Journey to the West

  Leave me alone, you idiots. - The first and last commandment.

  "So what is the Court of Madness? A city?" Gloomeye asked, peering at the map with the rat.

  The lower left of the map was completely painted over (perhaps the cartographer marked the Edge of the World this way, or got tired of drawing, or just freaked out). And the lower right corner of the map was separated from the rest of the area by a thick line with the inscription "Lots of water".

  The map generally showed only the nearest neighbourhoods. Below the arrows pointing beyond the edges of the parchment were the names of unknown places (such as "Whirlwind Gorges" or "Archipelago of Evil"). Their whole way from Capital to Truth was to the right, then up to the Academy. Now they had to reach the Court of Madness, which was to the left of Capital.

  "Before the Break, there were many Courts: the Court of Tho', the Court of Allmight, the Court of Secret Steps, the Empty Court. Unfortunately, the only one left is the Court of Madness, which is responsible for performances," Splinter replied quietly.

  "Why 'unfortunately'? What's wrong with performances?" the guy didn't understand. The performance of travelling artists was one of the most vivid memories of his childhood.

  "Not only did they perform at the Universe Fairs, but they also performed dark rituals and public executions with fire and iron. And rumour has it that they were also purifiers of other Courts, hiding corpses and other evidence somewhere, probably using them in their demonic festivals," Splinter looked directly at Gloomeye and said with a firm voice, "and now they're trying to revive the magic."

  "It's clear why the Mourneers are attacking them," the guy realised that the girl had some history with this Court, but did not dare to ask, especially after their last conversation.

  "I'd call it a war. Are we really going there? Into the middle of hell?" Splinter broke her record for non-sarcastic sentences in a row.

  "We can do some scouting - just take a look and make a decision based on our strength," Gloomeye said. "And we need to find a settlement on the way to replenish our supplies."

  "Yes, delay gathering, hunting and finding water as long as possible. Panic training at the last moment is very motivating and invigorating," Splinter sighed resignedly.

  ***

  Gloomy spotted the people and turned his pega towards them. Judging by the doors and windows in local megashrooms, these were also local houses. There were many orcs among the inhabitants and they looked like the orcs of the previous owner of Gloomeye's outfit, only most of them were bulkier and broader at the shoulders.

  The orcs dressed like humans, in dirty rags, and did the same things or even harder (like two orcs harnessed like pegs, pulling a large rusty blade that tore up the ground). They didn't look much like Storyteller's orcs, who would have killed and eaten everyone else by now. Perhaps he was avenging a grudge against a particular orc.

  One of the villagers saw Gloomeye get off his pega. He dropped a crate that was leaking dust and ran over to Gloomy. What he said shocked the guy:

  "In a world where music unites us,

  We formed a damned choir.

  We have been given by fate not to stop,

  To revel in all the days and nights of songs.”

  "I can't help it, my rhythm is bad," Gloomeye said quickly, walking away from the denizen, dragging Grassy behind him, then waving to his newly arrived companions.

  "Ah, how strange and unusual this is,

  But the troubles of life are inevitable, and we are used to them.

  We are like puppets on strings,

  Can't just shut up, ah!”

  Splinter and Drat began to back away on their mounts, and Gloomy tried to pull away from the singer so that the pega's jump wouldn't hurt him. Some of the villagers, including the orcs, joined in the attack on the ears and began to sing in unison:

  "Magic, forever upon us, oh no!

  It turned us into a singing sonnet.

  The rhythm is deafening, the words like a spell,

  The soul in the melody trembles with a curse!”

  "I really can't help you, especially with the length of your lines," Gloomeye said in a panicked voice.

  "We have been granted an unusual share by the vile tramp,

  But the price is terrible - to speak without will.

  Like a caged bird, we must sing together,

  For freedom has bidden us farewell!"

  Most of the villagers sang now:

  "And all over the world the echo of our sadness resounds,

  We were forced to paint our every breath with eternal music,

  But the heart continues to create hope,

  That one day the curse will be broken.

  We spin in a whirlwind of our tortures, songs and fables,

  Until our hearts turn to dust".

  Gloomeye finally jumped and darted away. He hated it when Storyteller began to sing in his stories, and he was afraid of picking up that melodious curse.

  ***

  Next to the leafless forest, the company found another settlement. In it, the building style was chosen to be a pile of stones stacked in a circle, with semi-circular earthen roofs. Green plants grew on the roofs, constantly catching insects with their toothy mouths and sticky tendrils. Nearby rocks sheltered a large cave decorated with colourful patterns.

  Gloomeye landed beside a dirty girl and boy. They were wearing something similar to what Sewer did in Worldedge. The girl was very surprised and the boy stepped forward:

  "We don't like strangers. They're nothing but trouble."

