Act 3, Chapter 109: The deceptive tongues

Day in the story: 1st February (Sunday), past 5:30 a.m.—approximately 10 hours and 51 minutes remain until the record time is lost

Elle Erikson

The relief I felt at Sophie's unharmed emergence mixed with the anticipation of being judged and found guilty of the transgressions I'd committed. I did not expect them to understand my situation and act in a sagacious manner, and yet I hoped for it.

“It better be quick,” Piotr interjected, nervously hitting his bat against the concrete. “We are so close!” I looked once toward Liana and Bastien, but finding no compassion in their faces, I was assured that this was the right move.

“I manipulated you guys. All of you.”

Liora, upon hearing me say that, flashed briefly with red and orange, then moved away from Milo and closer to me, encircling my position and staying by my side, his gaze fixed on the team.

“Care to explain?” Kito asked, just before Milo spoke. The latter, however, raised the bat to point it at me.

“A few weeks ago, I noticed Bastien using his magic out in the open at night, and since I was new in the city, I thought I would follow him and learn something about the mages of Paris,” I recounted, drawing everyone's attention. Patricia, the most uneasy among them, kept glancing back and forth between me and the tower's entrance, as if expecting something to crawl out of there. “I used my paper creations to listen and observe when you guys met in that pub—your first meeting after you two came to Paris. It was then that I targeted—there is no better word for it, and I am sorry for that, Bastien—Laurent and tried to gain his attention so he'd introduce me to the group.”

“Why the fuck would you do that?” Piotr asked, but I watched Tien most closely. He lowered his eyes, unable to meet any of his friends'. They, in turn, glanced at him intensely, as if this had somehow become his fault.

“I heard about your plans to get into the Catacombs, and I wanted in. I want to see the world and all its wonders. I was alone for so long I didn’t mind being the bad guy, just to not be lonely anymore.”

“Why did you not keep quiet about this?” Patricia asked. “Why do you have to burden us with all of that now?”

“Does it matter?” Lia interrupted before I could even formulate an answer. She didn't want me to point at her. I wasn't sure whether that was a deflection or an out she was offering both herself and me.

“I could no longer keep it to myself. I like you guys, and this was eating me up from the inside out.”

“We have a saying in Poland that goes something like: not my circus, not my monkeys. I fucking don't care how you got to us. I like you even more now for having the guts to tell us,” Piotr said. “Honest to God, when I learned that you were with Tien—no offense, man—I wondered how on Earth he, of all guys, managed to end up in bed with Liana and then you.”

“I took offense to that,” Bastien replied, raising his head.

“Same,” Liana supported him. “What is that even supposed to mean, Milo?”

“Look, Lia,” Piotr spread his hands wide. “When a woman is ugly, she has push-up bras, makeup, fancy lingerie, ass, and dresses. When a man is ugly, it's just game over.”

“Shiet, you are a sexist, Peter.” Pat dragged a hand across her face in contempt.

“How he looks doesn't matter nearly as much as how he is on the inside, Milo, especially Tien, and you should know that,” Liana said, angrily raising her fist. Some of her bees crawled out of her body and buzzed all over her skin. “He could take a selfie anytime he wanted and make his nose smaller, his features more masculine and conventionally handsome, and he chooses not to. Every fucking day. That's the strength he has, and it's so fucking sexy.” She grabbed Bastien's arm and pulled him closer to herself. “If he'd want to be with me, I'd be happy about it, you get me?”

Milo's stupid smile flattened, and he simply nodded. Now his eyes were fixed on the ground.

“I personally don't like what Elle confessed. She was an outsider to us, and we accepted her under false pretenses. No wonder she abandoned him with such ease when she was never really interested in him in the first place. More than that, if she was willing to lie and hurt an innocent man to get what she wanted, that doesn't speak well for her character.”

That left the entire group speechless for several seconds that stretched far too long for my liking. I was about to say something in my defense when Kito, who had been watching only me throughout the entire exchange, spoke.

“I'd be inclined to agree with my sister.” He had his massive arms crossed over his chest. His eyes were closed now, and his head nodded slightly to emphasize each word. “However, I also believe that actions speak louder than words, and she's done nothing but help us get through this mess of a place. And her admitting to this when she didn't have to, speaks for her, not against her. I vote for keeping her with us, if and only if Bastien agrees to hold the vote. I conclude that his personal stake overrides the democratic vote in our group.”

“She only spoke,” Lia started, but caught herself and didn't finish.

“What?” Patricia asked. “What is it, Liana?”

“Never mind. I agree with Kito. What do you say, Bastien?” She turned to him.

“Look. I obviously feel like crap, but honestly, Elle never threw herself at me, never promised me eternal love or some other fairy tales. We never even slept together, so as far as manipulations go, she was pretty restrained. Whether it was for her sake or mine, I don't know. But I did end up omitting pretty important facts about my own life from her, so I am not without fault either.”

