Chapter 135: Servant of the Axe, 35 – Cost of Success
Servant of the Axe
Chapter 35
Cost of Success
Even with biomass from the feed the livestock no longer needed, I was feverish for the entire trip back. There were tales of black blood, and diarrhea, and of eating anything used to muffle my screams.
My eyes were especially susceptible to the light. “Has... has soone been boiling ?” I asked.
“He’s still feverish.” An unknown woman said.
But when I recovered after four days of careful treatnt and healing potions, my skin was peeling, revealing scales of hunter’s green beneath. Even with normal scent, I could tell I was laying in my own filth.
.....
I bundled up the bedsheets, and set about looking for food. The first door I tried led outdoors, the sea gently lapping at the nearby shore. I wiped myself clean in the shallows, scouring my itching skin with sand.
My health was far too low, I was suffering from sothing called anemia (yes, I know NOW what that is), dehydration (I took several gulps of seawater to start fixing that), and my heartbeat was both too fast and too loud.
From the mansion, a woman beckoned to . I recognized neither her nor her language.
I felt ... annoyed. What had I been doing, again? Why? I rembered it was sothing important.
[You are infected with taint. You have zero points of taint. Your taint is currently under control.]
Huh? Why was my system worried about that? It was bad, but it was at zero. Zero bads was a good thing, right?
The woman ca to the shore, beckoning again.
Who was she? I poured seawater over my head.
I had a vague sensation of dislike, but couldn’t pin it down to any reason to ignore her. She led back into my room, and sat down in a chair while she fetched clean sheets, put so under and others above , made certain my external door was closed and locked, and then she left, taking the candle with her.
I blinked, queuing up the twenty minute transformation that let see by the moonlight filtering in through the curtains.
The room was hardly spartan, featuring a standing wardrobe and a set of drawers with a half-mirror. They were made to a larger scale than I was, so clearly this was not my room.
Or... was I still growing? That seed to feel right.
But why couldn’t I think clearly?
[Serious Injury: Brain Damage]
Yeah, thanks, system. Okay, so whatever a brain was, I just wouldn’t walk on it until it healed.
Okay, so brain rhys with pain... No, that wouldn’t work. My skin sounded nothing like itch, and co to think of it no amount of scratching was making it feel better.
My stomach growled. Okay, I needed food. That also seed right.
Okay, the other door... was locked.
Hrm... okay, beneath the lock was a vertical bar. Why did I care?
It didn’t depress; trying to lift it just caused it to rotate...
CLUNK!
With a turn of the doorknob, I was loose inside the house.
Moving on all fours to keep my flickering tongue close to the slls of the carpet, I began my hunt.
#
I triggered the changes to the spine and limbs that would make four legged movent easier. Why had I ever chosen otherwise?
Oh! Oh, that was pain! I stopped the transformation, and told it to go back.
When I uncurled myself, there was a four legged creature, dark of fur and smaller than in size.
The cat fled, and I gave chase. I lost it, briefly, in an intersection that slled of lye.
I found it in a stone-tiled room, far above on the counter. Fool! Pressing myself against the side, I forced myself back onto two legs.
Now... now the cat was no longer on the counter.
And... I slled food! Right behind that door.
Slobbering and growling, I made my way to the pantry.
That was where they found in the morning, wrapped around the remains of what had been a burlap bag of potatoes, incriminating strips of brown wedged between my teeth.
Two nights later, restrained to the bed by a light steel chain (I’d eaten the rope of the previous night), I retained enough mory to realize what a pain I’d been.
I should probably apologize. But first ... food.
There was a handful of straw! I could sll it, enticing...
But there was also her sll. Soone... Soone I cared for. Enough not to eat her, anyway.
But that straw... I moved my head as close as I could, and reached out with my tongue. Okay, that wasn’t going to work. Maybe there was sothing I could do with my tongue?
