Weaponsmith - Chapter 127 (Patreon)

Hineni stands there, looking around himself, as the scene shifts one more time.

“I waited a long time to show you this,” says a voice from behind him. “I waited a long time to tell you this.” A hand places itself onto his shoulder. “Hi~ ne~ ni~ hi~,” croaks the voice of the big-frog.

Hineni turns his head around, looking at her sickly pale face and deep, emerald eyes. “What a crock of shit,” replies the man. He grabs her wrist, wrenching it off of himself.

— Her prosthetic arm detaches at the elbow, and he stands there, holding onto it.

The man looks at it for a moment, processing, and then tosses it down to the ground. It clatters against the floor, rattling away. “Look. I don’t care what you’re selling me. We’ve been through this song and dance already,” he says. “I’m giving you one chance to cut the crap,” he says, walking up to the big-frog, Nekyia, and grabbing her by the collar.

“See?” she asks. “This is what she was talking about. You’re proving them right,” says Nekyia. She lifts her other hand, the real one, and shushes him with a froggy, damp finger over his lips. “Don’t worry. I’ve never forgotten about you.”

“I’ve tried being nice,” replies Hineni. He grabs her other wrist, yanking it to the side, and kicks her leg out from beneath her. The other prosthetic limb flies away as he lets go, and she falls down onto the ground, onto her back. The wood clatters as it rolls away. Hineni looks down at the big-frog. “I’m sick of you putting the people I care about in danger because of this weird obsession of yours.” He narrows his eyes. “This is ending, now.”

Nekyia looks at him and then coyly tilts her head to the side, her hand pulling the upper cut of her dress down to the side. “What are you going to do to me?” she asks.

“Okay. Wow. That’s super weird, you know?” replies Hineni, looking down at her. “One, because of the story you just tried to sell me, which again — not buying it,” he says. “And two, and I can’t make this clear enough anymore,” says Hineni. “- I’m just not into you.”

“It’s the truth,” replies Nekyia. “I’m not selling you anything,” says the big-frog. “You think that you came back home to find answers about yourself, don’t you?”

Hineni stands there, his finger ready to snap. “I came down here to help my family,” he replies.

“But Hi~ ne~ ni~ hi.” Nekyia smiles, pulling the fabric of her dress down a little lower. “I’m your family.”

“Nope.” Hineni snaps his fingers.

(Hineni) has used: [Antichrysalis]

A cloud of ash disperses all around himself, and the room that they’re inside of, which he recognizes as belonging to the little house in the forest that he had seen in the vision, is filled with burning cinders.

Hineni stands there, the fabrics of his clothes billowing in the infernal tempest.

“I spent years looking for you,” says a voice from behind him. “- Lives.”

Hineni looks over his shoulder. “Not enough to catch my interest,” he says.

(Hineni) has used: [Antichrysalis]

Another cloud of burning ash erupts out of his hand. The house around them catches on fire.

“How the hell did you get me?” asks Hineni. “What tricks did you pull?” He looks around the room. “Is this another dream? I wasn’t even asleep.”

“Tricks?” asks the big-frog. There's laughter in the embers. “Oh, Hineni, you’re so silly.” She sighs. “I really wish we could have stayed in that other life. That was so much fun, wasn’t it?” asks Nekyia. “Just you and your big sister, Nekyia, growing up together in a perfect life!”

“I am not above beating a crippled woman,” replies Hineni, grasping out into the darkness. “And you’re not my sister,” he says. “I already have one.”

His fingers clutch something soft, and he yanks it back towards himself. His fist rises, and then pushes forward.

— Right into the open mouth of a large frog.

Its mouth wraps closed around his hand. “- The hell?!” Hineni tries to yank his arm back, but it's firmly stuck. He can feel something wet inside of the mouth, a tongue, moving around his hand, along it, gliding between his fingers.

“It was my fault,” says a voice that resounds from the, quite literal, big-frog. “She told me to take you and to hide,” says Nekyia. “But I didn’t. I just hid beneath the bed by myself,” says the voice. Hineni looks at the frog’s yellow eyes, lifting his other hand to snap his fingers with it instead. “I spent my life trying to make that right again,” explains Nekyia. “I haven’t used any tricks to get you here, Hineni,” says Nekyia. “You came to me.”

Hineni, feeling the tongue sliding along his fingers, has a change of heart.

— He snaps the finger on the hand inside of the frog’s mouth.

(Hineni) has used: [Antichrysalis]

Its mouth widens, and there’s a loud scream as she spits out the cloud of ash, vanishing in an instant.

Hineni looks at his hand, covered in wet gunk, and shakes it off. He scans the area, getting ready for her to come again.

Her screams have quieted.

“…I deserved that,” says the voice from the darkness. “It hurt a lot, you know? But if using my body this way instead makes you happy, then that’s okay,” says Nekyia. “It must have hurt a lot for you too, and that’s my fault.”

“Get a grip,” replies Hineni, pulling a strand of slime off of his fingers. “First of all, I’m fine,” he says. “I’m getting married to a much more attractive woman than you,” says the man. “Also, she’s not batshit crazy.”

“— Is that so?” she asks.

“Yup,” replies Hineni.

