also festooned with jewelry, from heavy necklaces strung with stones to intricate metal studs that were holding their enormous ears straight.

Long ears means that they’re old, right?

Beth glanced at their faces for signs of age, but she only saw a couple of wrinkles around the eyes. They look like someone in their late forties, maybe. I get the feeling that they’re way older and stronger though.

Beth realized that she’d been staring for a while and both she and the elder elves were waiting on the other to do something.

“Hello,” she greeted them cheerfully. “I hope you speak Mycenaean. I was wondering–”

One of the elves turned to another a whispered loudly in Mycenaean, “is she going to move?” Beth decided to think of him as Mr. Rude. She grit her teeth for a moment, but forced herself to relax and appear friendly.

His conversation partner, Miss. Gaudy Necklace, shrugged back and rolled her eyes. “Children are always rude, Deru. They are capable of learning. Just be patient.”

Beth glared daggers at the group, but they seemed content to wait for her to move out of their way. She steeled her resolve. I’ll be happy to wait here for hours before I–

“Is that you, Beth?” a sleepy voice asked.

Beth whirled in surprise, her hand pulling a dagger free from its sheath. She stared at the yawning face that was emerging from the stone wall, her eyes wide with surprise and confusion.

The upper half of a woman pushed through the stone – or maybe it was more accurate to say that the stone formed into the upper half of a woman.

“Who–” Beth began.

The stone woman laughed. “It’s, me, Dutcha. Bel told you all about me. She did tell you all about me, right?”

Beth resisted the urge to retreat a step. Consorting with a creature powerful enough to melt the Dark Ravager’s pyramid and populate the Golden Plains with a variety of spirits wasn’t on Beth’s list of smart things to do.

Beth bowed briefly. “Of course. Greetings, Dutcha, spirit of chaos. I wasn’t aware that I was in your illustrious presence.”

The stone woman grinned and leaned forwards. “I’m in hiding,” she announced in a loud, conspiratorial whisper. “I don’t want the pantheon to drag me back while I’m still working on stuff.”

“Spirit,” interrupted Miss. Gaudy Necklace. “Spirit, we must speak with you at once.”

Dutcha rolled her eyes and her head in clear disdain. With a flick of her hand she slammed a stone wall across the tunnel, blocking out the elf’s protests.

Beth took an involuntary step back when Dutcha turned back to her with an unnaturally wide grin.

“So, Beth, it’s great to meet my daughter’s big sister. You taught her some good moves.”

The crazed spirit punched at the air a few times, managing to also knock some holes in the rocks, showering the tunnel with small sprays of debris. “I’m super pleased with her progress, by the way.”

Beth leaned upon Plenty’s abilities to smile casually, as a good merchant had to do. “That’s wonderful to hear. I’m quite proud of her as well. You wouldn’t happen to know when she’ll be back, would you?”

Dutcha tilted her head. “Soonish? I’ve been losing track of time in here.”

The spirit gestured, but all Beth could see was the tunnel.

“Doing what, exactly?” Beth asked. “If it’s not rude of me to ask.”

The spirit laughed. “Oh, I need to gather some strength and extra mass. I’ve been busy eating these rocks.”

Dutcha gestured at everything around her. I should be thankful that she didn’t decide to destroy the Golden Plains while I was still there, Beth thought.

Aloud she asked, “all of it? Is this all going to collapse? Should I get out?”

The spirit laughed, an oddly high-pitched sound for a creature made of rock. “No, no, I’m just hollowing it out. You’ll hardly notice. It’s just super stubborn so it takes forever to convince it that it should come with me to have some fun.”

Beth nodded as if she understood.

Dutcha continued to ramble. “I would love to go out an smash some things up – that’s why you’re here, right? But I’ve got to keep at this. Lempo has all these plans, you know?”

The spirit sighed dramatically. “There’s not much going on here anyway, I’ve already taken care of Technis’ people.”

“Technis’ people?” Beth repeated, alarmed. Her pulse thrummed at the sudden presence of danger.

The spirit gestured and the wall beside her opened up. The bottom halves of three people emerged, kicking helplessly.

“I don’t like to let their faces out,” Dutcha explained. “They’re so noisy.”

“And they’re Technis’ people?”

Dutcha nodded. “Yeah. I can’t kill them or Technis would know.”

The spirit gnashed her stone teeth. “So annoying. I just want to let loose, you know? But Lempo is really strict about her plans.”