“You're letting her off the hook?” Lia asked, outraged. She let go of his arm.

“Yes and I vote for her staying. She did save my life when we faced that burrowing Hitler's tongue monster. And yours too, for that matter.” Lia was visibly unhappy to hear it.

“Vote for her staying so we can fucking go already,” Piotr said.

“I like this human,” Liora hissed into my ear, coiling around my head and back behind my shoulders.

“That makes my vote unimportant,” Patricia said. “Let's go.” She motioned ahead. “I want to be out of this place the sooner, the better.”

“Thank you for understanding,” I said. “This isn't something I'm proud of, and I will work hard from now on to earn your trust.”

Kito nodded and turned toward the entrance to the tower. Piotr grinned from ear to ear. Patricia remained expressionless but turned and caught up to walk behind Milo. Laurent forced a smile that wasn't reflected in his eyes, but he was courteous enough to try.

Liana, however, waited for all of them to move ahead before approaching me.

“I misjudged you,” she said, eyeing Liora. He understood immediately and darted to the front to join Milo. “I didn't think you'd come clean.”

“Why not? I did in front of you.” Her mouth, already open with a response, closed upon hearing my words. She had expected a different answer. It took her a few seconds before she picked the conversation back up.

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“I wouldn't have told them about this.” It was hard to believe, especially since Tien behaved as though he knew.

“You're mistaken in thinking I did all of that for malicious reasons. What I said to you was true. What I said to all of them was true as well. I feel, Liana, like my sole purpose in life is to find the truth.” I looked at her, trying to read her mood through her expression, but she became unreadable to me—her face almost entirely flat, save for the faint half-smile that always lingered there.

“Of what?” she asked, while I focused briefly on Maya's beautiful dance unfolding within the Domain. She too was searching.

“Of everything. Of how the worlds work. Of how magic works. Of whether the shadows of the things we create dream of us. And in searching for that, I decided that I, in particular, need to rely on being truthful more.”

I watched the gate of writhing tongues as they stretched outward, trying to lick or catch those at the front. Liora darted upward to slash at them with his claws, while Kito did the same with his mantis-like blades, sending the unruly fragments tumbling to the ground. The group paused for a moment, waiting for the gushing blood to finish pouring onto the floor.

“You want to be truthful?” she asked, preparing a more difficult question. Her body tensed and she leaned back slightly.

Milo grew tired of waiting for the blood to stop and created a shield with his bat, allowing the others to pass beneath its protective dome. I reached for Ella just in case and opened her above Lia and me, and we followed toward the shimmering barrier while the blood streamed down its sides.

“Yes.”

“As soon as we're done with this Splinter, I want the full story. No omissions and no half-truths.”

“About what?”

“You, Elle.”

“Sure. Fine. I'll answer any of your questions,” I replied, walking into the Eiffel Tower of this place.

The interior was strangely lit. Despite the tongues making up most of the walls and ceiling, restricting the light from entering, a few lampposts stuck out of them to give us light. Farther in, near one of the Tower's legs, stood the staircase we intended to reach. The center of the area was entirely covered by shadows, and we couldn't see anything within them. Those shadows, however, seemed to flicker every now and then, as if something moved inside. Perhaps just another hanging tongue, or something else entirely.

“Is the thing you said about Bastien true?” I whispered. “About him choosing to look the way he does?”

“Yes,” she replied, though there was hesitation in her voice. “Partially true.” She came closer. “He edited himself to have exaggerated features some time ago. He was a very handsome boy in the past, but people were being fake around him.” She looked back at me with faint contempt. “Can you believe that?”

“I get it, Liana. Unload it on me if you need to.”

“No, you're right. That's petty.” She shook her head. “Nonetheless, he changed himself, hoping that this enormous nose, big eyes, and lanky face would let only the people interested in who he is inside stay.”

“And you think that's noble?”

“Isn't it? It's admirable, for sure.” We kept on quietly following the group at front.

“He faked his looks. Shaped them to achieve exactly what he needed. I see no difference between his approach and mine.” I replied, and she simply looked at me for a few long heartbeats before turning away.

**********

“Something stinks in here. Can you guys smell it too?” Patricia asked, her voice carrying uneasily through the oppressive silence that had settled over our approach. She paused, drawing another careful breath before immediately regretting it, her expression twisting into a grimace. “There’s something wrong with the air. I can feel an Authority of burial... but it’s mixed with something else. Something hateful.”

“Run!” Piotr shouted and the floor answered for us.

The tremor that rippled beneath our feet wasn't the sharp, violent jolt of an earthquake but a slow, nauseating shudder that seemed to travel through the concrete as though the entire foundation of the tower had suddenly become flesh. Cracks raced outward in every direction, spiderwebbing beneath us, but instead of exposing gravel and steel reinforcement they revealed slick, glistening muscle beneath. The concrete split apart like old scar tissue peeling away from raw flesh, and from every opening thick, pink tongues surged upward in writhing masses, twisted over one another.

