The group followed the road across the river and to the large wall, where a set of large stone double doors stood in their path. They stopped there for a moment, looking at each other uncertainly.
“So…do you think we can just open these?” Elise asked.
“The sound might draw attention, but other than that…probably?” Maia ventured. “You’ve got the most physical strength of any of us here, do you want to give it a go? Those things look heavy.”
“Leave it to me!” Elise said, stepping up to the door. She steadied herself, then pushed at the door, her muscles visibly straining as she attempted to push open the heavy stone doors. After a moment, she sighed and stepped back. “Okay, I’m going to need some help.” She admitted. “These things aren’t moving an inch.”
Maia nodded, walking up and placing her hands on the door in preparation to help Elise open them. And, the moment she did, the doors sprung open by themselves, eerily silent for their size. “Um…they’re open now?” She said nervously. “This sort of thing is usually not a good sign.”
“I think it actually might be.” Steph said. “There are some doors that are made to open only when certain people attempt to open them, and you are the goddesses’ champion. If this truly was an old monster girl town, then it’s not out of the question for there to be something that only opens when someone like you touches it.”
“I suppose…I still don’t like it, though.” Maia said. “Either way, we should get going.”
The group walked through the gate, and their destination soon came into view; at the end of the path there was a large stone castle, previously hidden from sight by the towering trees of the Deepwood and a bend in the road. Moss and ivy ran down its sides, but the structure hadn’t collapsed in on itself like some of the others they had passed.
“Yeah, whatever stuff they have that is worth looking at is gonna be in there.” Emily said. “It just makes sense.”
“The greatest dangers, too, probably.” Violet said softly. “Whatever destroyed this place might still be trapped inside.”
The group was silent for a moment, and then Maia sighed. “Well, the longer we stay here, the more danger we’re in. That hasn’t changed, so let’s head inside.” The group was silent as they approached the castle, arriving at a set of doors not dissimilar to the gates of the wall outside. And, much like with the gates, the doors sprung open the moment Maia touched them.
The inside was remarkably well-maintained, if dusty. There were no piles of rubble like there had been in the other buildings, no piles of refuse from animals or monsters, Maia could even see what appeared to be a carpet, tattered and torn, but certainly not looking like it was thousands of years old.
More importantly, there were what appeared to be four maids standing at either side of large doors at the other end of the spacious entryway. The first thing that drew the eye was that they were somewhat hazy and indistinct, even partially transparent. The second was that they were standing eerily still, and, notably, two of them had animal ears of some sort, confirming that monster girls had inhabited this place.
Probably. The other two maids seemed human, so it could be that the monster girls were slaves of some sort, or maybe those human-looking maids weren’t human. After all, Emily looked human until she did something with lava.
That doubt was removed when one of the two human-looking ones walked up to Maia and gave a curtsy. “Ah, this generation’s queen.” She said, voice as ethereal as her body. “Welcome, and please proceed to the audience chamber, we’ve been waiting.” The doors on the far end of the room opened, and the maid returned to her post, becoming as still and lifeless as she was before.
“Q-queen?” Maia asked. “I don’t know about that…” She waited, hoping for a reply, but the maid showed no signs of movement.
“The magic here feels strange.” Steph said. “It almost feels like the rites we use to guide a soul to the goddesses, but that’s a very transitory and performative sort of magic, it shouldn’t linger.”
“I don’t know about the magic stuff, but…are those maids related, you think?” Elise asked. “To each other, I mean. Look at them, aside from their species, they look exactly the same. It’s creeping me out. It’s gotta be either that or something to do with why there are ghost maids here in the first place, right?”
“Wait, that’s it!” Steph said. “I’ve seen this before, in church headquarters! They’re solid illusions imbued with the imprint of a willing soul. They continue to act out the roles they had in life, but lose the capacity to react to situations outside of those roles. Great paladins often dictate that their souls be used as the template for such illusions, to help defend the faithful. If monster girls have this kind of magic, then that’s yet another point towards Maia’s story being true. It’s a very sacred magic that only high priests and priestesses know.”
“How dangerous are they, if they attack?” Violet asked. “How wary should we be?”
“They’re less dangerous than they were in life, but still dangerous.” Steph replied. “Their ‘bodies’ are weaker than they used to be, but much of their skill remains.”
“We could just convince ourselves they’re not real.” Maia suggested. “In my experience, that tends to be the most effective method to disarm illusions.”
