Episode Twenty-Four: Ablaut Reduplication

The four stand in a dark, old, barely lit place. The surrounding temperature is frigid, their clothes unfit for the weather. They have none of their gear and their own clothing has been replaced with old, brown and gray rags. A howling wind echoes in the cavern but also sounds of a ton of people. A bunch of men cheer, occasionally jeering.  
The first thing Tobais does is pat himself down for his guns. He finds none. 
"Ivetta you're-" For a moment Castor squeezes her eyes shut. She opens them, looking queasy but shakes it off. "Ivetta, you're a- a boy!" Ivetta looks at her hands, finding them thicker and callused. 
"So are you!" Castor looks down at herself and sees her increased size and goatee. 
"Ah, I think I understand how...the question now is why…?" In her pocket the watch hums a small warmth emanating from it.
A few men off to the side sitting near tents and dressed in worse rags look in their direction. Two start shuffling toward them as they continue their conversation. The crowd further in the cave gives a cheer.
"Where are our things? The horses?"
"I'm sure they're not lost."
Men watching creep closer. 
Hollinzoller speaks up from behind them. In a soft voice, quite out of character he says, "Castor…?" He coughs. She and Ivetta turn to face him, their eyes grow wide. He pulls his hands from his face. He coughs again this time black goo spews out of his mouth. "Hollinzoller!? What's wrong??" He continues spluttering, unable to respond, more black goo coming up. He falls to his knees. Tobias attempts to give first aid, turning Hollinzoller's head to the side. This reveals purple, pulsating, spindly wounds beneath his skin Tobias is at a loss, unsure of what to do to help. He collapses to the ground, out cold. Castor heals him, returning some of his health yet he remains under. A cheer from the crowd and then a scream.
"We need to get him help!" She cries.
Ivetta worries, "I don't have my things, my herbs, I can't heal him."
"What on earth is wrong with him? What are those marks?"
"I've seen them before." Tobias states. 
"I saw it too but it looked like it was...contained." 
Castor hefts him up over her shoulder, "Not anymore.. Come on, we need to get him help." She starts heading toward the where the crowd is gathered but veers further left toward shoddy shanties. Some people mill about there.
They pass by a box with wheels on two silver bars. Silhouettes of men slowly heading toward the cave entrance, trickling out of the large group that had been cheering. 
"We should see where they're going."
"Maybe we can meet someone and ask them to let us use a tent perhaps? We can't just leave him out in the cold."
The sound of gunshots crack the air emanating into the cave from outside. Castor immediately runs for cover behind a crevice, her friends following. The watch in her pocket has grown extremely hot. So hot, it burns her through her pants. She pulls it out and tries to toss it on the ground. But the chain sticks to her. "Agh!" She cries and tries to shake it off. She blinks.
One moment she was in the cave with her friends, the next she finds herself rooted in place in a white void. "Guys?" She looks around. Emptiness is the area. Her feet are stuck to the ground she discovers. The watch is no longer hot but she drops it anyway in hopes of returning. She blinks again. The watch has reappeared in her hand. She closes the lid but it pops back open. Frustrated, she throws the watch as far as she can. It reappears once more. "Hello!?" She calls. No one calls back, not even her own echo. She tries lighting a flame with her magic, then a light orb but neither work. Getting desperate she closes her eyes to meditate. She can't do that either. Behind her the light shifts, growing darker. She whirls as far as she can and sees an eclipse moving slowly. 
A simmering mirage appears below it then realizes itself into an image. A well dressed man with a tall hat. He is handsome and sits on a well furnished bench, another just in front of him. Out of the window things pass fast. He takes out his own watch, he sighs, and then he twists the top of the watch. Castor does the same action on her watch hoping something might happen. She winds it back 15 clicks, as far as it goes, and releases it. 
She blinks and finds herself in a different location. The same location they had been when they first arrived in this realm. Tobias, Ivetta and Hollinzoller are there as well. Men behind them are once more cheering and jeering. 
"I- what just…? Haven't we been here before…? Do you remember what just-?"
