Fable - Ask Trash Goblins

Aiko's outstretched arm made motions as the bricks, rafters, soot, concrete, and other material milieu was sorted through use of a simple telekinesis spell. It was busy work to be sure, but it was a form of service the college has agreed to. It was also required of first years. While Calixtus seemed to want to skip out, Aiko was hard at work. She had already found a number of Maester's looking for any excuse to claim the elf wasn't up to snuff, and Aiko would give them no quarter.

Calixtus said:

"...oh dear. "

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Aiko turned to find the group of first years surrounded by a collection of small green abominations. Each held a decidedly makeshift weapon in green bony hand. Gnarled teeth growled at the students, and Aiko shrieked. She held out a hand in defense, aiming to cast a spell. It extended outwards and no magic came. She thought of four different spells to cast, but didn't go through the motions to pick a particular one, let alone complete the ritual. One of the goblin's took note and leapt at Aiko, striking the butt of his spear against her cheek. The tall elven girl went to the ground and felt first blood leave her face, then the weight of a goblin's knee on her back. Her hands were hastily plucked off the ground and bound with rope.

"Ey, careful!" One of the goblin's screamed. Atop his head was an odd helmet fashioned from what appeared to be the skull of a giant rat. "That one'll sell well, no need to damage 'er."

"You mongrels" Aiko yelled, still on the ground. Another goblin came over and bound her mouth before the other released it's weight. Without the weight of the goblin on her back Aiko was able come to a seat, though the motion was considerably awkward with her hands bound behind her back.

Aiko did not manage to see the similar bindings and assaults on the rest of the students, but things did not look optimistic. The goblins began walking away, appearing to plan a route for transport.

Calixtus said:

"Psst..." went Calixtus.

His hands were tied behind his back, but the goblins had walked a short distance away.

"We need a plan to escape!"

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Aiko looked over at the man, unable to wrinkle the displeasure in her mouth due to the bind. Her eyes shot a look of derision, sarcasm, and concurrence. She began looking around, seeing if there was anything the goblins had left that may help them escape.

She came to with a start and a low moan of pain. It was just as well she didn't wake screaming - the ghost of immobility, the crushing weight and searing heat etched into her dreams and her nightmares stirred up by the bindings she now found herself in.

When the goblins had captured them, she had gone absolutely and utterly wild. Their initial attempts to restrain her had failed. Not because she was strong or capable, but because fear had driven her to an animal state.

Nothing a good ol' clubbing couldn't fix, apparently.

Now she lay on the ground, hands bound behind her back and sticky heat running down her face and clotting in her hair. Her chest heaved with her return to consciousness and she had to struggle with the same devil as before they had subdued her. Only now, it was worse. Now she was bound and she couldn't help but feel the panic rise again. It was so close to having a one-ton beam pinning her to the ground, crushing the life out of her while the flames...

She shivered and bit her lip. Hard.

She opened her eyes at Calix' words, and they rolled towards her captors and then back to her fellow abductees. She tested her bonds and found them tight, and that only made her breathing ratchet up another notch and panic creep another step closer.

"...wha..?" Was all she managed to say in response to his statement. Her memory of the events leading to here was patchy. The deep and insistent throb in the back of her head the coppery scent in the air was enough to tell her it hadn't been good.

There was something almost comforting about this kind of menial work. Yue was not a girl of manual labor by any means. She did not enjoy being made to do what was essentially free service for the college and the city. Even so there was a kind of nostalgia in it. If her old Teacher in the steps had put her to this kind of task she imagined it would have been turned into a trial to be performed until she passed out of exhaustion.
Yue assumed they were plenty welcome to take breaks or stop at any time in this case.

The small girl had positioned herself a bit on the outer edge of their little group. So she was the last to notice any signs of trouble.
She had entered an almost zen like flow state moving the rubble. Yue performed a looping tai chi like motion as she sorted the debris into neat piles. Yue had so slipped into the quiet peace that she had ignored Calixtus small distressed noise at first. While she made more effort to pay attention to him due to her father's social position as a merchant.....old habits died hard and she often found herself tunning him out.

Aiko said:

"You mongrels" Aiko yelled

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That caught her attention. He stood up a little straighter . She was about to make her way back toward the rest of the group when a nasty little green thing jumped out at her. Her face immediately scrunched into disgust. She deftly avoided it. One or two others showed up to surround her.
Luckily they were uncoordinated in their movements. He easily diverted a a club swung her way by one, stomping it's ugly face, sending it to the dirt. Simultaneously she gut punch another that had tried to leap at her again.
Despite her blows they seem to take this as lucky hits and were noisily making all kind of demands.

