There was nothing to say. The realm was doomed. The realm had always been doomed since the mana drain. At this point it was even asinine to recall.
The monster in front of me was doomed like the rest.
I was rubbing her head, got up and gestured for her to come in. She protested.
"No! You have to come and save the realm and everything!"
No matter how cute and outraged her voice could get, there was the hard knowledge that this was a beast. Her fluffy body, her small legs all disguised that nature.
Anyway, she had to follow me in or give up, so the rapt groaned and kept up with my pace.
"If you don't help there will be a war! And humans and monsters will die and it will all be your fault!"
There would be much worse than a war.
We weren't going far - it hurt to move - only a nearby room in the mansion that glimmered the moment we entered it.
She froze at the sight. Black slabs of marble detached from the walls to float, covered each one in glowing inscriptions. All of the realm's records I had copied here, the knowledge of old and new. Hundreds of entries for her to peruse.
I had stopped at the entrance. The small monster walked in, amazed, watched the rows of black stones around and above as if they were stars.
"What is all this?! There are so many!" She wondered.
"What do you believe in, Caline?" My voice feigned detachment. "That humans will solve everything?"
The legged rapt had turned around. She had remembered the clay golem standing with her.
"Yes! Of course they will, humans are good and kind and always cheerful!"
"And you fear that monsters will attack them."
"It's not fear, they will! And then humans will fight back and everyone's going to die!"
Where to even start.
Oh, this would do. I picked a black slab and let it hover toward her, close enough for her to read. Most of the text got dimmed so she would focus on the important part.
We said: What is a monster? The golem said: A being that seeks mana.
With just that the legged rapt was confronted with her very nature. Words carrying far more knowledge than she wished to know.
Monsters were ravenous.
Even her, a peaceful rapt whose entire existence revolved around pleasing others, knew that need and instinct.
"The humans are coming back. When they do, twenty-one orders of magic will wash over the realm. Every single beast will go into a frenzy. The war you fear is inevitable."
Even in a rich and healthy realm, monsters would hunt and feast, never satiated. With a mana drain tormenting these lands, deprived beasts could only think about their next meal. It was despair that drove them to talk and believe, to play cute or obedient.
The most they had ever known was six or seven orders of food and that, already, was more than enough to drive them insane. Like roasting meat for the hungry.
She thought I just had to show up and kill the bad monsters.
Or better yet, summon a human to do that.
Now the cute rapt was hyperventilating. A younger monster would have pushed back but she had seen too much to fall into denial. She could feel it. Just the mention of so much mana had her docile body thrilled.
"Then!" She attempted. "Then... We just keep everyone apart until it's gone!"
"Until the mana is gone? The mana that keeps humans alive?"
Did I need to bring her the records that explained just how doomed humans were? No, no, she knew it better than anyone else. The same mana drought that affected the realm would have every single human dead within months.
That war she feared was anecdotal at best.
"Then we tell humans not to come!"
My wrist turned a bit, making me ache, and another slab floated to her.
We said: How can we find humans? The priestess said: Your presence will be enough.
Humans were coming regardless. With the balance of magic changed, their shelter would open whether they wanted it or not. To stop it required killing monsters at an apocalyptic scale.
Also, the priestess' words had been badly misinterpreted. To monsters desperate for their pain to end, it had sounded like a call to action.
And with the knowledge of the humans' shelter being at Alunra, they had trickled there.
"Besides, those humans are the realm's last hope of ending the drought."
"Let's end the drought then!" She turned hopeful.
"Which record should I bring next..."
"Stop it!"
Did she think I was having fun? My masters were going to die! And here I was, having to explain to her step by step how I had not only failed to prevent that but helped doom them!
All monsters could die! All of them!
I walked to her and crouched again.
"Caline, I am just a clay golem. What do you want from me?"
"No, you are Kaele! You make miracles happen! Make miracles again! Make everything better!"
And she was trying to push me with her tiny forelegs.
"You can summon a human, he will know what to do!"
There. Her real motive. She put her head against my knee and shivered. Beyond all the fears and all the excuses she had made, what she really wanted was for me to bring another human.
Because it felt good when a human was there.
She remembered that.
I kept caressing her back while she trembled. No, little one, I would not summon a human. I would not commit more crimes for the realm. To say I had become heartless would be the cruelest of understatements.
The insect on my back fretted a bit.
"If you want a miracle, you will have to help."
She rose her head, half hopeful and mostly confused.
"Me?"
"You haven't given up on the realm. If someone can find what to do, it's you. I will tag along and make sure you can do it."
"No, you are going to be mean to me again!" She pushed back.
