“He shouldn’t have to suffer this alone.”



This work was produced based on a series of excellent fan games by Kelandon, including Bahssikava, Exodus, Homeland, and The Magic.



The illustration is very strongly influenced by a piece of art made by the artist Ben Resnick. I created this work as a study to learn how to draw the slith form, and I was strongly inspired by his piece of art ‘In the Service of New Allies’ produced for the game ‘Avernum 2: Crystal Souls’. The slith presented here is very close to the slith shown in that piece of art. The background is my own reworking of one of the backgrounds created by Andrew Hunter for the older ‘Blades of Avernum’ engine.



This work also comes with a work of fiction. It’s a short novella, set in the world of Kelandon’s Exodus. That world is itself an expansion of the world of Avernum described in the game series of the same name developed by Spiderweb Software. If you have not played the Avernum series or Kelandon’s games, I can highly recommend them! You can find the Avernum series on website of Spiderweb Software and Kelandon’s games on his own website. Kelandon’s games can be played through the ‘Blades of Avernum’ engine at no extra cost.

This story contains many elements of Avernum and Exodus, but it was designed for a reader who has no experience of any of the games at all. No knowledge of these games is required to enjoy this story, and all relevant parts of the games are either summarised or directly explained at certain points in the story. If you have not played the games, all you will miss is the occasional small reference that is not important to the flow of the narrative.



Please be aware that this novel deals with some dark themes and emotions. In particular, some readers may wish to skip over a few paragraphs when the rusty lamp appears. You’ll know it when you see it.



This work was created over a longer period of time than is usual for my art, and I gathered together quite a few relevant musical works while I was working on it. It was difficult to choose a small selection of these, but I did my best! Given the nature of the story, I will list all the musical selections below instead of being interwoven in the narrative:



Artwork:

Ecolove remix – Raven Squad

Friends til’ the end – LegendaryHeropon

Music Of The Water – Eguana

Story:

 Soundtrack of Dune (Cryo Interactive) – Stéphane Picq



~



Jenneke sat on the edge of the bed, nursing a cracked mug full of steaming soup, and stared into the depths of one of the glowing crystals that lined the walls of the small room. The glow of the crystals was dim and mellow, but their combined light was more than enough to illuminate the room with a hearty glow. It was almost enough to dispel the inherent strangeness of the surroundings. Almost.

Jenneke shifted position, trying to find a more comfortable position on the Thassakan bed. He didn’t succeed. The bed wasn’t designed for the human form, and he kept slowly slipping off the shiny, almost translucent material that made up its base. He was sure that the Thassakans would have no such problems. The material was very comfortable, but without the extra support of a tail and the friction provided by a covering of thick scales, there was no way he could make use of the bed. It was another reminder that he was farther from home than any human had probably ever been before.

What I wouldn’t give for a room in a small trading post right now.

He shrugged off the feeling. It was the tiredness talking. There was nothing more valuable than the opportunity of being on this expedition, no matter how challenging it became. To finally see the roots of a truly civilised slith culture was one of the most fantastic things he had ever had the chance to experience.

Jenneke took a sip of the mushroom soup. It was still slightly too hot to drink, but the taste of the broth helped him relax a little and shrug off the tension of the past few days. The warm, rich taste of the mushrooms reminded him of more familiar places, and of home. The mushrooms were different, of course. The Thassakans grew their own local variety that was darker in colour and more musky in flavour than the ones he was used to from the great crops of the Tower varieties. But the basic dish was the same. The Thassakans had been more than generous with the arrival of their expedition, and had offered the weary, distressed and soaked travellers as much food as they needed, from fish and sea-life of all kinds to bread and freshly ripe vegetables and fruit. But right now, Jenneke and his companions needed the comforting warmth of one of the simplest of all Avernite dishes.

Avernum was very many miles away and many days travel at best through inhospitable terrain, up tall and fast rapids and through miles of narrow, winding tunnels. It felt remote right now, almost a lifetime away.

What would Hawthorne had thought of his little pet project if he could see us now?

Jenneke grinned. Frrrrrr looked over at him quizzically from her position on the chair at the room’s single desk. Jenneke smiled back at the nephil and, by way of an answer, took another sip of his soup. Frrrrrr made an amused face at the human, and then turned back to her own meal. She had turned her chair around to face the small, raised magical fire that Adrianna, another member of their little group, had placed in the centre of the room. Their fourth member was currently walking through the streets of the city. Adrianna was sitting on one of the pallets that they had brought with them and which she had unrolled alongside the small desk. She was sitting cross-legged, the arms of her dark yellow dress rolled up to the elbows, and slowly stirring the generous pot of soup that was sitting suspended on a small, collapsable tripod above the roaring fire. The fire was hot, but the mage was focusing its energy on the cooking pot. None of the heat was escaping to damage the surrounding carpets ands furnishings.

Jenneke marvelled again at the versatility of the mage. In addition to her impressive skills in the arts of physical magic, and being arguably the most learned of all of them from her stint in the Tower, she had recently put her mind to learning as much of alchemy as she could. For others, that would be the work of many years. Yet, somehow, she had managed it in just a single year. She had started, in fact, shortly before they had first heard Legare’s summons and travelled to the supposed site of Lost Bahssikava. It was strange to think that those events had occurred barely over a year ago. So much had changed since then.

Adrianna’s alchemy had been of tremendous use both in their travels through Bahssikava and all their journeys since then. It had hugely extended their resources and their ability to deal with tough situations. Energy Elixirs were very useful indeed, as Frrrrrr could testify. But there was another use of her new talent. Through her knowledge of herbs, spices and plants and how they combined together to produce new and potent materials, she had become an excellent cook. The soup he was drinking now rivalled some of the very best he had tasted back home. From the look on Frrrrrr’s face, it seemed the nephil was thinking along similar lines.

How far we have come ...

A hundred years ago, such a gathering would have been unheard of, almost unimaginable. Humans and the nephilim, along with their sterile cousins the nepharim, were all creatures of the surface world. They had emerged and flourished under the sun, in a land of grass and trees and flowers. The humans had banded together against a hostile world and, united in language and aim, formed city states. These had been united under the banner of a single united Empire for longer than anyone could remember.