She attempted to use the same spell on the nearest little creature that she had used to move the rubble. It didn't budge, branding some crude spear at her. A shame she would have liked to see it go flying. No matter.
She used the spell to pull the spear from the one in front. It zipped to her open hand. With a quick decisive motion she broke it over her knee and tossed it. That caught their attention a little.

They nervously halted their attacks for a moment. They seemed to be gauging if she was worth the trouble of reinforcements.
She stepped forward planning to go look for the others. The assorted green menaces raised their weapons (and fists in the case of the one whose spear was now in pieces.)
"Give us s'mthin at good and we'll let you pass!" One hesitantly demanded.

Yue glared at them. She was short and quite frail looking by nature but the look in her eyes. That was anything but timid. It was a look that meant business.
"Show me where the others you ambushed are and I let you keep all your bones." She replied coldly.
She removed her hair pin and tucked it into her top for safe keeping. just in case one of them tried a snatch and run.
They huddled up to discuss which only made yue consider testing out other spells on them. Luckily before she had decided on one they came to a consensus.
One rubbing it's hands together gestured for her to follow them. Likely they thought she must be foolish for willingly walking into whatever trap they were devising.

It was a short walk back to the scene of the crime. Even so she had to correct with a smack to a grubby hand as one of them had tried to pick pocket her.
When they arrived she saw the pitiful state of her fellow students. Huddled, hog tied and bloodied.
Calixtus she couldn't let get too injured or it might fall ill on her house if she were deemed responsible. Even so she might have let a little bruising slide.
but the girls. that was a bridge too far.
Her expression darkened if it were possible for it to look somehow more murderous.

As Aiko glanced around the room she noticed Svenia Albrecht come to, and the panic that began to set in. She softened her eyes and glanced at the girl. There was only so much comfort a face could provide without a smile, but Aiko tried to communicate to the girl all the same. She then pulled back her feet as close to her hips as she could manage. Her abs and neck flexed as she pulled her body forward, getting her head in front of her knees. She pushed up slowly and managed to form a stand. Her chest heaved up and down as she let out a breath. She was bound and gagged, but at least on two feet. That was something.

The elf walked over to Calixtus and oriented herself to the jagged stone before slowly coming down to a squat. She felt the muscles beneath her shoulders stretch as she reached for the stone. Fingers waved as she made contact with what she believed to be the stone and pulled it to her grasp.

Then Calixtus made his accusation of Yuebing Coquelicot . Aiko darted backwards towards the human behind her, aiming to shield the rock from prying eyes. She moved with all the quickness and grace her bound elf body could manage. Hopefully she didn’t puncture the boy behind her.

Still groggy, Svenia bit the inside of her lips had enough to draw blood. The sharp painwas enough to clear her head - mostly. Panic still rose within her like a snake, threatening to consume her ability to reason entirely. She could see Aiko - also bound - and then look in her eyes.

She needed to master herself. It took several moments of steady breathing to push the wild terror back down. And she did not succeed entirely - the ball of ice remained coiled in her stomach and running through her veins. But the ice wasn't the only thing running through her veins. Molten steel also flashed along them, flickering in and out of existence as her fear and anger swirled, rose, and waned.

With a hiss of pain and several attempts Svenia sat up. The bindings on her arms were tight to the point of pain. She was struggling with keeping her emotions under control - keeping fear and desperation pushed down.

Keeping the blaze within. Sweat rolled down her forehead and cheeks.

Her eyes - wide, terrified - cut to Yuebing the moment Calixtus spoke. Her eye narrowed on the Dornochian as she approached, goblins behind her. It was only too easy to believe that the odious girl was involved with these creatures. As much as that would have pleased some part of her, though, she did not give in. The goblins had a certain gleam in their muddy eyes that did not speak of good intentions.

She sat in silence, eyes cutting to Aiko and her stone with hope.

There was a pause as Calixtus accusation rang out. Slowly she lifted a hand to point at her own nose.... me?
She cringed inwardly, she should have known it would be taken that way. She was already well used to being suspected of ill will. Ah. Svenia Albrecht was glaring at her again. But how to remedy this....
She hadn't quite expected all of them to be incapacitated......
Then again Elbion was quite a soft school in some ways.

