CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE.

“I can’t help but feel like I’ve missed some critical developments.” Leigh mused aloud as I dragged him along.

"Mhmm, I'll fill you in later. Less talking, more running." My voice was clipped and my eyes were just a hint on the wild side from suppressed panic.

How the hell is there a dead guy in my soul? Did my spell eat him somehow?

I had to get to the villagers and make them start removing the runes as quickly as possible. This should've been something I did the moment I noticed the interaction between the rune and my soul, but I'd hesitated to make demands of the villagers in their state. Now I just hoped I could fix things before I wound up taking more from these abused people.

Paying the price for indecision once again.

"—Ray?" Leigh snapped his fingers, trying to get my attention. "You there, kid?"

"Huh?" Startled, I shook my head, realizing I'd stopped in the middle of the hallway and spaced out. "Sorry, uh… villagers, we need to—"

"Hold up, Ray."

Pulling me aside he put his hands on my shoulders and looked me in the eyes.

"Are you alright?"

Blinking owlishly at the sudden question, I stumbled for an answer.

"I, uh… kind of? I'm…" trailing off, I stared guiltily at the floor.

What am I feeling guilty for? He just asked how I was!

"Breathe, Ray. Slow down. Is someone going to die if you're not at the village camp in the next few minutes?" Leigh asked seriously.

"N-no but—"

"Then we need to talk, kid. You're wearing yourself out running around like this and if you don't work through things properly, you're going to snap. I might not know the whole story with you, but the last time I saw you this stressed out you set off the calamity ward of Delmoth. I'm here to help you, Ray, but I'd like to avoid anything similar happening again. If I'm gonna do that, then I'm going to need you to work with me, ok?"

I paused, intentionally slowing my breathing.

“Ok.”

On the one hand, he absolutely has a point about my stress levels. Hell, I just had another nightmare about losing control and destroying everything. It was a lot of pressure to live under but… what else was I supposed to do? Plenty of people around me were in worse situations, and there was just too much to do for me to properly hide from it all like I desperately wanted. On the other hand… I actually wasn’t doing that bad right now. Just a little freaked out that I might potentially add ‘soul eating’ to my list of terrible things I’d done.

"Good. Now, can you tell me what happened last night?" He asked.

Of all the people here, Leigh was probably the one that I should have told all this stuff to first. He had said he’d rather be kept in the dark at first, but the situation had thoroughly changed and I was no longer attempting to stay completely hidden. It was a struggle to put things concisely, but I tried to fill him in. He got the same details about the [Blightlings] that I’d given the captain earlier, plus a note about my original meeting with Dezzahn that perked his interest.

"Hmm…" Leigh mulled to himself, nodding as I finished my abbreviated story. "Alright, well in light of this information I need to ask you something. How much do you know about the Corruptor?"

My eyes widened as the priest brought up a title that I'd never mentioned to him before. Shaking off my surprise, I said the first thing that came to mind.

"Uh, he's an enormous asshole and someday I'm going to kill him?"

Leigh chuckled at my response.

"So… not a whole lot then, but I’ll get back to that. This is your ultimate goal? The endgame for you here?"

"Yes." I said, resolutely.

If it's the last thing I do in this world, I will drag that monster from his hole and rip him to bloody pieces.

"Ok. Killing one of the Named. Didn't know that was on the agenda but honestly at this point why am I surprised? At least no one will be able to say that our goals are unambitious."

"Our?" I couldn't help but ask.

"Told you kid, I'm with you till you get sick of me and send me off. Besides, being part of a crusade to end one of the old horrors will get me free drinks virtually everywhere!" He said with a wink and an exaggerated grin.

It took me a second to reply, and my voice came out husky at the show of support.

“Thanks, Leigh.”

“Don’t mention it, Ray. I’m not about to run off on you just because you revealed your mission of revenge against one of the gods’ most powerful enemies on all of Haven. We will likely die horrible, ignominious deaths in some forgotten pit beneath the surface, but that won’t stop us! No matter what terrifying, unstoppable forces array against our—”

“Alright, alright I get it.” I cut off his increasingly dramatic tirade with a chuckle.