"Yes, we just hid after the gunshots. Why are we back here?" Ivetta asks.
Castor explains what she experienced. "...the man twisted the watch so I did too and then we were all back here again. Like this." She twists the watch again. Once again they find themselves moved back, this time only a few minutes. "Woops."
Tobias cuts in, "we don't know how many times we can do that, we might want to use it sparingly." Castor nods.
Hollinzoller, once again asks, "Castor…? He coughs more and collapses. Like last time she heals him.
"We have another chance, maybe we can stop the shootings. We can help, we know what's going to happen. We can tell that crowd."
"If they believe us." Ivetta says.
Tobias adds, "I think it's probably a fight but I'll take a look. You two-" The two men who had again begun to approach them are close behind them now. He turns and says, "I don't want to start any trouble but if you do you'll be outnumbered 3 to 2." One barfs and the other says "mmmm, you smell funny." He gets up close to Tobias, sniffing. 
"I've fought campaigns that would make this… vacation here wonderful so if you want to smell like dead meat get closer." The man whimpers and huddles behind a tent looking warily at them. This time they place Hollinzoller in one of the abandoned tents and then head toward the now dispersing crowd. Like last time there were cheers followed by a scream. 
They approach. Several men mill about near a blackened pit, a deep hole in the ground around which the fight reached its climax. The men stop them advancing, "Stop right there!"
"I just want to see who won." Tobias greets jovially. 
"You came from the deep caves?"
"Not so deep."
"Stay away!" One of them picks up a stick brandishing it like a club.
"We don't have any black stuff if that's what you're afraid of." He steps closer. 
"You need to learn how to stay away. Go back to the deep caves you crazy lunatic."
"Do I sound crazy to you?" They chuckle. "Look, I just want to talk and if I have to do it from this distance, that's fine."
Ivetta whispers, "Should we warn them?"
"Fuck off!" They yell. A runner comes up and says something to them. Not turning their backs they make their way hurriedly toward the entrance. 
"Wait!" But Castor's plea is left unheeded. 
Tobias pauses surveying the tent town, the people's ragged clothes, the living conditions. "This reminds me of the camps the continental armys keep their prisoners in. I wonder if the gunshots are the wardens coming to take care of those not worth ransoming back."
"Prisoners? They don't deserve this. We can't just let them die."
"It's clear they don't trust us." Several beats later the gunshots sound. The pit of Castor's stomach drops, the watch grows hot in her hand. "Uh, guys? Its-"
The void is darker this time, the eclipse further along. She twists the watch and time is reset.
Back where they started again. This time Castor tells the others, "I-I had a- two visions when we first got here. Maybe they might help us?
"The first vision I had was just a white wasteland. The sky and ground were eerily similar. Snow was everywhere and I could feel the wind blowing on my skin but I was also out of my body. A wooden fence opens and a man stands on the precipice. He was dressed in silks and fine furs. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a letter. It was surrounded by energy, I'm sure it's the waypoint we need. Then he turned around and the gates closed behind him."
"Did you recognize the man?"
"No, he just has the waypoint.
"In the second vision the edges were clouded black tendrils growing closer to the center. It was from my point of view, but I was taller and extremely cold, colder than I've ever been in my life and so, so weak. A blizzard blew around us, me and a few other men in front. We follow tracks made by men walking through the snow before us. We were only dressed semi warmly, nothing that could keep the deadly cold at bay. We struggled through the snow. A man in front collapsed on the ground. I stopped to look, he was dead. From behind a man on a horse came up. He pulled out a gun and shot the body. He shouted at me, 'keep moving.' I tried to hobble forward but I just couldn't. I tripped and collapsed in the snow. Last thing I heard was another gunshot."
"Your visions tell us where we are. In this prison surrounded by snow and guards. How merciless and cruel they have been."
"Yes but there's something wrong here. More wrong than that. Ever since we got here I've felt sick to my stomach, I have got a chill up my spine that has nothing to do with the cold. And I feel… I feel this deep sense of foreboding. I feel awful, like everything is pressing in." 