No doubt, this Empire had once been just and decent, a way to protect the humans from the forces of an uncertain world. But the Empire grew and grew and, somewhere along the way, lost some of the justice of its founding. The Empire of a hundred years ago was vast, spanning all four continents of the known world. It was a terrifyingly efficient bureaucratic machine, and it had to be. It ruled over thousands of towns and cities, along with hundreds of fortresses and garrisons spanning an entire world. And it was ruthless in this organisation. Its citizens were expected to act and do exactly the things the Empire required or had planned for them. Any deviations were not tolerated.

Worse, the Empire worked solely for the benefits of its human citizens. Anything non-human was crushed in its wake. The Empire refused to accept the importance of any life outside of that which it provided for. And there was much intelligent life on the surface world. Once, the land had been a place infused with magic. The land had been at one with this magic, and from this magic were born many beautiful and fantastic creatures: the intensely powerful rakshasa, the disciplined troglodytes, the powerful ursagi and the frightfully skilled crafters of the nephilim to name but a handful. These creatures were treated as a menace and scoured from the landscape. Even the mighty dragons were hunted down and killed without mercy. The humans paid dearly for their safety.

The destruction of the nephilim was one of the Empire’s greatest triumphs. The humanoid felines were as socially advanced and as talented as the humans, some might argue even more so in their skills with the creation of delicate objects, machinery and complex weaponry. Their skill with the bow was unrivalled. And they had advantages that the humans lacked. The standard nephilim was much the same size as a human, although with smaller bones and slightly more frail. Their fur provided protection from the cold and the elements, so their body didn’t need as much mass as the humans did. This lightness enabled them to make much more delicate motions with their limbs, giving them fantastic speed and agility in their movements. However, one in every ten or so nephilim was born a mutant. These ‘nepharim’, as they were known, had much in common with the mules sometimes born to the horses raised by humans. The nepharim were almost entirely sterile, but they made up for the fact by being much more heavily built, and significantly stronger and taller than their parents. The nepharim towered over their neighbours the humans. Thus, the nephilim tribes combined the traits of fine craftsmanship, fantastic versatility of movement and strength and power that easily surpassed that of the humans.

But where the humans banded together into a single empire, the nephilim kept to their individual tribes, each tribe expanding their boundary almost at the same speed as the humans. The trade between neighbouring tribes was rich and diverse. Wherever the humans went, so went the nephilim. But the individual tribes were no match for the combined resources and labour of an entire empire. The nephilim fought dearly and kept the Empire at bay for a while. They even, finally, formed a united group of their own, learning from the humans. The great Ratbane clan was mighty and its members numerous, but it was formed too late to repel the humans. The Empire troops were too great in numbers for the nephilim to resist and, eventually, this final clan was broken and scattered. But they were never defeated. The nephilim went into hiding, scavenging off the humans whenever they could, and the humans, though powerful, had neither the cunning nor the ability to root them out. An intense hatred built between the two races, the nephilim furious at what they had become, and the humans fighting against their own inability to destroy the clan entirely. Any nephilim that were found were killed on sight. At least at first.

But a discovery of the humans led them to the beginnings of their own downfall. One researcher, conducting official business on behalf of the Empire, accidentally discovered that the surface on which the humans lived was only one small part of a much larger world. Many, many miles below the ground lay a vast series of caves and tunnels, so large that no-one even to this day has been able to map them.

Jenneke smiled.

Some of us are still mapping them ...

The Empire sent an expedition down to the nearest of these caves. The caverns were deep in the earth, and it took tremendous work and even more tremendous energy to transport a small party down to the cave system by magical means. Creating a path manually would have been almost impossible.

The party was formed of some of the strongest and most competent people known in the Empire equipped with some of the strongest creations the Empire could create. Led by Karzoth, the mighty dervish and supported by the brilliant strategist Thralni, their victory was assured.

None returned.

They had been met by darkness and a world not touched by humans. They had little experience with non-humanoid creatures. And there were many intelligent beings in the caves, much stronger than on the surface and fuelled by the intense magic in the heart of the earth. The group split up and each met their end to different forces in the system of caves, one to a dragon, another to spiders, another still to the undead.

The Empire labelled the place as a death trap and decided never again to explore it. The caves acquired the name Avernum, the name given to place in the afterlife where souls, it was told, went to be punished for their crimes. The Empire decided to use the place to do just that. Killing was a costly experience, as were trials and legal proceedings.

And so Avernum became a large prison. When the Empire found anyone that would not obey, that challenged its authority or become too powerful, they were unceremoniously sent down into the caves. The Empire publicised this as an act of mercy. In truth, they expected all who were sent down to the caves to die in much the same manner as the First Expedition. All non-humans captured by the Empire were also sent down to the system of caves. The non-humans were sent down through a separate portal, a small mercy, which meant that the humans and magical creatures were not immediately at conflict when they arrived. Without that courtesy, Avernum may never have grown to what it is today. Overnight, the Empire became a much safer place to live, and much more oppressive.

The emperor died, and was succeeded by his son. But Hawthorne was a ruthless man, in command of an entire world and surrounded by all the power of millions. He did not take this power well, and grew steady insecure. More and more people were flooded into Avernum for the smallest of offences. So great was the threat that Avernum acquired another name, which described exactly what the place had become: Exile.

Crucially, Hawthorne eventually made a significant tactical error. After a power struggle with one of his aids, he sent four of the most powerful mages in the surface world into Avernum. These mages did not rest lightly. Erika, Aimee, Solberg and Patrick worked with their magic to strengthen the society the humans had formed in the caves. They helped build cities, create crops and even raised a mighty castle out of the very earth itself. A few decades after the first humans had been sent down, a vast society had formed underground, with six major cities each controlling a small province. It was a hard life, but an exciting and beautiful one. Avernum was steeped in magic and opportunity. With the help of the first mages, Avernum became very powerful very quickly, sometimes in areas entirely unknown to the surface world.

At first, the humans had behaved much as the Empire did. They struggled against the creatures in the caves with them. At first, they simply tried to survive. But as their strength grew, they pushed back against their nephilim brothers exiled with them. The nephilim were weak from their poor existence of the surface world, and could offer little resistance. There were other foes that fought back much more strongly, including the intensely powerful and ruthless demons, led by the mighty demon lord Grah-Hoth himself. But even such a powerful creature as this could not stop the Avernites, and he was eventually banished.