“As you wish, I exist to serve.” He quipped with an over-dramatic bow. "So… Dezzahn. That's a very old name few are going to recognize, but the ones who do will be very concerned by hearing— and by 'concerned' I mean that they'll likely have you incinerated on the spot rather than risk the spread of some horrific infection. The Corruptor lives up to his title with disturbing enthusiasm, although if you've met him that's hardly news to you."

Grimacing, I shook my head.

"Definitely not."

"Honestly, if I didn't know you had been previously cleared by the gods I would have recommended we turn ourselves in to the Mysterium— more than one city has found their population decimated shortly after someone came in close contact with that monster. The Named are no joke, even if most of them haven't been seen in millennia."

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I cocked my head in curiosity.

"That's the second time you've used that term, 'the Named'. What does that mean?"

He stared blankly at me before rubbing the back of his head with chagrin.

"I keep reminding myself you're not from here despite fitting in reasonably well, and then you say something like that and it just slaps me in the face. Feels like someone asked me what ‘dirt' is and I’ve got to figure out where to even start. No offense.”

“None taken.” I said dryly.

“Apologies, but the Named are… Mythological. The original monsters. The entire origin of the term Beast Lords and progenitors of their species. They were the first beasts to find their own path to Authority and ascend to godhood. Most people couldn’t tell you more than a couple names of the local legends but everyone knows the concept. Dezzahn is one of the oldest, and one of the only ones that didn’t completely disappear after the Doom of the Achorai.

If we’re hunting him, we need some serious resources. You know, it’s actually beneficial that we’re meeting up with Lord Haethram like this. If we’ve got an ‘in’ with the Mysterium on his level and credible information on the Corruptor’s whereabouts, we might actually stand a decent chance of getting a full delve assembled.”

I could see the gears turning in his head as he adjusted our course going forward, and strangely enough he actually sounded like he thought we could win. I’d been fully prepared to beg Veris for a map and then jump down the nearest hole in the ground— although to be perfectly honest my plan barely even went that far.

Mostly, the plan had been: Find Veris, get stronger, find Dezzahn, kill him. Which has a fairly significant amount of wiggle room in it as plans go. My ruminations were interrupted by a growing smirk on Leigh’s face.

“What?”

“Feeling better?”

I paused, my heart rate steadier than it had been since waking up from my nightmare.

“Actually… yeah.”

“Perfect. Now we can figure out what’s going on with your soul.”

Nezzick’s chambers were exactly how I imagined them. Kooky shaman, mysterious and slightly sinister, living in a flotilla of heavily scavenged vessels? Yeah, his entire room— which I somewhat jealously noted was bigger than mine— was covered in swathes of dark cloth and etched bones. Smokey incense hovered in the air, obscuring everything in a dim haze that I was absolutely certain had been done intentionally for the ‘atmosphere’.

The shaman himself sat cross-legged in front of us, his ancient face hidden behind a freshly-made wooden mask. Snarling, fanged jaws had been carved into the bottom of the mask while the top half was featureless save for the shimmering mark of my rune. Reeds had been woven into a crude hood that covered the rest of the old man’s head, the strands dyed with dark blues and greys with little spots of white meant to represent stars. My shoulders drooped depressedly as I realized what the mask was meant to represent— me, in my transformed state. A quick flash of memory brought back when I’d first met the villagers back at the tower, and how in contrast to everyone at the flotilla they'd all been careful to keep themselves covered. Exasperation fought a brief war with curiosity before I spoke.

"Ok, I'll bite. What, exactly, are you wearing, and why are you wearing it now?"

Nezzick shrugged, his body movements more exaggerated to convey emotion with his face obscured.

"We were godless, now we are not. By this our people's allegiance is known. It is of great relief for us to have seen your true form, as being unmasked in public is a sign of great shame— marking one as outcast. There has been much debate on how to properly cover ourselves with our Lord being human. Thankfully this was all settled last night."

