Kai awoke to the scent of sothing that left him gagging. Sothing earthy, yet sour. His head throbbed, and his limbs felt like they’d been cleaved off, tenderised, and reassembled crookedly.
He blinked.
Laying on his back in a cave, he felt a wave of nostalgia wash over him.
There was a low fire crackling nearby, the kind that barely kept the shadows at bay. Above it, a pot bubbled with greenish ooze, the texture gelatinous, the sll sowhere between sulfur and moss.
His stomach turned. He knew it too well.
"Sli stew," he croaked, voice dry as dust.
His body never recognised it as food, but sohow... it had always helped. The sa concoction Vepice had nursed him back to life with before.
He sat up sharply, groaning. And nearly scread. Not due to pain, but fright.
Mari’s face hovered over his own.
Wide-eyed. Pale. Unblinking.
Her undead body knelt beside him, posture perfect, hands resting on her lap like a porcelain doll waiting for orders.
"Oh... right," Kai muttered. "You’re mine now. Couldn’t exactly throw you back into the shadow space in the state I was in. You followed ?"
The undead didn’t respond. Her breath was shallow but present, her chest rising and falling with unnatural rhythm. Most undead didn’t pretend to breathe. Bert was the only exception there. Her eyes, now colourless, were devoid of soul, but sothing watched him from within. Not divine. Not human. Just... presence.
"Mari?" Kai whispered. "Can you speak?"
The corpse tilted its head, lips parting slightly. No words ca. Just a breath. A hollow exhale.
"She’s your sister, right?" Vepice’s voice broke the stillness. She had her back to them, tending the pot with a crooked stick. Her head turned just enough to catch him in the corner of her eye. "Why would you both fight? Why would you do... this to her?"
Kai sighed, bitter and long. "Because, like your old master mutilated you, Mari was taught to deny the existence of soone like . Like us."
He watched Vepice’s hand tighten slightly on the stick.
"She even murdered our parents for it."
"Oh..." The silence that followed felt like it had weight. She stirred the sli gently, staring down into it like it might contain so other truth, so gentler version of the story.
"Yeah," Kai said softly. "When I left the forest, I thought I’d be returning ho. To family. But I found my sister brainwashed, my brother kidnapped, and my parents dead. All of them victims of divine propaganda. Of faith."
He leaned back against the cave wall behind him, wincing as his muscles protested.
"But I found soone who helped . Orlin. He taught how to live with what I am. What we are. Told the truth about our kind. About the Variants. About our line."
He recounted it all to Vepice: his ti in Mirth, the broken city of the lost and the damned, the undead that once filled the streets, and the nas of necromancers ntioned in tos and on ancient belongings.
He left out the massacres of the adventurers that now resided in his shadow space as his personal guards. There was no need to traumatize her with the heavier details. Not yet. He ntioned that his master was still trapped beneath a mansion behind his barriers, and he hoped to save him from himself one day.
He finished by telling her the information Orlin gave him, and the details within all of the texts he consud.
Vepice blinked, silent for a long ti.
"So... we ca from necromancers? We’re called... Variants?"
"Yes," Kai said. "And yes."
She stared into the bubbling pot like it had just changed shape. "Wow..."
The forest whispered softly around them. Wind in the branches. The occasional call of a distant bird. She stirred the stew idly, letting the silence speak for her.
"You know," Kai finally said, "this is... oddly familiar."
Vepice looked over at him, eyes curious.
"When I first t you, we were in the sa positions. But I was the one who couldn’t move. You were covered in scars. Barely alive. And now..."
"I’m the one who’s broken," Vepice murmured.
She turned and gave him a small smile. Sad, but honest.
"You’re not broken, Vepice. You’re just... lost..." Kai hesitated. "But, honestly, thank you. For saving . Again."
"This ti, you would have lived without . So arcane wolves ca sniffing about after the commotion with your sister, and she blew them apart before I even had a chance to fight."
"But you still brought to our cave and started making... that..." Kai pointed to the pot.
"It’s gotten much better, taste-wise, since you were here last! I add so crushed berries, lted together with honey."
"That’s good..." Kai tried not to rember the taste of the previous versions.
She nodded, unsure how to respond. But she wasn’t done.
"But, you know... even if I’m healed now, there’s no one in this forest who can see for what I am. The animals still see as prey. The humans, when they co, they think I’m the ghost of the forest. They run. Or worse, they fight. I usually just run away and sothing else kills them. Animals, I can hunt, because I need to eat. People, though? Even if they think I’m so cursed thing, I just can’t bring myself to do it."
"You’re not cursed," Kai said, voice firm.
"But to them, I am."
A long pause.
"Then co with . I planned to go alone, but if you want, you can join on my adventures."
Vepice blinked. "Where tp?"
"To a place called Sala," he said. "Far across the ocean. Beyond the reach of your master, or anyone here who thinks they get to decide who lives and who dies. No more people saying we’re evil or ghosts because of our hair or our skin. to them, we will just be foreigners."
Her eyes widened. "Across the ocean?"
"Yep."
"But I can’t swim," she admitted sheepishly.
Kai smirked. "It’s tougher than it looks. But don’t worry. We’re not swimming."
"Then how?"
"We’ll take a boat. I just have to find one worthy of our na."
Vepice looked at him with sothing new in her eyes.
Hope, maybe.
"Do you really think there’s a place for people like us?"
Kai leaned his head back, eyes staring up through the canopy.
"That isn’t the goal just yet, but if there isn’t," he said softly, "I’ll build one eventually. I promise.."
Reviews
All reviews (0)