Her moment of hesitance cost her as at some point the gathering of goblins had rallied for another assault. Even more unfortunate was that they had correctly guessed she couldn't handle an all sides attack alone. With their newly coordinated efforts she had a much harder time fending them off. The ones she had fought seemed to have shared what they learned with the others because they attacked her without weapons. This made it so that she couldn't use the levitation spell on them easily. Especially not while distracted by their awkward closed fist swings. One or two blows connected. Those would bruise. How terribly demeaning to be reduced to scraping with such nasty stupid creatures. At least it would buy time for the others to sort themselves out. Aiko seemed to be doing....something.

After one kick to the shin too many Yue grew too frustrated.
She decided to take lethal action.
She made a pulling motion with one arm.
A nearby boulder from the rubble came rocking toward them.
She stepped out of the way at the last moment.
The boulder collided with two of the goblins and then a wall.
Sandwiched between the rock and the stone of the wall, the Goblins made a grotesque noise of crushed bone and flesh. Yue's looked at the bloodied mess with disgust. Perhaps she had been a bit drastic.
Several of the other goblins, which had been standing just on her other side, still in a temporarily stunned state. One of the clever among them stealthy took up a club. Taking advantage of Yue's diverted attention The goblin swung at her from behind.

With a searing pain and gritted teeth Yue felt and heard the crack of the club smacking the back of her skull.
Realization caught up a moment later as her knees hit the dirt. She clutched the back of her head with one hand and turned slowly to give the nasty little ingrate a murderous glare.
She could tell from the subtle hesitance in it's grip, not to mention the quiver in it's knees that the Goblin had been gambling that the blow would knock her out. It had bet poorly.

PART I

The stone crumbled in his hand as he turned it over once more, the etched lines of his finger tracing the grooves worn by centuries. Akpadiaha Uwem had stopped clearing rubble 15 minutes ago. His hands, now dusted with gray and ochre, gripped a loose shard of painted tile. Part of a frieze. Probably ancient. Maybe Kherkhani in make. He couldn't be sure.

The others were bustling, tossing wood and brick into neat piles like overworked golems. But Akpadiaha had been pacing—quiet, murmuring—eyes constantly scanning the wreckage not for labor but for meaning.

"Oh, but look at this scorched beauty!" he announced to no one, holding the tile up to the light. "Carved basalt, likely temple debris. Possibly cursed. Hopefully cursed."

Do you see it, Vaene?, he whispered inwardly.

I see. I listen. But you're not listening to the wind, Akpadiaha.

He frowned, brushing a sweat-damp loc from his cheek.

The wind?

Empty. You’ve been too quiet, child. Where are your companions?

That gave him pause.

His eyes lifted. The field, once full of motion, was still. No shifting rubble, no tired complaints, no sarcastic mutterings from Calixtus. No elegant spell gestures from Aiko. No calm forms from Yuebing. No ragged breathing from Svenia. His stomach dropped.

“...By the cracked beak of a rusted ibis, where did they all scamper off to?”

He moved quickly, winded from panic alone, darting through the splintered remains of collapsed homes and buckled stone. He traced spells in the air to light the way, but the sigils flickered weakly, distorted by fear. Then—

Movement.

Three goblins stumbled from behind a tattered curtain strung between two shattered beams. One of them barked and pointed. Another grinned.

"Shiny boy!" one shrieked. "Get ‘im!"

PART II

They lunged.

He barely ducked the first strike. A jagged blade grazed his side. Another jab—missed—then a club caught him hard in the chest. Akpa's breath left him in a rasping wheeze. The pain—sharp, deep, hot.

“No—no, not like this—”

Blood.

Too much.

Then—

Wings.

A whisper.

You are not alone.

Light burst from his chest in the shape of innumerable flickering bats. Shadow and shimmer spiraled outward, forming a faint translucent barrier. The goblins shrieked as one was hurled back, slammed into debris by one of the larger bat-shades.

"Magic! It bites!"

The others scattered.

Akpa staggered back against a fallen beam, clutching his side.

“Oh Gods. Oh bugs. That’s a lot of blood.”

“Vaene… I-I can’t… the blood—”

Breathe. Your body remembers the rites. You are the vessel, not the storm. Let it work.

He shook. Tears mixed with grime. But he closed his eyes and held a trembling hand to his wound.

The whispering wings circled slowly, shimmering in time with his breath. The blood flow slowed. The pain dulled. The wound began to pull together—not fully closed, but sealed enough to move.

He sat there for a while. Quiet. Listening.

