your way to the heart—if you can find it at all—and discovering that
no one in your fireteam has the means to retrieve it.
Especially if one of you dumb fucks got yourselves killed on the way there.
—Virgil Clay, Lecture
“Hey, Vi?” Kiera asked.
“Yes, Miss Mulberry?” Violet responded.
“I just wanted to say thanks. Getting to the top of this nest was actually extremely easy. I appreciate you keeping a level head when we broke in,” Kiera said.
“Hey, I’m happy to help. Any way I can,” Violet replied.
“You’re right, I should swear less. Keep a clear mind like you do, so I don’t get myself into trouble,” Kiera continued.
“Glad to hear you’re coming around,” Violet chittered, nodding along as Kiera spoke. Kiera nodded as well, and the silent moment following the conversation dragged out for several seconds.
“So,” Kiera said, failing to follow the word up with anything at all.
“So,” Violet agreed.
“What the absolute fuck do we do now?” Kiera asked, still matching Violet’s cheerful tone. Violet looked out across the massive gap on the top floor. The heart had been easy to find. While not visible from the ground floor, it was easy to make out from where they were. It was at the intersection of two large ventilation tubes. There was crystal growing darker around it, and it spread out like blood veins. The primary issue was where the old tubes met. That being about twenty feet away from the stable footing. They had made it to the top level just by climbing the stairs, about five stories up from ground level. The hole in the center looked even more imposing from there.
Violet maintained her smile. “Well. I’m going to be honest with you here, Kiera. I think Daniel should answer this one. What do you think, Dan?” Violet asked. Daniel looked at her like she’d just slapped him. She shrugged and shook her head. “Sorry, didn’t mean to put you on the spot. Uh…”
“The crystal seems to hold the floor up pretty well. With a hole like this, it should have fallen through instead of leaving a usable ledge. If it’s that sturdy, the vents may hold our weight, as well. I can try climbing to the heart,” Aubrey suggested. Violet gave her a concerned look.
“Are you sure, Aubrey? What if it isn’t as stable? It doesn’t look quite as thick up there. Not to me, anyway. I’d hate to see you fall,” Violet asked.
“We have to do something. Unless you plan on sawing through the sides of each of those vents and letting it fall, I don’t really see another option,” Aubrey countered.
“I’ll do it,” Kiera said with a sigh. “I’ve got pretty solid dexterity, so I’ll probably have the best shot at surviving.”
“But you also deserve to—” Aubrey started, then cut herself off. “I should do it.” Violet and Kiera both shook their heads in unison.
“Well, now I definitely have to fucking do it,” Kiera scoffed. “Not gonna let you punish yourself, Aubrey. Not with this, at least.”
“I’m not going to—” Aubrey started, and Violet put her hand on the other girl’s shoulder.
“If she has the best attributes for it, we should let her do it. That’s just smart, Aubrey. Besides… look. I get it,” Violet said.
“Get what?” Aubrey snapped. Violet paused, then shook her head.
“Never mind. But everyone is counting on this heart. We can’t go back without it. So we really do need to send the best person for the job. We can… talk about the rest later, alright?” Violet pushed. Aubrey gave her a sharp look, but it quickly softened. She took a deep breath before responding.
“You’re right. I just… I’m not… It’s not like that, is all. I just want to be useful. Make up for… my mistake, in some small way. But you’re right. Let’s just get this done,” Aubrey finally agreed.
“Well, fuck, you agreed. Guess I have to climb around a hedron nest like some kind of spider monkey, huh?” Kiera swore.
“I believe in you, bestie!” Violet cheered, holding her hands together in a heart shape.
“Thanks, that’s super encouraging, Vi,” Kiera deadpanned.” Violet wasn’t sure when Kiera had chosen the name “Vi” for her, but she kind of liked it. She was growing to like Kiera more by the hour, in fact. The kitsune may have already been Violet’s first real friend. She did hope the other girl didn’t fall to her death, if possible.
“I’d try to create a ladder for you, but I don’t know if I can,” Violet apologized.