But there were another group of creatures in the underworld. The humans thought of them as little more than savages, for that is what they seemed. The ‘slithzerikai’, shortened easily in the human tongue to ‘slith’, were natural residents of the caves. The sliths were reptilian creatures, humanoid, and very well adapted to life in the caves. They were larger, taller and stronger than humans. They were also amphibious, easily able to swim, fish and traverse the great rivers, lakes and seas of the underworld. They knew the caves far better than any of the humans. They were amazingly skilled in combat, putting their strength and power to good use in their brilliant ranged weapon, the traditional two-tined spear that could be well over several meters in length. And they were, at first, intensely hostile. It was only through banding together that the humans survived at all.

The sliths seemed to work hand in hand with the demons. They were intensely spiritual, and put great emphasis on ritual and ceremony. Those who observed the sliths, and some who escaped their clutches, recorded details of savage rituals, of sacrifice of humans and sliths alike to dark and terrifying gods. Their power they gained through interaction with the dark forces was formidable. Even to this day, some of the sites of the strongest slith ceremonies are still tinged with tangible remnants of dark magic. Those who the sliths did not kill outright, they sacrificed. They burned down cities, destroyed fields and flocks. The Avernites thought them nothing more than brutes.

But they were wrong. Before the demon lord was banished, the creature was first trapped partway for many years. This was enough for some of the sliths to lose the hold that had been placed on them by demonkind. Not all wished to stay in the thrall of darkness. Hundreds of sliths defected from the so-called Darklings and formed a new society in the city of Gnass. While hardly friends to humans, the sliths of Gnass tolerated their newly-arrived cousins who had subdued such a powerful force in the caves. They, under the leadership of the mighty priest Pathass, followed a new path, one working towards the virtues of patience and peace.

The humans first distrusted them, and would have little to do with the ‘barbaric’ sliths. But, finally, all three races were thrown together by the Empire that tried so hard to keep them apart. The Empire finally saw the power of Avernum when Hawthorne, the very emperor himself, was slain in his own throne-room by the magic of the Avernites. The Empire took action, and sent down as many of its troops as it could to destroy the nation. The Empire was strong, and took many lives. It destroyed the entire region of the Abyss. The refugees fled to the heart of Avernum, human, slith and nephilim alike. They were forced together, and groups of all three species worked side by side to repel the invaders from their lands.

It was only through the Empire’s own folly that they succeeded. The Empire kept up its perceived duty to exterminate all non-humans even in the underworld, and they angered a great and powerful race. The ‘vahnatai’ were an ancient race, more powerful almost than could be conceived compared to the humans. Through the help of a series of envoys, the vahnatai were persuaded to drive out the invaders. And drive them out they did.

Famously, the envoys to the vahnatai were a group of four travellers, human, slith and nephilim working together. They formed the basis for many such groups of travellers, adventurers and explorers in the years to come. Had it not been for them, the lives of people such as those on this expedition would have been very different.

Jenneke smiled. Once again he felt lucky to be in the presence of such talented and brilliant people. This time, Frrrrrr was too absorbed in her soup to look up.

Jenneke took another sip of his soup. It was colder now, and he began to take large sips of it. He had been absorbed in his own recollections of history. No doubt the grandness of the current expedition was making him think of himself as a big figure in history! That wouldn’t do. He stifled a laugh, and continued to eat. The soup was tasty and satisfying. He felt the tiredness of the past few days slip away into a quiet, small hum in the back of his mind.

That’s more like it.

The last week had been trying in the extreme. Jenneke and the three he travelled with had rejoined the expedition at Vasskolis, ready to being their expedition into the heart of the –

No. If am thinking about history, I must begin from the beginning. From Legare, the sliths and the first steps of the expedition.

Adrianna had stopped stirring the soup, and looked up at Jenneke, brow furrowed. But she said nothing.

It was almost fourteen months ago that one of Jenneke’s companions, the only member of the four who currently was not in the room, received a summons. Thissa was a slith, and he and Jenneke had been known to each other long before they had met Frrrrrr and Adrianna. Thissa was currently out walking the streets of Thassaka, and he wanted to be alone.

I hope he’s alright.

While Jenneke and the group were resting briefly in Patrick’s Tower before beginning another excursion through the Great Cave, Thissa had received a summons from a fellow slith. Legare had been causing much of a stir. He had visited the great city of Gnass, prophesying that he had been visited by a Goddess and that it was time for the sliths to return home. Legends had it that the sliths were themselves exiles in Avernum, banished there by their own great civilisation for their dark and barbaric ways. Rumour said that the gateway to their homeland could still be reached. That gateway was Bahssikava. Legare claimed he knew not only where this gateway was, but how it could be reached.

At first, sliths laughed in his face. But he was a powerful slith, possessed of both an incredible charm and intense belief, and he quickly had many sliths flocking to him in the hope that they could return to their home, free from the tragic darkness of their past. Legare taught of the powers of patience and peace. This disturbed many in Gnass, including Pathass. Eventually, he was driven out by force. But Legare had a sizeable following at this point, both from Gnass and even from the Darklings, and his banishment only served to call more sliths to his cause. He took them to the site of Bahssikava. The group stopped at the entrance, for the way to the city had been made hazardous by the forces unleashed by the Empire who had stumbled on it decades before. There, Legare built a temple. And it was from there that he called Thissa and whomever he wished to bring with him.

Thissa and the group has arrived and dutifully attempted to bring Legare and his followers to the fabled door back to the homeland. The way was difficult. They found that Bahssikava was once a huge and incredibly advanced city full of sliths dedicated to purifying themselves, ridding themselves of the darkness that had exiled them. The Darklings were, it seemed, once Bahssikavans themselves, who had rebelled. The Bahssikavans we mighty indeed, but they never succeeded in opening the doors that barred them from their homeland. Legare had made a tough promise to his followers. Worse, Bahssikava had been almost totally destroyed. Almost none of the sliths has survived a great cataclysm that had occurred over a half a century before the expedition arrived. The forces of Grah-Hoth had found the city and, through their efforts and a great cave quake, much the city was ruined. The souls of the sliths were captured and put to work by the very demons they had tried to rid themselves of.

The expedition made its way to the doors. And Legare ...

