The Chain

( Part of the Story of Skoli and Rhauk in Chapter 4 : A little adventure in Incaras Stories ). Events in Incaras, City of Mercenaries


Warnings: Violence. suggestive content.


It were the Night of Darkness, the memorial of the dead and the underworld. Folk light no candles, nor lanterns, and even a fire is forbidden this night. Offerings is made to the dead, to Gods of the night and Underworld, and is cast down holes, crevasses, sewer openings and the Great Trash Pit in Monster Town. Prayers assuring the dead they be respected and remembered. Some say it be for dark Gods too. The Church of the Powers says they too be Gods and need offerings to stay away.

Rhauk done said her people, Ghenid, lived with their dead every night. She also said that now with her Aedoteerua: The Soul Chain , I were eternal. An eternal ghost. I had questions, so made me way to the Ball and Chain, that tavern in the Fountains district where she lived and worked as a whore.
The bar were middling busy, as one of a few places that wasn’t observing the Night of The Underworld, and had a lute player singing chanties. I didn’t see her and went to the bar.
“What you having?” Says the barman. I noticed he wore a thin metal collar. An apron over rust colored slave clothes.
“Rhauk here?” I asks.
“Aye. Take a drink and a sit. She’ll be down in a bit.”
So I got me a drink and one for her, and sat near the back where Rhauk is usually. Afore too long one of the Ghenid, a seven foot tall dog-like creature with a short muzzle, a short mane of ochre fur on head and neck, short stub tail and dark furred body with black spots, came down the back stair and left out back. Rhauk came down a bit later, leaning on the wall and carefully limping down the stair. She is a Ghenid too. Her coat is tan with the softer fur of her spots in rings. She is lean with a narrow body and only a little widening at the hips. The mane dyed red. Her eyes naturally red irised with black around the outside. Her green and yellow sash of the prostitute thrown over the shoulder and hanging loose. I waved and held up the cup as she made her halting, careful way to the table with her twisted leg and clubfoot.
She sat and took the mug from me, taking a great gulp before looking at me.” What do you want T’Ikhikhaen Skoli?”
“Had a hankerin to see you. That and questions.”
“You see me. I am here. Questions like “Can we go to your room?” my smooth skin?” She chuckled and scratched her shirt , pulling it to show the swell of a small furred boob.
“About ghosts and me and aedoteerua.”
Her paw dropped to the table, ears down to the sides of her head. “What about them?”
“This be the Night of Darkness fer rememberin and honorin the dead. You said your people live with their dead everynight. Don’t your people observe the Night of Darkness?”
She laughed, ears perking up and forward again. “No. The dead are there everynight and demand their prices, surrendering to their betters. But, not to me.”
“Why not you?”
“This” she pointed to her bad leg and twisted foot with a sour look and a snarl to her muzzle “I am broken. Can’t fight. Can’t gather treasure for my tomb. Not even slaves to serve me and my ancestors.”. She took another large gulp from the mug and shouted at the bar. “More ale! The human is paying!” Then looking at me again, “I have nothing. Am nothing.”
“You ain’t nothing!” I says. “The Church says we is all connected and each has a place in the great Wheel. As a person. You be a big scary Ghenid. Your people may think you can’t do nothing, but you are still strong. Lots of things you could do.  And plenty interesting.”
“You talk too much. Let’s go upstairs and forget all this” She waved her hand at the room as the barman brought us another pair of mugs.. “Or drink and forget all this.”
Maybe some privacy might be good I thought. “What do it mean when you say I be an eternal ghost?”
She looked down at the table with ears back, then took a drink before whispering. “I would hold you forever.”
“What?”
“You don’t hate on me. Not like my cubs, the clan, everyone. You surrender gifts to me.”
“Cubs? I thought you just had one daughter. They hate you?”
She drained her mug and reached for my untouched second. “Not important. For you I am not whaerso, a waste of skin. That has value. Value I would hold forever as a treasure in the ghost realm where I am failure to clan and bloodline.”

"I like you too."
She grimaced. "No, not the same.  Your kind and the others. You have words for alliance. But make and change whenever you want. Not Ghenu. We hold alliance with strong chains. Aedoteerua. Forever. Mothers, daughters - those are the warm places in the stomach. Sometimes brothers, sons or males in M'ukeech, their dominion.  I may enjoy but not ally with your kind.  Shouldn't" She looked at me with her ears down. " To keep a warm place in the stomach like this, for khaengua, a lesser thing, is shame and weakness."
"You saying you got a warm spot for me in yer heart?"
"Hush! Not loud." She whispered.
“Right,” says I “Let’s go up.”

