2.12|YOU'LL BE SORRY WHEN I TELL IT SO

2.12|You'll be sorry when I tell it so

 

The crowd was rancorous at the two standing on their platform, perched on high like judges from above. Rocks and trash were pelted out at them, the view for Theo and Protlyn was of a mob seeking to draw blood.  Both were protected from crowd by thick, high and strong gates. Even the Ooht security guards were cowering. Protlyn could feel her blood turn cold. This was not going to be a friendly exchange.

"We think.. it was an attack from above, and now the destruction they caused was premeditated. The damage ruined months of infrastructure, so we'll have to cut back on rations and-"

The crowd booed and screamed.

"- we're hoping to have the infrastructure restored quickly so that we can continue to harvest and distribute food. But we’ll need you to cooperate and help work in the mines so the automated system can keep running, with food cutbacks.."

More jeering.

Protlyn raised her arms in a pleading gesture.

"Please be patient with us! It's for the best! We'll need your full collaboration

and-"

"And then what?" Theo said.

"What?" Protlyn turned her head, he hadn't said a word since they arrived.

"What will you do then? Go back to your leisure with those harpies in the capital? While they toil in dirt and starve, covered in black soot, you make these calls from on high." He turned to the crowd. "She makes these calls! She says it’s the best, but for who? The best for whom?" He orated.

She shot him a glance like daggers. "What the fuck are you doing?"

"They don't intend to feed you, your families, your children. The Oohts want to pull you under the ground. They see you as poor misunderstood creatures, but I feel your pain. And I tell you now, this sabotage wasn't from the moon, it was a blessing from the gods, meant to punish these arrogant twats for their hubris! How can we say they didn't blow up the areas themselves, to force you to rebuild them. To keep you working, keep you starving. Subservient, impoverished!"

She could hear a couple of "What do you mean you were lying!? You're a lying,

manipulative witch!" but the crowd was bloodthirsty.

Protlyn watched, as Theo moved slowly towards them, throwing his arms like a conductor over an orchestra.

"Will you return to your normal days of work while they return to leisure? Will you let the Santri dine and daze while you fight for survival? Will you sit here and do nothing?!" Theo yelled.

"You fucker-" Protlyn was about to grab him, when someone interrupted from behind the gated stage.

A couple of hundred men in the crowd watched. The Ooht guards came in. He was just a young boy who they dragged the rest of the way. He had a bloody wound on his chest and blood dripping off his chest and into his eye. It was hard to tell if he was in pain or just so scared.

"They tried to steal a crate of rations." The guard said. "We were instructed to punish them with lethal force!"

"By who-?"

Before Protlyn could get an answer, Theo smiled a devil's grin and grabbed the

boy, holding him up for the crowd.

"For the best? INDEED!

She could feel her heart racing, like the pulse from her heart. This couldn't

happen. She turned to the Oohts.

"You snake! Take him away!" She yelled pointing to Theo.

"Don't take him! They'll kill him, don't take him!" Theo's voice carried like an

echo over the crowd. "He's a child. He's starving."

"No I meant take-" A jagged rock hit Protlyn on the head, knocking her back and bleeding her forehead. The crowd began to rush the gates, thrashing it and attempting to crawl over.

"Brothers, sisters, realize your potential! Organize the masses, take their oppression no more! We will not be told what to do and how to live! This food is ours. We took it from the ground with our own hands and this is our land!" Theo declared.

"Our land! Our land, our land, our land!" They yelled, getting closer and starting to make their way onto the stage.

"The world was a better place before that girl came. Kill her, devour her." Theo's voice was calm. The people were still shouting. Protlyn was dizzy, the mob was clawing towards her, inch by inch. She felt them kick and punt her, pulling her up, the guards helpless as they were swarmed.

"It is as I've always said. We are here for no one. The true enemy has always been that same. That girl! That girl has changed us. I stand with the weak and hungry. Kill her! She's weak and dirty, she's dirty because she doesn't know her place!" Theo preached.

And they did. They grabbed her. She could hear a few people gasping. Protlyn was being carried and held up, scared for her life. She closed her eyes tightly and gasped. "S-stop.." She uttered.

A hungry Meryl spat on her.

"Stop!" shouted.

Several others were forcefully began pulling at her hair, many were making nooses and sharpening axes.

"ENOUUGH!" She shouted, sending a psychic shockwave freezing everyone and causing them to fall down. Each man woman and child received a chilling mental command, pinching them down to the last nerve. They felt numb and paralyzed for a few moments. Protlyn's nose was bleeding, her head pounding. She stumbled back onto the stage light headed and fell over. "Get out.. of here." She told a guard. The Oohts grabbed her while the mob was still dazed and headed back to the traincart in a hurry.

She heard a few growls, a few snarls, but the guard held her tightly. The entire party boarded the wagon, as soon as they got on they took to the rail on the top.  While it sped off, she could see Theo with the mob, smiling and looking at her with menace. The staff put her on the med table inside. Her head felt an ocean of pressure, body shivering cold.  She didn't feel anything anymore.

"A little pain. That's it," said a young nurse. She injected the local anesthetic. "More pressingly, you seem to have broken some kind of mental barrier." She might not die right away, we cannot lose her. Even with her unholy energy surrounding this place, the Flicker is our hope. The Ooht thought.

Protlyn looked at her, realizing she could hear her thoughts. The next moment her comm in her jacket beeped and she struggled to pick it up and respond. "Hello, Amity?"

"Protlyn! I checked MATRUS, there does seem to be a few irregularities, some outdated security codes that maybe an engineer or spy here could exploit. The AI itself is working in perfect order so there's no need to deactivate it, but we'll just need tighter supervision. I recommend-"

"N-not the best time Amy."

