25 Chirreb 4385: A Great and Terrible Secret

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"This is not. Going to work." Nightbloom said as we walked back to the ghempoch.

"Yeah I don't think so either but well we can always do Secret's and/or yours when this fails." I was on all fours next to her, scampering through the reeds to keep up. Staying in waterform all the time is ANNOYING. I don't know how norren manage.

"And we still don't have any good ideas," Outcast added from my other side, as if he were hoping Nightbloom would suddenly produce the good idea she'd been hiding from us all this time.

She didn't. We reached the ghempoch. The writhings of his huge body against the bonds securing him to the riverbank had flattened all the pink reeds into the mire, staining them a maroon-grey. The ghempoch twitched his bound bent legs in the air as the deep blue Herethroy came into his view. He didn't scald himself to death this time at least. "Come to finish this, prime coward?" he sneered.

"Yes." Nightbloom thunked the butt of her spear into the muck beside the ghempoch and glowered at him. "I did not want. To do this. But your obstinancy leaves me. With no other option. But to trust you."

The stump of his ear twitched in the water and the green flame-reflections in his eyes swirled. "You're letting me go?"

"Maybe. First. I will tell you a great and terrible secret. If I believe you will betray it. Or our cause. I will not hesitate to slaughter you."

"Then kill me! I'll do nothing to aid primes. Nothing!"

"I am not asking you. To aid primes." Nightbloom pulled off her helmet. From under the trees, out of sight of the ghempoch, Secret took the signal to cast a spell. Nightbloom shrank to the height of a Cani, her six limbs turning to four as mottled grey and black fur replaced chitin. Horns spiraled back from her now-goat's head. Nightbloom pulled one cloven-hooved foot free of the sandal straps wrapped loosely around it, the armor she was wearing now hanging loose on her frame.

The ghempoch squinted at her. "You're ... a bonstable?"

"Yes," Nightbloom said, very convincingly. I almost believed her. "Most of this village is bonstables. For generations. We have lived with. And married. And bred with. The primes. And all of our children. Are bonstables. It is perfect. If an Orren acts differently from one day to the next? Who thinks ought save "That is the Orren way"?. If a Herethroy male. Is a little strange. What colover or female will spurn him for it. And lose the chance to wed? Why did you think the primes here? Were so easy to defeat at first? Because we bonstables have no great magic. We needed prime outsiders to save us. Why live in harmony? With norren? Because we are monsters too. We are destroying prime society. From the inside. Weakening it with our blood. Even our own bonstable children. Do not always know. There are too many of us. Here for the primes to stop us. Here. We can spread now. To other villages. And do the same to them." She dropped her spear to crouch before him, digitigrade hindlegs bent double to rest the upturned furred tail on her ankles. "You. With your flaming bats. And winged death. You can kill. Maybe a dozen. Before their best come for you. We. Can eradicate. All eight of their species. In time. Each bonstable child. A cookoo replacing one of their own. Reared by them as their own. We will wipe them from the branch, ghempoch. If idiots like you. Do not stop us."

She rose again. The spear next to her started to rise with her, seeming of its own accord. I jumped on its haft before it got too far. Nightbloom turned and gave me a puzzled look before she grabbed it with her truehand instead of the midhand that was invisible under the illusion. Straightening, Nightbloom looked down at the ghempoch. A long moment passed.

Finally: "How can I help you?" he asked, quietly.

"By letting us do our work. And not screwing it up. Don't kill the mothers. Or fathers. Of the next generation of bonstables. Go back to the Verticals. Tell NO ONE what I have told you. Not your friends. Not your enemies. Not even to gloat at other primes. Our work must be secret! If the primes had any suspicion. They would use Holocaust weaponry. To destroy us. And all that we would accomplish."

He was silent again. Then: "I'll have to tell other ghempochs something."

"Tell them. Prime cities are a fairy tale. There are no gatherings of hundreds of primes. Just small, isolated pockets. It will be true. Soon enough."

The ghempoch wiggled his secured head in an approximation of a nod. "I'll do it."

"Good." Nightbloom lifted her spear. Secret turned her appearance back to Herethroy. Nightbloom brought the spear point down and used it to saw at the ropes.