Chapter 19 - Swamp Witch

Atzi could hardly think. “Y-your, your, your-”

Alana grinned.

“D-do you know me?” Atzi suddenly asked Alana. “The first time. You said we could meet on the same night as…”

Alana tilted her head. “What?”

“Cory, explain it to her, I had a vision of the future!” Atzi pleaded.

“Oh, she already did!” Alana said happily.

“So, Atzi. Do you know what happens next?” Cory asked.

“Last time Alana didn’t show up so… I don’t know.”

Cory hummed. “Well, give me the book, first.” She held out her hand.

I… even if she had a girlfriend, she wouldn’t just… do what happened in the vision. We can still leave together. All three of us? Atzi curled her tail forward and unfurled it, dropping the book into Cory’s waiting hand.

“Wow! We finally got it!” Alana cheered. “Anyway Cory, can I kill her?”

Atzi took a step back. “D-don’t joke about that!”

Cory frowned, seemingly putting real thought into the question.

Atzi reached out a trembling claw. “Hey…”

“The truth is Atzi, I lied to you,” Cory said, looking up at her. “I’m not leaving the city. At least not yet.”

“You’re not?” Atzi slumped. “What am I going to do? V is going to kill me…”

“But I want to kill you!” Alana whined.

“Please don’t! It really hurts!”

Cory shrugged. “It’s that or leave the city on your own.”

Alana looked over at Cory, surprised. “You really want to let her go?”

“We already have enough, and who would ever believe her?”

I guess you didn’t, either. Atzi was on the verge of tears. “I lied too. There was more to the vision. You pushed me off the wall.”

Cory silently regarded Atzi.

“Why?” Atzi asked, crying.

Cory shrugged. “Whatever that version of me did, she did for her own reasons. As for my own, I can’t tell you. If you want to live, then leave. If you want to die, stay here. Alana will do it.”

Atzi looked up at her, hurt and confused. Is she being forced to do it? She would never, right? “T-this isn’t like you at all-”

“Boooring!” Alana stalked forwards towards Atzi. “I’m killing her.”

Atzi turned and ran in a panic. She’s way too strong!

“Oh, a chase! I love chases!”

Rapid splashes of mud sounded behind her. They were getting louder, closer. Atzi glanced back. She prided herself on her speed, the ability to outrun anyone.

Alana’s face was inches from her own.

“Hi!”

Atzi shrieked.

Alana drew back an arm and swung. Atzi barely ducked under the blow, the strike traveling overhead. “Hold still!”

“Stop! Why? Why kill me?!”

“Why?” Alana hummed, legs rapidly pumping as she kept up with Atzi. “A lot of reasons! But mostly because it’s fun!”

Atzi gave the only reasonable response and spat poison in the murderous woman’s eyes.

Alana let out a high pitched whine. “My eyes!” She slowed down as she began wiping the poison away.

Atzi turned a corner. If I keep going, I won’t be able to make it to safety before she catches up. I need to get back to the rope.

Just then, she heard a sigh. Atzi whipped her head toward the sound, already on edge.

A bored looking woman stepped out of an alley. Dark hair covered half her face. “I have to do everything myself…”

She threw a stone at Atzi.

Atzi tried to dodge the stone, but it was too fast, slamming into her side. It stung like her guts were bruised.

She just kept running, looking around for anyone else. Who was that? I never saw her before. Was- was the plan always to kill me here? Oh no…

Atzi circled fully back around. She didn’t see Cory anywhere. She began climbing the rope as quickly as she could.

Halfway up, she could hear the briefest hint of Cory’s voice chanting something. Suddenly, Atzi became lightheaded, almost letting go of the rope. But she held on to both the rope and her consciousness. Another stone slammed into her, and she yelped. Still she climbed.

She made it to the top. She didn’t bother trying to pull the rope up after her, that could waste precious time to escape. She took one look over the opposite side of the wall, to the muddy swamp below.

And she jumped.

Atzi splashed down into the thin water, body protesting as she flailed. She pulled herself out, gasping. She clambered back to her clawed feet and ran.

-

Where do I even go now?

The Sostrian empire had nine provinces. Some of them were closer to city-states, not that Atzi had been to even a majority of them. Sostra itself was basically a city-state, surrounded by Novae to the north and west, Artaxtia to the south, and Mediolanum to the east.

