If talking with the cured sailors had gone better than Maia had expected, talking with the cured soldiers went worse. The soldiers just…weren’t the kind of people that Maia had hoped they would be. Or, well, the wyvern riders weren’t; the witches surprisingly seemed like good people, but the wyvern riders were hard to deal with at best and outright dangerous at worst.
By and large, they were obvious sycophants, stuck-up former nobles, or simply just distinctly unpleasant people. Of the eight that they had managed to save, only one was the kind of person that Maia felt she would be able to trust, and five expressed a desire to return to their old unit, even after they were made aware of what being uncursed might mean for them.
In the end, Maia had to give them an ultimatum; they would would be allowed to leave once they made landfall, but they were to remain in an impromptu prison in the hold until then, with the consequences of any sort of rebellion being death. It was far crueler than Maia would have liked, but it was about as lenient as they could afford to be at the moment. Sylvie had said that these people were the type that would only listen to force, and after interacting with them, Maia had to agree.
The witches, on the other hand, were concerning for an entirely different reason; according to them, they had been experiencing slow and unnatural personality shifts not dissimilar to the curse ever since joining Anya’s unit. Only now that the curse had been cured were they able to notice what had been happening to them, and many expressed the same sort of guilt and remorse that Sylvie and Lily had.
After some discussion, everyone agreed that Anya was to blame somehow. The woman was, in her spare time, a researcher of arcane torments, and mind control was right up her alley. No one was sure exactly what she had done, but it seemed the only logical conclusion given their available information.
The witches and the one seemingly-good wyvern rider were more than happy to stay on the the ship and help out for the time being, while the other two wyvern riders that hadn’t wanted to return to their unit had opted to part ways after making landfall. They wanted to “see the world” in their new bodies, and claimed they wouldn’t mind being among the cursed that much. Maia had her doubts about how much they would actually enjoy it, but she didn’t want to force them into any one course of action, so she just gave them warnings about what to expect and dropped the topic.
The remaining few days passed without any further excitement, and Maia’s group soon found themselves disembarking. They saw the prisoners off first, then after they were sure they wouldn’t be returning to wreak havoc on the boat, said their goodbyes to the crew. It wasn’t a big sappy event or anything, they really just said thanks and reaffirmed the projected timeline for their next meeting while they got the carriage set back up, but Maia couldn’t help but feel a twinge of sadness anyway.
After all, there was no guarantee that she’d ever actually see them again. With the current state of the world, it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility for them to encounter people and be killed or taken as slaves or any one of a number of terrible fates. She just had to trust that they knew how to take care of themselves and that they wouldn’t be targeted by their enemy.
Galiena had actually been strangely confident that they wouldn’t be targets, something about “the way their enemy functions” making it far more likely that the attention would be on Maia’s group. Maia was fine with that; whether or not it was justified, she felt like her group was better equipped to handle whatever came their way. So, they set off, staying as vigilant as they could.
It was boring. For the next week, nothing happened; they spent the night in town once, but even that did little to break the monotony of travel. They couldn’t even have the luxury of not setting a watch, as someone had to watch the carriage to make sure no opportunistic thieves tried to steal any merchandise, or even the carriage itself.
And nothing continued to happen until midway through the second week of travel, when Sylvie sounded the alarm. “Hey, everyone, be on alert.” She said, dropping down from the roof of the carriage so she could talk to the people inside. “I think we’re being followed.”
“This is what, the third time you’ve said that?” Emily asked.
“I know, but all this brush makes it hard to get a good read on things. If this is anything like Miral, then patrols will have gotten sloppier since the curse, and monsters will have started getting near the roads again. It’s possible we were being followed before and the monsters decided we were too hard of a target to deal with, or I was just mistaken. Still, it’s better to be wary for nothing than to be caught off-guard.”
“I know, I know, I just hate getting all jumpy only for it to be nothing.” Emily sighed.
“Welcome to active duty. Being complacent is being dead. Besides, didn’t you used to live near the Deepwood? Surely you had to stay on guard there, right?”
“If something was coming that far out, it was not a threat, or it was going to be very obvious on its way to the village, or both.” Maia replied. “The sneaky monsters liked to stick to areas that had thick tree coverage, and the village was relatively clear.”
“You know, typically any monster is a threat.” Sylvie said, shaking her head in amazement. “I’m shocked your village is still standing.”