We stood and I paid Lhaekhnoa, the bouncer by the back stair. Rhauk leaned against me as she navigated the stairs.
"You watching my tail Skoli?”
“It’s a nice tail.”
She paused, swinging her hips and wagging her short triangular tail.
I gave her a light slap on the rump. “What do ya mean “lesser”?”
“You are so much smaller than we are.” She grinned.
“That ain’t what you mean and we both know it.”
We climbed the steps to the bare and empty hallway.
“Your kind have no ghost. Are not eternal like we are. Unless we give it.”
“Not what the Church says. And some as would say you barbarian cannibal monsters is lesser. You all come back as ghosts?”
She paused, looking at me. “We are different from your kind. We are ghosts. Always. Only alive a little time to gather all the wealth and power we will have in the Underworld. Do you know your ghosts?”
“Uh, no. Some be ghosts, some move up, some be reborn.”
“Do you know or just hear stories?”
“Well, yeah. Stories. Ain’t never seen no ghosts.”
We came to the room she used with customers. A small place with cushions and a few sheets. An oil lantern. No personal possessions. She closed the door behind us. It smelled of Ghenid, a garlic musk.
“I show you. Give me your hand.” She took my hand in her larger paw and stabbed a claw into the fleshy side.
“Ouch! What you do that for?” I shouted yanking my hand back.
She said something, chanting in the Ghenid language. The room grew a little colder. More Ghenid talk, with pauses like she was talking to someone. Then “Hold up cut.” she said.
Something cold touched the cut when I held it up. The blood vanishing in to the air. My spirit guardian weren’t making an appearance, so I figured “No danger”. She wouldn’t do anthing dangerous would she?
Again she was speaking Ghenid. And as she did a misty form of a gaunt, skeletal Ghenid appeared next to me, licking the cut on me hand. I just about jumped outta my skin!
“This is my Shadow, ghost of brother of Grandmother’s sister. Rhumna. And Rhumna, T’Ikhikhaen Skoli m'rhae.”
The misty form tilted it’s head at me and snarled something in whispered Ghenid. Rhuak’s ears and tail dropped.
Ok, so it was a real ghost. Standing, or kinda floating right there. Being mean to me friend. “Oi! You, don’t be being mean to her!” says I. Took a swing at the ghost. And my hand passed right throught it and it vanished.
I stood gawking where it had been and heard the whispering again. Rhauk gazed at me. “He says you have fire in your stomach.” More whispers. I covered me hand with the other, trying to tell where the whisper was coming from. She pointed and barked out a Ghenid word. The ghost reformed where she was pointing. “He only obeys me because of your blood. He says mine is thin and weak, it tastes of poverty and failure.”
I glared at the ghost. “Best be keeping civil Rhumna or I’ll hit you again.”
Rhauk said something in Ghenid.
The ghost laughed at me. Then rushed forward and snapped at me. I flinched. It laughed at me some more.
“I see why you don’t honor the dead or pay them respect” says I. My legs were shaking. A ghost! A real ghost! “Yer great uncle seems a right prick.”
Rhauk’s lip quirked up in a brief smile.
Jorvi once took us past the Veil, into what Fae calls The MIsts . We saw spirits. Strange things wondrous and fearful. Still, a ghost was different. Someone dead but still there of a kind. And this were what she meant. Forever. Eternal.
“You lied when you said it weren’t no wedding oath. Tied to ya forever, eh? You, and yer kin!”
The ghost, Great Uncle Rhumna looked as if he was howling at the ceiling, a whispered laughter pouring from him as he wrapped his arms around his chest. Rhauk stood just looking at the floor.
I glared at him. Then turned to her and gently stroked her arm. “Maybe we can go to your rooms?”
“This is my room.”
“What? Clothes? Other stuff?”
She hauled herself to the side wall, Bent to push aside a pillow and slid open a space where a chest was concealed. “This. Clothes, Ribbon, Things you gave me that I didn’t send to my tomb.”
This were all. An apprentice’s box of possessions.
The whispered voice spoke. Rhauk’s ears and eyes dropped again.
I done jumped across the room and punched Rhumna right in his ghost nose. My hand was bit cold from it but he vanished again.
There was a snarl in my ear and a pillow hit me in the stomach. I looked around. Rhauk watching me. Another pillow raised up and flew into my shoulder. Rhumna reappeared snarling right in me face. I backed up. It’s kinda a surprise when a ghost is suddenly right up an inch from yer face and snarling, snapping ghost teeth at you. I kicked right where it should have hurt him if he was flesh and bone and not just mist. He vanished again. “Can he actually hurt me?” I asked her.