Eventually, his fingers curled around the weapon one goblin had dropped—a wicked curved blade notched with rust. He shuddered but held it, whispering a prayer as the remaining bats converged around it, forming a faint echoing glow.

One by one, Akpadiaha. Whisper. Strike. Vanish. They do not know the dark like you do.

He rose unsteadily, posture different now. Less flamboyant, more focused. The pain had flattened his humor into silence.

“No more waiting. No more wondering. One by one.”

Then he heard her.

Yuebing’s voice, clear and cutting, echoed from across the rubble:

Yuebing Coquelicot said:

"Show me where the others you ambushed are and I let you keep all your bones." She replied coldly.

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He exhaled in relief. Her? She was still fighting.

Too tired to fight smartly and too wounded to duel, Akpa tucked behind a broken wall and followed the voices at a distance, the winged glow of his Sanctuary dimming with each cautious step.

PART III

He arrived just in time to see Calixtus shout:

Calixtus said:

"Betrayal!" Calixtus declared when he saw Yue with the goblins. "She sold us out!"

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Akpa blinked, stunned. His mind lagged a step behind.

“What?” he whispered. “Yuebing? That one? She’s... No. No, she’s not a traitor. That’s not how she walks.”

You see them clearer than they see each other.

“They’re fractured,” he muttered aloud to Vaene as he crouched behind a column. “Shaken. Like a nest of chicks pretending they’re hawks. So much bluster. So much pain. And... no center.”

Then be still for them, Akpadiaha.

And then the goblins swarmed Yue.

“Oh, curses,” he hissed, scrambling upright.

Without thinking, he surged toward Yue, raised his hand, and shouted a desperate invocation. His voice cracked.

“O Lady of Bats—shield her!”

The shimmering bats burst outward again, swirling protectively around Yuebing as she was attacked. A faint bubble of light and shadow snapped into place, encasing them both.

One goblin’s club struck the barrier and rebounded with a crack. Another shrieked as a bat-wing sliced across its face, non-lethally but enough to send it fleeing.

Akpa stumbled forward, chest heaving. He and Yue stood in the circle of the ward, the glow flickering as his energy waned.

He looked at her through bleary eyes. There was no quip. No elaborate greeting. Just a beat.

“I was holding a tile. It was beautiful. And now it’s just dust.”

His face sagged. His eyes were glassy and distant.

“Sorry. I’m... not well right now.” He pressed the heel of his palm to his temple. “There’s too much sound. And all of it’s inside.”

The bats flitted slowly around them, watching. Waiting.

You are not broken, child. You are just open.

Akpa swayed slightly, but kept his eyes on Yuebing.

“I’ll keep the ward up. You... you go wild if you need to. I’ll be the quiet shell.”

And with that, he dropped to one knee, bracing himself, murmuring low prayers to keep the shield alive as long as it could hold.

It did not warm Aiko's heart to leave Yuebing Coquelicot to the wolves, but the best thing she could do right now was try to free her classmates. The girl returned to a stand and made her way behind Calixtus, one hand holding the stone while the other searched for his. Locating the bound hands behind a man's back when your own hands were also bound behind your back was not a pleasant experience, but with effort she felt what seemed like a sleeve on a forearm. Tracing it down she felt a distinctly different texture, the fraying of fibers that would have never been worn on Calixtus ' clothing. Figuring it to be the rope she began raking the stone back and forth against it. She was no warrior, but the sheer adrenaline going through her system was enough to give her the strength to cut. While not the prettiest or quickest, it was enough that Aiko could feel the rope snap at the last cut.

If Aiko's mouth were not bound she'd have told the boy to help Yuebing, but instead she ran over the other bound student Svenia Albrecht . Awkwardly she moved around the girl, trying to align her arm to the girl's wrist to begin the same cutting as before. The cutting process was still awkward, and perhaps a bit slower than before. Aiko was not used to such exertions. As she was cutting he noticed the ward the other elf Akpadiaha Uwem had put up. He was providing some defense to the Dornochi fielding attacks. She had been thinking they would have to wait for the sentinels, or perhaps some mercenaries hired by the Blodwyns. Perhaps they had a way out of this after all. Aiko just needed to free Svenia, and then . . .

And then what? What could she actually do?

Part 1: Bats Around

The air trembled faintly with wingbeats that weren’t there. Akpadiaha staggered to Yuebing’s side with the wide, unsteady grin of someone running too fast inside their own thoughts. He dropped to his knees beside her like a marionette—too light in some places, too heavy in others.

