Xanthippe (Chapter 17)

Template:Xanthippe nav "Yes, that is the entrance to the lower city," Cain said. "Glorious Kurast was built as a series of concentric rings, separated by defensible walls and moats. Connecting the rings are permanent bridges, with towers flanking them where archers may be stationed. At the very heart of Kurast, in the middle of a lake, is the city within the city, Travincal."

"Great," Xanthippe nodded. "The towers and walls are there. But I didn't see any archers."

"No one here has been near the city for weeks. Even Asheara's Iron Wolves have not been able to penetrate the jungle."

"That's not saying anything," Xanthippe snorted. "I didn't see any people in the city either. That might explain it."

Cain considered that. "It may be, once they were no longer needed, Mephisto replaced the Zakarumites with more suitable minions."

"Maybe. Anyway, Alkor tells me there's a book in the city somewhere I should find. The Black Tome of Lam Esen."

"Ah! A book of histories and prophecies, concerned especially with the Three Prime Evils."

"Yep. Might have useful information, if it wasn't written by a mage."

Cain chuckled. "You are so very hard on those of your own profession."

Xanthippe smirked. "Of course. I've met enough of them to know. See you soon."

After Xanthippe and Kasim left, and their portal winked out of sight, Cain sat for a moment in thoughtful meditation. Turning to his right, he looked straight at a shadow no one had thought looked out of place, even though it was, and said. "Some would consider it rude, the way you listen in on others' conversations."

With a shrug, Natalya let her shadows drop. "Ok, how'd you spot me?"

Cain raised an eyebrow. "Do you think I am going to tell you?"

"It would be very bad for us, if many others knew how to see through our cloaks." Natalya smiled. "I suppose I could just ask you another way."

"With your 'gifts of the mind' and 'psychic attunement'? If your powers were so subtle and refined, I think you would know enough of our girl to trust her, as I do."

"This represents a breach in our defenses, you know." Natalya walked over to Cain. "For the good of my order and our mission, I have to know sometime, somehow."

Cain smiled. "Subtle threats are pointless when I know as well as you that they cannot be carried out. If you must know, I simply used my brains. I have seen others point you out to my little sorceress, but she does not see you. You are Viz-Jaq'taar, of the order of mage-slayers, and I am well aware that you refine the powers of your minds. Therefore, the only possible conclusion is that you can 'persuade' others that you cannot be seen."

"Ah, ha." Natalya nodded. "So you just looked where I was telling you not to look. Logic. Can't call using that a crime. You'd be amazed at how weak wizards are, when it comes to logic."

"Magic is mysticism at its core, despite what sorcerers might say. No one really understands how it works, why certain words and movements produce certain results. Logic is simply not a useful tool for the magician. Speaking of weak logic... what do you think of her?"

"What's to think? I'm assigned to watch someone else."

"Then why were you here listening to us?"

"How do you know I was?"

Cain folded his arms. "Attempting to maintain plausible deniability, are we? While I have not refined my 'psychic talents', I know when I am being bamboozled!"

"All right. Actually, I respect you a lot more than I thought I would. I've been assigned here to keep an eye on Ormus, and kill him if I have to. I believe he's a spy for Mephisto. But when your little princess showed up, I knew she was the greater danger. You should see the emotion crackling off her, she's all raw nerves."

"Many her age are. If your order was meant to police the mage clans, I should think there are greater concerns here than a... juvenile delinquent, if I must use such terms."

"Her age isn't important. Look at her profile. Cocky and arrogant, assigned to kill Diablo by people she thinks she's better than. She might betray us to the Three out of spite."

"I find your case unconvincing," Cain said. "You must also, as you have taken no action as yet. Unless you are the one who wants the Tome of Lam Esen?"

Natalya laughed, and leaned back casually on one foot. "I can't fool you, can I? You're right, I bribed Alkor to ask her for the book. There's information in it about the early days of my order, as well as the prophecies. It will be an interesting history lesson... and valuable for the war." The more Natalya seemed to relax, the more troubled Cain seemed. "You know that we are in a long-overdue phase of the Sin War, then."

"Isn't it obvious?"

"Then it concerns me, that one of your talents is not trying to do something about it. Why is Xanthippe making her way through Kurast, while you sit on the docks and wait?"

Natalya stared hard at Cain. "You think I'm a coward."

"I merely think it wise to judge others by their actions." Cain's eyes narrowed. "Ormus would like you to think him mad, but I know he is not by his actions. You, however, have given me very little to judge you by."

Coldly, Natalya nodded. "Deckard Cain, I am part of an organization, not an individual acting on her own. I know that others of my order are active in this area, and I trust my superiors. There is more going on here than we know. Mephisto's corruption of the city is so complete, it's almost as though he's daring heroes to come and try him. I will not go in against him until I know what he's up to, or it could be a very costly mistake. Costly, as in more than just my own life."

"And... ?"

"I can't fulfill my primary mission if I go into the jungle. But I can't keep an eye on her if I stay here. So, I sent her after the book. It's quite a treasure. If she comes back with it, I'll know she's reliable. If not, I'll have to leave Ormus alone while I take care of her."

Cain must have given an involuntary twinge. Or maybe Natalya just knew. "Don't be afraid for her. I don't just go around killing people. If I did, Ormus would be dead and I'd be off somewhere doing something more important. If I have to kill her, it will be because I have to kill her."

"How... professional of you."