The room was lined with members of the expedition. They crowded the walls, from the gently glowing steel gates that had taken so long to open to the vast and almost oppressive ornate steel doors on the other end of the room. People kept respectful distance from the ancient coffins that had been reverently placed in this entryway countless years before. In the space in the centre of the room stood Legare. He was ... magnificent. An aura of tremendous power radiated out from him. His arms were spread wide, and he was facing the steel doors. His face was raised to heaven, and his bright blue crest blazed down his neck, shaking as if with a slight breeze. The expedition was silent, terrifically silent. The Prophet Legare was speaking softly, powerfully, delivering impassioned words to the Goddess who had led us all this far.

“In dreams she came to me with whispers soft,
To tell me now was time, the time foretold,
When to our home we would return with joy, ...”

The magic pouring off the Prophet was almost palpable. The air shimmered above him like the heat from a hot fire. Those standing near the steel doors drew back.

“To home we go, to home unknown, unseen,
Unheard, but not unfelt, unwanted, lov’d, ...”

Power lanced from the slith’s hands. Huge red beams tore through the room, striking the door. Lances of ice poured from the ceiling. Gouts of flame drew themselves from the earth and flung themselves at the murals on the face of the steel doors. Clouds of almost intangible magic coalesced out of the air itself and showered the door with sparks and beautiful strands of heartbreakingly quiet music.

“To make amends our goal, with malice none,
We now embrace our just, true cousins home:”

The doors remained closed, but the ground in front of them had been hit with such fury that it had become molten. The air was liquid with power.

“We, your faithful children, understand now the mistakes
made by our ancestors, and we have learned,
with exacting care, the virtues of patience and peace.
We desire nothing less than to return to the land
from which we were justly banished more than two centuries ago.

“We await your decision.”

The Prophet and everyone in the room waited on that moment. From our viewpoint, we could see Legare’s exertion. Oddly, it looked as though tears were tracing lines down his cheeks. And then there was chaos.

Cave Quake

The earth shook. Members of the expedition fell to the floor, terrified. Rocks were thrown from the walls. The ground itself shrieked. And then the shaking died down. Legare yelled in triumph.

And the doors flung open. In the darkness beyond lay the homeland.

Legare had done what no slith before had ever been able to do. He had opened the way to the homeland. But no beauty lay beyond the fabled doors. Only ruin awaited. The Bahssikavan sliths had tried something similar at the time of the cataclysm, and the cave quake that resulted brought with it the destruction of the city and the ravages of the demons.

Jenneke, Thissa and their group banished the demon lord ruling over Bahssikava and freed the souls of those trapped there. And they found their way through the buildings that had been guarding the steel doors to another city, a true city of the homeland.

It too was in ruins, but it was occupied by survivors of Bahssikava and the guardpost, along with their descendants. The expedition had finally, in the city of Vasskolis, found homeland sliths.

Vasskolis had been unlucky and ruined by the powerful dragon Galthrax. And it was at the outermost edge of the great empire of the sliths, the empire of Khalthas. Time had cut it off from the rest of the Homeland. Legare’s expedition resolved to journey to very heart of the Homeland itself. The group took the best part of a year to prepare itself for the journey. Little was known of the area; Vasskolis had been cut off from the empire for a long time, and even those sliths of the guardpost had little knowledge of what was in the vicinity. Every precaution had to be taken.

And so, just over a week ago, Jenneke and his group had returned to Vasskolis to aid the expedition.

Just over a week? Was it really only that recently?

They had only just arrived in time. Within hours of their arrival, the army of Gnass appeared. The city had decided to take action against what it perceived as the terrifying heresy of the Prophet. They did not believe his claims of a return to the Homeland. The army was instructed to stop the expedition and Legare at any cost.

But the Goddess had shown her power then decisively. She had opened a path for the expedition through a nearby river. The river was deep and broad, too fast flowing to be crossed by the sliths. And when the expedition had passed, the Goddess had made the waters return back. Many sliths of Gnass died that day.

I wonder if Pathass survived?

All the preparations of the expedition had been largely in vain, for the group had only been able to take what was to hand and what they could carry. They were stranded on the side of a riverbank in unknown territory. Thankfully, the bank was densely wooded. The expedition set up camp, and under the supervision of the brilliant slith engineer Talas, boats were constructed to allow the expedition to move down the river. Despite their relative lack of knowledge, the sliths of the guardpost did know that there were several cities in the near vicinity that might have escaped damage by the now defeated dragon. In particular, the grand city of Thassaka was only about a day’s travel down the river. Legare’s aids had asked Jenneke and his group to follow the river to find these cities and to see if they could bring back any aid.

But all the cities they encountered were in ruins. And, worse, they were occupied. Their occupants with clearly sliths, but they were different from the sliths of Avernum and Bahssikava. They were bigger, stronger and stood with a hunched posture. They had assaulted the outer cities of the homeland and succeeded in sacking them. Much of this seemed to have happened relatively recently.

These hostile sliths were terrifying. Much like the Darklings of Avernum, they worshipped dark gods and performed bleak rituals. But they went much farther. Even in the week the Jenneke had been in the Homeland, he had seen the barbarians exhume corpses of their victims and defile them on altars in the worship of their gods. He had seen the destruction of the cities first hand. And he had even seen rituals that ...

No. I don’t want to think of it.

But they had, after days of searching, of fighting the powerful barbarians and the local creatures of the area, the lizards with a natural mastery over the power of ice known as ‘cryoas’, the group had finally stumbled onto Thassaka.

And it was intact.

The city was beautiful. It was vast, and must be home to very many thousands of sliths. It sat on an island in the centre of a large lake, close to much arable land and rich ore deposits. Its walls were high and its army strong. It had fought back the barbarians. It saw no reason to refuse the arrival of the descendants of the Darklings, and the city had allowed the group into its walls. They had been quizzed by the leaders of the city, by the impressive king Khalthanas, named after the mighty hero of slith legend, and they had questioned the leader in return.

Thassaka might have survived, but its connections to the main body of the homeland had not. They had stopped receiving word from the cities to the south many years previously, and cave quakes had blocked passage down the river which was the main source of transport from Thassaka to the heart of the empire.

The group had decided that Thassaka was by far the safest stopping point for the expedition that they had encountered. After exploring the city and resting as best they could, they had returned to Vasskolis by a new route over land that they had discovered.

