Subterra Heart

Chapter 35: Tess Ritty

Tess held her breath for as long as possible until finally re-emerging from the bath. She felt like a whole new person.

"Ha!" she laughed, trailing unburned fingers up unburned arms. A couple of gulps of this water had fixed her damaged voice. "Bastet, it worked! I'm completely fine! I'm – " Tess stopped short of finishing her sentence. A soft chittering came from the stairs behind her, and then a few quiet clicks. It didn't sound like the kind of noise a cat would make.

Slowly, Tess turned around. She clapped her hands over her mouth, but not before a quick shriek ran through her new vocal cords.

There was a thing standing in the stairway, filling it completely. Long, spindly feelers swung out to tap against the walls. Bald, angular legs folded up against its body, just barely allowing it to fit through the stairway. There were too many legs to count. Pincers clacked together where a mouth should be, but its eyes were what held Tess's attention. There were eight of them – small, bulbous things on its massive head. They were completely black, just like her's and Bastet's. A Dweller possessed it. Unlike other creatures under the influence of a Dweller though, there was a milky film to this thing's eyes. It was blind.

Or, perhaps she was wrong. Maybe this was just like any other cave spider – except that it was about a hundred times too large.

Tess fought every instinct to run. She was still chest-deep in water which would only slow her down and splash around. She'd already given away her position once with that little scream, and she must not do it again. Slowly, she slid her feet away from the staircase, backing away towards the far end of the cavern. The floor arched back up, and the water slowly receded until it was merely around her ankles. Ripples spread out from Tess, even with her careful movements, but the cave spider hadn't set its attention on her yet. It was tapping the water with its antennae, testing it.

Maybe this would be a good cave spider. Or a lazy one.

No sooner had Tess thought that, then the antennae stiffened. The cave spider lunged at her with a speed that should not have been possible for something so large. She dashed along the bath, keeping to the edge, and barely registering that the greater depth of the middle of the bath had slowed the cave spider by a fraction of a hair. A pincer nicked her shoulder, and she slid under the thicket of legs that swooped in to trap her.

Back to her feet, she snapped in an instant, with the memory of reflexes that had never belonged to her. Around the edge of the room she ran. There was a thud as the cave spider ran into the wall, chasing after her. It whipped her back, but she was already at the staircase, snagging her Anai tunic, and streaking up three stairs at a time. It was too narrow for the cave spider to move freely now, and it folded itself up again to skitter after her, but she was already at the exit, grabbing the edge of the bronze door. She shoved it closed and slammed the lever down to lock it.

The cave spider thudded against the other side.

She stood there for a long moment, breathing fast. Water dripped down her skin, and the Anai tunic hung limply in her fingers. Dust from crumbled bodies clung to her wet legs. She'd stepped unthinkingly in the remnants of the door guards in her haste to escape the cave spider. It made her skin itch.

Meow.

It was Bastet. She blinked, and Tess suddenly remembered herself once more. She hopped away from the dust piles at the door and yanked her tunic on in horror. She wiped madly at her legs, trying to get the dust off, but she only managed to get it all over her arms.

"Bastet, you ass!" she gasped. "Why didn't you warn me about that thing?!"

Bastet sauntered into view, watching with mild amusement as Tess hopped around, still swatting at herself. Tess thought she was going to be sick.

"You werrrrre underrrrwaterrr, and therrrre was no time," said the Dweller.

Tess grabbed some paint chips from the ground and chucked them at the cat. They missed her target entirely.

"I could have died! I could have been eaten!"

"But you werrrre not, werrrre you?"

Stupid, stupid Dweller-possessed cat. And stupid, stupid Tess. For a brief moment, she'd thought she could trust the little monster. Tess grabbed another fistful of paint chips and raised them over her head, ready to throw them at Bastet once more. She wanted to yell at the cat. Scream at her. Send her away. Far, far away. But something at the edge of a memory stopped her. Slowly, she dropped her fist.

"No," grumbled Tess. She sat down heavily, suddenly very tired. "No, I wasn't eaten. But that doesn't let you off the hook, cat. For all I know, you want me dead."

Bastet simply chuckled.

"Self-prrrreservation," she purred. "Thatwas yet anotherrrrr Dweller and his host host, and I would much prrreferrrr to avoid anunforrrrtunate encounterrrr. He was not too fond of me." Tess supposed that was the Dweller's poor excuse of an explanation for why the cat had left her alone with a blood-thirsty cave spider. She frowned, Bastet had suddenly stopped purring and was staring intently at her paws.

"I do not want you dead, human-named-Tess," she said.

Tess raised her eyebrows. "You've got a funny way of showing it if that's true," she muttered. Her back and shoulder stung where the cave spider had gotten her. Blood was trickling down her back, mixing with water that hadn't yet dried. Bastet responded by flicking her tail and strolling down the hall to the left. It took Tess a moment to recognize that Bastet was headed in the direction towards Heart Central.

"Come, human-named-Tess," called Bastet over her shoulder. "We must hurrrrry if we arrre to help yourrr people."

Tess hopped to her feet and hurried after the Dweller. "We?" she asked.

"Did I stutterrrr?" said Bastet.

"Your kind turn people into monsters and then drain them of life 'till their just dusty husks," said Tess. "I should have burned you long ago."

"You arrrre too fond of Bug forrrr that. And the human-named-Marrrrina would murrrrder you."

Well, Bastet was certainly right about that. Tess shook her head and turned her mind to the scattered memories of Nelda Crane. She hadn't explored them too much just yet, and if Nelda's end was anything like what those guards at the bath entrance had gone through, she didn't really want to. She did know that she needed to find Matteo Rocha's notebook – the one that Nelda had hidden so long ago. It held the cure to bloodrot. A shoddy cure, sure, but a cure all the same. That, at least, should help Heart ride whatever wave of Dwellers and bloodrot was coming for it.

Tess frowned. There it was again – that thing at the edge of a memory. For some reason that she could not understand, she knew that Matteo Rocha's cure would require blood from a Dweller's host. Fresh blood. Bastet's rough voice snapped Tess out of her thoughts.

"You should know, human-named-Tess, I do not trrrust that yourrr plan will worrrrk. At least, not as you would like," said the cat, softly.

Tess wrinkled her nose. Vague memories of Bastet on the verge of offering Connor a deal swirled in her mind. Not this again.

"You can keep whatever kind of help you think you can offer to yourself, cat. I'm not making Rourke's mistake."

Bastet shrugged and said nothing more.

They took the next turn in unison. Tess did not stare at the wide plaza that opened up before them. Nor did she bat an eye at the intricately carved stela that stood at its center. She had memories of this place in its prime, when vivid colors and fabrics and sounds had adorned its walls, and before the stela had cracked and fallen. She simply walked on, avoiding cracked pottery that lay scattered on the ground. The air was cool, and she was still wet. Her feet were cold. She shivered, keeping to the path that led towards Heart Central.