“Nearly everything is conditional, in the context of existence. Integrated information theory proves inadequate as well as incomplete when describing thoughts and qualia on bound-psyche facets. Death or permanent deterioration is a frequent but non-universal happenstance. Even you are subject to change, in one sense or another. If there exists a god beyond the extrema of our means to control (save perhaps the Olds) then we have not yet found incontrovertible demonstrable evidence of their being.”

-Toothskin, addressing a polytheon of contrarian Rhaagm-housed deities

For a triple-handful of heartbeats, all of Goskec Tktl and the surrounding country lay in state, so many bones stacked in a funeral pile. Every man, every woman - all minds slain in their living skulls, watching without watching as the very heavens were obscured by the face of a mystery.

“We ask that you do not panic,” continued the image. “Personnel are arriving who will aid you.”

Ktsn, in a shocked convulsive semi-stupor, recognized it as a human face… or something very close. Two front-facing eyes, a low mouth, a curious down-bent protrusion dotted with holes. Proof if proof were needed that her dream of last night was a special kind of ominous.

“You will be met by these envoys shortly. Once they have presented themselves, then-”

“It’s the end!” howled Dergas Ldnt Drthg, aged body mangling in furious horror.

The beat-up old man rolled over onto his fastlegs, and - quite intoxicated on something or other - sprinted directly into the side of the newest creation of one of the village wainwrights. The wagon came out the victor.

When one side of the wagon briefly left the ground, then thudded back down, it was like someone had thrown a half-mad rugfos into a creche. Screams, some of the villagers coalescing into groups of familiarity, more than a couple of people trying to decipher how the sky-pictured human facsimile might be assaulted as they went for slings or spears. The people who had children with them were among the first members of the congealing offensive elements.

Meanwhile, stalls nearly collapsed under the weight of people accidentally shoved against or dashing into them at speed. A cookfire near the closest building tipped over, and a bit of dry dust kicked up with the sparks.

“WHERE DO WE BRING THE FOOD?” asked a baker, just standing there in the middle of the unfolding chaos with a blanketful of wrapped bread in his arms.

“What?” asked a disbelieving woman, skidding to a stop in front of him. One of her rear legs tripped a child, and the child got up with a wail of pure and total bewilderment.

The two maintained eye contact for an instant before clouds of disorganized fearfuls began crisscrossing the square. Every one of them tried to split up into sub-entities and go in every direction at once. To one side, someone frantically pulled at a ledhuk that had been tethered to a post, quite distinctly failing to loosen the poor creature’s lead.

One scruffy-looking soul had excellent success in falling to the ground, and spinning around and around. Little chirrups of unprocessed sound poured from the separated lips.

“GET AHOLD OF YOURSELVES!” howled the voice of one-eyed Matron Kglk, among the wisest and arguably most respected of the village’s souls. Her maturity and prodigious size contributed to the attention she garnered. The strength of her voice pipes helped by rattling the organs of everyone within a ten body-length radius, and making her clearly audible even above the voices of the sky.

“We will not give ourselves to panic,” the Matron continued, as strong and proper in her expression as Ktsn’s own childhood tutor. Her eye travelled the crowd, searching for those who would further destabilize the impromptu gathering of two hundred or so. Several other venerable leader-type souls moved in her direction through the crowd. Among them was Wdondf, coming from somewhere Ktsn hadn’t noticed.

“Whatever is going on, it seems we have little recourse to respond via normal means,” Kglk continued. She flicked a glance skyward at the moving images fanning out to the edge of the world. She seemed to have a bit of the battle-fear yet left in her, as did many others nearby. However, eight or nine in ten of the marketplace’s original occupants remained, listening despite the urge to chase down and visit violence upon the alien celestial visages.

The Matron looked lower again, and indicated the ossuarial hills on the edge of the village.

“If any have better plans, let us hear them shortly, but I recommend we gather at Gegaunli’s shrine and offer her obeisance.” She held out a hand to dampen the sudden swelling in muttering and half-curses. “It does not seem that the… presences, or whatever they are, have any vulnerability to tools and weapons of the flesh-and-blood realm. At least, none that leap to mind. That being the case, it makes sense to treat this like we would treat a rogue vessel or omen of Taralngegeshet, or other unwelcome spirit.”

She paused, looking back over to the shrine herself.

“We ought to seclude ourselves, and ask Gegaunli for her intercession.”

“That’s reasonable,” one of the other leaders chipped in, whose name Ktsn couldn’t remember. “We’d also have a clear route to the woods if needed.”

The youthful apothecary was younger and less wise and not as gifted in voice as the Matron, but he knew a great deal and made up his mind very quickly. From Kglk’s blind side, he clapped his hands in approving concurrence.

Drlkt had trotted up on the fringe of the crowd. The old hunter counted among those offering approval of the plan to seek out their deity’s protection. Ktsn felt optimistic about disaster quickly fading from the possible futures Gegaunli’s bones might read for them.

“I say we need to prepare for martial conflict!” insisted Rlgts, and an inchoate sound snaked up Ktsn’s gullet.

A number of eyes aligned with the gemcutter, some of them interested, some of them at least as annoyed as the Daephod prodigal. Rlgts was quick-witted, arrogant, liked order, and liked giving orders. 

She polarized people, did Rlgts.

“That… voice, or magic, or whatever it is said something about envoys,” she continued, making a warding sign with one hand as the other pointed heavenward. Her rising tone kept her audible over the sky-humans. “If we’re going to have visitors, then waiting for them to arrive before sharpening our knives and loading our slings wouldn’t help us in the slightest.”

“Assuming that a violent response is called for,” Ktsn responded. When she got a disparaging look, she didn’t bother masking her irritation. After all, there were already plenty of other things going wrong; a few jabs at a truculent-souled termagant wouldn’t shift the world’s orbit.

She noticed her father noticing her, and hastily diverted her attention from him just as Rlgts gave her a look of unrefined disdain.

“If we’re making assumptions, it’d be prudent to assume that strange and mystic beings aren’t necessarily our friends,” she said.

Something critical of Ktsn the Mate Thief was a given. In fact, it would nearly have been a disappointment otherwise. She didn’t bother replying this time.

“Let us escort our least physically-fit and most pious first,” continued Kglk, overriding the protests and proposals. “After we have dealt with the needful and the faithful, we can turn our thoughts and prayers to more warlike affairs.”

Ktsn sided with Kglk in her heart-of-hearts. Part of this was because she wanted to keep the implemented plan and Rlgts’s plan from overlapping as much as possible. Part of this was because the fear that truly drives - that exceptionally rare fear that ensures one knows the futility of resistance - felt like it was nearly under Ktsn’s own skin.

But that was a perversion. Ktsn didn’t know what, if any, danger the strange visions in the sky posed. As the lapidary had stated, there was suggestion but no certain knowledge that the strangers meant them well. Likewise, there was suggestion but no certain knowledge that conventional weapons, or things not blessed by Gegaunli, might have difficulty in driving the hypothetically hostile “envoys” away.

One only resigned to departing in fear when one knew that danger was utterly insurmountable, after all. But that didn’t mean Ktsn was going to agree with Rlgts on anything unless she had no alternative.