Parasitic Peony

Chapter One

Sunlight filtered in thin, scalding stripes through the gaps between the bamboo logs of the walls and ceiling. Underfoot, the ocean churned and foamed, spitting up salt spray against the floorboards and drowning the crowing calls of seabirds under its roar.

The Sanctuary of Venus was a series of bamboo huts interlinked with a sprawling web of bamboo decks and bridges and supported by poles stuck into the ocean floor and guarded against rust and parasites by the local merfolk in exchange for the medicine the witches provided them. The only link between the Sanctuary and civilization was a mile-long rope and board bridge to the cliffsides of Ruin Land. It was total isolation, save for the mermaids of Coral Sea.

Moxie, head witch of the Venutic coven, sole occupants of the Sanctuary, was meditating in her hut, dozens of rosy candles burning around her. She sat cross-legged in the centre of the small room, levitating over a wide, round hole in the floor that allowed her to peer into the crashing waves. The sea was never truly calm, and many Venutic witches even fed it their anger regularly to keep rageful spirits from infesting the Sanctuary.

But something felt off about it today.

Of course, that alone and in itself was not unusual. Moxie sensed disturbances in both the sea and the aethosphere all the time. She knew well how to gauge if it was a threat to her coven, and if the local merfolk population needed help, Phosphora, their queen, would personally let her know. Moxie loved seeing the proud mermaid humbled.

But this, this was different, Despite her remarkable proficiency with psychic abilities like aura sensation, this strange new anomaly was smothered in a psychic fog. Moxie couldn't sense the power it exuded, the danger it posed, its intentions, its energy, nothing. It was irking.

Sighing, she gazed into the water, practically pleading for its spirits to talk with her.

All of a sudden, the hole in the floor was full of tentacles, seafoam, and the noise of a million shrieking banshees. Moxie leapt back as the beast writhed and howled, one hand hovering over her staff. Mouth shut tight.

Then, as suddenly as it came it disappeared.

She supposed that answered that question.

The redheaded witch wasted no time. She threw the rug over the hole and strode across it to her mirror, waving a hand in a formation that was as natural as breath at that point.

She was contacting Phosphora. They had a rather unique relationship. By that I mean that they both maintained a tense alliance between two peoples who, though dependent on one another, were inevitably disposed to mutual dislike, yet they also frequently slept together. It was a shameless affair, and basically everyone knew about it. There were like five betting pools within the coven over who topped. Though Phosphora was known to both distrust witches and sleep around a lot anyway, Moxie likes what they had going. It was a fun relationship with just enough bite. Usually.

The mirror lit up with the sea queen's image. She looked harried, distressed.

"No you insufferable bitch, I don't know where the monster came from," she snapped before Moxie could open her mouth. "I don't know anything! I'm trying to get things under control here, we can talk later." And with that, her image whirled into a cloud of warm-hued smoke.

Well. That was that then.

Moxie turned to her shelf of tomes. She must have something somewhere on this kind of thing...ah! Advanced Cryptozoology XXVI, page $̶̿ͣͮ̋͗̎̓̐͗̏̈ͨ͏̡͕͙̻̙͎̣̳̹̭̤͜! Aquatic microeldritch demigod. Blind. Navigated using sound the same way blind humans do, as it had a million fucking tentacles but not the two glands necessary for echolocation. Figures. It was an empty vessel of a monster with no real will of its own or purpose, but to wreak havoc and make way for bigger, more intelligent gods. Always hungry. Always growing. Always destroying. Ugh.

If Phosphora's response was anything to go by, Coral Sea's civilisation had already been attacked and failed to bring down the aquatic microeldritch demigod -she decided to call it Demmy for short- which meant in turn that it had eaten. It was growing Action needed to be taken soon.

Moxie said a prayer to Venus and grabbed her staff, a long, bulbous pole of glass and bones set with rubies. She left a protective sigil on her hut and went to collect Plum, the Sanctuary's self-appointed Official Vehicle Conjurer, and consequently, designated driver. She knew of only one witch this close to the coastline with the power to summon something like Demmy.

It was time for a trip to garbage land.