“I just saw something big run behind a bush.” Lily interjected. “There’s definitely something there.”
“Right, I’m going to tell Amy to speed up, then.” Maia said. “Shout if they attack.”
“I heard you!” Amy called back. “I’m kicking the speed up!”
There was a sudden lurch as the carriage began to move faster, followed by several monsters that looked like strange hybrids of cats and wolves jumping out of the bushes to chase.
“Well, at least it’s not nothing.” Emily said, grabbing her axe and jumping out of the carriage. “I’ll deal with these; you all make sure there’s nothing ahead. We can catch up once we’re sure it’s safe.”
“Best do as she says.” Galiena said. “I’m familiar with these monsters, and they have nothing to threaten an elemental with. She should be fine on her own.”
“I’ll stay with the carriage to keep an eye for other threats.” Sylvie volunteered.
“I’ll take the next group.” Elise said. “I want some good exercise.”
“Then I’ll back you up.” Maia replied.
“Another group up ahead!” Sylvie called out. “Boars, a couple of bats, and a big bear thing!”
“They shouldn’t be working together like that.” Galiena said immediately. “Someone or something is pulling the strings here and probably will not leave us alone easily.”
“In that case, do you think they’ll have enough monsters that we should consider escape instead of fighting?” Maia asked.
“Unlikely.” Galiena replied. “Monsters aren’t strengthened by the curse, and these ones aren’t anywhere near as strong as the ones in the Deepwood. If there was some sort of large force backing them up, we would have seen them by now, so we should be fine.”
“Stopping the carriage, then!” Amy replied.
“Alright, ladies, you know the drill!” Maia said. “Let’s do this!”
Everyone but Amy got out of the carriage, and hurried to intercept the monsters. And, while each individual monster was far less threatening than even the weakest things from the Deepwood, there were a lot more of them than Maia would have expected. In a weird way, it almost felt more annoying than it did dangerous, something Maia had never felt when dealing with monsters before.
She wasn’t able to think on the oddity for too long, though, a shout from Sylvie cutting through the chaos. “There’s another big group!” She said. “And I think there’s a person with them!”
“Like, being chased by them?” Maia shouted back.
“No, she’s riding a bear monster! She seems to be directing them somehow!”
Emily jogged up to them, burying her axe in a nearby monster. “Why did you stop?”
“This isn’t just a monster attack, it’s purposeful.” Maia replied. “We decided it’d be better to just deal with the whole thing now instead of running.”
Sylvie landed next to them. “Maia, I think you should come with me and take care of the person.” She said. “I’m a little worried about her safety, she doesn’t look like a normal soldier, and I don’t think she’s a trained monster tamer. Plus, if she is somehow keeping this group together, defeating her should make them less of a threat.”
“Good call. Elise, Emily, back us up!”
Emily nodded in assent, and Elise gave a quick shout of acknowledgement, then walked over. Sylvie wasted no time leading the three off to a small hill near the side of the road where, sure enough, a ragged-looking woman was sitting atop a bear, gazing down at them feverishly. “See, Darling? I told you not all of them were human! Aren’t you glad we decided to raid this caravan?” She said into the bear’s ear. “I’ve always wanted to meet a monstrous maiden, and now we’ll be able to hold some captive!”
The bear roared, and she stroked its head lovingly. “Darling, don’t be like that.” She cooed. “I promise you’ll enjoy them. And, if you don’t, you can always enjoy me instead!”
It gave another roar and she beamed in response. “Oh, I knew you’d agree! This is why I made you leader of the pack! Now, let’s get that oni leashed and these birdies into their cages, shall we? And, yes, you can kill the human, we don’t need another one of them around.”
“Alright, enough of this.” Elise said, brandishing her axe. “Call off the monsters, and no one else will have to get hurt.”
“Ooh, a muscle mommy!” The woman squealed. “I’d love to be crushed between those thighs, a ravenous monster keeping me pinned there…”
“Excuse me, what?!” Elise replied, clearly taken aback. “I don’t even know where to begin with that! What’s a muscle mommy? And please don’t tell me you’ve been banging monsters! I don’t know who to feel bad for, you or them!”
“Oh, please.” The woman replied, rolling her eyes. “All I do is invite them and they happily take me up on it! It’s perfectly consensual!”