Hollinzoller doesn't even get the chance to utter Castor's name as this time the black goo excretes from his mouth and eyes. He collapses to the ground. Castor kneels at his side and cries, "Now we're stuck in a time loop in this horrible prison and Hollinzoller keeps getting worse! What are we going to do?" 
"We have to break out of both." Ivetta turns on her heel going to see the cheering crowd. Tobias and Castor follow.
Two men fight, both are beefy bois adorned in layers of clothes, obviously a symbol of status. One man is much larger than the other. They exchange blows, the larger man getting a lucky swing and knocks down the other. A man from the crowd cries, "yeah, go Greezy!" Greezy picks up the smaller man who struggles. Raising him above his head, he struggles. He walks to the edge of the deep, dark, hole in the ground. 
Castor turns and walks away before she's made to watch, "I know how this ends." Her friends follow after her but they all hear the crowd cheer louder as Greezy throws the man into the pit, his screams echoing. 
They go to the entrance which is zig-zagged wooden erections up, whether to corral men or block wind Castor cannot say. Outside the wind blows fiercely, cold air stinging their skin. A huge quarry splays out tall guard towers surrounding it. Several bunk houses and a latrine separate the quarry and the cave. At the far end of the quarry a gate rises up, behind it another gate and several well kept buildings. The guards in the towers are all dressed in firs and have guns. 
In the sky hang familiar shapes to Ivetta and Castor. Through the clouds, way off in the distance, what look to be huge pieces of ground float in the sky. People stare up, gaping. Though perhaps not at the islands themselves but at the unearthly red hue of the sky surrounding them. The islands seem not whole, chunks of dirt crumble away from them. Castor lets out a gasp at the sight of this, praying silently that this is normal and they would not meet their fate today. She, Father Tobias, and Ivetta duck back into the walled entrance of the cave. 
Castor says, "We-we have to try to stop the shooting, keep people inside."
"Why inside?" Ivetta queries.
"Presumably there is some altercation that started outside that makes the guards start shooting."
Tobais shouts, addressing those who begin to exit, "Everyone stay inside, the guards are planning a purge. If we stay inside we might be able to get the drop on them!"
The massive man from the fight prods him in the chest, "Who the hell are you?"
"Someone who doesn't want to get purged! We have strength in numbers, let's not lose that!"
"How do we know you're not some kind of mole?" He presses.
"If I was, I would tell you to go outside in clear view of guard towers, not stay inside."
He sizes Tobias up and spits at his feet with a shit eating grin on his face, says, "Make me."
Calmly Tobias says, "You can beat me and everyone else here but it won't stop the guards shooting every last one of us."
"Greezy backs down, his pea brain miraculously seeing the sense in his words, "There's nothin' out there anyway." He turns and goes back inside the cave, the people who came out with him following his lead. 
"Everyone back in the cave, what you're seeing is unnatural," Tobias tries to get the few who trickled out back in but they stand in shock witnessing the burning red sky. The sight would break a lesser man's will and these men seem to be lesser.
The sky turns burgundy, the islands get closer breaking apart further, crumbling before their eyes, Hollinzoller is barely breathing. The watch grows hotter, Castor's head pounds as she feels overwhelmingly sick. Hollinzoller's breath stops.
Tobias tries to rally up the men in a last effort, "Anyone who wants a second shot at life, form up the guards are-"
Castor enters the void once more and twists the watch.
"We should try to find the letter," Ivetta insists. 
"Where? The only place could be through those gates, surrounded by guard towers. We prevented the shooting last time but time still reversed." Castor says
Tobias says, "I think the loop has more to do with the sky than the shooting."
"The sky is a perfect distraction." Ivetta adds.
Tobias abruptly breaks from the two and approaches the scruffy men who approached them before, "I need you to tell me what's deeper in the mine."
"I tell you tradeee. Give. Give. Give. Give. Tradeeee."
"I can give you the lord's blessing." Tobias offers finding nothing on his person. 
The grimy man says, "Fingerssss."
"I am not feeding your delusion. You can either tell me and I get you something later or you continue to rot in this hole."