“That would work on most illusions, but not these ones.” Steph said. “They’re partially physical, and so they don’t really care whether or not you think they’re real. Illusion is, perhaps, a bit of a misnomer in this case, maybe projection is a better word? Whatever the case, they’re solid, and that means if we hit them hard enough the projection will fail and they’ll be out of commission until repaired. But, on the other hand, they’ll be able to do physical damage to us, too.”
“Well, let’s just try not to set them off, then.” Maia said. “Be ready, though.” With that, Maia cautiously led the group through the large doors and into what was apparently the audience chamber.
After the last of them stepped inside, the door slammed shut behind them, immediately causing the group to draw their weapons. “Fear not.” A voice, identical to that of the maid outside, said. “We mean you no harm. This next part is simply more delicate and we do not wish outside forces to have any more purchase than they must.”
Maia whirled towards the voice, spear gripped tightly. “What’s happening? If you don’t tell me, we’ll have to stop whatever it is.”
“There’s no point asking, they can’t reply.” Steph said. “That’s not how the magic works.”
“We have limited capability to answer questions regarding this specific topic.” The voice, unsurprisingly belonging to a maid identical to the one outside, said. “You are likely familiar with a much-degraded version of what was used to create us. If you wonder why this spell is still active or why it is so strong, the goddesses themselves were the ones to cast it, in preparation for this moment.”
“The goddesses themselves?” Maia asked. “Why?”
“We will be bequeathing to you an ally. Please, treat her well, and forgive her for her lack of knowledge of this era and its norms. Now, stand back, this is a delicate process.”
“Should we stop them?” Emily whispered. “If they’re lying then we’d just be letting them do something huge, right?”
Maia mulled that over for a moment. “No, let’s let them be. This place does have an odd sort of holy feel to it, now that I know to look for it. And…the goddesses pointed us here; they would have warned us if there was a trap…right?”
“I concur on the holiness.” Steph said. “Maia and I should be able to tell if the ritual doesn’t have the goddesses’ energy in it, so we can step in then.”
Maia looked at everyone’s faces, then nodded. “Alright, we’ll back up.” She said, making an exaggerated show of walking backwards.
“Thank you. We understand that trusting us is likely not an easy choice, if your circumstances are like that of Queen Maia. We will begin now, please stay as close to the door as possible so as to minimize the possibility of an accident.”
Maia hesitantly stood back against the wall, and the rest of her group followed suit. The four maids gathered around a statue in the center of the room, each taking a small vial out of their apron’s pocket and pouring it onto the statue. Then, as one, they turned to Maia and curtseyed. “She will be with you in a moment. It was a pleasure to serve you.”
The maids faded into nothingness, and the statue began to shine with a bright light. The light felt warm and inviting, and it had the distinct feel of the goddesses on it, but Maia readied her spear just in case. The statue shone brighter and brighter before eventually the light faded, revealing the statue, metamorphosed into what appeared to be a living person.
She was a human-looking woman in a maid outfit slightly fancier than the ones the other maids wore, the only really remarkable thing about her being how unremarkable she looked; she had brown hair and brown eyes, and though she carried herself with a certain grace and elegance, if Maia had seen her in a town, she would have easily written that off as something required of any noble servant.
She hesitated only a moment before locking eyes with Maia and dropping into a curtsy. “I suppose you are the new queen.” She said, more a statement than a question. “I am Galiena, head maid of Queen Maia. May I have your name?”
“The Queen Maia?” Maia asked, taken aback. “But…that was thousands of years ago! Have you been a statue this whole time?!”
“Yes.” Galiena said. “However, I have been in a state of suspended animation; to me, it seems like only moments ago I was sealed up.”
She fell silent, looking at Maia expectantly. Maia paused for a moment, then remembered she had been asked a question. “Ah, right. Um, I’m also named Maia, the goddesses chose to name me after her after I was transformed, something about her not being what history said she was?”
Galiena’s face fell. “She was a wonderful woman, with boundless compassion and a strong sense of justice. We figured her reputation would be thoroughly ruined, but it’s still disheartening to hear.”
“It’s worse than you think.” Steph sighed. “History remembers her as the root of all evil, one with malevolent powers so strong she exists in spirit to this day, tempting people to stray from the goddesses’ teachings.”