“And you’re delusional, too. Great. Maybe Violet is right and I should stop trying to talk to cursed people…”
“Trust me, you’re going to love this.” The woman said emphatically. “You’ll never go back to people once you find out how good it is.”
“I think I’m going to throw up.” Emily said. “Maia, can we just take her out?”
“Ooh, like a date? Well, that’s okay, as long as you allow us to go spend the night in the den, the–”
She was interrupted by Maia dashing forwards, deftly dodging the swipes of a couple of monsters before leaping up and impaling the bear’s head with her spear, pausing a second, then letting go of the spear with one hand so she could start curing the woman. The woman, clearly not used to being in close combat, was barely too slow to react, and was unable to dodge out of the way in time.
Maia caught her before she fell off of the bear’s back, dismissed her spear and recalled it to avoid having to pull it out of the bear, then used it to fend off the swipes of one of the cat-wolf things before rushing back to the group. “Cover me while I take her back to the carriage.” She instructed.
They swiftly made their way back to the carriage, where Maia stashed the girl inside before returning to help fend off the rest of the monsters. It didn’t take long; whether it was some magic the woman had cast being undone, or their “pack leader” being felled, they were much more skittish, and after only a couple minutes more broke ranks and ran away.
Once the monsters had fled, the group wasted no time getting in the carriage and getting back to traveling. There was, of course, the notable difference of the woman convulsing on the floor as her body changed, but everyone just did their best to look away. Or…mostly everyone.
“Does this girl look familiar to any of you?” Amy asked, alternating taking peeks at the inside of the carriage and looking at the road. “She looks weirdly familiar to me.”
“Well, unless she visited our village, most of us wouldn’t know.” Maia said. “Steph? Sylvie? Lily?”
“I don’t know.” Steph said.
“No clue.” Sylvie said.
“Me neither, but…I hadn’t really taken a proper look at the curing process until now.” Lily said. “I can see why you all prefer to avoid watching.”
“Yeah.” Maia agreed. “Not pleasant. For me it was instant, but I, unfortunately, can’t manage that myself.”
“Give it time.” Galiena said. “You are only just learning to use your new powers. In time you will be able to drastically shorten the process. Queen Maia the First was able to choose how long it took, from a few seconds to almost an hour. And if she had made the process longer but needed to suddenly shorten it, she could. You should be able to do the same with training.”
“That’d be nice.” Maia said. “It always feels awkward watching someone like this, almost like it’s disrespectful to see them like–”
The woman groaned, and Maia stopped talking, looking over at her. She was almost exactly the same, the only differences Maia could see being that she now had a pair of silver wolf ears to match her silvery her, and her eyes had become red. Even so, Maia could tell that she was a shapeshifter, though she was unsure what exactly that meant. Presumably it was something like a boneshifter; she’d have to ask Galiena later.
“Where…am I?” The woman moaned, sitting up. “The last thing I remember I was…” She trailed off, a fierce blush rising to her cheeks. She quickly poked her head into her shirt and pulled her knees to her chest. “Please tell me you don’t know who I am.”
“Not really?” Maia said curiously. “We’re not from around here. Amy, the one driving the cart, might, though; she thinks you look familiar.”
“Are you alright?” Lily asked gently. “You didn’t do anything too bad while cursed, did you?”
“This would have been the first. Mostly I’m just so embarrassed I could die; so many people saw me like this!”
“If they were cursed, I doubt they cared that much.” Maia said.
“Yeah, but if you fixed me, that means it’s possible for them to be fixed, too. And then they’ll care.”
“They’ll understand.” Steph said. “Everyone here but Maia was cursed at one point, so we all get it.”
The woman poked her head out of her shirt and scrambled to her feet. “Oh no. This is some heretical cult, isn’t it?” She asked, a note of panic in her voice. “I heard there was one around and–”
“Quite the opposite!” Steph said quickly. “Lily and myself are priestesses of the goddesses, and Maia is their chosen champion. Apparently, the same being that unleashed the curse rewrote history to paint the first Maia as a villain.”
“I know it’s hard to believe, but the goddesses themselves gave me the name Maia.” Maia said. “I had the same doubts as you. But…before we explain further, could I get your name?”
The woman sighed. “I suppose it’s only a matter of time before you find out.” She said. “My name is Minerva, heiress to the duchy of Invia and fifth in line to the throne of Naira.”