"You give fingers later." The man assents. 
"Later, but I want information now."
"What you want?"
"What's deeper in the caves, the mines?"
"Dark."
"Yes, it's a cave, it's dark."
"Mad."
"Clearly you are."
"Fire. And shineyyy." He rocks back and forth. Tobias prompts him more but he only repeats "shineyyy." He attempts to talk to the other. Like last time, he simply throws up. 
Tobias goes to talk to others about the caves, Castor stops him. "We need a plan."
"I'm trying to find out what's in the caves, there might be something down there that can help us."
"So let's use this cart thingy," she gestures to the railled box with wheels. 
"I was trying to be certain that is the one we want, there may be many caverns here."
"We don't have time to search them all! This one has a convenient mode of transport!" Ivetta, tired of their bickering, simply gets in the cart. Castor joins her, Father Tobais follows begrudgingly and starts to push the cart. Castor finds a lever that releases the brakes. On a slight decline, they begin rolling forward. It's not long before they're picking up speed and Father Tobias hoists himself inside. 
The cart whizzes forward through the dark, Castor lights her magic so they can see. 
As they go, faster and faster the cave gets smaller and smaller. Bodies litter the cave. Most covered in black goo shit. The piles of bodies decrease near the end. The cave flies past. The cart is brought under control again but time is running out. They see water up ahead. Castor feels even sicker. They reach the end but the wetness they saw is not water but a massive pile of sticky black goo. 
Things go white, her head throbs in the white void. This time she gets the distinct feeling she should not be here. That the void is wrong. She resolves not to come back, deciding to twist the watch before she's pulled back here. 
Castor follows Ivetta's lead this time. She heads out of the cave through the quarry. 
The three of them, plus the unconscious Hollinzoller on Castor's back, stealth up to the gate. They look for weaknesses in the wall, Castor noting it is the corner where the walls meet. 
In the quarry there is a deep pit. They find shitty stone pickaxes in the bottom of the pit. Their plan is to climb the fence with the pickaxes as handholds and go over it but as they try to sneak back to the gate Castor trips, she feels the vague sensation that she dropped Hollinzoller and cracked his head open, his blood staining the snow but she blinks, sure it was horribly imagined. Yet Ivetta also has bad luck; she too trips, alerting the guards to ther presence. 
They shout, "Stop right there!" He aims his gun at the three.
Tobias retorts, "Why don't you shoot at the sky? It seems like a bigger problem right now." Tobias promptly gets shot in the arm. They hear from behind the wall a battalion of men marching toward the gates. Needing no other prompting than her friend getting hurt, but also wary of the oncoming soldiers, and increasing temperature of the watch, Castor twists the top.
Ivetta sits on the ground and puts her face in her hands, "this is hopeless." 
"We'll figure it out, we have to." 
This time they split up. Ivetta and Castor trying to push through the gates and Tobias trying to raise a revolution. 
After the fight, the cheering, the screaming, Greezy shouts his acceptance speech, "Lil Ivan is now a lil dead! Let that be a lesson to anyone who defies Greezy!" Tobias approaches, slowly clapping his hands, "Congratulations you've proven to everyone here that you are the biggest rat in this den of rats."
Greezy's eyes narrow, "Who the hell are you?"
"If you want a real challenge, I can show you how to surmount it."
The big word is too much for Greezy, his face hardens and he punches at him. Tobais easily dodges what would have been a painful punch. 
"You can beat me to a pulp but you'll still be at the mercy of the guards. Follow me outside, take down the towers, grab the guns and we'll fight our way out of here." Greezy stops punching, it looks painful, the tiny gears in his head turning. Eventually, he conseeds and he agrees. 
Although unenthusiastic, the other men follow.
They do indeed knock over a tower yet with many casualties. Afterward they take cover behind the bunk houses, Tobias warning, "more will come down the ramps soon."
Castor and Ivetta, having successfully made it to hiding in the pit, try to sneak up to the base of the wall again. Ivetta is spotted yet Castor is hidden from their view for the moment. The guard shouts at Ivetta to get back to her bunk. Castor gestures silently for her to move away. She leaves the range of fire, returning to the pit. While the guard watches Ivetta's retreat, Castor uses her magic to fling the gun from his hand. It drops several feet from her. 