Galiena’s gaze sharpened, and she made a disappointed sort of tutting sound. “Despicable.” She spat. “That’s just being petty for no reason. We’ll have to correct that once we’re underway. Now, let me guess; currently there’s a plague going around that turns people into amoral hedonists, and you’re trying to stop it? You, Queen Maia, were presumably a man whom the goddesses named their champion, and these are your companions, transformed and inoculated against the plague?”
Maia raised her eyebrows in surprise. “That’s…exactly right, actually. How did you know?”
“History probably doesn’t remember, but this is the second time this has happened. The man part was conjecture, seeing as how the goddesses gave you a new name, but I just assumed the rest was happening as it did in my day. And, before you ask, no, I’m not going to tell you any more right now; the goddesses should have already explained that knowledge can be dangerous, and your crew clearly isn’t fit to handle that knowledge right now.”
“I figured.” Maia sighed. “And, let me correct you, I’m not a queen; I’m just a hunter who got caught up in all of this due to a twist of fate.”
Galiena snorted, a smile forming as she looked Maia up and down. “You’re no queen yet. Give it some time, and you will be, whether you like it or not. But I digress; may I know the rest of your names?”
“I’m Steph.” Steph volunteered. “The resident priest and scholar of Maia’s village. If you want to know more about how history…or what they teach as history, I’m your gal.”
“I’m Emily.” Emily said. “Blacksmith and second-best fighter from our village. If you can’t tell, I’m a lava elemental, so I can do forging on the go. I’m guessing you’ll need to have your weapons looked at, so you can come to me with that after we’re done here.”
“Nice to meet the both of you.” Galiena said. “I will take you both up on your offers when we have a moment.”
“Guess I’ll go next?” Elise said. “I’m Elise, Maia’s wife. Not much else special about me, I’m just here to offer what little help I can.”
“It is my pleasure to meet you, Your Highness.”
“Y-You Highness?” Elise stammered. “But…”
“You’re married to the queen, which makes you queen consort. Get used to it, you’re going to hear it a lot in the future.”
Everyone turned to Violet, who was hiding shyly behind Elise. “I-I’m Violet, Elise and M-Maia’s best friend. Nice to m-meet you.”
Galiena gave Violet a smile. “There’s no need to be nervous, Violet. I won’t hurt you.”
“S-sorry.” Violet said. “I’m j-just not good with n-new people.”
“No matter, I’ll help you get over that. You’ll need to keep your composure in the future, court is not a place to show weakness.”
“C-court?!”
“Of course. You’re the best friend to the queen and her wife. Nobles will seek your favor in attempts to get closer to them, it is, unfortunately, how the world works.”
“O-oh.” Violet said.
There was a brief silence, then Maia spoke up. “Galiena, I don’t seem to get an understanding of what you are like I do when I look at newly cured girls. Are you human or just, you know, a species that looks nearly identical?”
“Ah, my apologies.” Galiena said. “I forgot that you would likely not know. No, strictly speaking, I’m not human. I am what is known as a boneshifter, essentially a human capable of manipulating their own bones and the bones of others. We make excellent maids and assassins due to our ability to create extra limbs of bone, and we’re never short a weapon.”
She held out a hand and wickedly sharp blade of gleaming white bone formed around it. “It’s a bit risky in a battlefield situation; our bones are far sturdier than normal bones, but against steel and magic they are prone to getting damaged. Of course, if we ever pierce flesh with them, we can do unbelievable damage, so…risk-reward.”
“What are the limitations on it?” Steph asked curiously. “Do you just need to touch someone to take control of their bones, or…?”
Galiena frowned, inspecting the bone blade she had made before putting it away. “Hm. It would appear that my time in stasis has dulled my abilities. That wasn’t what I was picturing. But, to answer your question, most boneshifters are incapable of taking control of the bones of people. I was an exception, due to being far stronger than the average boneshifter, but even at my peak I needed contact with the bone itself before I could use it. For dead bodies, however, I just needed to be within a certain radius.”
“So…our powers grow like muscles, then?” Elise asked. “As we use them, they get stronger, and if we don’t, they fade?”
“Sort of.” Galiena said. “It’s more about how much Mana you have and how proficient you are in using it. Your Mana doesn’t go away by itself, but it would seem that losing a chunk was a side effect of my stasis.”
“Can this Mana grow at all, or are we stuck as powerful as we are now?” Maia asked. “Not including getting more skilled, of course.”