The expedition was joyous that a city of the empire had been discovered that was still very much alive. In the days the group had been away, Talas and his team had built an impressive number of boats. The camp was disassembled and many of the group’s provisions were loaded onto boats and barges, including some new provisions obtained by the merchant and master of scavenging Silthokh.

Using the directions that Jenneke and his group had given the expedition, knowing that the tunnels were for the moment clear, groups of boats left down the river, now armed against the rapids and dangers that would await them. Meanwhile, Jenneke and his group led several of the stronger sliths with some of the larger items that would not fit on the barges through the lands of the barbarian Thkhi to Thassaka by land. It had taken many days, and several trips, but the members of the expedition were now finally all safely within the walls of Thassaka. For this first time, Jenneke could rest. There was no work that needed to be done immediately, no lives were in danger. And the expedition was safe.

No wonder I’m so tired.

The leaders of the city had promised the expedition a grand spectacle later this evening. The Avernite sliths had lost much of their culture and history, and the Thassakans were going to show them something they had lost. There were going to present a reading of what was apparently the greatest epic poem ever written by the empire of the sliths.

The Khalthanad told of the founding of the slith empire by the great hero Khalthas, who had received his calling after defeating a mighty dragon and speaking to a great Goddess. The work was long and apparently very beautiful. It was also very ubiquitous. Jenneke and his group had seen several small fragments of the poem in the ruined cities and outposts they had come across in the homeland, and even read a children’s book on the subject back in Bahssikava.

It was going to be thrilling listening. For now, the group was whiling away the remaining hours by having a warming dinner and resting as much as they could. No-one had spoken much since they had finally camped in this room.

Thissa would be especially excited to hear the Khalthanad. He would be hearing of the founding of the empire, of the land that gave birth to his people, for the very first time.

He has really been gone a long time though.

“I hope he’s alright.”

The statement was involuntary, and it took a fraction of a second for Jenneke to realise that he had actually spoken out loud. Frrrrrr stirred and looked at him with an intense gaze.

“I’m sorry, Jenneke. What do you mean?”

Jenneke tried to shrug off Frrrrrr’s question.

“Oh, nothing much. I’m just worried about Thissa. He’s been gone for a long time. But this is a large place. I’m sure he’ll come back before too long.”

Jenneke tried to make the statement sound confident, but it backfired. He sounded concerned, and he knew it.

Frrrrrr sat up straight.

“This is a difficult time for our friend, Jenneke. Mrrrr.”

The nephil ended the phrase with a soft purr. She did this infrequently, and doing so was a sure sign that she was stressed about something.

“He will need time to process all we have seen, I fear. The barbarians and their deeds have been as distressing to me as I am sure they have been to you, my friend.

“But consider. Imagine if you had been the first to return back to the surface under the sun. And you had found it full of savage, beast-like humans, killing and eating one another. How would you feel about that? We have found civilisation at last, it is true, but there is much darkness here too.

“Sliths are often assumed to be dark by nature, although we know that not to be true. But perhaps Thissa needs to think on these issues?”

Jenneke was silent for a few moments. In spite of himself, Frrrrrr had unleashed a memory in his mind that he had been trying to forget.

The small tent was filled with a foul stench, a mix of old meat and the acrid tang of alcohol. The heat from the nearby lava flows combined with the thick fabric of the tent walls made the whole atmosphere almost unbearably thick and oppressive.

It seemed that most of the sliths lived out in the open air among the stunted trees, the strange crystal pillars and the numerous discarded jars and wineskins. These sliths clearly had no problem living with the items they cast away.

Their leader, the tall and forbidding archmage Somnekh, had introduced himself and his brethren as follows of a god they called the Lord of the Feast. The remnants of their constant feasting were strewn over the whole island, the food slowly rotting away in the heat. Now, through the efforts of all of us, the group had been disbanded. Somnekh would no longer trouble the boats travelling to and from Thassaka.

The light in the tent was gloomy, a relief from the brightness of the torches and molten river outside. I blinked for a moment, letting my eyes adjust to the darkness.

The tent was small, probably only large enough for one or two sliths. No doubt the archmage had lived here, perhaps with his consort. Sure enough, my adjusting eyes spotted two pallets in the gloom surrounding a central chest.

Thissa looked around for a moment, and then made for the chest. Adrianna had already gained valuable knowledge simply from observing Somnekh, but perhaps these sliths had gathered information or resources that would be useful. Adrianna herself was making her way to a small, stained book kept on a pedestal on the other end of the room. Then, she stopped.

“Jenneke? Could I have some light? I think there’s something on the ground here.”

I fished around in my bag and brought out a lamp, an old, rusty item borrowed from some Avernite brigands many years ago. It wasn’t pretty, but it did the job nicely. I handed the lamp to Adrianna, and she muttered a brief spell to light the candle resting inside. The candle sent a brilliant gleam leaping through the tent.

The floor was strewn with bottles, far more than there seemed to be outside, mixed in with tankards and large jugs, some of which still seemed to have some fluid inside, judging by the smell. And at Adrianna’s feet was a slith, a Thassakan slith.

Or at least what was left of him.

The slith had been mostly reduced to a skeleton. However, it was clear from those parts that were more intact that this wasn’t due to the passage of time. The bones had been partially rearranged, and the flesh on them showed clear signs of teeth and claws.

Clearly, the sliths here had killed this slith and then eaten the remains. They must have been drinking a large volume of wine whilst doing so, too.

I started to turn away, unable to deal with the sight. The rituals and handling of dead bodies had been one thing, but this? I felt my head grow light, and was possessed by a violent urge to vomit. But I did not. Something had caught my eye, a spot on one of the bones that caught the light of the lamp.

I fought for control and looked back, leaning over the poor Thassakan. There was indeed something there. Someone had carved something on one of his bones.

“The Devourer”

That was the name of their god, their Lord of the Feast.

Moments later, I was outside of the tent, leaning on a tree, panting for breath.

Jenneke shuddered, trying to dispel the memory.

“Somnekh?”, Frrrrrr mentioned quietly.

“Yes. I ... I just can’t get that poor Thassakan out of my mind. How could the sliths react that way?”