  "But to us, you are strangers. And when you compare the threats, you outnumber us," Gloomeye said.

  He inwardly scolded himself for not being polite when arriving in a new place. But constant contact with Splinter made his reaction to barbs quick and unintentional.

  "Are those the pegs?" the girl asked enthusiastically. "Can I pet them?"

  Gloomeye nodded, and the girl shyly walked over to Grassy and began to stroke her neck. The pega turned her head and looked questioningly at her rider.

  "Gaifulla, these pegs are strangers too," the boy said resentfully.

  "And now these strangers know my name, Boreas," Gaifulla said.

  Boreas covered his mouth in horror.

  "Oh, and this is a trained alm? Have you taught it to walk on its hind legs? For what?" the dirty girl pointed at the arriving Drat. "Can I pet it?"

  "Ask him yourself," Gloomy said.

  Gaifulla cautiously approached the rat, received a generous nod of approval, and began to stroke him.

  "It's dangerous to pet Drat like that, he might like it and demand it from us, and I won't do it," Splinter said.

  "Are you heroic adventurers? You have clothes and pegs and a pet mascot, and such a well-fed one at that!" Gaifulla looked admiringly at the newcomers. "You have probably seen the edge of the world, passed through terrible dungeons, crushed giants, banished higher demons to their majestic worlds!"

  Gloomeye considered her words, remembering what had happened to them before, and corrected her:

  "About the demons, we're still working on that."

  Splinter nudged him in the side and showed him how she writes down the enthusiastic girl in his harem with her finger on her palm.

  "Of course not! Don't give strangers the idea for lying. They'd say they met an old god who told them the reason for the Break," Boreas tried to calm his friend down.

  This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.

  "I'd like to buy some food and water and get some rest," Gloomy said, thinking that now that Valkali had separated their work, there was no need to hurry.

  "Uncle Olm in that house over there can help, but he doesn't like outsiders," Boreas pointed in his uncle's direction.

  "I thought you were the ones who first decided to hate outsiders against your ancestors' wishes," Splinter chuckled.

  "Thanks, we won't be long," Gloomeye said and went over to Uncle Olm.

  He turned out to be a very thin, dirty man, sorting through the hollowed-out rock crates that took up most of his house (or it was a general warehouse).

  "Strangers? We don't like strangers," he said grimly.

  "It's not for me to say, but I don't think your village's slogan is very good, especially during the tourist season," Splinter interjected before Gloomeye stopped her.

  "We just want to buy supplies and rest," Gloomy said quickly.

  "We're not..." Uncle Olm peered at Splinter, "...particularly rich, but we'll share what we can. You can sleep here for now.”

  "Ahem. Thanks," Gloomeye examined the floor of the hut, which was wet, lumpy earth.

  As Olm left, Splinter folded her arms across her chest:

  "Cannibals."

  "They're probably just hiding something magical that keeps their settlement afloat. What do you think, Drat?" the guy said.

  The rat lowered his head to his shoulders, grinned and began to cut the air with invisible daggers, then threw them away and began to look around cautiously.

  "Former bandits? Just like my clan. Oh, didn't I tell you?"

  Drat waved a hand.

  "Anyway, it's much better than the singing village. We'll give our legs a rest from riding and then we'll get out of here."

  Splinter didn't argue, as usual, and sat down on the ground with her legs stretched out. Soon Uncle Olm came in with swollen, dirty roots and a jug of slightly muddy water. He asked for five gold pieces for them, and Gloomeye paid, but with the feeling that he had been cheated, but where?

  Afterwards, the girl who had met the company looked into the hut:

  "Heroine, I need to talk to you in private," Gaifulla said, looking pointedly at the men in the room.

  "Oh no," Splinter grimaced, "it's about what am I thinking? Do you want to talk about disgusting body stuff? There are mothers for that."

  "I don't have a mother. We don't have many women in the settlement," the resident said sadly.

  "Okay, okay, let's go. Just hurry," Splinter jumped to her feet and pushed Gaifulla forward.

  Drat and Gloomeye exchanged glances. They didn't have to wait long for their friend to return, but she was moving strangely (un-Splinter-like), more feminine. Splinter leaned against the door, bent her leg and leaned one sole against the wall, one hand resting on the back of her head. This pose was as far from what one would expect from the girl as possible.

  "Gloomeye, we've had a little rest, why do we spend it so boringly?" Regent's parody of her sounded more like her than her current intonation.

  The guy was sitting on a crate, looking at this Splinter in silence. She didn't wait for an answer, but swam over to Gloomy and leaned over him, one hand on the wall:

  "A young woman - check, a young man - check, a journey almost alone - check, reasons not to become a couple - none." She began to trace a finger across Gloomeye's chest, and he followed her actions with his eyes.