Novae had two cities, but now was just down to the one. Home, Pomaria, was closer to a big village, the war with Dyme having ruined a lot when Atzi was still quite young. Artaxtia apparently had more spread out populations, what with all the rice farming, but there was still a city center.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Pomaria was west of Artaxtia. Novasium south-west of that, hills blocking the Pomarian marsh into a desert. Vinovia and Tarsus were north of Novae, colder places Atzi never wanted to visit. Nicomedia was an island just off the south-east coast of Mediolanum.

That was the entire Empire. Its neighbors were Cthargictha and Branek to the west, Dyme to the south, Hasen across the eastern sea, and some snowy wasteland that people called the ‘frost giant lands’ just north of Vinovia, that apparently the goblins were from, too.

Atzi had circled her way around to hit the main road south of the city. If she wanted to go to Novae east, she’d just need to circle around Sostra more and head north. The place was cold, but that meant nobody would look for her there. But also, it was cold. She decided against it. Or she could head to Artaxtia, but… she shuddered.

If she went to Mediolanum, what if Alana showed up to finish the job?

There was really only one place Atzi felt like she could go. Back home. Pomaria.

Going straight there would take her a while, though. It would be better if she stopped somewhere first, to rest. But the only place on the way is Artaxtia.

She had stopped there once when she first ran away from home to Sostra. And now I’m running back.

In the end, she decided it would be fine if it was only one night. It wasn’t like the Serpent was there. She would still be in Sostra, for the council.

The dark paved road was lit by nothing but the night sky. Atzi trudged forward, tired and exhausted. Over an hour passed. Night turned to morning. She continued going, wishing she could lay down to sleep.

The sun was directly above her in the sky when she finally saw the swampy city of Artaxtia.

Whereas Sostra was built on top of a swamp, Artaxtia was built into it, wooden pathways connecting the various buildings that the swamp sat around. A small few homes were built in the tall trees that canopied the city.

It was delightfully warm, helping Atzi stave off her sleepiness as she made the last bit of her journey.

A serpent-blooded man, tending to a stable full of alligators, tipped his hat at her.

“Where’s the inn?” she groggily asked him.

“Oh, just take the main path until you reach the fork, take a left, third building on your right.”

She was too tired to say thanks, and made her way to the inn.

Behind the counter was a woman wearing a poofy white shirt under a brown vest, and a red coat over that. Even if Atzi preferred things warm, she wondered if such an outfit was comfortable in such a humid place.

The woman regarded her with easygoing eyes, and a slight smile that reminded her way too much of Cory’s. “Howdy,” she said.

“You got rooms?” Atzi asked.

“Sure do, if you don’t mind a little noise. Doing construction, an addon.”

Atzi groaned. “Whatever, I just need a room for the day. How much?”

“Four bronze.”

Atzi pulled out the coins from her tail bag and put them on the table. The woman pulled a hat from under the counter, brushed the coins into it, and put it back under the counter. “Down the hall, last door on your right. Doors don’t have locks, just so you know.”

Atzi made a small groaning noise in acknowledgement, trudged her way to the room, and collapsed to sleep.

===

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Atzi didn’t know how long she was asleep for, only that she was forced to listen to a banging noise while suspended in a state of half-awareness during the eternity afterwards.

Eventually she got up, wandering back out of her room towards the front of the inn. She asked the innkeeper, “Where can I get food? And something to drink?”

The woman nodded. “We got that. Freshest rice wine in all the Empire. And I make a mean bug casserole.”

“Then I’ll-” More banging noises rang through the inn. Atzi winced. “That gonna be going the whole time I’m eating?”

“Yeah.”

“Whatever… gimme a casserole and some rice wine.”

“Single or double?”

“Double.”

“Five bronze.”

Atzi dug into her tail bag, coins jangling as she pulled out the money and set it on the counter.

“Where’d you get the good money?” asked the innkeeper as Atzi closed the bag. “Not too many fat purses stay at this inn. Usually.”

“Got lucky in the arena.”

The woman took out a bottle and cup, and poured. “And you left ‘stead of keeping your luck?”

“Only good luck I had…” Atzi was served her rice wine, and she took a swig. “I thought this time, it’d be different, it’d work out, you know? We’d run away together. Then she tried to have me killed!” She drained the whole cup on her next drink. “Can’t even get drunk easy. Stupid swamp dragon heritage.”