“I am not sure. We are dealing with forces and situations here far beyond our normal experience. These barbarians, if that is what they are, are very devoted to the worship of their gods. This behaviour may be normal to them, even if it is difficult for us to understand. ”

Adrianna had looked up from the pot of soup and slowly turned down the heat of the fire. She had been following the conversation with interest.

“Perhaps”, advanced the mage, “these are not really sliths at all. We may not be able to use the same code of morals to judge them. These barbarians may be a different race altogether, and no more like sliths than humans are alike to giants. We have all seen what the giants are capable of, wounding and maiming even their own in the pursuit of the perfect fighter.”

Frrrrrr turned to Adrianna. A slight frown was furrowing her brow.

“I’m not sure that’s a fair analogy, my friend. The giants are, unfortunately, not as mentally advanced as some other species. I mean not to judge them by saying that. I am merely suggesting that perhaps they find it harder to emote the pain they inflict in others than perhaps we do. Their prowess is in other areas.

“But these sliths are clearly more advanced than giants. The rituals we have seen are complex and enacted with a great deal of care. We have seen significant social organisation. There is a complex social hierarchy. Remember Nakhtha, and how the slith priest Askss was subordinate to the Thkhi chief Kafthss?

“And while their language may be crude, I have noticed similarities to the language spoken by the Avernite sliths. I fear these really are sliths, but that time and isolation have taken their toll on them.

“If I had to guess, I would say that these are also descendants of the followers of Thsss, but that these hid and escaped the wrath of the empire. They lived in fear, and fled to the edges of the empire’s control. They had lost their leader and their way of life, and they worshipped their gods all the more in their calamity. They turned inwards, seeing only their own inner darkness and their hatred of civilised sliths. Remember that the children of Thsss have been exiled for hundreds of years. Perhaps in that time, these creatures slowly lost the shreds of their culture, even their language, and became the twisted creatures we have seen.”

Adrianna seemed unconvinced.

“But if that is the case, then how are there so many of them? I will grant you that the huge cave quake that destroyed Bahssikava also opened up new avenues for the barbarians to attack the cities here, so that the cities were not taken by numbers, but more by surprise. But, still, we have seen with our own eyes the sheer volume of numbers they posses. There are far more barbarian sliths here even than in the villages surrounding the great central lakes of Avernum. If the great volume of exiled sliths could not produce such numbers, how could the few who were left behind do so? All the more so when they so brutally fight and attack races more powerful than themselves.”

“The answer, I fear, is simple. Remove moral strictures, and a race can breed very quickly.”

Adrianna was silent for a moment.

“Perhaps we we learn more about these barbarians in the future. For now, we do not have enough information.”

Frrrrrr leaned back in the chair again, and took a languid spoonful of soup.

“There is something we can learn from this, I think. We have seen that these sliths worship many dark gods, both the Devourer whom we have heard of recently and the god mentioned by the Thkhi, the Mighty One. We know that the Darklings worshipped many dark gods of their own. Perhaps this knowledge was carried down from long before their exile. They may be able to give us some information on the dark gods we have heard about.

“After all, we have been gathering curses from these gods of late. It would be very helpful to know what we are dealing with.”

Adrianna nodded.

“I agree. And of all the sliths we have with us, we have someone who used to be a very prominent Darkling indeed, one who read the very words of Thsss. Perhaps in the morning we should speak to Pithoss and ask him about those dark gods, if he will let us. The more information we receive, the better we can be prepared against any more ... shall we say, surprises. Jenneke?”

Jenneke nodded absently.

“Of course. That is an excellent idea.”

Jenneke was thinking of Thissa. If he also had been distressed by Somnekh, and he was thinking along the same lines as Frrrrrr, he could well be comparing himself to the barbarian sliths. He could be seeing himself in them, thinking of them as cousins. To see the work of Somnekh was one thing, but to be tied to it by blood would be quite another. The human started to speak.

“You know, I have been thinking too much of myself, and focusing on my own fears. Perhaps we all have.

“This is indeed hard for us, but I have only begun to imagine how difficult this must be for Thissa. To see the homeland in this state, and to see sliths performing such dark acts, sliths that might very well be his own kind ...”

Jenneke shifted on the bed awkwardly.

“At least, finally, we have arrived at civilisation. I hope that he can see all the wonders of these people and what good the slithzerikai can do as a species. They are an amazing race, and the evidence of that is all around us.

“This is a city built by the sliths, and the evidence can be seen in its every brick. We all know, I think, how hard life can be for a slith in Avernum.”

Frrrrrr caught Jenneke’s gaze. She certainly understood.

Jenneke had travelled with Thissa for long enough to know just how difficult it was to be a slith in the society of Avernum.

Officially, sliths were more than welcome in the civilised lands of the state of Avernum. When the Empire had invaded, the sliths of Gnass had rallied with their human cousins to defend their borders. The invasion threatened all of the life in the caves, and those of Gnass had thrown off their suspicion of the humans to battle side by side with them. They were joined by many refugees from the tribes to the north and west of human-occupied lands. Many of the slith towns and villages in those areas had been almost totally destroyed by the advancing Empire troops in their quest to eliminate all non-human life. The sliths made a significant contribution to the forces of Avernum. Without their help, the society might not have been able to hold off the invaders for as long as they did.

After the vahnatai drove out the Empire, many in Avernum were thoroughly grateful of the help of the sliths in defending the caves. The stories of the attempted genocide of the race touched many. The war had done much to relieve the suspicion of both races towards each other, and over the years it became more and more common to see sliths from Gnass and further afield travelling through the human cities. The same was true of the nephilim. Had it not been for the effects of the war, Jenneke and his follows might never had banded together.

How different things could have been ...

But Avernum was a society built by humans. It had been founded by desperate exiles, determined to fight off the dangers of an environment thoroughly unfamiliar to them. This idea still percolated the culture, even after everything that had happened since. While, officially, sliths were very much a friend to Avernum, this was often far from the case. Especially in the towns closer to the borders of the country, many bitterly remembered the wars with the Darkling sliths, both the lives lost and the homes destroyed.