"You idiot! You dropped your gun." Another shouts, "go get it!" 
Castor pulls two more guns from men’s hands, hoping she might have time to make them "drop" them all but they spot her. She moves toward the gun but the guard still holding his gun wins out in their battle of reaction. A bullet pierces Castor's stomach, her body crumples into the snow.
Tobias' men come charging out from behind the bunk houses. Seizing her chance of the guards' distraction Ivetta runs to Castor, yanks the watch from her pocket and grabs a flung gun. Shooting it at the guard towers. 
They charge across the quarry. Yet their dwindling numbers dwindle faster. The gates open revealing the two battalions armed to the teeth who easily kill the few remaining prisoners. The islands are breaking up, falling into bits that turn into fiery balls that rain down. 
Ivetta joins Tobias in the fray. Father Tobias asks “where's Castor?
"Castor is down."
"What-? Do you have the watch?"
"Yes."
"Be ready to use it. This probably won't go well."
The guards are clearly winning. The prisoners flee yet are gunned down all the same. The sky is far deeper red than it ever has been, the islands far closer, and in more disarray. They can feel hot ash from the debris. Huge chunks begin hitting the ground near them. The watch burns so hot it melts the snow nearby. "Ivetta, I think it's time." She twists the burning metal, clicking it back fifteen times. 
Castor remembers lunging for the gun, pain, then the snow coming to meet her face. After that she was suddenly once again at the beginning of the loop. She pats down where she was hit and finds no wound. "I-you wound the watch? What-what happened?"
Tobias supplies, "the prisoners were able to take down the guard towers but once the auxiliary guards rolled in we didn't stand a chance. What happened to you?"
"I tried doing what you said, not using my magic against people without it but that didn't really work. We need a new plan."
Tobias nods and proceeds to go over to one of the scruffy men and drag his body to the one who told him about the "shiney." Tobias is curt, "Brings us to the shiny. And you can have all these fingers." He tosses the man in front of the other. 
"Bring fingerssss." 
"Fine." He leads them into the cavern, guided by Castor's light. They travel down tunnels that veered off the track. In the distance they see a fire. No one tends it that they can see but the piles of bodies stack high here as well. They go past this area, and find a more open one. Dead bodies are strewn about here, not piled high. Eerily, their heads are blown off. Further, there is a glint reflected by the fire. Tobias investigates. It is a pretty small pistol that looks like nothing Tobias has ever seen before. 5 metal squares sit next to it, the top edges are filled with strange bronze metal things with strange bullets.
He test shoots it. Suddenly compelled, he fires it again without reloading. Five more bullets exit the chamber before he must reload. "Fascinating." They're out of time once more, Castor winds the watch. 
They are able to run and get the bullets and gun taking only two of their precious fifteen minutes. They're so quick that the fight is still ongoing. 
"Can you rally the men again? We have a shot with that gun." Castor says to Tobias after healing Hollinzoller, she hopes for the last time. He nods, heading to the ongoing fight.
He calls out, "Greezy!" The huge man turns his head to look at Tobias and gets a left hook to the face, knocking him cold. Ivan lets out a yell and picks up Greezy.  "Ivan!" Tobias shouts, "I have a way to defeat the guards but I need every man for it to work!"
"Let me kill him first!"
"Are you willing to risk your freedom over a petty grudge?" Ivan, more cognizant than his counterpart, takes less time contemplating and drops Greezy to the ground. Shouting in triumph. The crowd cheers.
A man from the crowd says, "I don't know what the hell you're talking about, but Ivan just beat the hell out of Greezy. You all know who the big dog is now!" The crowd starts chanting Ivan's name. 
Ivan walks over to the trio and says, "what are you talkin' about?"
"The guards are distracted. We can beat them but we have to go now."
Ivan looks confused, "The plan was to hit the guards next week, what are you saying?"
"They know. They know and they're coming to purge."