Liora erupted with light, pouring as much radiance into the darkness as he could muster. Brilliant shadowlight flooded the place underneath the tower just in time for us to see dozens of those muscular appendages whipping across our path. One lashed toward my legs with frightening speed, forcing me into a desperate leap. I caught Liana's hand in midair, dragging her after me before another tongue could coil around her ankle. We cleared the grasping mass through little more than momentum and instinct, but the instant our feet struck the opposite side, the ground beneath us folded inward with a sickening groan. The fractured concrete collapsed and we were carried with it into a widening sinkhole that opened beneath the tower.

Gravity seized every one of us except Liora, and we slid helplessly down a vast incline. The surface beneath my hands resembled a colossal tongue stretched impossibly wide, covered in glistening saliva that denied any purchase no matter how desperately I tried to slow our descent. Beneath that slick membrane I could feel powerful contractions rippling through the flesh, each slow pulse squeezing us farther toward the unseen center of whatever monstrous anatomy we had fallen into. The light from the tower disappeared behind us as we descended deeper, swallowed by a darkness so complete that it seemed eager to hide the thing waiting below. I dispersed it by cloaking myself in shadowlight, bathing my body in colorful radiance. Somewhere farther downslope Piotr answered with his own glow, white and crimson illuminating another section of the nightmare.

The light revealed that there was no solid ground anywhere around us. Tongues of every imaginable size crawled across those living surfaces. Some were no thicker than snakes, slithering through narrow cracks before vanishing again, while others were broad like the streets. They overlapped endlessly, tangling around one another in obscene knots that constantly shifted and untied themselves, leaving glistening trails of saliva wherever they passed. The smell that Patricia had noticed earlier became overwhelming now—a suffocating mixture of blood, damp soil, rotting meat, and something sweet that clung to the back of the throat with every breath.

Still held by my hand, Liana released her swarm. Hundreds of bees burst into the darkness, each immediately wrapped in shadowlight until they became tiny floating lanterns that spread outward through the place. Their combined glow pushed the darkness back just enough for us to understand the scale of what surrounded us, and I almost wished they had remained unlit. I used the painted silk distributor on my palm and released a thick strand in one fluid motion, wrapping it securely around my own chest before looping it around Liana's. Then I seized Ella, poured the proper Authority into her, and drove her like the spear downward with every ounce of strength I had in me.

The umbrella pierced deep into the living flesh and the entire slope convulsed around us in response. The sudden halt nearly tore my shoulders from their sockets as my momentum vanished in an instant, and beside me Liana gasped in pain when the silk snapped taut, wrenching her backward against the restraint. Around us the living ground rippled violently, sending waves through the enormous tongues crawling over its surface, making them writhe with renewed frenzy.

A blinding explosion of white and crimson lightning tore through the darkness as Milo finally managed to launch himself free from the living slope. Every arc illuminated the tongue-made cavern for the briefest instant, each flash revealing another fragment of the horror hidden beneath the tower. I caught sight of Kito beating his wings furiously as he struggled to gain altitude, his silhouette darting between writhing tongues that snapped at him from every direction. Beyond him, where all the contracting flesh converged, the heart of the nightmare finally revealed itself.

The sinkhole did not descend into darkness because it had collapsed. It descended because everything around us sloped toward an enormous mouth. Rings upon rings of jagged teeth, each longer than a man was tall, spiraled inward around a cylindrical throat whose depth vanished into absolute blackness. There was no jaw, no face, nothing recognizable as a creature—only an endless feeding organ buried beneath the world. Hundreds of thick tongues poured from that abyss, crawling over one another in constant motion as they reached outward across the living landscape.

Milo reached the center first. He swung his bat with all the force his Authority allowed, and the impact detonated through the cavern like a thunderclap. Flesh burst outward where the weapon struck, sending countless tongues recoiling in violent spasms, but the victory lasted only a heartbeat. The monstrous throat contracted, and the entire placed inhaled. Air rushed toward the mouth, dragging dust, broken concrete, loose tongues, and all of us with it. My feet tore free from the flesh despite Ella remaining embedded deep within it, and both Liana and I were ripped sideways through the air like puppets whose strings had suddenly been yanked. Even Kito, still beating desperately against the current with powerful wings, found himself pulled inexorably toward the center as though gravity itself had decided to feed us to the thing waiting below.

As I fought against the pull, all of my eyes searched frantically through the chaos for two more faces, but every patch of illuminated flesh showed only writhing tongues and broken debris. Patricia was nowhere to be seen. Bastien had vanished as well. Whether they had been swallowed by the darkness, dragged beneath the living mass, or had already disappeared into the impossible mouth itself, I could not tell.