Crossover time!
guest story by Zyzzyva
tags: Heroic Azuras, karla & lucia, sfw, the greensea
“She knows we’re coming,” said Karla, “but we still need to be careful.”
“I know,” said Lucia.
“She’s been closed and hostile to the Ironarm orcs, and at least two other tribes have been refused entry in a less confrontational way. I don’t know what might have caused this. The orcs don’t know either—”
“I was there when they explained it to us,” said Lucia.
“—and it’s worrying, because She’s never acted like this towards the orcs in their memory, and She’s a forest and doesn’t have ‘moods’, anyway, that anyone knows of.
“Karla,” said Lucia. “My love.” Karla stopped talking. “We’ve been over the whole situation, more than once. You’re worried. What’s wrong?”
Karla did not actually look worried. She looked confident and in control, like always. But she melted under Lucia’s concerned gaze. “It’s stupid.”
“If it’s worrying you, it might be stupid but it’s important to me. Tell me.”
“It’s, I don’t even know. It’s about the war.”
Lucia quirked an eyebrow. “You stopped that single-handedly three years and three thousand miles—”
“No, no,” said Karla. “Not that war. Also, we both helped everyone involved come to a peaceful conclusion. I was the least important part of that process.” Lucia sighed and Karla got back on topic. “The war of the goddesses at the end of the age of myth.”
“The what?” said Lucia, who knew all about the war but was not expecting it in this context.
“The war was terrible everywhere, which means it was terrible here. Angels came to this place, and did awful things; and demons came to this place, and did awful things. And the Greensea might well be old enough to remember personally.”
“You’re worried that a forest is going to be racist to me.”
Karla laughed weakly. “It does sound stupid said out loud.”
“I mean, it is. There’s no way I’m the first demon She’s seen since the age of myth. Demons go West too, occasionally, and for that matter orcs summon us occasionally. But more to the point–She’s a vast, alien being that probably can’t understand individuals any more than we can understand Her. But She’s not a monster. I’m sure She can recognize and respect the difference between a paladin’s wife here to intermediate between Her and the local orc clans and, like, a banner army consecrating the flesh of the world to Phar.”
“You’re right,” said Karla. “But I guess, thinking about it, it’s sorta deeper than that? This is the furthest West I’ve ever been, or you, and things are different out here. We’re smaller. If She did decide to do something to you, I couldn’t do anything about it. I’m not used to being helpless, not about you. It’s not like you need to have me throw myself between you and the world, but it’s unsettling to know that if I did it wouldn’t matter.”
“You’re never helpless. You’re not a paladin because you can swing a sword, you’re a paladin because you always work to bring out the best in everyone around you. I have no doubt whatsoever that you could do the same for a genius loci as for any squabbling townsfolk back East.”
“You give me too much credit and yourself too little,” said Karla, and embraced Lucia.
“It’s just the truth,” said Lucia. “And besides. No matter what, we’re in this together. If the Greensea does hate me for no reason, you’ll go down swinging for me, just like I would for you.” She grabbed Karla’s hands and looked into her eyes. “Together. Always.”
⁂ ⁂ ⁂
“Godsdamned shitty fucking piece of shit gods-fucking-damned shitfuck SPIDERSQUITOES!” shouted Karla, scratching incessantly at every exposed inch of skin. Which, after the last few days, was practically none, but still definitely far too much. “Why do they even exist!?”
“I don’t know specifically,” said Lucia, completely naked, demon flesh flawless and unmarred. “But the whole ecosystem is carefully worked out, so they must do something vital to the functioning of the Greensea.”
“Then why don’t they do that instead of eating me!?” snarled Karla.
Lucia shrugged and her eyes glowed green. “She doesn’t mind if you swat as many as you want, if it makes you feel better.”
“It does not.”
Author’s Notes: Instead of 17-year cicadas, the Greensea has 1693-year spidersquitoes. This is mostly just a jokey story crossing over the two main Azuras tags I’ve written for, but it’s also a chance to show off Lucia being the cool one and Karla having emotions other than effortless badassery.