Chapter 16 - Chewed Up

Atzi existed in pain, stuck in the void.

Reliving the moment, the Serpent cutting her open, digging her claw inside her stomach. Terror as she felt like she was dying, the terror of actually dying, a newfound fear of the gods. Her thoughts and memories clashed uncontrollably as she writhed.

When she finally came to, she clutched her stomach, finding it was still all there. She groaned. The noise shifted into a high pitch before becoming an explosion, washing back over Atzi. Then the silence of the void reasserted itself.

“Wh-what was that? They” - she sobbed - “they ate me!”

Atzi noticed the mysterious woman. She looked at Atzi strangely. “Is that typical for sex?”

“It’s not part of it! At all!” She tried to move closer to the sickly green skinned woman, but only moved further away. “Was that a vision? Why do all my visions feel so real? Why do they end in me dying? Why do they hurt so much?”

“I don’t know,” the distant woman said.

“You don’t know anything!” Atzi screamed. “They ate me!” She drifted so far away that the woman vanished. Then she heard a familiar voice.

“Out! Out!”

Atzi rolled to the side, avoiding the blow. Already the events felt more distant. She jumped up. Her head hurt even more than the last time and she nearly fell over. “Go away! I don’t wanna see you again!”

“Crazy druggie!” the old woman shouted-

“Screw you too, you old b-”

-and hit Atzi over the head again.

“Ow, ow! Fine, I’m leaving!” Atzi struggled out of the old woman’s way.

The old woman moved past her, grumbling to herself.

What the hells was that? A second vision within a vision? Atzi clutched her head. There’s no way any of that actually happened, right? She limped back to Hemm’s. I’m going to curl up under some blankets…

She entered the inn. “Late night, Atzi?” Hemm asked, looking up from sweeping.

This still seems really familiar. Atzi coughed. “Worse. I’m gonna go sleep some more.”

Hemm nodded and continued cleaning. As Atzi trudged up the stairs, she noticed the ice box that Hemm had asked her to move in the vision. Even the small details are the same. I wonder if…

She called out, “The Artaxtian god is arriving soon. She’s gonna pass by the street. Don’t make eye contact with her.” She tried not to cry as she spoke.

Hemm looked up at Atzi, blinking her one big eye. “What?”

“They like to pick people out of the crowd and then- then-” Atzi shuddered. “J-just don’t catch their attention, alright?”

“Are you alright, Atzi?”

“Not really.” Atzi shook her head. She looked around the inn for anything to distract her. “Oh, right, Marco’s going to be gone for a few hours because of the new prophet. Her dumbass brother’s never coming back now that he can just mooch off her.”

Hemm set aside her broom and hurried up the stairs. She set her hand over Atzi’s forehead. “No fever. Can lizards get fevers?”

Atzi flinched away from the touch. “H-hey, I’m not sick. I just- actually, maybe you’ll believe me.”

Hemm waited expectantly.

“Okay. I had” - Atzi searched for the right words - “a really intense vision of the future.” She winced. “It felt like I was actually there. For a couple of days, even. Then, well, the way it ended doesn’t matter for now. Anyway, I can prove it! If stuff happens like it’s meant to. The new prophet for Novae is Vance’s sister. She’ll come out onto the balcony and stutter a bunch and you can’t hear her at first.”

Hemm stared intently before speaking, “You seem serious. And you didn’t stay up last night drinking? Or doing drugs?”

“I haven’t touched any drugs in years!” Not that she could have afforded them. “And alcohol just bounces right off me. Swamp dragon blood.” She had mentioned swamp dragon blood to the Serpent. She scratched the floor with her clawed foot. “Just go to the announcement and you’ll see.”

“Well, I was going to go anyway… fine.” Hemm nodded. “But you, I’m ordering you to go to sleep. You look like you really need it.”

Atzi rubbed her eyes. “Okay.” She slinked her way upstairs, and fell in bed. Even as she was trying not to think about what happened, the events replayed in her dreams.

===

There was a knock at her door. Atzi almost fell out of bed in fear, before groaning. She barely felt like she got any sleep. “Who’s there?” she asked nervously.

“Atzi?” Hemm’s voice traveled through.

Oh thank the Water, it’s just Hemm. “Come in.” Atzi hadn’t even gotten undressed to sleep, from how tired she was.

Hemm entered. “Is this a prank?” she asked, an edge to her voice.