  "And your parents don't mind either. Judging by their age..." the girl sighed and stopped. "How long will you not stop me? Or did you believe me? No, he's using your mind to create me. And your mind is not so simple, I know, for I am a product of it."

  "Where is Splinter?" Gloomeye asked darkly.

  "I know what you know. You realised you were talking to a combination of his mind and your memories. He's a beast, he can't even talk, and I'm not even material," the illusion flew through the guy's cheek. "But I won't distract you, you must hurry to save the real me. Just don't torture her too much by telling her about the disgrace I've just done," and with that, the fake Splinter vanished into thin air.

  Olm was digging in the ground nearby:

  "You haven't eaten? I've worked so hard with these fruits," Olm said, looking disappointed. He gave himself away by saying that he could only tell whether his fruits had been eaten or not if they made it difficult to walk. But that didn't matter now.

  "My companion, do you know where she is?" Gloomeye asked him bluntly.

  "It's not my job to look after strangers. Maybe she's gone," the resident suggested.

  "Exactly!” Gloomy pretended to think and rubbed his chin. "She wanted to give up everything, give me her peg, and go out into the wasteland."

  Olm fell for the thick sarcasm (Splinter would have approved) and was delighted:

  "It's good that we've got that sorted, but now it's best if you leave too".

  Moving to a safe distance, Gloomeye called out loudly (but not shouting):

  "Cursor! The cursor! The Mourneer! What was your name? Yar?"

  But no one answered. They'll have to find Splinter themselves.

  "There are two possibilities: either Splinter is in that big cave, or she isn't, and then we'll have to follow her trail on a long journey. Along the way we will find her, lose her, almost reach her, face difficulties, and make enemies and friends. It may take cycles," Gloomeye explained to Drat.

  "Whew!" Gloomy wiped invisible beads of sweat from his brow as he watched Splinter from the entrance of the cave. There were benches in irregular rows, and at the end was a stone table that caught the light of day. Splinter sat in a cage made from the bones of a large alm, surrounded by a crowd of people in black robes with their hoods thrown back. Knives hung from their belts, as well as knives on sticks or even two-bladed daggers. Some of them were played by spinning rusty chains with sharp weights at the ends (and some of the chain rings had other chains attached to them). The guy didn't know how to fight with such weapons, and he didn't intend to find out. He could try to fight his way through, but then he and Splinter would find themselves in a confined space surrounded by enemies.

  The transparent head sticking out of the ground startled Gloomeye, even though he had already called out to its owner.

  "We can't make direct contact," the cursor said in a calm voice.

  "The only way left is direct contact, since our intermediary is in trouble," the guy nodded to the cave cage.

  "I can't help you. My body is far from here and I can only influence the physical world by controlling it."

  "Same trouble. But we can manage with our bodies. Just keep an eye on Splinter. If they do anything suspicious with her, let me know, okay?

  "Actually, I need to keep an eye on you... But you obviously won't leave your friend behind."

  As Gloomy emerged from the cave, he noticed another head hiding from him. It ducked into a thicket of some of the plants grown by the village. The heavy movement made it sway. But the guy didn't care about it right now. He threw himself into a thicket of plants, breaking many of them, but the spy was knocked to the ground. It was Gaifulla.

  "I'll scream!" she said.

  "Thanks for the warning," Gloomeye said, putting his hand over her mouth. With his other hand, he held the girl's hands behind her back.

  "Don't try to be special. You know, you were right: strangers are nothing but trouble. I am a stranger to you, you are strangers to me. If something happens to me, you won't care, just as I won't care if something happens to you. But my friend is not a stranger to me at all. And I will make sure that you are even more right, so that your great-grandchildren will remember that you are right," he tried to calm his anger, but it still came out in his voice, even if it was muffled.

  Fear welled up in her eyes, she believed him and nodded her head. Gloomeye moved his hand away a little, but so that he could immediately put it back in its place.

  "Will you kill us all for your beloved? Will you also torture us? It's ... it's so romantic!" Gaifulla sighed. Her fear was replaced by her usual elation.

  "I doubt very much that you could have told her anything that would have made her decide to live in a cage in this cave. You kidnapped her. For what?" Gloomy pushed his anger aside.

  "Give her to the Upper One. He was sent by Regent Himself, along with the demon of desire, to protect our village," Gaifulla replied.

  "I'm Regent's agent myself," the guy said.

  "And what does Regent look like?" the girl asked suspiciously.

  "In a strange suit, the face is always out of sight," Gloomeye said hopefully.