“Right, because why would a scout ever need to climb something?” Kiera joked. It was a point Violet had been considering seriously for some time, despite the humor in her friend’s voice. A scout and a reaper did seem to have a decent overlap in necessary tools, but not complete coverage.
“More of a performance issue than anything, truth be told. I just can’t get anything to the right size to be useful. Not at this degree, anyway,” Violet answered. Kiera sighed.
This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“I suppose we’ll need rope after all. You have that, right, Aubrey?” Kiera asked. Aubrey nodded, even as she pulled her pack off her back.
“Two coils of about twenty-five feet, yeah,” Aubrey answered.
“Damn, girl, is there anything else in that bag?” Kiera asked. Aubrey shrugged.
“It’s a big bag and thin rope, that’s all,” she explained.
“Oh, it's thin rope, that makes me feel better,” Kiera intoned. “Well, whatever. Vi, can you make, like, a grappling hook?” Violet shook her head.
“Rope is too malleable to make with crystal, and I suppose the hook itself is too incomplete to count. I can probably make something hook-shaped, though,” she answered, forming a sickle in her hand without waiting for an answer. Kiera gave it an appraising look, then shrugged.
“You like sharp things, don’t you?” she asked. Violet laughed.
“You mean my wit, I assume,” Violet responded, offering the sickle to the other girl. Kiera accepted the sickle, gently touching the edge with one finger.
“Obviously,” Kiera deadpanned. She examined the sickle for a moment longer. She shook her head, then accepted a rope from Aubrey. She tied one end around the handle and examined her makeshift grappling hook. “It doesn’t really matter, I guess. We just need it to go over the top of the vent and come back down within reach. We’ll just tie it down on the other side, and I’ll use it to climb up. If the crystal makes it sturdy enough to hold my weight, we’ll find out before it gets dangerous.”
“We should tie the other end around your waist, in case you fall,” Aubrey suggested. Kiera looked toward the heart, then reluctantly shook her head.
“Too short. I’ll run out before I make it there. I’ll just have to be careful,” she dismissed.
“We can tie them together,” Aubrey tried. Kiera considered it for a moment. She looked down at the rope in her hands, appraising its quality.
“Yeah, alright, we’ll give it a try. Let me get the first half over the vent first, though,” Kiera agreed. For all her reluctance, there did seem to be a hint of relief in her voice. With a plan in mind, they went about executing it. It did take a couple of tries before she managed to get the sickle over the crystal-caked vent, but she did manage it. Violet went to the other side and tied it down for her as Aubrey got the two ropes tied together.
It was a bit hard to find something sturdy and available to tie the rope to, and Violet ended up pulling it into the stairwell and using the banister. It sacrificed a little length, but they should’ve had enough. Kiera was already effectively tied to the other end when Violet returned.
“Alright, it’s secure on the other side. Considering my vast experience tying ropes well enough to support a human body, I’d say you’re good to go,” Violet announced. Kiera gave her an amused glance.
“Thanks, Violet. That was a fuckin’ weird way to say that. Makes me super comfortable, and I appreciate that,” Kiera laughed. Violet shrugged.
“I’m a very comforting person,” she agreed with a smile. Kiera shook her head, then took a deep breath. She tilted her head, looking over the ledge into the misty chasm below. Then, she began to climb.
The vent did, in fact, support her weight. Climbing wasn’t too difficult, with clarity-enhanced strength easily pulling the young woman’s bodyweight and allowing her to ascend to the vent fairly quickly. Her tail wrapped around her waist as she did. This helped her remain balanced until she managed to pull herself onto the top of the crystal-reinforced structure.
“Well. I sure am up here,” she called as soon as she made it.
“And looking elegant and beautiful!” Violet returned, a fully extended arm offering a thumbs-up. Kiera clung to the vent for dear life, her hair all over the place, and her arms wrapped around the curved vent.
“Thanks, that’s exactly what I was worried about!” Kiera replied. “I’ll endeavor to prioritize that as I crawl precariously over certain death.” She paused for only a moment before pulling herself forward and making her way toward the heart.