Many still thought of all sliths as vicious and unthinking brutes. And a few people still harboured a deep distrust and dislike of their slith cousins. They were usually wise enough not to be openly hostile. But, every once in a while, Thissa would encounter foolishly bold Avernites. On several occasions, Jenneke could recall drinkers in pubs trying to slam a door on Thissa’s tail as he was leaving. Sometimes, they had succeeded. Humans would spill his drinks, over-season his food, talk only to his human companions. People would mimic his actions, his accent, or speak to him as if he couldn’t understand a word they said. Some merchants would refuse to sell to him altogether. Once, a sailor had thrown a bucket of water on the poor slith when cleaning out a boat. He claimed never to have seen the slith, grinning even as had did so.

At first, Jenneke had confronted people who acted so aggressively. But they always claimed that such behaviour was a simple mistake. That didn’t prevent them from laughing as the slith and his companions were walking away, of course.

In the early days, Thissa had tried very hard to fit in with human society. He, with the help of Jenneke and the others, had worked to improve his spoken Avernite as much as he could. Thissa’s speech was now practically flawless. He still, however, had an accent. The slith skull was shaped differently than that of a human, and there were some very simple human sounds that were difficult for a slith to make. Jenneke remembered how long it had taken Thissa to master the diphthong.

At one point, Thissa had considered changing his name. It was all too easy for people to mock him by spitting out the sibilance, reducing his name to a snakelike hiss. He had for a time thought of using a human name, something like Gabriel, or Stan or even, with a tone of amusement, Max. But after long periods of thinking, he had decided against this. He was slithzerikai, and he felt that trying to hide that would be going against his nature. It would be giving victory to the humans that attacked him.

Thissa had done his best to deal with the spiteful behaviour of humans. He understood the terrible things that had been done by both sides during the conflicts, and he was unwavering in his attempts to tolerate the abuse he received. He hoped to show by his acceptance that sliths really were a noble people. It was not always easy, and Jenneke knew that Thissa took every action taken against him to heart.

The problems were not just with the conscious actions of the humans. Whilst these were cruel, they were relatively rare. But there were many little parts of Avernite society that were not welcoming to non-humans. Sliths were cold-blooded creatures. The light of the glowing fungus that lit many of the caves was barely enough to sustain their body temperature. They needed a constant level of heat to be comfortable and to function at their best. Human cities were not designed with such considerations in mind. City streets, especially at night, were entirely unheated and brutally cold. Many sources of heat in homes warmed only a very small area. Sometimes, after a long journey, Thissa would be able to do little but sit by a meagre fire. Whilst Frrrrrr and Adrianna went out for supplies, Jenneke would sit with him and keep him company.

Yet, here in Thassaka, Thissa had no such problem. It seemed that a complex series of hypocausts was threaded underneath every surface of the city. The very ground itself was pleasantly warm. If more heat was required, the glowing crystals that provided light also provided a small quantity of heat which could be adjusted if required. And there were numerous other little touches.

Jenneke twisted uncomfortably on the bed, suddenly aware of it.

Even the beds and chairs in Avernum were a stumbling block for sliths. Many communal areas and taverns made use of benches carved into the stone wall for seating. Sliths often couldn’t use this seating at all; the seats were too close to the wall to allow room for their tail. Chairs with low backs were a similar problem, although at least a slith could sit on these sideways. There had been many occasions when Jenneke and his group had been forced either to stand or even to leave a place because there were no seats that Thissa could use. But, as Jenneke was feeling all too keenly, even the beds and chairs in Thassaka were designed for sliths.

Jenneke shook himself, realising that he had drifted off into his own thoughts once more. That must be the tiredness again. Adrianna was looking at him, thinking that he would continue the conversation. He tried to put what he had been thinking into words.

“For the first time, Thissa is seeing a society built by sliths, a society in which he is not an outsider. I very much hope that he is taking comfort in walking among and talking with his talented kin.”

The mage flushed, and very clearly tried to cover a look of concern as she turned back to the cooking pot. But, suddenly, she thought better of it, and turned to her two companions.

“I know as keenly as we all do how Thissa is treated in Avernum. I, too, very much hope that Thissa is taking comfort from the sliths here. What they have achieved in this city, and in maintaining their civilised state against the barbarians when all around them have fallen is indeed very admirable.

“But I have seen Thissa with the sliths of this city, and I am concerned that all may not be well there either. Thissa may not be walking to see the sliths of this city. He may be trying to hide from them, and from us as well.”

Adrianna sighed, resigning herself to the discussion. She wiped her hands with a cloth nervously for a moment, and then continued.

“As you all know, I learned and studied for many years in the Tower of the Magi. It was demanding work, and the years of silence I kept as an apprentice involved some of simultaneously the most challenging and rewarding work I have done in my life. I learned much from my time there, and I think of those experiences as the beginning of my work in magic.

“When I arrived at my first posting out of the Tower, I was eager to help everyone I could with my new skills. I was excited at moving from the abstract world of the teaching labs to problems out in the real world.

“But the strange thing was that people wouldn’t accept my help. I thought at first that I wasn’t explaining myself properly, or that I was misunderstanding the needs of the people I was serving. But the longer I was there, the more I realised what was happening. I had no trouble socialising when learning my craft. Everyone I was working with knew the hardships we all went through, and I spent many great hours after dark in the refreshment halls, telling silly stories with those I knew there. I made many wonderful friends in the Tower, great people, some of whom I try to keep in contact with every now and again.

“And there were great people in the town, too, people I knew I would get on with. But, no matter how I tried, or what I did, I couldn’t socialise with them. If I went to the taverns, people would at first talk to me awkwardly, but they would then make up some excuse and leave quickly, or move to another table of their friends. I would always be left alone. The same would happen to people in the street. If I invited people or officials to dine in my house, none would ever come. They always had some perfectly good reason not to be there.

“I thought for a while that I might somehow be causing people to act this way, that perhaps I wasn’t behaving in the right manner around them. But I eventually realised what the problem was.

“These people didn’t hate me, nor did they hate the position I stood for. They were afraid of me.

“There is much talk of magic amongst those who know little of it. A lot of that talk is based on badly remembered stories, rumours exaggerated time and time again on each retelling. The rumours and legends were almost entirely untrue, but they were widespread. People didn’t always believe the stories, but they couldn’t quite let the ideas go. They weren’t sure what to believe, what I was capable of as a mage.

“So they avoided dealing with the problem. Certainly, they were very grateful for the work I performed for their community. But they were no more than polite about it. They would have preferred it, I think, if I had not been there at all. That would have made them feel safer. There was no malice there. Only confusion.”

