The air in the cavern was cold and still, heavy with the scent of damp earth and something faintly sweet, like decay. Bioluminescent fungi cast a sickly purple and blue glow across jagged rock walls, their light a mockery of the sun-drenched world outside. A steady drip… drip… drip of water echoed from some unseen recess, the only sound in the oppressive silence.
The taller woman stood before a shallow, black pool, her robed back to the cavern's entrance. The shadow she cast was long and absolute, a void in the faint light.
A moment later, a smaller, slighter figure entered, moving with a quick, almost eager silence. The girl, also cloaked in the same living shadow, stopped a respectful distance away.
"The Gashirai village project is a failure," the taller woman stated, her voice as calm and cold as the cavern air. She didn't turn. "The spores were pure. The mycelial network was perfectly woven through the soil, poised to take root in every living thing. And yet… it was undone."
"Undone?" the shorter girl asked, her voice higher, like the chiming of cracked glass.
"Purified," the woman corrected, the word laced with a sterile distaste. "Scoured from the earth. My creation was corrupted, then twisted into a brute instrument of terror. A messy, inefficient outcome." She finally turned, the shadows of her hood shifting. "Someone strong interfered. Someone with an affinity for cleansing life, not corrupting it."
The shorter girl took a step forward, the faint light glinting off the polished obsidian mask that covered the upper half of her face.
"An anomaly," she said, a hint of excitement in her tone. "I believe it may be connected to other… setbacks."
The taller woman's head tilted slightly. "Explain."
"A few weeks ago, down south, near the foothills. A small village, ripe for collapse. I cultivated a singular vessel—a red fox, infused with the Spore of Frenzy. It should have been enough to drive the entire populace mad within days," the girl reported, her words precise.
"But the corruption was purged. The village stabilized. My reports said a duo in green togas was responsible."
She ticked off another point on her fingers. "Before that, a Brood Mother spider, nested in an Anansi's Forest. I laced her webbing with the Spore of Hunger. She should have consumed everything for miles. Instead, she was found dead, her insides wrapped in vines. I was able to gleam one image from her destroyed brain—a figure in a green toga."
The taller woman went still.
"The hyena pack I turned near the northern plains… they were also eliminated. The reports mentioned a warrior with a green toga."
A pattern, sharp and undeniable, clicked into place in the cold air between them. Not isolated incidents, but a connected series of interferences.
"It seems there are some humans who are stronger than we anticipated," the taller woman mused, her voice betraying a sliver of annoyance. "Pockets of resistance. Irritating, but manageable."
"It doesn't matter," the shorter girl said, her confidence ringing in the cavern. "Their meddling is irrelevant. While you cultivate the land, my own cultivation has been far more… personal."
The taller woman's shadowed gaze fixed on her. "The pawn."
"The pawn," the girl confirmed, her voice dropping with pride. "He is nearly ready. Every whisper of doubt, every seed of resentment I have planted in his heart is taking root. He sees the world as broken, and he believes only he has the strength to fix it. He yearns for a power he does not understand, a power I am all too willing to provide."
A note of caution entered the taller woman's voice, a rare thing. "You place a great deal of faith in one human. Do not get in over your head, little sister. Pawns can be broken. Or worse, they can develop a will of their own."
The shorter girl let out a soft, sharp laugh.
"Oh, I have no doubt he has a will. That is what makes him the perfect vessel," she purred, stepping closer to the black pool, her reflection a distorted mask in the still water.
"He believes every action is his own, every dark impulse a product of his righteous anger. He will tear down their kingdoms, shatter their alliances, and hunt down these 'heroes' for us, all while believing he is saving the world."
She looked up, her masked eyes meeting her mentor's shadowed gaze.
"He is not just a pawn," she declared, her voice filled with a chilling certainty.
"He is the key. And with him, we will unlock the door for our Master to return."