“He would have to materialize all the way. It’s hard for him. He’s a weak ghost , a poor shadow for a shame to the clan.”
The whispers again. She spoke Ghenid.
“Can he understand me?”
She shook her head. “Doesn’t speak Atan. Just Ghenu.”
“Tell him I think he’s …” I thought for a minute. “...tell him he’s a shit licking weakling!”
“Not a good idea Skoli.”
“You just tell him what I think of him!”
She spoke Ghenid again, then “Behind!”
I figured he’d try summit like that. I jammed me elbow back hard then spun ‘round to punch him in the throat. I felt him hit my off arm and my shoulder. Heard me shirt rip. He was solid this time and my punch hit him in the jaw, snapping his head up and popped him like a soap bubble. Rhauk was talking Ghenid again. “T’aedoteerua Rhumna veh leh la-eh.” Her pawed hands were in fists and a snarl on her face. “T’aedoteerua Rhumna veh leh la-eh!” she repeated louder. “T’aedoteerua Rhumna veh leh la-eh!”
I had me back to the wall. Ready for the next attack. Nothing.
Rhauk were looking at me, wild eyed. “I sent him back.” she whispered. “I sent him back.”
I stepped over to stroke her arm and felt the sting of my own arm and shoulder. Looked at the blood soaking into the ripped cloth. “Oh, shit. Real claws.”
She pulled me to her and pressed hard as she licked and nipped at my neck. “He went. I made him go. I couldn’t but this time...” I gave her a hug. “What cha mean you couldn’t?”
“Before when I tried they laughed and beat me. I haven’t tried since then. Now, you are mine. You fought him. I will not let him harm mine.”
“See, you are something. Someone. You just need a reason” I smiled. “Please rip off this sleeve, the shirt is ruined and I need to tie these up.”
She hooked her claws in and ripped out some strips. Gently licked the wounds to me hisses, whispered Ghenid as she tracked a pattern and tied them up.
“You done them aedoteerua again didn’t ya?” She nodded.
I rolled me eyes and shook me head. “You could leave here. Come and Pa can take you as an apprentice. Don’t gotta stand all the time to do the work.”
"You just want me for yourself all the time." She said smiling.
"No, well, maybe some, but you could learn the trade, join the guild and be a member, be someone of standing, eh?"
She shook her head. “Easy for you. Your kind make and do as you like in the city. I am Ghenu and we only make a few important things. Lessers make. What is important is what we can hold. I am the S’oang’s. The matriarch’s hold.”
“You ain’t a slave. You can come away.”
“I am. She holds the chain. I can’t.”
“You ain’t got no collar.” I looked at her neck. “Not scar or tattoo. And you don’t wear slave colors. We can buy the debt, law of the city. How much do you owe her? How much money do you get her?”
Rhauk looked at the floor once again. "She talks of debt, but I'm chained by her. I surrender to her maybe a hundred or more each week. Is mostly Tribe, lesser males attached to the warriors and M'he. Some others. You can't buy me from her. Or mother. "
" Ya don't know until you try." I says. "Wait." I pulled her muzzle up to see her face. "Mother?"
"Only Mother holds more chains on me, as I hold chains on my cubs. My blood and chains holding them to the lowest status in the tribe and clan."
"Maybe mother can pry you loose?"
“No, I bring her nothing. My cubs are chained to grandmother, who is a ghost. I am broken, this in meat and in ghost. Forever. This is the way of Ghenu. Just as almost none hold chains on M'he. S'Oang of Eǂyelfua Clan of Incaras the matriarch, I have almost none on anyone. I am their slave. Above lesser slaves. But this, forever.”
“What? If I don’t got no chains on no one I’m a slave to your folk?”
“Don’t hate me. Please. It is our way.”
“Teach me to make the aedoteerua. Simple.”
“Only we do. It is our Goddess. She gives it to our ghosts and flesh. Ghostless can’t.”
I looked into her red eyes, all tearing up. I let loose a breath. “Well, this is a mess.”
She lowered her head and licked and nibbled at my collar. “ I make you feel better, eh? Make the house slaves clean and fix the shirt?”
“That ain’t gonna fix this.” I were thinking maybe the Church might have a way.
She pushed me over and pulled up my shirt with one paw, while the other held me down. Licking down the chest and stomach. Licking lower. "Maybe we forget about this for a time, yes?"
“I don’t much like what family of yours I met.” I says.