"Probably. But you want to save others, Caline. Don't you?"
She rubbed her forelegs together, embarrassed. It felt like a trap to her. It was a trap. Yet her hesitation was my opening.
I got up, twisted my hand once more and let glass emerge from under our feet, form on the ground into a mirror. Our reflections stayed while the room's shifted for that of a well lit cave.
"Let's go, savior. I'm counting on you."
She got no time to complain or flee. Her feet slipped through the glass; in an instant she was in freefall. I too let myself drop on the back and swing to the other side like a pendulum, in time to catch her before gravity had her smack back on the ground.
The mirror was gone and we were in Utopia.
"What?! How!?"
She was panicking, looking frantically all around. I had finished getting back up.
Portals were never safe to use, but this place was among the most important I monitored and so the beacon I had placed made it not too suicidal. The rest was just me long having stopped caring about safety at all.
Utopia.
She had to know about this place or she would not fret so much about a war.
Upon hearing that humans would come back, the monsters had rushed under the plains of Alunra, where the humans' shelter rested.
Not long ago that would have meant death, but the dry desert now had just enough magic to make it only a perilous journey; and while the surface of Alunra was still ravaged, things had settled enough for the underground to be inhabitable.
Utopia had grown since my last visit. Monsters kept digging new caves, if only because their numbers increased as more believers trickled in and newborns showed up.
But the raging devastation above was also causing tremors and with them the ceiling kept breaking down, expanding upward while the debris got absorbed on the ground. So Utopia was tall, so tall that a yellow mist formed at its highest points.
There, under the massive stalagtites, the rapt was discovering a bristling life of dens, pits, temples and cantinas. Everything a beast longed for lay there at reach.
Boulders were alit, releasing a black smoke that quickly spread and waned. They were caged on the ground and embedded in the walls and rocky formations.
High tunnels mixed with ramps and platforms were crowded with monsters of all types - but let's not lie, most of them greyhounds. Those rocky crocodiles were the most ubiquitous while the rarest were the humanoid ones.
That poor rapt was overwhelmed.
"Where are we? Kaele what did you do!"
I put my hand on her head, which calmed her immediately.
"This is the humans' doorstep. Welcome to Utopia."
"No way!" She marveled. And then: "Wait! That's where the bad guys are!"
"It's fine, I am your bodyguard. Also, I am invisible, you are the only one to see and hear me."
Technically she was invisible too at the moment. The caparace on my back knew the art of please don't find me better than anyone else in the realm.
"Now, Caline, the rest is up to you. Lead the way!"
"But! But but but! Where do I go?!"
I shrugged.
As far as I was concerned, nothing she would do could achieve anything meaningful. The realm would remain uncaring, and unchanged.
This was just... I was not even sure why I was humoring her.
Following her meant moving and I could have done without that. Really.
So once she was done harassing me to do more, curiosity got the best of her. The cave was so bright, so vast and there were so many beasts! She just had to see around!
The moment she went far enough I let the invisibility drop for her, which startled other monsters for more reasons than one.
She looked feral to them.
Monsters had three ways of reassuring others. Their bodies could imitate that of humans, or wear chain patterns on them, or bear a mane on their back. A feral monster was one willing to kill on sight and all of this said they would not.
All the rapt had to assuage their fears was her cuteness and her species being so passive.
Also, she had been around me and I was using her to hide my own presence; I was brimming with mana; Utopia was not the most welcoming place to live in.
She she felt like an all-powerful rapt to them, against all common sense.
"Meat! They have meat!"
Those were the cantinas. Some beasts hoarded food that did nothing but distract from the pain. Stuffed eggs, entrails, honey meatballs, soups and purees replaced the smell of wet rock with their hot scents.
She wanted some, but feared the groups of beasts that used those places to meet and rest.
Also, she had no shard.
I approached her again, magic churning in my hand. If all she needed was wealth, that was easily fixed. Two dozen shards poured just in front of her face.
"Go on, Caline. Adventure awaits."
She looked at me, my badger mask and then at the fortune before her. It wasn't just the number of shards but their quality - she probably never owned that much.
Finally she overcame her doubts, picked that wealth and treaded carefully around the beasts to get to the owner. They got her to a comfortable hole, brought her the food and I watched her indulge herself.
"Mantaras fruits! My favorite!" Her cute voice rejoiced.
No other beast wanted to approach her, again discouraged by her feral looks, so she was feasting alone. But she didn't mind. To her that had always been her life.
Well I was there, a bit away, giving her space to enjoy the moment.
As long as she felt happy, the realm could wait.