Dreiki’s throat was dry. He could feel that horrid sensation of being watched again. Like something was burrowing into his spine and writhing about.
“Then how do they die? Anything dies right? Even gods,” Rixam asked.
“The only way an Osazi dies is if it kills itself. You might not be able to harm them, but lucky for everyone in the world that rule goes both ways. Osazi can’t harm anything directly. They must inflict you with a curse of misfortune by harming themselves. The greater harm they deal to themselves, the worse that misfortune is.”
“So how do you survive one?”
“If you’re the victim of an Osazi, then don’t kill yourself.” L’maya said flatly, “If you’re the friend or family of an Osazi’s target, then you better hope you’re lucky.”
Dreiki had a pit in his stomach, “What do you mean?”
“Malaki want to make more of themselves, even if they don’t have children like we do. The way an Osazi does that is by picking a target and getting them to kill themselves as a result of the misfortune it brings. It could be the sole surviving soldier in a bloody battle, an orphaned child, or a victim of rape. The Osazi’s curse will never kill its victim, but that’s not true for the ones they love.”
“So then how do you survive one?” Dreiki asked, no longer hungry, “Is there a way to make sure others around you survive?”
“They’re scary creatures right? But they have a few weaknesses.” L’maya said, counting on her fingers, “The first is that they cannot heal themselves once they’ve inflicted harm. Eventually the Osazi will succumb to the wounds it inflicts on itself. The second is that they prefer to target those with a great deal of willpower. Victims who are already predisposed to taking their lives for one reason or another do not become strong Osazi. Their victim’s decision must come as a result of the misfortune it brings, not from the natural misfortune life itself can bring. Lastly, the Osazi must show itself when harming. The strength of natural misfortune is you never know when it’s going to hit you. But with an Osazi, you know ahead of time.” L’maya raised a fourth finger, “If I had to add one more, it’s that they’re thankfully rare due to the nature of their reproduction, so you won’t need to worry about encountering one.”
“...Yeah,” Dreiki said.
“Well it sounds like you can protect other people from the misfortune it brings, right?”
L’maya shrugged, “It all depends on if the victim is strong enough to overcome misfortune. Sometimes all it takes is one tip of the scales for everything to come crashing down, and the Osazi has a unique awareness of that. Even if Malaki can’t communicate with us, they still understand and plan just like we do. They’ve got intelligence and it’s always used to deceive and bring out the worst in us. Malaki are harbingers of the end, but only if we allow ourselves to be corrupted by their influence.”
“Thank you for telling us. I think we’ve learned quite a bit. It could be useful when the Siren Ceremony comes,” Rixam said.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
She laughed, “Oh, well I suppose I probably wasn’t supposed to say as much as I did, but you’ll all keep quiet about that right?”
“Of course, but we’re gonna need all the help we can get in the end.”
“I’m sure you will.” L’maya said, “But I think that’s enough about that for now. Let’s enjoy the rest of our meal, shall we?”
The four of them went back to their meal, the conversation turning to lighter topics. Gornax and Luna joined their table along with a giant of a xio L’maya introduced as her husband. Dreiki kept locking eyes with L’maya’s daughter. Her name was Arika if Dreiki recalled. She seemed distant from the conversation, only pitching in when she was asked a question, and responding with dry answers. He felt strangely connected to her in that way. Dreiki didn’t want to talk right now. He had so many things on his mind that it had spoiled his appetite. He left the rest to Ezo who seemed too distracted by the prospect of extra food to notice his unease.
He wanted to scream to everyone to get away from him now until the Osazi haunting him was gone, but something kept him from warning them.
What if he tried to drive everyone else away to keep them safe? Would he be able to survive alone, knowing that they were safe? Would they be safe in the first place?
It was entirely possible the Osazi could send a rock tumbling down a hill to crush them miles away from where he was. Dreiki had read enough tragedies and legends about trying to defy fate to know that the act of changing the future only made it a reality. As much as he hated it, there was nothing he could do, but carry on as he always did.
But was that all true in the end? Ezo had survived the Osazi’s misfortune, but not by Dreiki’s hand. If anything, he had been lucky that day. It was how he met Savekio. If all of that hadn’t happened, he would have run off to Punuuk with an injured bat drake in his arms. Maybe Savekio would have caught him, maybe not.
If the Osazi hadn’t showed up in Yvian, would he remember the words of his father’s song?
He had persevered through that misfortune so far, so maybe it wasn’t all bad. Maybe he could still enjoy his life with the other people around him.
At least now he knew its name. He knew how to survive it. He knew how its curses worked now.
But in the end, it terrified him all the more to know that the result of whatever misfortune it brought rested squarely on his shoulders and his alone. It was all the more reason to enjoy the moment, knowing that the Osazi could rip it to shreds with a literal snap of its fingers.
Dreiki retired for the night, his thoughts a constant loop of worry and resolution. A cycle only broken when Luna crawled into his sleeping bag with him.
“What are you doing?” Dreiki whispered.
“I don’t feel comfortable with so many strangers in the same tent. I keep thinking someone might climb into my sleeping bag, so…” Dreiki felt her head on his chest, her tail coiling on his leg, “Is that alright? I can’t sleep head to foot in a sleeping bag.”
“If it’s alright with you, then it’s alright with me,” Dreiki said.
“It is.” She said quietly, “Thank you.”
The two nodded off together. A peaceful sleep until Luna turned over and yanked his blanket off of him in the process. Dreiki took it as an opportunity to practice keeping his mana skin active while he slept.
He wondered what Gornax and Rixam would say seeing the two of them sharing a sleeping bag. He hoped they wouldn’t tease them too hard. There was a part of him that wanted to be seen that way with Luna, but he wasn’t certain.
He knew what Luna had been through, and he did not want to harm her by accident. He had already burned her once trying to protect her. He did not want to feel that way again.
Fortunately, Dreiki did not have to worry about being teased when he woke up the next morning. Unfortunately, he would instead wake up to the sounds of Luna screaming just outside the tent.