“No, we are not stuck. There are ways to increase it, the most relevant for us being dominating other creatures.” Galiena said. “Usually, that means killing. When you kill something, their Mana is released and you can absorb part of it, which then increases your base Mana level by a small amount. For monster girls, it works slightly different; when we defeat a person in actual battle, regardless of whether it is by killing or simply knocking them unconscious or rendering them powerless, we siphon parts of their Mana. The goddesses worked hard to make that possible, so give your thanks to them; the war would be much bloodier were this not the case.”
“Is that how it works?” Steph asked. “It’s not something that gets brought up much, people just accept that killing monsters makes you stronger.”
“I’m not surprised.” Galiena said. “The exact workings are generally kept under wraps because of the potential for chaos that it brings. Hunting monsters is usually more efficient than killing people, but there’d definitely be someone who would decide that slaughtering powerless victims would be easier and less risky than finding and killing monsters.”
“What about our transformations?” Elise asked. “I know I certainly got a lot stronger afterwards.”
“Not exactly.” Galiena replied. “You should still have about as much Mana as you did before, but it’s channeled into one of many forms the goddesses painstakingly optimized. As such, you’re able to utilize it much more effectively than you did before. The physical changes are likewise optimized to interface better with your Mana. If before you were a dull knife, now you’ve been sharpened to perfection.”
Galiena paused, seemingly waiting for the next question, and when none came, she nodded. “If there are no more questions, may I suggest a meal? Simply point me in the direction of your supplies and tell me how much to use and I will prepare something for us.”
“We can do the cooking.” Maia said. “It’s not that we don’t trust you or anything, but you must be tired after…everything. Wouldn’t you rather take a bit to relax and check for any other side effects of the process?”
“No, I would not.” Galiena said. “I will be blunt; I have likely been cooking for far longer than any of you have been alive, and have significant experience cooking while low on supplies. I know how best to maximize the efficiency of the meal and the taste of it. I would be happy to teach any of you who are curious, but until you meet my standards, I will do the cooking.”
“You can’t have that much more experience than us.” Emily said. “You can’t be more than ten years older than me.”
Galiena raised an eyebrow. “Were you not aware? Monster girls don’t age past adulthood, nor will we die from old age. I have over one hundred years of experience, and unless the human lifespan has increased since my day or one of you was extremely old before your transformation, I doubt you could even begin to approach that level of experience.”
“I…wasn’t told that.” Maia said. “My time with the goddesses was interrupted by an attack, and I didn’t get much more than the basics.”
“They likely expected me to fill you in, then.” Galiena said. “We will discuss details over food.”
“Just to be sure, you know how to use Deepwood ingredients, right?” Maia asked.
For the first time in the conversation, Galiena gave Maia a perplexed look. “The Deepwood?” She asked. “Is that a new nation?”
Everyone stared back at Galiena. “How do you not know?” Steph asked. “By all accounts, the Deepwood’s always been around, and we’re in the middle of it. That can’t be false history…right?”
“In my time, this was simply a prairie near the center of the world.” Galiena said. “There were no proper forests for hundreds of miles.”
“Oh.” Steph said weakly. “That’s…I need a moment, sorry.”
Galiena frowned. “Is it that big a deal?”
“You don’t understand.” Steph said. “In many ways, the Deepwood is the most significant place on the planet. In global politics and warfare, it is treated as land that is almost literally impossible to traverse, and our country’s border security relies heavily on it. Academically speaking, it is incredibly mysterious, and many speculate that understanding even parts of it would progress our studies of magic by hundreds of years. For it to have at one point not existed would throw a lot of our understanding of the world into question, because that would mean something caused it to come into being.”
“It was likely our enemy’s doing, to hide traces of this civilization.” Galiena said. “They are a force comparable to the gods, so it’s only natural that they would be able to pull off something of this magnitude. But, to Maia’s original question, no, I suppose I don’t know how to use these ingredients. Do they need special preparation in order to be edible?”
“Sort of.” Maia said. “It’s more a matter of determining what is and isn’t going to inject you with a bunch of magic and make you loopy. What we have has already been screened by me, but this far into the Deepwood, magic will sometimes get into the food anyway, so we have to check every time we eat anyway.”
“Then please, teach me the way.” Galiena said. “I promise, I will deliver the best possible dish with what we have available.”
“Well, it’s slim pickings. It’s really just some jerky, some meat, and some edible plants I’ve managed to scrounge up while we traveled. Here, follow me…”