“Be careful, nests are supposed to degrade after their heart is taken. Brace yourself in case the crystal holding you up gets weaker,” Aubrey warned. Kiera groaned, but didn’t back out. Daniel, on the other hand, seemed to remember something as he was reminded of years-old education about hedron nests. It was then that Daniel finally spoke again.
“Um, does something seem wrong to you guys?” he asked.
“Aside from you and Aubrey being immune to my adorable charms?” Violet asked.
“No, what do you mean?” Aubrey added. Daniel rubbed the back of his neck nervously. Kiera made steady progress, approaching the heart as they spoke.
“I know we already killed the hedron that lived here. It’s just…” he trailed off before dismissing his own concern. “Well, I guess I don’t really know anything about nests.”
“No, really, it’s alright,” Violet assured. “We won’t make fun of you, I promise.”
“Better to say something pointless and be wrong than to be right and say nothing,” Aubrey added bitterly. Daniel considered for a moment as Kiera finally reached the heart. Kiera’s tail wrapped around the rope as she grabbed the heart with one hand.
“Well,” he relented, “I’ve only heard stories of nests from our town lancers. And they have a tendency to boast. But they always said some nests had a queen, didn’t they?” Violet paused. Kiera’s hand filled with fire, her second talent consuming the heart and trying to free it from the veins that attached it to the vent.
“A queen? Like, a ruler of the nest?” Aubrey asked. “Do hedron need to breed that way?”
“Not a queen like a mother, but like a much more powerful hedron that protects the heart,” Daniel answered. Aubrey tensed. Kiera continued to burn the crystal veins.
“Why didn’t you say something about this earlier?” Aubrey asked. Daniel looked a bit awkward.
“I’m sorry. I just didn’t think of it. But I was looking at the heart, and suddenly remembered a story I heard years ago,” he answered.
It made sense. They had been taught about nests, but the concept of a queen, or boss monster, like some kind of game, wasn’t covered as extensively. It simply wasn’t a necessary component. Most people never went anywhere near a nest, and it wasn’t a concept many retained all the details of. It was always relevant to their lives, but it was like learning how wind worked. It didn’t really matter enough to most to remember all the details. Now that he mentioned it, Violet herself had a vague memory of some small percentage of nests having something like a queen. It had been years since they’d actively studied the anatomy of a nest in school. But she was pretty sure it was rare enough to be little more than a footnote.
“I guess you’re right,” Aubrey acknowledged. “But we’re probably safe. I don’t exactly see any remaining hedron here now, and we’re in the room with the heart. We should be okay.” Violet considered that. She thought back to the forming green nest, and the resting moose. The moose, which had been unbothered... until she’d pulled the heart off the wall. She realized then that it didn’t matter if there was a queen or not. If there were hedron left at all, they might react to the heart’s removal and attack all at once. She looked up just in time to see a triumphant, if terrified, Kiera pulling the heart free.
She clicked her tongue, grabbed Daniel and Aubrey by the collars of their shirts, and pulled them into the stairwell as quickly as she could.
They’d barely made it into the small shelter before the shrieking filled the building. A moment later, and red crystal exploded from everywhere at once.
Here are the current goals and rewards, as well as how close we were to each at 10:40 AM CST on the day this chapter was published.
Click Description to learn more about each! Note that I've decided to offer a bonus chapter at: 2k, 3k, 4k, and 5k, instead of every 2k after 2k. With the webtoon chapter hitting at 6k.
6k - 15k Bonus Chapter – 2,000 Followers
1,947 / 2,000
Description
Starting at 2,000 followers, I will write a bonus chapter between 6k - 15k in length every 1k followers up to 5k. This may be a side character, this may be an AU, or anything else. Who decides? You do! When a milestone is reached, I will ask for suggestions and put up a poll of the most popular ones!
Webtoon Chapter – 6,000 Followers
1,947 / 6,000
Description
This is also a bonus chapter, but I will have it commissioned as a fully illustrated webtoon!
Spin-Off Novel – 15,000 Followers
1,947 / 15,000
Description
I will write a novel of at least 120k words focusing on Kiera, our resident fox girl!
Visual Novel – 20,000 Followers
1,947 / 20,000
Description
I will commission art for and develop a full length (and free to play) Cruel Violet visual novel.