"It's a job," Natalya shrugged, and walked back to the southern docks. Ormus, though he had been nearby several times, gave no sign of having seen or heard the conversation.

Lower Kurast was full of apes, leapers, and despite Xanthippe's suspicions, Zakarumites. Their clothes were ragged, rotting off their bodies in the constant rain, and they had nothing to protect themselves by scythes and axes. Their eyes had a strange, vacant look, like they didn't really know where they were or what they were doing. This went above and beyond the siren call of any religion Xanthippe had ever heard of; it must be some magic, but she couldn't see anything in the air of the city.

The bridge deeper into Kurast was undefended. The defense of the city didn't seem to follow any rational pattern. The Zakarumites and the demons weren't organized in any way; they just roamed the city in little patchy groups, and attacked with great zeal, but in a totally disorganized way. There were many dead people in the city, tied to rocks and tortured, or laid out on the ground and disemboweled. Looking at the bodies, Xanthippe could tell that the mindless abuse had continued long after the victims were dead.

The bazaars in the second ring of the city had two temples, entrances to the sewers, and the bridge to upper Kurast. Pausing for a moment to weigh her options, Xanthippe asked Kasim, "Which way do you think we should go next?"

Wet and miserable in the rain, Kasim pointed to the temples. "They're probably dry."

Xanthippe nodded, and started climbing the steps. "Yep, these buildings look real solid. They'll stand and keep water out for a long time. Wish the Zann Esu built like this."

"Hey, what do you have against them, anyway?"

Once they'd gotten under the roof, and could drip-dry a little, Xanthippe answered, "Just about everything. Like the way they build buildings. Do you know how they build things?"

"No."

"Of course not. Stupid question. When the Zann Esu went into the jungles, they had to build a place for themselves to live in. You'd think they'd find people who know how to build, right?"

"Not if they're supposed to be secret."

"Yeah, ok. But they didn't even need to do that. They had books with them, including books on architecture. Do you think they looked up how to build things in those books?"

"I think you're gonna say 'no'."

"No, they didn't. Men wrote those books, and they didn't want to build the way men do. Men are always building towers. Big, tall towers, and they're incredibly concerned about who has the biggest tower. Get my meaning?"

"Uh... no."

"It's a phallic symbol. The Zann Esu wanted to make a completely new tradition of female scholarship, female arts, female magic. To do that, they rejected everything male, even if it worked. You know how they built the first buildings?"

Kasim looked confused. "I think you already asked me that..."

"Oh, yeah, sorry. They all got together, and lifted the rocks with TK."

"Huh?"

"Telekinesis. You know?" Xanthippe looked at a pebble, and cast a spell. The pebble floated up in the air, and moved where she pointed.

"Hey, I've never seen you do that before!"

"It's not hard. But you can't lift much weight, even a dagger's too heavy. It took most of the witches to move one rock, but they wanted the buildings to be made using magic, not brute strength. They thought it'd make the clan more magical."

"Uh... ok, makes sense."

"No it doesn't. It took the whole clan months to build one building. It fell down 5 times while they were building it. They didn't know how thick to make the walls, they didn't think to put in support beams, they never thought of how the weight of the roof would be distributed... they didn't know what they were doing!"

"Huh."

"And, of course, they can't actually read one of those filthy male architecture books, or their minds might be infected. They had to figure it all out by trial and error -- you know, the 'intuitive' way of doing it. Women's intuition, huh?"

"Uh, yeah." Kasim looked a bit uncomfortable.

"Anyway, the first building fell down a few months after they finished it. They were making a second one, and trying for a second story. It never did go up."

"So... you guys were all out in the jungle without any buildings?"

Xanthippe laughed, "No, they figured something out eventually. We apprentices were housed in one of the older buildings -- one of the ones that actually stood up, anyway. The place was drafty as hell, leaked all the time, and the ceiling was only 4 feet high because they didn't want to make the walls thick enough to make it taller. Too much work."

"Damn..."

"Yeah! Years of trial and error, just to get that. And you know what? The senior witches were proud of it! They were proud of a bunch of ugly, dysfunctional, pile-of-junk buildings just because they'd built them by themselves. They thought it made them superior!"

Kasim just nodded. He was beginning to be sorry he'd asked. Xanthippe ranted until they were both dry. All the hot air must have helped. If they were going to go anywhere today, Kasim realized he'd have to get her to shut up. "Uh... one thing I don't get?"

Xanthippe stopped in mid-rave. "What's that?"

"What's a 'phallic symbol'?"

Xanthippe blinked, thought for a minute, then said, "Let's go kill things."

"Fine by me."

The ruined temple was small, and very crowded with giant spiders, flaming ghouls, and Zakarumite women. The ghouls were nasty, summoning fireballs from the heavens, and Xanthippe still didn't have nearly enough fire resistance without her shield. The Zakarumite women were the worst. Judging from the remains of their clothing, they had been nuns or priestesses of some kind. The juxtaposition of nun's garb, near-nakedness, and bloodthirsty savagery would have brought back nightmares if they'd been raised in the church. On the temple's altar, a black book rested on a puddle of dried blood.

There was a lot of treasure in the temple; while Kasim helped ferry it out, Xanthippe took a look at the book. Unfortunately, it was written in Dravidian, a language she was not familiar with. It was the old language of this part of the world, so Alkor probably knew it; she took it straight back to him. Cain was overjoyed to see the book; it must really be something good.