"We can't get to the cashes now, they're in the camp."
"I've got a weapon that will help immensely. We've got about 10 minutes before the infantry comes through the gate." 
Ivan nods and turns addressing the other men, "you wanna get out of this pit?" The cheer. "Be ready, we'll tell you the plan in a moment but for now, go back to your tents." They disperse and he turns to them again. "I'm with you friend but who are these two? And him, he doesn't look so good."
Castor replies, "we're here to fight with you and he's, ah, in need of help."
"I can see that."
"I don't suppose you can? Or you have medicines?"
"Not here but they will through those gates." He gestures that they follow him.  He leads them to a barricaded area, two prisoner guards blocking the way. Seeing Ivan they step aside. They arm themselves as do many other men with shitty looking muskets.  
Tobias makes a rousing speech, "The time of bloodshed has come for those guards. For them, out there it's just a fight. But for us it's a fight for life, for freedom, and for justice! Let's go kill some guards!" They pour through the exit rallying en masse. Tobias blows people away with his gun, not only is it very powerful it is also deadly accurate. Far fewer casualties this time around they take the towers and rush the gate. The guards in the towers drop like rocks. The gates open and the infantry comes down the ramps. Tobias shoots and kills six immediately. They don't know what's hit them, routing back toward their barracks. At this point the compound is overrun with prisoners. Barracks burn, chaos ensues, guards all lay dead. Yet the skies are still stained like the snow and the islands begin to crumble. 
Amidst the chaos, Castor spies a familiar man. A very dead man now, but well dressed in his fur coat, a letter clutched in his hand. She runs to him grabbing the epistle before his blood further stains it.
When Castor touches the letter the islands stop falling, the redness fades and the reckoning recedes. The queasy feeling her stomach carried throughout the loop vanishes as does a weight. As if some malevolent presence is gone. The prisoners, already exuberant with their liberty, cheer louder.
The letter, Castor finds, she cannot read as it is written in French. She hands it to Tobais to translate but he has as much knowledge of the language as she. Ivetta checks on her father. Hollinzoller is still knocked out but no more is black goo comes out of him. In fact, it looks as if it never had. The wounds on him are gone. 
In the stables, that thankfully have not been razed, they find their equine companions all equipped with the weapons and gear they thought lost. Each readorns their possessions. Although Ivetta takes a uniform from one of the guards thinking her dress might not suit her at the moment. She searches further to gain more medical supplies. After finding some, just for good measure, she stuffs some down Hollinzoller's throat.
They head out of the gate with their horses and gear, having gleaned warm clothing. Hollinzoller is atop Castor’s steed and she walks beside him. They walk for a good five minutes and spot a cliff ahead. They approach and see it is not a cliff but a precipice. The edge. An endless void stretches out holding the floating islands above and below. 
A feeling of familiarity washes over Castor and she simply steps off. Like Jesus on water, she walks as if on solid ground. A soft smile gracing her face, Castor turns and holds her hand out for Tobias. Knowing he would not know what was happening she says, “Come Father, walk with me. Walk with God.” Ivetta timidly follows her, still not used to this mode of travel. Tobias indeed hesitates. Castor says, her hand still outstretched, “Have faith.” 
He scowls, gets down off his horse and leads it forward stopping just before the void. “You attribute God too much to your magic.”
Not missing a beat, Castor replies, “You yourself said it was a gift from Him.”
He steps out onto the void and finds his foot supported, “I fear I may not have had a complete understanding of the nature of this gift.” his other foot follows and he gingerly walks forward.
Her smile falters and eyebrows knit. “Neither do I... but I have f-” she's cut off by a purple portal slicing the sky in front of her. Her smile falls completely and she gasps sharply. Ivetta stares in shock. Tobias whips his head around. The portal opens to a dark room and a furious sorceress. Her snarl echoes from behind her mask, an angry aura surrounds her, making the air heavy with her ire. She raises her hands to throw a spell at them. At the exact second her spell would have hit them, the purple bubble appears, sheilding the blow.
TBC
Episode Twenty-Five: Déjà vu