There were evolutions there, but I didn’t have the biomass to fix them. Where was my biomass going?
[Severe injury: Brain damage (accelerated healing)]
Thank you, System! Sa thing as earlier... wasn’t it?
But, having nothing else to do, I should just...
[Due to extensive brain damage, you cannot engage abilities, spells, or effects.]
I cannot engage... Engage? I didn’t want to MARRY that spell, I wanted to cast it! Whatever, I was going to roll over... Okay, NOT roll over and just go to sleep.
When fed, I ate whatever was placed within reach. Every so often, one or another being would co into my room and make random-seeming noises. Uh, language.
I seed to have any number of won, but at least five, who cared for during that ti. None of them appreciated being snapped at, and I gradually learned the words for “food” and “water”.
And yes, that was an embarrassnt later, when more words, and how to use them, returned to .
Gradually, I earned trust again. Plus, they really did want going to the outhouse rather than just whenever the mood took .
And then I rembered the na “Kist.”
“Awagh! What was that for?”
“That was for making worry.”
Soone hit in my other eye.
“And that is for making worry.”
“Wife! You weren’t ... Awagh!”
And there, doing a dance of victory on my chest, was a monkey.
#
I reached out to grab it by the neck, but it was far too quick for .
[Serious injury: nerve damage (accelerated healing)]
“I told you ...”
“You told you weren’t buying a monkey. And that’s fine. You didn’t forbid to purchase one for myself.”
“She told us you didn’t mind.” Kist explained.
“I told you to tell if you objected.” Madonna said. “Have I done wrong? Am I to be punished?”
“Once I heal enough, yes, there will be punishnt for this. What is the status of the expedition to ndez island? How long do we have until storm season?”
“Uhm. You’ve been ... gone... for a couple of weeks, Rhishi. Governor gave us his son’s weight in lapis, Gamilla’s collected on that and has every goldsmith or silversmith in the city just making them into jewelry for her.”
“Madonna, show the knife.”
“Which knife?”
“Rhishi, there was no knife. We checked.”
“Blacksoul Madonna, by our pact, I command you; either show the knife RIGHT NOW or return to the hell that spawned you.”
“Wait! Wait! It’s upstairs in my room!”
“Two minutes, go!”
She bolted out of the room like a flaming monkey was chasing her.
“That lying bitch!”
.....
“Don’t be too hard on her, Kist. It’s in her nature.”
“No.”
“Beg pardon?”
“No, Rhishi. I’ve seen YOUR true nature.”
I folded my arms across my chest. “I don’t think traumatic head wounds should count.”
“I’m not talking about that! You had us WATCH, while you were RIPPED OPEN and EATEN! You BOOB!”
“I’m sorry?”
“And you’ll never do it again?”
“I didn’t want to do it the first ti!”
“But you DID! Now I want to hear you swear, you’ll never do that again.”
“I’ll never make you watch that again.”
“Gods... You really think you might have to.”
“Until my seventh birthday, I’m sworn to the service of Rakkal. Unless he sells that service, which he’d be a fool to do. Wait, is the monkey here?”
“Right there.” She said.
I pressed the palms of my hands to my eyes. “Detect Taint!”
He was running for cover, but I still saw him. “I thought so.”
“You thought WHAT?” Kist demanded.
“She’s either using the monkey as a repository for spare taint, or she’s summoned a demon into it. Co forth, minor devil, if you dare.”
The monkey swaggered around the edge of the wardrobe, bandy legged and proud. He took the tiny admiral’s hat in one hand, and perford an actor’s bow.
“Lord Dimmihammas, forty-seventh son of the Pyre Witch, at your service... or more properly speaking, your wife’s service.”
Madonna stord into the room at that mont, throwing the knife to him.
“Now, Dimmihammas! Kill my husband!”
“So sorry, dear chap. Chiichiichii!” and with that, he leapt straight for my heart, wielding the obsidian knife with more taint than he himself had.
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