I sighed defeatedly at the reminder of my… episode. It took a moment to push aside the bubbling torrent of emotions that reminder brought up, but I had to focus on the reason I was here.

"Well, whatever floats your boat I guess. Listen—" Glancing nervously at Leigh, who gestured at me to go ahead, I continued.

"Do you remember the guy who got my rune painted on his face?"

Cocking his head the shaman seemed confused.

"Dun'Kallick? Yes. Impulsive man, swore the rune would grant him the Great One's protection. He was one of those who perished in the attack."

A brief surge of guilt hit me before I could shake it off.

"Yes, him."

For a second I floundered, wondering where to even begin before I gave him a quick background on my 'soul space'. His eyes widened behind the mask as I spoke until he abruptly leapt to his feet when I explained the soul currently floating in my new spell.

“He is within you? In this… soul realm, you have created? His spirit was taken in by the [Baleful Star]?” Nezzick exclaimed hurriedly.

Oh wow, that’s a much better name than I came up with.

Nodding seriously, my eyes followed the shaman as he began pacing back and forth with agitation, muttering inaudibly to himself. Coming to a decision, he stopped and turned to me with a deep bow.

“My apologies, Great One. This news is far beyond anything that I have dealt with before. I must call a convocation of the people— all will be informed as soon as possible!”

With that, he darted out of the chamber. Muffled shouts sounded from outside while I sat in a mixture of relief that something was being done and mild discomfort at the old man’s continued servility. Leigh patted my shoulder encouragingly and grinned.

“That went well! See? Told you there was nothing to worry about.”

I smiled back tiredly, what little energy I had left rapidly fading as the latest crisis was averted. For a little while I just sat in the shaman’s weird room and chatted idly with Leigh, mostly filling in details of my past life and struggling to stay awake. After about half an hour, Nezzick stepped back in the room through the curtained doorway.

“Great one, we are ready and I will be making the announcement shortly. We would be honored by your presence.” He said with a deep bow.

Shrugging, I nodded and stood up. We followed Nezzick through a short passage out to a platform that overlooked the village flotilla. Unfortunately, my tired brain hadn’t really processed what Nezzick had meant by ‘we are ready’, because the crazy old man had apparently summoned everyone.

A sea of tired, dirty faces looked up at us from the crowded decks of every ship in the fleet. They’d all been drawn as close as they could for the shaman’s announcement, and over three thousand pairs of hard eyes stared up at our perch. A sudden feeling of unease gripped my spine like a vice, and I was abruptly sure that things were about to take a turn that I would not appreciate. Almost like he could sense my trepidation, the shaman’s voice thundered out over the assembly before I could try to stop him.

“True People of the Land! Harken, for a time of change is upon us!” Reaching down, the shaman’s wizened fingers latched onto a bundle of painted masks like the one he now wore and hoisted them into the air above his head. “Our time as outcasts has ended— we are godless no more!”

A relieved murmur swept through the crowd, coincidentally the exact opposite of what I was feeling as Nezzick launched into his speech.

“The Great One has come, we stand before him now! In his power he has given us a sign— a mark.” Nezzick traced the rune painted on the mask reverently. “This mark symbolizes a new realm, a realm within the very spirit of the Great One himself. Protected by his power, secured from the outside world! Any who fall in service to him and bear his mark shall be taken unto him, and more…”

The shaman’s hands formed into claws, raking violently at the air.

“Their spirits shall empower the Great One’s magicks, guiding his wrath upon those who would slay our kin and shining like stars in the night sky. Know, and believe, that even if the end should come; from beyond, you shall have vengeance!”

The sound that greeted this announcement was equal parts a cheer and a collective snarl as a force of primal savagery nearly bludgeoned me off the stage. Deep beneath the exhaustion, these people were angry. And Nezzick— the rotten bastard— had just given them a fresh way to vent their anger that also somehow tied them closer to me. I could already feel the itching sensation in my soul growing as more and more of my runes were being carved, and I knew the sensation was only going to get worse from here.

Slowly turning my head, I glared long and hard at Leigh, who was looking out with consternation at the fervent crowd below.

“You just had to jinx it dude.”