"Miss Protlyn, I-it's fine, the AI is doing a more accurate job than you think,

I've already checked-"

"AMITY." Protlyn coughed into her hand. "Theo went AWOL and is now riling

up the Oohtlets, he’s setting them against us. I'll look at the data later," she

said in disgust.

Her eyes closed, Protlyn's mind raced. She thought of things she needed to do.

 She made a plan to save them all, to salvage everything. Between the Oohtlets, Glitterkiss and Theo it was an upstart bad enough to split her psyche, and for the first time in a long time she couldn't possibly let that happen.  The nurses discussed between themselves and approached her. "Miss Protlyn, we believe you might've.. regained some power? It was dormant in a region of your brain unconnected to the rest, a spike in synaptic activity indicates it's integrating with your nervous system again."

She looked up, able to feel their anticipation. "Seriously?"

She shook her head and looked to the nurses and she said in a panic "We need to get to the Oohtlets." The women looked at her with doubt. "Now!" She yelled. The nurses looked at each other and then began to follow the herd, "We'll need to stop Theo if he's going to try to incite violence or kill anyone. Or worse.."

Protlyn heard a sudden wailing and screaming coming from outside.

The medstaff were running through the halls like a herd of panicked cows. Protlyn, despite her injuries and shock hopped off the table and started to limp her way out. "N-No.." a nurse ran up to her and asked, "Miss Protlyn stay in bed, what's happened, what are you-"

She waved her hand in their face, her eyes shining as a thought formed. "No. No, don't worry, I'll stop him. It's just going to be.. harder," she replied. She took off down the hallway. Arriving outside, Protlyn laid eyes on a dark shadow of some behemoth gazing over the shielded city, the barrier no longer present.

"Tsk.. not now.."

With giant tusks and 6 horns, spiky backplates, obscenely meaty arms and ragged fur, the snouted fiend grabbed the top of a tower, Santri fleeing from it. It stomped 80 meters tall and roared loud enough to shake the heavens. It pounded on its leathery chest and saw all with 5 eyes, four parallel, one vertical and enlarged at the center.

"That's, a Balaki'lanche! A rare predator in the wild. But why is it here?"

The nurse yelled covering her mouth. 

"They once roamed the fortress of the ancient gods to feast on the springs of

temples far from here, but this city has no natural resources it wants, nothing! Not even its coastal food source-"

Protlyn looked at the Santri it attempted to grab. "Looks like we're the food." She started running through the streets to get as close as possible. Guards began firing bolter shots at it, angering it further.

"Why is the barrier down? That shouldn't be possible!"

They began to scramble, firing at the fiend in all directions, but it continued to run faster. Several shots found its head, but the Balaki'lanche didn't even flinch. It stopped and began to roar loud enough to shatter glass, its claws tearing apart the obsidian and steel of towers in its wake. The guards ran for their lives, none of them having a chance.

When Protlyn got close enough, the thing took notice of her. She felt insane anger, hunger and an almost cloudy mist of instincts, but none of it came from her. The farther it marched ahead, the louder the creature's mind was to her. Protlyn closed her eyes, hugged herself and focused on the horrible sounding mouthing roar, ignoring the putrid stench.

She could feel that sensation again, the same pulse she received when mobbed on the outskirts, but it was even stronger than before, a strange pleasure, like her thoughts were floating away from her and she was left floating alone in a sea of consciousness. It made her smile.

"Leave." She said gently. Her nose bled and head was tight enough that she

 felt she might pass out. The creator felt its psyche meld.

"Leave this city.. leave it alone.." She said in a harsh, sore and tired voice. It

roared again and a wave of fear ran across the guards' faces. "Please. Just

leave."

The beast stopped for a second, the guards stopped running, the fear had stopped flowing. The creature looked at her for a long time, and she could see the intelligence and malice in its eyes. "What is your name?" It asked.

The creature did not speak words or language Protlyn could hear, but she could understand its thoughts.

"Fyst, from the tribe of Tukthu." It's mind told her. "A beam fell from the sky and attacked my people. The Stormgod, firing from the clouds. I was angry. Did your people anger the Stormgod?" It asked.

Psychically Protlyn responded back. "No, it wasn't us. We were victims of such, angry clouds and beams too. Believe us, we don't mean any harm. By all the beasts of this land, we wish to find coexistence." She walked towards the beast and put her hand on its clawed toes. "Thanks to the beams, many of the Oohtlets have gone mad and turned on us. They're desperate for food and security, and we cannot assure it."

The beast paused for a moment, and it’s thought turned from Fyst to Protlyn. It stared at her with more curiosity than malice, and she could see the creature was thinking deeply.

"Leave." She repeated. The Balaki'lanche's thoughts, which usually held so much rage, now changed in  accordance.

"That's a pity." It said in a voice much different from its snouted and rumbling one. It reached out and clasped Protlyn by her waist and placed her on the ground. "All my life the Stormgod has done such things, he is angry and cannot be reasoned with, but, I know how this city works, I understand this place. My tribe have lived here for many moons. I will speak to the Oohtlets," Fyst said, taking its giant hand to its chest while making the promise.

"Thank you..." Protlyn said, knees wobbling. The blood rushed out her head

faster. "T-thank y.." everything grew light and a strange dizziness took over

her.

The Balaki'lanche was holding her limp body.

"I feel pity for you." Fyst said softly. Its mind became clearer now, kinder. Her eyes shutting. Protlyn could feel a surge of sadness as consciousness faded. "This thing that destroyed your land, it is no blessing. I am glad you know what it is." Fyst told her as she passed out.

When she woke up 3 weeks later, Fyst's head lay on a giant pike.