  "I don't know if it's true or not, but it sounds intriguing. It may well be," the girl nodded in agreement. "But others won't believe you. They are more distrustful."

  The guy finally let her go:

  "Have you got your sect robe?"

  "It won't fit you. We're running out of black cloth, so it's too tight even for me," Gaifulla said, measuring Gloomeye with a glance. But when she saw Gloomeye's expression darken, she hastened to add, "Boreas has the right size, he got his robe from his father."

  ***

  A robed figure with a hood pulled over his head entered the cave. He began to make his way through the crowd of other robed figures. But before he got halfway there, he was stopped by a loud noise that sounded like a giant trumpet. Then a cultist appeared, also robed, but wearing an askew mask made from the skull of a horned alm. He adjusted his mask and motioned for everyone to sit down.

  "I've already called the Upper One, so let's hurry. Bring the virgin!" the head cultist said in Uncle Olm's voice.

  Two large cultists (this is where the black cloth was spent) opened the cage and pulled out a bound but resisting Splinter. She was dressed in a white robe and her hair was cut so that it did not cover her face. She looked unusual with her face uncovered.

  One of the crowd stood up and began to approach the place where the main action was taking place. Olm noticed him:

  "Why are you standing up? Everyone should have the same opportunity to see the Great One. The meaning of a common uniform is equality. And who are you? Take off your hood, we're all in this together.

  The figure who stood up stopped, but after a moment's thought, he walked on. Meanwhile, the new Splinter was placed on the table and her feet were tied.

  "Stop him or her. We don't want to be embarrassed in front of the Upper One," the chief sectarian ordered. But a stone from the troublemaker's sling shattered his mask and knocked him over on his back. The slinger ran to the bound virgin. His hood fell off, revealing him to be Gloomeye.

  "Gloomeye! This is a cult!" Splinter shouted in delight.

  "Are you su..." Gloomeye began sarcastically, but didn't finish.

  A huge head descended from above. It had an elongated nose and a rat-like moustache, but it was covered in pale green scales from which a silvery mane of hair sprouted. The head slammed into the table, hiding Splinter, and then slipped out through the hole in the ceiling. The girl was gone.

  Gloomeye grabbed his head in both hands and turned to face the crowd:

  "I was wrong. You will have no great-grandchildren."

  Then the cultists dragging Splinter pinned Gloomy to the ground.

  "She's alive! The Upper One has taken her to his home!" Gaifulla shouted from the crowd, and was quickly led out of the cave.

  "I work for Regent!" Gloomeye said as he was hauled to his feet.

  "You can utter anything, for you hold the angst of future sacrifice (isn't it a little late for grandiloquence?)," Olm said, standing before him, examining the cracks in his mask, wondering if it had become more sinister. "What is written on the tablet given to us by our Lord?" the cultist pointed to a stone tablet sitting on a hollowed-out shelf in the cave wall.

  "'Leave me alone, you idiots,'" Gloomeye read honestly. Judging by the shocked gasps, they didn't know what it actually said.

  "Demon blasphemy!" Olm shouted.

  At that moment, a huge monster squeezed into the cave. It was covered in brown fur, walked on six legs, and had several tails that looked like active whiplash. The monster's face was flattened at the top and bottom and cut in two by a wide, toothy mouth. There were no eyes, only a large alm nose. As the monster began to spread through the cave, the cultists prostrated themselves in horror, including those holding Gloomy.

  "It's him, Desire. It's a stranger," Olm snitched, kneeling down and pointing at Gloomeye.

  Gloomeye realised that this was another illusion, just like the lustful Splinter earlier. He spun the stone in his sling and hurled it at the monster's nose. But instead of passing through, the stone struck the more than real nose. Desire broke from its slow, menacing gait, spun around in panic, scattering benches and cultists, and scampered out of the cave with its tails between its legs.

  "Stop demon-blaspheming!" Olm shouted again.

  "Regent has given me the ability to speak any language," Gloomeye announced. However, when he noticed that the cultists had risen up and were approaching him, he stepped back. "And I can read any text. Do you have anything else to read besides that tablet?" Gloomy positioned himself so that the stone table stood between him and the crowd. The village slowly surrounded him.

  "Oh, and he, well, his secretary, gave me this!" the guy pulled out his belt and proudly showed it to the cultists. His pants fell off. At that moment, Gloomy noticed the cursor's head peeking out from under the sacrificial table.

  "How do you feel about lords of the dead?" Gloomeye grinned.

  Here I wrote about the poems, that I had internal justifications why they were bad. But I translated them without rhyme, and you don't know that, ha-ha! Although I have already admitted it. Well, think that I am very modest, and the poems are brilliant.

  Unfortunately, I couldn't preserve the interesting play on words with "demon blasphemy".