Beth cleared her throat. “Well, if you can’t do anything yourself maybe you could offer me some help? I’m here to stop the elves from sending people to attack the Golden Plains.”

Dutcha nodded as she sent the struggling people back into the rock. “What are elves?”

Beth glanced at the barrier that separated them from the elder elves. “Uh, short people with pointy ears.”

“Oh, oh. I think I’ve seen some. I don’t know much about them. They like trees, right?”

Beth glanced at rock wall again and shrugged. It probably wasn’t worth the time explaining things to Dutcha.

“Maybe you could give me some kind of weapon?” Beth asked hopefully.

“A weapon…” Dutcha looked at her hands and flexed them, like she didn’t understand the concept of fighting with something that wasn’t part of her own body.

“Uh, or maybe some insights into abilities. The people in the Golden Plains told me that they first learned how improve their elemental manipulation by watching the spirits.”

Dutcha’s eyes lit up. “Oh, I know all about that!”

She squinted at Beth. “You like shadows, right? I can totally help.”

Dutcha patted the wall and burned away the moss in the shape of her hand. The darkness in the hand print swelled like a overripe fruit before it fell to the ground and rolled around like a living thing. Once it turned itself upright, the fingers in the patch of darkness uncurled like the piston legs of some insect. In moments, it rose from the ground, the fingers distended into tall stilts. Two red eyes glared out of the central body and a patch of terrible darkness marked its mouth. It hissed in Beth’s directly and she stumbled backwards quickly, a feeling of terror constricting around her throat.

“Oh,” Dutcha said, disappointed. “That’s not quite right. You like subtle things.”

A powerful swat of the spirit’s hand ended the nightmare, dispersing it into several clouds of darkness that drifted towards the exit.

Those’ll probably cause someone trouble later, Beth thought.

Dutcha paused to think for a moment before nodding happily. She poked the ground by Beth’s feet and grinned. “Okay, that one is perfect!”

Beth looked down, disconcerted by the spirit’s quite movement, but she couldn’t find anything. “What’s perfect?”

“Your new shadow! It’s super subtle! You’ll learn a lot from it!”

Dutcha nodded, pleased with herself, before yawning mightily. “Okay, I’ve got to be back to eating all this stuff so I’ll be ready later. You have a good time fighting with the short people.”

“Thanks…” Beth said to the darkness. The spirit has retracted into the rocks faster than Beth could open her mouth.

A moment later the summoned rock wall crumbled and several frustrated elder elves poured through the gap.

“You there, child,” demanded an elf so old that he wore an ornate apparatus on his head to hold his ears aloft. “What is that spirit doing here?”

“She’s just having a snack and taking a nap,” Beth replied.

“A snack?” one responded angrily.

“A nap?” another harrumphed.

Beth shrugged.

“You will have to go and fetch one of your elders,” scolded the elf with the ornate ear supports. “Loosing a spirit like this is very unproper.”

“My elders?” Beth asked.

The old elf nodded vigorously, sending his ears flopping about. “Yes. You’re only, what, fifty? You can hardly be expected to understand the repercussions of such a creature. Fetch Durabok or John or even that big beetle.”

Beth blinked blankly at the old elf. “Durabok? Do you mean Durak?”

“I think that may be right,” one of the other elves responded. “But I’ve never been one for your strange names.”

“Durak ascended,” Beth replied. “He’s my patron.”

“He ascended?” The old elf stroked his chin and nodded, his wide ears flopping with the movement. “He was always an ambitious one. Well, if you’re his follower then I guess you’re here to kill the boy for all the trouble he’s causing.”

“Boy?”

An old woman, this one with ears long enough to be slipped into the hair of her bun, snorted. “The one who calls himself king. I can never remember his name. He’s, what, ten years old?”

“Twenty I think. Far too noisy. Things’ll quiet down once he’s gone.”

“No one like that reaches adulthood,” another elf with droopy eyelids declared gravely.

The elf with the elaborate ear supports nodded. “Well, when you are done playing your children’s games go home and tell whatever elders are around that they must deal with this spirit. She came from the Golden Plains and must be returned.”

“Ah, okay,” Beth offered.

The group of old elves nodded and fell back into whispered conversation.

Beth decided to simply step aside so they could walk past.

“See?” Miss. Gaudy Necklace said to Mr. Rude. “The young always learn, eventually. If they don’t end up dying first.”