“No?” Atzi wondered what she was talking about, then realized. “Oh right, the future stuff. Past stuff. Whatever, no, it’s real. I really did see it. Did it happen like I said?”

“It did, but” - Hemm crossed her arms - “You could have just talked to Vance. Seems more likely than a vision of the future, unless you’re a mage?”

“No! And I don’t even know where that guy is, I didn’t see heads or tails of him in either of the visions.” Atzi clicked her claws together. “Well, no tail.”

“Maybe I should take you to the temple.”

Not the temple! Atzi shook in fear for a moment, before she calmed down. “Sorry. Sorry. I was going to go to the Water temple.”

“You were?”

Atzi got out of bed. Her head still hurt, but not as bad, so she barely had to steady herself. “I talked to the priestess there, then… uh… joined the Artaxtian god’s parade and…” Atzi gagged on air, making a retching noise. “Nevermind. It doesn’t matter.”

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Hemm moved over and gently patted Atzi on the back. “Let me take you to the Saintess’s temple,” she said.

Atzi wanted to run away, but instead just whined. “They won’t get mad that I don’t go there, will they?”

“Technically temples aren’t allowed to recruit anyone who follows any of the nine gods to a different god, but it’ll be fine, I promise.” She rubbed Atzi’s neck. “What’s important is that you feel better.”

“I don’t know anything they’d care about, though. What did I even do the first time… there was the meeting, there was Cory, there was- oh! Oh! I have a way better idea than the temple!”

“Atzi, Atzi, slow down.”

Atzi separated from Hemm and began to pace. “I bet a bunch of bronze on a guy at the arena on outside odds and he won. You know what that means? If this is all happening like I saw, then that guy’s gonna win again. We can be rich!”

Hemm yelled, “Atzi!”

Atzi shrunk in on herself. “S-sorry. But you could use the money, right?”

“Let me take you to the temple, okay? We can talk about other stuff after,” Hemm insisted.

“Okay.” Atzi meekly nodded. “Let me put on another pair of clothes. I’ll meet you downstairs.”

She changed clothes, then left her room. Just as she made her way to the top of the stairs, she overheard two voices. Marco and Hemm. She couldn’t make out what they were saying, but she was curious. She dropped to all fours and snuck down the steps.

“-take her to the temple.”

“Um… I don’t think she and Vance talked that much? But I don’t know for sure. I still haven’t seen him.”

“She said he might be with his sister now? Maybe check there?”

“I don’t think they’ll let me in.”

“Alright, then just stay here and keep watch while we’re gone.”

Hemm probably doesn’t believe me. The cyclops woman made her way towards the stairs.

Atzi turned around, quickly skittering back up the steps before she could be caught. Then she sprang up and started bounding down.

“Let’s head to the temple,” Hemm said plainly.

They stepped out from the inn. Then, Atzi heard cheering.

She turned her head, seeing a group lead by Artaxtian dancers.

Atzi nearly screamed. No! Go away! “Th-there they are, let’s get away quick!” Atzi sprinted away from them.

“Atzi, Atzi, wait up! Don’t run so fast!” Hemm called out after her.

A hand reaching into Atzi’s stomach- “I don’t wanna get eaten!”

Once she was a safe distance away, she clutched her belly like her guts might fall out again. “Sorry, Hemm, I-” she said, before realizing Hemm wasn’t there. Oh.

I need to… find something else to focus on. Like Cory. Cory- she’s not like the Serpent. The vision must have been wrong. Or… there’s something I don’t know. Yeah. I should find out what happened. What’s going to happen. Whatever. Atzi waited for Hemm to catch up. “Sorry…”

Atzi wasn’t sure if Hemm’s look was pity or frustration. Please don’t hate me.

They made their way to the temple district without further issues, though Atzi could practically taste the awkwardness between them.

They entered the Saintess’s temple.

The difference between it and the other two temple’s she’d been in was stark. The Water’s temple was simple, and the Serpent’s temple… she pushed out of her mind. The Saintess’s temple was decorated top to the bottom, expensive looking, though Atzi thought it was in a classy way.

What a huge chandelier. Are those real gold chains? Atzi stared in awe. “The Saintess is really, really rich.”

“She rules the Sostrian Empire,” Hemm replied.

Atzi looked back down, embarrassed. “Well, I just figured temples were meant to be, like, less glittery. Even the inner chamber in the… the Serpent’s.” Atzi trailed off, staring at the floor.