The woman pulled out a slab of leftover casserole from an icebox and began to reheat it. “Ah, heartbreak. This is why I gave up on love after my husband died. Now it’s just me and my little girl.”

“Bet your husband didn’t try and kill you, though.”

The innkeeper shook her head. “Damn near gave me a heart attack every day with how often he’d do something stupid. Then one day, stupid became tragic. Adventuring type, see? Like those folks that left this morning, few hours before you got here. Hope they know what they’re doing, crypt diving.”

“Grave robbing?”

The woman plated the casserole and served it to Atzi. “Nah. Old, old crypt. Washed out of the swamp. Got a bad magic about it, the swamp witches say.”

Atzi sniffed. “I don’t wanna talk about swamp witches… gimme another cup of wine.”

“Two more bronze.”

Atzi put down ten. “Here’s the next few in advance.”

The woman whistled. “I got swamp weed too if you wanna take more edge off.”

“Anything, sure. I just don’t wanna…” Atzi groaned, wiping her eyes. “It’s been the worst week of my life. I had these dreams, see? Weird, weird dreams. I could see the future in them - and it worked, too, that’s how I got so lucky in the arena! But no-one believed me.”

The thumping of construction played over her sad recounting.

Atzi clutched her head. “And I saw her pushing me off a wall, and I thought maybe it was- but she tried to kill me anyway! I did everything she needed, and she tried to kill me!”

“Some people are just out to use you. Five bronze a blunt, by the way.”

“Sure, sure.” Atzi waved to the money she already set out. “But she isn’t like that. Maybe one of those psychos turned her against me…”

The innkeeper grabbed a roll of swamp weed and a match from under the counter. She struck the match against the counter, passed the blunt to Atzi, and lit the tip.

Atzi took a drag. It wasn’t the first time she’d tried it. The one who had shown it to her was… Cory. “It’s not fair. I gave up the best chance I ever had! I’d have been rich! And I gave it up to help her and she, she-”

The innkeeper held up a hand. “Hey now, girl. What’s your name?”

“Atzi.”

“Nice to meet you, Atzi. My name’s Beth. Instead of focusing on what happened, why not ask yourself what you’re going to do from here?”

“I’m just gonna head back home, I guess. Can’t stay in Sostra anymore. Artaxtia is… nice, but it’s where she’s from, it keeps reminding me of her.” She didn’t mention the Serpent.

“Oh, she’s from here? Maybe I know her. What’s her name?”

Please don’t tell me you’re related or something. I don’t think I could handle it. “C-Coraline.”

Beth tapped her chin. “Wait, was she a swamp witch?”

“Yeah.”

“Hot damn, the old crone is always going on about that ‘ungrateful girl’ who learned from her, then vanished.”

Atzi found that strange. “Wait, did she not come back here? I thought she went back home after, uh, stuff a few years back.”

Beth shook her head. “Been gone for a while now. If she ever showed up, the crone would probably have her flayed. So if she did come back, she kept it well hidden.”

Atzi took another drag. “Huh. Who exactly is the crone?”

“Madeline, Queen Bitch herself, don’t tell her I said that. Head of the entire coven. Most folks say it’s the families who run Artaxtia, and sure maybe they keep it running, but not one of them would ever be able to turn down a single thing she tells them, ‘lest they wanna get turned from serpent-blooded to frogs.”

What would happen if I went up to her and said, ‘hey I found Cory’? “Where is she?”

Beth shook her head. “I can tell what’s going through your brain right now and let me tell you, it’s not worth it to get involved with her. If you’re lucky she’ll take what you tell her and leave you alone. If you’re unlucky, she might take an interest in you.”

“Why would she care? I’m nobody.”

“She’s always going on about fate. Reading the bones. She might think it’s fate that brought you to her, too. Then she won’t let you go.”

Atzi leaned back. “Not like my fate could get any worse… fine, fine, whatever, I’m not gonna talk to her.”

“Smart girl.”

Someone entered the inn.

Atzi turned her head towards the new arrival. A thin lizard woman. She had on cheap looking robes, a bamboo hat, and some weird looking sword sheath at her hip. Her claw rested on a flat pommel.

The lizard woman looked at Atzi, and her eyes widened. “What in the hells are you doing here?!”