As if the misty mire had been cleansed of its evil, or at least temporarily restrained by the ties of fate, the skies were clear of any clouds as William departed with his current travelling companions. With their request now fulfilled, the group returned south as to resume their usual duties. The night hunter, with his mission and reason to continue his journey with the vampire ending on his return to London, tried to return to his previous mindset with little success. The formerly simplistic moral outlook that he once held, where anything that was not cut from the Church's cloth was likely to harm humanity, had become more complex. Even he had to admit, against decades of religious lessons, that not all supernatural entities inherently wanted to cause harm to humanity and that some would extend their hand to help.
His notions of blasphemy over the praise and worship of a known vampire by the nobles were ultimately dissuaded by the subject of said attention, rejecting all but the requested payment. Such internal moral contradictions were now a regular occurrence, at least as long as he was to travel with Victoria. Regardless of his own ideological dedication or time spent in self-reflection, he could not grasp her notions of morality. If it had been six months prior, his hardened faith would have rejected any notion that a depraved creature, such as a Vampire, would live a virtuous life out of notions of self-preservation. To her, as long as someone made their choice of their own volition, she would help them as much as she was able to, so long as it did not place herself in a position which compromised her general neutrality or safety.
Such thoughts lingered as he looked over the crate which currently housed Victoria, sleeping while they travelled under the sun's warm glow. Their journey had them joining and departing various caravans and similar convoys, as not to be harassed by any nefarious actors which frequented the wilder regions which saw little attention from wandering guards or soldiers. Even with the frequent downpours, they were travelling at a good pace which would have them arrive at London coming on the last month of spring.
During the bumpy carriage ride south, the night hunter carefully examined the various supernatural items that he had collected whilst Victoria was providing post-surgery care to Godiva Hurst. The Castle grounds were a fertile hunting ground for all manner of artefacts of varying potency. For a small fee Victoria had created something similar to her previous mixture, allowing him to sense any gathering of natural magics that were hidden from regular eyesight. The trinkets in question were not overtly sinister, an outsider observer might even compare them to crosses worn by the faithful. While curious about their inherent symbolism and meaning, both for his own education and the church's records, the closest thing to an expert with-in the party only knew generally of the common entities and not of the centuries of worship built around them. This knowledge would've been valuable to the local pastors in the Hurst lands, who had kindly provided lodging during their stay.
Though he had little to do with the actual diagnosis, both he and Leo had been well taken care of during their stay, thanks to the swift recovery of their youngest child. Often, he took Dustin out with accompanying guards on his various rounds, whilst Victoria held a makeshift doctor's office with-in the confines of the church hall. The occasional visit from young Godiva as she happy walked around the town square only added to her credibility, silencing her critics with Lionel's approval and monitoring her practice out of intellectual curiosity.
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As with many occurrences in life, William had no clue as to when it started happening, but for the last few days nothing he ate seemed to satisfy his appetite. Even changing from his normally modest meals to the more lavish ones offered by his travelling companions did not seem to quench his newfound hunger. His behavior had not gone unnoticed by Leo, and by extension the vampiric doctor, who had gladly shared his meals with the night hunter when they noticed his more increasingly varied diet. Victoria had simply ignored the change in behavior, most likely as the probable cause was likely not life-threatening and his religious pride kept him from seeking anything other than urgent treatment. He would trust Victoria to never betray any agreements that she made or her associates, as she saw any damage to her reputation as a threat to her own survival, but his own prejudices limited any interaction beyond that.
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After several days and nights of unsatisfied hunger, he finally allowed himself to consult Victoria about his constant appetite. As he suspected she was aware of his condition and had been respecting his wishes and avoiding raising any medical concerns out of respect. Her diagnosis was fairly straight forward, narrowing the origin of the dietary change to either a parasitic worm or a forest spirit known as a “Joint-Eater*.” The former was known to William, although he had never had the misfortune of having them as the treatment (usually a combination of wormwood or gentian) that caused violent diarrhea which could last for hours.
The latter was mostly unknown to the church, or at least negligible-enough to be ignored in-favor of more immediately threatening targets. The creatures were known about since before the founding of Christianity, passed on through Celtic stories which were often dismissed by orthodoxy of the higher members with-in his church. The fairy had been given many names over the centuries from: Just-halver to Alp-luachra (Irish name,) but was more commonly referred to as the Joint-Eater.
According to Victoria, the fairies would find unsuspecting travelers near streams and proceed to crawl down their throats to live with-in their stomach, safe from the world and access to a stable food source. Unlike most creatures, the Joint-Eater's diet consists of 'the essence of food.' In reality it likely is taking the innate magical energy from the food, leaving the physical behind. The lack of inert magic in their diet would of course be noticed by the host's subconscious soul and try and compensate with increased, or at least a more varied, diet.
While the probing tingling sensation was new one to him, the alien technique of using her soul to search for other foreign magical sources had at least one other successful test case. The discomfort was short lived as her, admittedly rudimentary, proficiency was able to quickly determine that it was the supernatural creature which resided with-in his stomach and not the relatively normal parasite. Her magical projections had obviously disturbed the creature as he could feel something shifting around in his insides. Such feedback was freely given, as her potentially revolutionary process was still in the early stages of refinement.
The cure, whilst in keeping its traditional roots, was unusual compared to the vast medicinal pool that Victoria had displayed previous. He had been provided with a large quantity of salted meat and a bucket as to serve as a body of water. Such a method was derived to drive the creature out of the stomach, depriving them of the higher levels of humidity which they prefer. Victoria added her own brand of occult knowledge to create, what see believed to be, a stronger variant on the ancient treatment. The adapted treatment applied her own unique blend of herbs onto the preserved flesh, as to make the stomach uncomfortable for any being without sufficient resistance or neutrality to holy magic.
It did not take long for the Joint-Eater to become unsettled by the meal delivered unto its home, constantly repositioning itself as William lent over the bucket, quickly looking to escape the hostile environment through the orifice from which it entered. Each movement up his oesophagus was met with suppressed urges to send the creature back down into the, both metaphorical and literal, bowels of the owner's stomach. Eventually, it reached his open mouth where it unceremoniously dived into the water waiting below, quickly getting sealed away by the waiting vampire.
Once recovered from a nasty succession of dreadful coughs, William found that the vampire had placed the magical parasite in a clear glass bottle, with small holes made with-in the lid to allow for the passage of air. Whatever image he had derived from the rather morbid name was quickly made redundant when he gazed on the colorful newt-like body of the creature. Were it not for wings that resembled those found on dragon flies, one might mistake the fairy as a variant of some local amphibian that had emerged from the water. Unfortunately, William struggled to get a good view of the creature as it constantly shifted to any form of shade, likely a result of its proclivity for dark environments.
Whether it was his prolonged exposure to various supernatural entities that were more indifferent to mankind or the relatively harmless nature of the creature, his doctrinal tendency towards extermination was outweighed with some semblance of understanding. The faerie was simply following its natural life cycle, which was to find a host in-which to live until it reached a time in which a new home was required. As with feral dogs and snakes, such creatures existed long before man and their actions made it clear that they saw humans no different than the wild animals of old. The creature, now seemingly calm in the dark shadows it was afforded, was quietly stowed away with-in William's heavy cloak, fate still yet to be determined by the slightly humbled night hunter.