Galen Vesa

“Your eyes glow.”

“And you have a tail, what of it?”

“Does it… not bother you?”

“is there a point of asking that now?”

Her cheeks flared up. An odd reaction.

“Either way, the deed is done, what of my payment?”

“Payment… a child of night is speaking through your lips. Should I reward by giving you mine?”

Logic proposed I should try articulating a response with my fist. I ignored her whispers with growing difficulty while the snake let her fingers roam once more, pretending she did not see I avoided her kiss.

“Do not doubt me, I will uphold my word. You shall have your payment but not before the dawn. The night is cold, and my blood cannot warm itself...”

Aha, nope. My legs were acting funny, so I guided her hand somewhere safer.

“There’s a town below, I’m sure you can find there a few that would willingly warm it up for you. I think I had enough of playing a bedwarmer.”

Did her embrace grow tighter around me? Her face did sink in my pillows.

“Perhaps one more…”

“No. I am ~used~ enough already. I do not plan on spending the next few days scrubbing myself.”

That made her tail twitch. This was a sticky night of revelations. Some of which I could do without.

“Speak and lets us end it, I am weary of waiting.”

And I am icky, as much as I thought I would never use that word. At least not while referring to myself. Eh, I want a bath and yeah, I am burning my cloths before I go back or else I will not hear the end of it from the wolf. Maybe I should take a quick turn inside a bonfire? Or ask Fire to scorch away the top layer of my skin? It should kill all the lingering scents.

“Well?”

I extracted myself from the seer’s arms accompanied by the sounds of Joy, Pleasure and Desire’s booing. The serpent too let out a disappointed sigh before rolling onto a part of floor where first rays of still invisible sun gathered.

“I do not know why you wish to hear it or who you truly are to know of such a thing but, it appears more is at play than what I have seen.”

She closed her eyes as if reaching into some deepest part of her mind.

“It is not a prophecy I shall share with you but a memory I carry within myself.”

“Countless winters before I came to this land, one akin to yourself tore me away from my death and just like yours is, her fate remained a mystery to my eyes.”

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“She appeared out of nowhere, clad in darkness and blood. Ruthless and cold against all that faced her. One by one corpses fell at her feet while blood-soaked sand spread around us like a crimson carpet. No one escaped her wrath. No one but me.”

“She smashed my enchanted cage as if it were made of brittle ice and not magical steel. Her shining staff cut through it without any issue.”

“Her shit stick, as she called it, slid it under my chin to lift my face so she could gaze into my eyes. But I did not let her. I shut my elides trembling in fear, wait for a blow that never came.”

“You’re lucky, she said, the shit stick does not wish you dead.”

She went silent, staring into empty space while I waited for more.

“And?”

“That’s it.”

Eeeh?

“I have no other recollection of what happened next. She bashed my face in with her fist and left me there.”

Why does it sound so, probable? Eh. Aside from an enormous time waste I learned nothing.

“Thank you. Thank you for sparing my life twice.”

As unusual as it looked, the seer bent her tail halfway and prostrated before me.

“I am well aware of my sin, I have lied to and used countless people, but had I known it was you, my savior, I would not dare to deceive you.”

“How unfortunate that you got the wrong person. Pray we won’t meet again.”

I picked up my dress and jumped out of the tower. A moment longer and I would stomp her face into the ground. So useless. No answers, just more questions. Always, always someone playing me.

“Annoyed, are we?”

Wind caught me before I dropped half the distance to the plaza below. Locked in her arms I sailed away with the morning breeze, the silent city slowly coming to life beneath us. So many people lived in this world. And yet… Me, it always happened to me.

My blood was boiling. All of this mess wouldn’t take place had that snake told us where to look for the girl when we came here. Now the dragon snored in comatose and I grit my teeth trying awfully hard not to kill anyone for any absurd reason.

I felt… enraged.

Were those memories even mine? Those skills… I’m sure I have never been to any of those places or learned any of those things… and the blood lust.

“Put me down!”

The wind complied and dropped me on a nearby beach where I fell on my knees and retched. Memories of all the things I did flashed through my mind. Disgusting.

“Why?! Why the fuck me?! Why?!”

My roar died in a distance, silenced by the waves. Nobody answered. Nobody dared to take the blame.

My clutched fist trembled all while my flame raged inside me.

“Child…”

Earth appeared beside me, her form assembled from the sand. As I turned my head to face her, her shin connected with my side and my lights went out.

I don’t remember my flight nor the impact that stopped me. When I came to, I found myself with my head resting on Earth’s lap while she smiled softly at me.

“Have you calmed yourself my child?”

“Yes. I think. Thank you.”

For some odd reason, the rocky cliff behind her had a hole in it whose shape roughly resembled that of a person with arms and legs spread wide apart.

Earth followed my gaze and, soon the crack began to fill up, mending itself.

“Unruly children sometimes need to be reminded of their manners.”

Well, if she considers kicking someone through a cliff wall akin to spanking then I don’t want to get on her bad side.

“Child, it is no time for your bad puns. You had taken upon yourself an oath. You have obligations to fulfil.”

“Huh? How do you know that? What obligations?”

“It is not for a mortal to ask what your flesh cannot comprehend.”

Sadness. Again, her face filled with that fake sadness. Were these creatures even able to comprehend what it meant to be sad?

“Yes child, we can. We love if we want to. We hurt if we want to. We long if we want to... There is nothing within flesh that we cannot have. We are more, much more. If we love our love is true. If we hurt, our pain is full. If we hate, there is no escaping our wrath. We do not forget. We cannot forget. We exist to remember. We remember to exist.”

“Child, this much I am allowed to tell you. This world is destined to drown in blood and your anger will take you there. I beg of you, do not let yourself be swayed.”