"You’re alive!" he beamed. "Which is great. Excellent. Top marks. Not bleeding out is a good look on you."

He leaned in without hesitation and pressed his forehead gently to hers. That was the signal. The whispering bats gathered—not flapping, but gliding in slow spirals, their wings barely grazing the air. When they reached Yuebing, they hovered at her skin like threads of ink drawn to a wound. A shadow settled along her forehead, her temple, her scalp. Where they passed, pain dulled—not vanished but soothed like a lullaby hummed into broken bones.

Akpa whispered, voice feather-light: "They won’t bite you. Not unless you say something awful about toads. Or librarians. But you wouldn’t."

He laughed, with a quick, anxious sound. "They’re friendly. To the people I like. So you’re fine. Probably."

He sat back on his heels, rocking slightly, eyes flickering with light that didn’t quite match the chaos around them. "I think they like you more than me," he muttered. "They’re not supposed to play favorites. Divine bias. It’s real."

The grin stayed on his face too long. It didn’t reach his eyes.

Part 2: Failed Survival

But then the blood on Yuebing’s cheek caught the light—thick and dark—and time buckled in on itself. His breath snagged. Something dropped deep in his chest.

Anwa.

The name rippled like a bell only he could hear. It wasn’t Yuebing anymore. It wasn’t now. It was then. An alley. Screams. Her tiny voice had gone quiet under the roar of steel.

He had prayed that day. For light, for strength, for protection. They came too late. They always come too late.

His fingers curled into the ground. He didn’t speak. But his jaw locked, and his eyes blinked too fast, and all the wind went out of the world.

He had this power now. Now, when he needed a sword, a shield, a spear. And all he could summon was a barrier.

Gentle, useless barrier.

Part 3: Dissociation & Doubt

The ward dimmed. The bats slowed, unsure. Not fading, just hesitating, mirroring their keeper’s descent. Akpa stared at the space in front of him, not quite seeing her. Not quite seeing anything.

"This... isn’t enough," he whispered. The words barely had weight.

"They’re still out there. And all I can do is hush bruises and stall death."

A twitch. A breath. His hands hung in his lap like forgotten tools. "Why did she give me this?" His voice trembled, but he wasn’t angry—just lost. "Vaene. Why give me wings when I needed fangs?"

He rocked slightly, side to side. Childlike. Disconnected. "They’re not even afraid. The goblins. They just look... annoyed."

He blinked. Slowly. His voice went thin and small: "I want to be useful. But I’m just the weary log they have to drag along."

He slumped, head bowing—not in prayer, but in exhaustion. The sanctuary was held, barely. A fragile cocoon of shadow and whispering wings. And inside, Akpadiaha Uwem sat still and flickering, a boy unraveling under the weight of grace.

She said nothing as Aiko worked to free the boy Calix. Her heart pounded in her chest even as the flames curled round her veins and her heart. It was a seething inferno just beneath the surface and at the edge of control. She even radiated the warmth of a muted fire as she sat there, Aiko working on her bindings.

Sweat darkened her bodice and rolled down her face.

Her hands sprang free, and she immediately wrapped them round herself and rocked back and forth slowly for a moment. She was fighting against the horror about to be set free, fists clenched so tight that the scarred muscle and sinew ached.

It can't get out! It can't! I can't let it...

She took a deep breath and pulled herself back to the here and the now. She released herself, and turned to Aiko with a face as pale as death. "L-let me get you f-free," she said. They needed to work quickly. At least if the three of them had their hands free they might be able to fight off the little hoodlums.

She took the stone and with shaking hands cut through the elf's bindings. It was a lot easier to do when you could see what you were doing. That done, she looked in Yuebing's direction and that of another student. She was shaking at the thought of actually fighting anyone or anything. Even so and even though she did not like Yuebing in the slightest, she couldn't leave her classmate to whatever wickedness these horrible little goblins might inflict upon her.

Even if she was more capable of doing something about it than she, Svenia Albrecht - glorified clerk and highborn brat - could even think of.

As her fear intensified, so did the fire burning in her veins. "We have t-to do s-something," she said, remaining crouched and low so as to not draw any unnecessary attention to herself. After wrestling with her fear, she found herself standing and facing the threat with her fists balled up at her sides. "If we go t-together, we can help them..."

It wasn't a rousing speech and it wouldn't inspire anything. She wouldn't shaking like a leaf. But she clenched her teeth together and set her ghostly face into a determined expression and started forward before cowardice and better sense could talk her out of it. Heat shimmered around her, its source invisible.