“Then why did you come to me?” she asks. “The south is my domain. I own it. The forest, the pond, the tree,” says Nekyia. “All of them are mine. You came to me.”

Hineni narrows his eyes, looking around the smoldering inferno. The house continues to burn. He lifts his scarf up, covering his nose and mouth.

“Oh. Did nobody tell you that?” asks the voice from behind him. “You didn’t come down here to escape the city-life, or to find out about your past,” says the frog-god. “You came down here because she made you come down here,” she explains, referring to Obscura. “Just like she made you become a weaponsmith,” says the frog-god. “Just like she made you become someone who lives up to exactly the horrible expectations that the people who killed our mother had for us.”

“She wouldn’t do that.”

“She did,” replies Nekyia. “I love you, Hineni.”

Hineni looks over his shoulder, trying to find her. “Gross.”

“— And I would never lie about this. It’s the truth,” croaks the big-frog. “You might feel your heart beating for her,” says Nekyia. Hineni circles sideways, moving towards where he remembers the door being. “But her heart beats for me, not you,” says the big-frog. “In her sleep, in her thoughts, in her every day, all she ever can think about…” Hineni grabs the handle, pulling it open, only to see the large, yellow eye of the big-frog on the other side, staring at him. “— Is me.”

(Hineni) has used: [Antichrysalis]

The frog howls and then vanishes, and Hineni bolts out into the forest, trying to orient himself.

It’s the middle of the night, and the forest is heavy with darkness that drapes over it like a blanket. Hineni looks back at the burning house and grabs a piece of wood, breaking it off and holding it into the fire as he walks off into the night.

Hineni scans the darkness, trying to find her. But he can’t see anything except for the silhouettes of hundreds of trees that seem to be facing towards him, looming down over him like the claws of a hungry monster with far too many fingers.

This can’t be true.

One, because having the big-frog as his sister would be extremely weird for a variety of reasons, and two… well, because he’d just really prefer if it wasn’t.

Hineni wanders the forest, trying to orient himself.

It’s dangerous to be out here. If what she said is true, then he isn’t just near the center anymore. He’s in the south, in the deep south. There are things in these woods that he isn’t equipped to deal with.

His eyes turn back towards the burning house.

Hineni makes his choice pretty easily and heads into the forest, holding his torch out ahead of himself.

__________________________________________

Hineni’s eyes chase the drifting shadows, which part ways as he moves past them. Although, sometimes they do not and instead cling firmly in place, as if entirely resistant to the glow of the fire in his hands, as if it were simply not as real as they were.

Is this really her territory? The big-frog’s?

If it is, then it would make sense how easily he was captured. He didn’t even know it was happening. Hell, the last thing he remembers is going over some stuff with Rhine and then bam, frog-city.

— Hineni extends the torch out, trying to find the way. But the forest all looks the same, no matter which way he turns.

Even if it is true, and assuming that Obscura had brought them here so that she could hunt the big-frog…

That all together only answers one question of his. It only tells him where he was back as a child, before he came to the northern city with his elf step-mother, the woman who had apparently killed his real mother for some reason.

But it doesn’t tell him what happened after that.

Assuming this story is true and the big-frog really is the key factor in the start of his life, then what the hell happened after that?

Hineni stares out into the darkness.

Why did he kill his step-mother and step-father? What happened on that day in his adolescence, after years of quiet stability? What happened on that day that Eilig won’t tell him about that’s such a big, important secret that seemingly everybody else knows about, except him?

Hineni looks up at a tree; it looks particularly tall. He plants the torch down into the grass and then dusts his hands, climbing up it. It might help if he gets some perspective.

He’s really tired of all of this god-stuff. Can’t they all just fuck off and settle their differences somewhere else?

Barring Obscura, of course. She can stay here with him. But the rest of them — they can go.

Hineni reaches the top of the tree, pushing his head out through the thick, heavy crown, expecting to see the relieving sight of a sky full of stars and cream-toned moonlight.

— He thumps his head against something hard and recoils in surprise, wincing.

“Shh!” shushes a voice from just next to him.

Hineni turns to look at Nekyia, who is right beside himself. The two of them are lying beneath a bed, inside of a small cabin that is no longer burning. A woman stands at the foot of it, consoling a girl. He looks down below himself, down at where the tree should be that he had just climbed up. However, there is nothing there, except for a hardwood floor that he now lays on top of.

“Let’s watch it together this time,” she says, her hand sliding over to touch the top of his leg.

— Their mother’s body flops against the floor. Blood pours out of her wound as the scene that had been projected to him, just before, repeats itself.

The elf walks over to the bed, just in front of them and takes the baby, leaving.

Hineni yanks her hand off of himself and snaps his fingers.

— Nothing happens.

She smiles. “Oh… are you out of soul-points?” asks her voice. “You should have been more serious about that training with your elf friend, I guess.” Hineni looks her way, trying to figure out a way to get out of her magic spell that is keeping him locked in this… illusion or dreamstate, or whatever the hell this is. Her hand holds her cheek as she looks his way. “So… what are we going to do together under the bed?” asks the big-frog. “Ribbit~”

The blood from their freshly murdered mother’s corpse runs down towards them, soaking through the floorboards.