Ashenvoid: bitsbitten

Prologue

Quistelle was dreaming again.

Hazy skyscrapers, fog riddled skies, the land barren, the persistent sound of gurgling and distant thrashing.

She could not remember getting up, just walking before she was suddenly aware of her own sense of self, her carapace coat and light black and White robes swung against the wind, her red bells, small hole-riddled balls, swinging like her long, stick-like frail hands. coming out from under her coat like a robe-donned snail from it's shell.

"Ah.." quistelle felt uneasy, an quick adjustment to her long, coddled in her dirty scarf hair quickly fixing that.
Quistelle tried to focus, to think about why she was there, but she could only regain the ability to see her own legs,long black stockings covered her legs, her feet ending in pointy tips to stab and ground herself in the Earth.

She then saw it, in a alleyway riddled with glued-on newspapers and missing posters, blood.

Red blood, blue blood, blood of many vessels, mixing together with the dirt and concrete, leaking like a tap over the large legs and back of a huge, humanoid and brown red..thing.

It reeked of death and wet earth, its legs ending in large feet to support it's own height as it stood over quistelle,  it's long, crooked neck extending out several meters abole the earth, the bald, cartoonishly round head of the thing sniffed around, a cut where it's nose should be and two large holes filled with a glowing goo, it's  pulsating soul, were the only things that gave it the right to call it's feature on the head a 'face.

And the back..quistelle could not see it, her mind could not bear it, simply blurring it with fog and shadows, many squirming things, impaled on plain spikes, features wet, bend and twisted in hatred and spite agaisnt them, the sound of gurgling and thrashing came from them, distorted by the nature of her own dreamscape into a persistent, droning noise that sounded like a single fly persistently whining amplified trough the hazy city like a Hammer beating trough her head, like a-.

The demon spoke, in a harsh, dromned voice, almost as if it's lungs were not meant for dry land.

"You..again?" the demon spoke without a mouth.

"I-i.." quistelle began to stutter, her mind in confusion and uneasyness, reaching out for her bells, which began to stir up with a magical blow.

"Shh..it is okay..they deserved it.." the demon said, referring to the many things impaled on  it's large back. "You..you come time and time again..here on this..land..".

"I-i came here before?" Quistelle finally mustered the courage to ask a question, her mind racing trough lectures, of great sermons, of warnings agaisnt the red sea, against demons.

"Yes..ever since you were a tiny coat hanging from a old, dying tree..just about to be free..you came here..just as i finished my job and duty..you come here..and i talk..about you..about me..about the whys and hows of everything..yet you never remember.." the demon sighed "yet i still hope you do remember this one conversation..".

"W-why?" Quistelle questioned, her bells stirring up harder, their jiggling scrapping agaisnt her ears, not conforting as it was so many times before.

"Because this will be the last one.." the demon spoke, with a faint sense of sadness. "Before you go into a voyage with sinners, the last one before you face the ones down below, the last one before that damnable thing stirs up once again!" the demon coughed, spitting out a great deal of bones in the process, quistelle's red bells jingling faster than before "a hope for greatness, a hope for progress for your kind ..all tarnished and ruined.."

The demon grabbed quistelle by her hips by large, dirty and caked with blood hands , her feet swinging in the Air as she was lifted above the ground, her bells a cacophony of noise in her head, the thrashing of the impaled things turning into a series of half wailing half gurgling

"I will send you a gift, my firstand last..one for  you, i have no use for it anymore, it's broken..as all things like it should be, yet i feel you..will need it, so i shall rearrange..it, fix it's broken..visage before i thrown it to you.."

"Please, what does this mean!" quistelle wanted to cry, her bells began to glow as their syphony reached it's climax, the landscape around her warping and twisting, the demon's voice sinking in the soundscape.

"Bewar- great- quak- death- hel- conniving snake!"

It was then that quistelle's bells released their energy in a loud burst of sound, glowing soul energy escaping from the  magically-pressurized environment, sending her flying over to fall back-first fron the top bunk of her bed on the train, awakening her bunkmate to a start.

It was not a good way to start the night.


Chapter 1: new job

"these fucking nightmares again!" Lesquell looked at quistelle with messy moss coloured hair which covered her bloodshot eyes, her fall at been partially covered by her own  pillow, which laid next to her in a messy heap

"Sorry..." quistelle managed to groan out, her vision adjusting to her being awake, her nightmare  crumbling like sand in beetwen her hands, being reduced to foggy fragments in her mind as she looked up to her bunkmate.

Lesquell carefully climbed down the bunk stairs, the buttons in her dark-blue jeans softly shining the moonlight from the Windows overhead as she put her satchels on her shoulders, chest and all around her torso, finally putting over a one size too large White shirt which the train staff had forced her to wear when they did not accept her 'satchel shirt', the white colour harshly contrasting with her rubbery, black , leech like skin.

If it covers my bits then it counts right?, her exact words at the time,

"What was it this time?" Lesquell questioned as she uncousciously tilted her head doen to look at quistelle, a result both of her being a half-head taller than quistelle.

"Good night for you too lesquell.." quistelle spat back with sarcasm, raising herself up from the ground

"Good night, but no for real..what was up with that?"

"It was a..alleyway i think with..something scary, it also said some stuff about the job?"

"Oh thats a classic! It's just an anxiety nightmare!" Lesquell smilled in relief, her sharp teeth showing as she did so.

"You sure? It felt a lot more intense than the usual.." quistelle wondered

"Duh! Anxiety nightmares ARE intense!" lesquell said as she strutted down to the cabinet connected to their bunks, which contained their baggage, lesquell's suitcase being noticibly covered in a thick layer of stickers and worn-off discouloured patches of leather, which quistelle was sure made up about half of the case's Weight "still, we should not be focusing on that too much, you saw that big Lady statue last darkness?  This means we should be reaching santelle soon, theeen?" Lesquell smilled again as quistelle sighed.

"Gahalkea..." quistelle said as she looked up her baggage, carefully picking up her incenser with her hands, her gloved hands carefully feeling the smooth leather alonsgide her grey string-like sensory organs, the strings peeking from under her hands, the relaxing sensation  being carried trough her spine.

"That's right! No more selling my stuff for weirdos for me!, i have to thank you thought!".

Quistelle looked pleased at being complimented "i mean, when the church offered me the position i noticed the ship had one ' licensed explosives expert' position open!, and well even if you are..".

"What?"

"Nevermind! The point is, you deserve a good job as much as i do! Which is why i-"
Quistelle was interrupted by the static burst from the internal radio system of the train, which quickly adjusted into a soft, if slightly altered by static interference feminine robotic voice

"WE HAVE REACHED SECTION E-ELEVEN: SANTELLE, ALL PASSENGERS WITH A DESTINATION FOR SECTION ELEVEN: SANTELLE, PLEASE GRAB ALL OF YOUR BELONGINGS AND ORGANIZE IN A ORDERLY MANNER BY THE EXIT DOORS, THEY WILL SOON OPEN IN ABOUT: FIVE MINUT-MINUTES WE HAVE REACHED-"

"Thats our stop!" Lesquell spitted out, running around the room to grab everything.