Hemm grabbed Atzi by the claw. “Here, let’s see a priest.” She tugged, and Atzi was pulled along.

“Welcome, followers. Are you in need of assistance?” A white-and-gold robed priest asked as they approached.

Hemm bowed slightly. "My friend here thinks she's had a vision of the future. It seems to be pretty grim."

The priest turned to Atzi. “Did you have any alcohol? Drugs?”

“I wasn’t- no. I’m just really tired and my head hurts,” Atzi replied.

The priest hummed. “Are you magically inclined?”

“Not enough to get trained.” Atzi sighed. “They only picked the people with real talent for that.”

The priest nodded. “Please take a seat anywhere. I will be right back.”

Atzi sat down, and Hemm next to her. None of the chairs had open backs, making the act uncomfortable. It was nothing like the open-backed pews of the Water’s temple.

“I’m surprised you follow the Saintess,” Atzi said to Hemm.

“Huh?”

“Well you’re not originally from Sostra, right?”

“That’s a whole story,” Hemm said.

Atzi tilted her head, waiting for Hemm to continue. But she didn’t. Atzi fidgeted. “So what does it mean if I really did see the future? I didn’t really see anything important, it was all just stuff I did.”

“I have no idea. Back when I lived in Cthargictha, we had Earth Readers, mages who would divine future events based on the movements of the earth, but I’m not a mage.”

Atzi sighed. “Tell me about it.”

Finally, the priest came back out, a priestess beside him. She had much fancier robes, plus a tall hat. Atzi would have been attracted to her if she didn’t think the hat made her look silly. “Greetings. I am the head priestess of the temple, Shanon. My understanding is you believe you are having visions of the future?”

Atzi only really knew one thing about powerful priestesses of the Saintess - they could use her power to heal anything, from old wounds to restoring entire missing limbs. They charged many pounds of gold for it, however, far outside what Atzi could afford. She felt lucky that one was even talking to her.

“Yeah. Only a few days, though, and I don’t think much happened.” Atzi tried to recall the events that didn’t involve criminal activity or dying. “I knew what was gonna happen with the Novae prophet today, and I know who will win the arena fights tomorrow? Everything else was just with… friends. It’s personal, can’t really talk about it.”

Shanon raised an eyebrow. “Are you certain? Any information you give could be important.”

Damn. Maybe I can give a summarized version?

Atzi did so, obscuring her criminal involvement behind euphemism as she relayed most of the events that befell her.

Shanon immediately started poking holes in Atzi’s story, places where the parts she made up to fit the new narrative didn’t make sense. Sure, she was nice about it, but Atzi was growing uncomfortable as she was forced closer to the truth. “It’s personal, okay?!” She looked for an excuse.

“Someone I almost used to date showed up in the city suddenly and I spent a lot of the time with them,” she said.

Shanon nodded, the hat somehow staying atop her head. “I believe I understand the issue,” she said.

Atzi looked up. “You do?”

“Yes.”

Atzi smiled.

Shanon said, “You are under immense amounts of stress. So much so it is causing you to forget details of things you already knew, and re-interpret this information when you remember it as a ‘prophetic vision.”

“But it felt real! How did I know the thing about the next Ancestor prophet, then?”

The head priestess frowned. “I believe it would be best for you to take time to relax and recuperate. We have cots here.”

I am not falling asleep in a temple! She resolved. “I just woke up, but thanks.”

“You should come back here tomorrow and tell us how you feel. Monitoring this would better help solve it.”

Atzi shrugged. “I can try to. Maybe then I’ll know more?”

“Good. Saintess be with you.” The head priestess walked away.

Atzi got up, Hemm following after her.

“She thinks I’m nuts, dosn’t she?” Atzi asked.

Hemm gave a brittle smile. “Atzi…”

“You do too. Fine. Whatever. As long as I figure out what’s going on. I bet it’ll be magical like Jem said and then you’ll be going, ‘Sorry for not believing you.’”

Hemm frowned. “New plan. You come back to the inn and I feed you until your stomach bursts.”

Atzi retched on air again. “D-don’t… don’t talk about…”

Hemm stared at her sadly.

The silence on the walk back was somehow even more awkward. Atzi let her mind wander. Fine, if nobody will believe me, then I’ll just prove it! I’ll win tons of money tomorrow, then I’ll” - Atzi clutched her head. Then I’ll talk to Cory. And figure out what happened.