Adrianna sighed.

“I know many mages who thrive on such treatment, but I could not. Those reactions, and those of subsequent posts were one of the reasons why I left that life behind.”

Frrrrrr got up off the seat and sat down beside Adrianna. She put a comforting arm over the mage’s shoulder.

“I am so sorry that you faced such behaviour, mrrrr. I did not realise you faced such difficulty.”

Adrianna smiled, but didn’t labour the point.

“I have seen how people react towards another out of fear. And I have seen the Thassakans behave exactly the same way towards Thissa.

“The Thassakans have been nothing but polite towards him. But I have seen the glances they give him when they think he isn’t looking, the level of unease when he is in their presence. I’m sure he must see and feel it too, much more strongly than I do.

“After all, the Thassakans do not know what to make of us, of nephils and humans. They have never seen our like before. That perhaps is why they have been so kind and generous to us.

“But Thissa is something they do understand. He is, in their eyes, first and foremost a child of Thsss, a Darkling. And this idea is based on Thissa’s entire heritage. Do you remember how the Thassakans reacted when some of the first sliths entered the city?”

Frrrrrr turned to face Adrianna.

“Yes, I do. They were anxious, which was understandable.”

“Of course. And do you remember the fir–”

“Oh, now I see what you mean. As I recall, one of the first members of the expedition approached a Thassakan and tried to introduce herself. And the Thassakan spoke harshly to her, spitting a word at her before folding his arms and refusing to speak. Khalthanas himself intervened and saved the situation, as I recall.”

Jenneke once again felt relieved that his entire group could natively speak the language of the Thassakans, at least, almost so. In their journey through Bahssikava, they had learned the language through a series of teaching crystals. Oddly, these devices were thought to be vahnatai in origin, but it seems that the sliths developed them independently.

Perhaps ...

These crystals were infused in language instruction by the sliths, and the knowledge in them would be transferred to anyone that activated them. The devices had been set up before the cataclysm and never shut down. The language was very similar to the language spoken in the homeland, allowing the group to communicate clearly.

But many of the expedition had had to learn the language spoken here from scratch. They often did so with a thick accent. The sliths living in Vasskolis had been very patient in teaching them.

“Do you know what it was the Thassakan said?”

Adrianna looked around. No-one answered.

“If the root of the word is what I think it is, he said one thing. ‘Barbarian!’ “

Jenneke started in surprise. Adrianna continued.

“The sliths here have been dealing with the barbarian sliths for almost as long as they can remember. And the tongues of the barbarians and the Avernites sound disconcertingly similar. Even for Thissa, who can speak a language close to their own, they must hear the accent of the barbarians who have been attacking them all this time.

“And it isn’t just the language. I’m sure you’ve seen the clothing worn by the Thassakans. It is made from high quality material, from silk and woven fabrics, full of beautiful patterns and vibrant colours. I’ve seen more expensive items that even have jewels woven into them that glisten as the slith moves. The clothing designs are marvellous. Compare that to Thissa’s dress.”

Jenneke frowned. He appreciated Adrianna’s opinion, but he didn’t like what she was saying.

“There is nothing wrong with Thissa’s clothing!”

It came out harsher than he had intended. He started to apologise, only for Adrianna to wave it away.

“I meant no disrespect. That, I fear, was an appearance of the dispassionate arguer that the Tower tried so hard to instil in me. All I meant was that the clothing worn by Avernite sliths is very simple by comparison. Sliths, after all, need little clothing. It hinders the temperature regulation of their body and, unlike warm-blooded creatures, they have less of a need to keep this heat in. Clothes for an Avernite slith are a simple convenience and covering, something to be removed when not necessary.

“But imagine how Thissa looks to a Thassakan. To someone used only to this city, the clothing would appear as rags. And he carries a spear. We have heard that the beautiful spear we are familiar with is dismissed as barbaric by the Thassakans, made only by those who have forgotten the techniques required to fashion quality swords. Thissa looks and speaks like a barbarian, and they see him as a child of Thsss, an exile.

“The Thassakans are afraid of him, just as my charges were afraid of my magic. Much more so, I fear. I have seen groups fall utterly silent when he passed. Those sliths I have seen him speak to have been terribly polite, but many of those conversations lasted no more than a few moments before the speaker found a reason to be elsewhere. And you remember the tavern that emptied as we entered it?”

“I thought we had entered at closing time.” remarked Jenneke.

“I doubt that.”

Adrianna sighed again and idly smoothed down one of the sleeves of her robe.

“Let me stress that I do not think this is deliberate or malicious. But I am sure that, regardless, Thissa must see it keenly. He will have had such high hopes for this place, and I’m sure being ostracised even here will be intolerable for him. So I think he is exploring the city to be alone and to fight with his feelings. He is hiding from all of us. He wouldn’t want us to see his soul searching.”

For a moment, no-one spoke. Jenneke was locked in thought. Then, he leaned forward and moved his feet sharply as he slid forwards slightly on the bed.

“I – I think it is a bad thing that he feels he cannot speak to us. This is a trying time for all of us, and especially so for Thissa. I have been focusing too much on my own confusion about what we have seen in the past few days to see his distress. I will not allow that to continue.

“One thing is different about this place compared to Avernum. For the first time, we are all exiles. I think we can all help Thissa in dealing with the situation we are facing. I want to try and help him talk through what he is thinking about with us. I very much hope he will be encouraged that we at least see part of his point of view. Even if he wishes not to talk about what is going on, I really want him to see that we are all here to help one another, regardless of the situation.

“He shouldn’t have to suffer this alone.

“When he returns, I think we must mention this to him. We have to deal with this now.”

Frrrrrr smiled warmly. Adrianna nodded respectively. It was the nephil who spoke.

“You speak true, my friend. Let us not lose sight of ourselves in these difficult times, lest we lose all that we are. Let us speak to Thissa and help our companion in his healing.”

For long minutes, no-one spoke. Jenneke went back to eating his soup, colder now, but no less satisfying for it. It was clear to everyone that the group was hoping Thissa would step through the doorway at any moment. He did not.

Jenneke finished the bowl of soup, set it down beside him and let his eyes work over the room once more. Frrrrrr and Adrianna were still eating their soup on the rug next to the fire.

[See next upload for the conclusion.]