The stars were bright and the streets were dark as night stretched on. After so much walking, slithering, and excitement in the day, the adventurers were finally allowed to rest. Only a solitary mana lamp glowed outside the inn illuminating a sign that had already served its purpose for the day.
The tranquility of the night extended inward with Kseniya and Nyx enjoying a long, peaceful rest. Nyx’s room was small and cozy with soft linen that Nyx nestled into as the night grew colder. Kseniya’s room was designed for larger folk and the bed easily managed to support the lamia’s entire frame. A large bed and clean linen made it one of the most comfortable rests the snake woman had enjoyed in weeks.
Inside the angel’s room was a golden sunchaser happily dreaming about things that made her tail periodically wag in her sleep. Brivaria’s fingers drifted through Trixie’s soft fur and the angel marveled at how smooth it always was. It never became matted. The dust and grime easily came out with a little bit of cleaning. The golden’s glossy coat always possessed a luster that was as beautiful as it was unfair.
Once the angel was certain Trixie was deep in her sleep, she spoke up. So many things were making more sense to her and she was finally to a point where she knew she could no longer ignore them.
“I know you’re there. Come out,” the angel whispered into the otherwise silent room. Having bidden them to come, the shadows moved. The familiar, centipede-like body of the demon stretched out along the walls and floor and the demon appeared to rise from the foot of the bed to tower over the angel and sleeping dog. Brivaria’s blue eyes met the sight with a serenity she had not felt the night before.
“And what does the little coward desire?” the demon asked with an irritated, put-upon tone. The winged girl smiled and kept her voice low so as not to disturb Trixie.
“I need your help choosing my next skill,” she said evenly. The demon laughed. It wasn’t mad laughter or even derisive. It was a full-bodied laugh that made the shadowy demon feel more life-like than anything she had done so far.
“An angel wishes to ask a demon for skill advice? Now I have seen everything but why would I help you?” the demon asked. They both knew the answer but Brivaria could tell the demon was fishing for more.
“The alternative is going to a church tomorrow and getting you exorcised or sealed,” the angel said calmly. The demon froze.
“You cannot exorcise me. Even if you could, you would irreparably damage yourself in the process. What do you think the system would do with your current skills if you no longer qualified for them?” The demon’s words were entirely true. Nonstandard advancement as her team discussed earlier was a trivial issue compared to the problems she could face with major soul surgery or whatever was required to remove the demon.
Of course, Brivaria was bluffing. The angel absolutely wasn’t going to hamstring herself so badly. She was testing the demon and this was the second of her tests. The demon’s laughter had not awoken Trixie. Now Brivaria was certain that her lamia friend had been correct—only she could hear the demon’s voice. More importantly, the fact that the demon was bothering to argue against the exorcism in turn proved that it wasn’t reading the angel’s mind. That was a tremendous relief.
“You are in my head, maybe even my soul, and I already know that’s doing something to me. I’ve made decisions that I don’t think I’d have ever made a cycle ago. It’s only when I truly focus on them and ask not what I’d do but what my past self would have done can I sense the difference. I can’t trust my own instincts because I’m not even sure they’re mine. I would greatly prefer Balthazar and Anriel to handle whatever this is but I will happily let one of those priests butcher my spirit if you push me,” Brivaria’s tone grew darker and darker as she spoke.
Pretty much no one who had met Brivaria since she’d arrived on Zlithia would ever consider the friendly angel to be anything remotely menacing but here there was an element of iron in her voice that none of her friends had heard. This was the woman who had fought alongside Arslans, Celians, and Tevrite against their many foes. It was the face she showed her enemies not of a kind girl but that of a celestial executioner who would do her job in the face of whatever horrors were laid out before her. In some ways, this was who she truly was beneath the friendly smile and curious exterior.
The silence left by Brivaria’s words was a tangible thing. The angel could now see the tiny, nervous movements of the demon’s many legs and the uneasy shifting of its long body as the seconds ticked by. The winged girl met the demon’s gaze without flinching or looking away.
“So you do have some spine after all,” the demon said at last. “Fine, if an angel wishes to advance as a demon then who am I to dissuade her? But you should know that I am doing nothing to you. Whatever decisions you make, you have only yourself to blame for them.” There was a smug note to the demon’s words but Brivaria ignored it. She didn’t trust anything the demon had to say regarding their circumstances and would still go to the church, if only to be examined, regardless.
“I’m considering the skills Flesh Optimization and Flesh Restoration for my level 32 skill point. Either could save my life in a pinch. Thoughts?” This was what Brivaria wanted to get to. She’d realized this was either a demonic or demon-oriented class so she wanted to consult an expert in the field, as bizarre as it seemed. There were too many options and she was too used to having Balthazar simply tell her what to pick. She needed the advice and this was the only way to get it.
“Terrible choices,” the demon snapped and Brivaria blinked, surprised at the reprisal.
“Do not look at me like that. You have a ridiculous amount of mana and a healing skill. You have no need for Restoration if you stop squandering mana in combat. I have seen drunken imps who have more self-control with their mana than you.” Brivaria knew it was true but she did not enjoy hearing it put like that.
“Optimization is for advanced forms such as my own. The larger and more complex the body, the more help you need from the System to manage it. Anything you could do with it right now could be achieved through a combination of Flesh Sculpting and Lesser Shapeshifting. The System gives enough help to add an extra heart, lung, or whatever you desire as well as rearrange them as needed. Both of your choices are a waste of the skill point,” the demon finished.
“What do you recommend instead?” the angel asked.
“Thinking would be a good start. What do you need now? A normal demon would need to improve the their battle form. Natural Weapons and Natural Armor would be ideal. Your first problem is that you don’t have a battle form because you insist on being this,” the demon said while gesturing to Brivaria’s body.
“Naturally your first choice should be Alternative Form. Your spirit should be high enough for two additional forms. One can be something with those tiny wings so you stop wasting mana changing between big wings and tiny wings. The second can be a proper battle form which you can begin making improvements to. Your first goal should be some sort of hybrid or chimera form which lifts useful traits from multiple species. This one skill will save you mana and make you more effective in combat.” The demon had taken on a lecturing tone midway through the explanation. It was reminiscent of Brivaria’s teachers in Heaven but with more condescension… a lot more.
“I’ll select Alternative Form then,” the angel replied after a little contemplation.
“Just like that?” the demon asked with equal parts curiosity and suspicion.
“Those were all good points, most of which I hadn’t considered,” the angel shrugged. “It’s good advice.”
“It is,” the demon agreed after an awkward pause. “Also you should stop focusing on your eyes and work on gaining a tail.” It was Brivaria’s turn to be surprised.
“A tail? Why? They have almost no use and are extremely vulnerable in battle,” the angel argued. The last thing she wanted was an extra appendage that could be grabbed, stepped on, or chopped off in a fight. The demon sighed.
“In order to gain traits from other species, you must bear enough of a resemblance to those species for the System to grant you the benefits. You can gain skills that enable a chimera form to be more efficient about such things but those are beyond you for the moment. The easiest way for you to increase your resemblance and potentially gain new traits is by adding a tail. Tongue, horns, ears, eyes, fangs, claws, and so on are also good but the tail is significant and easy.”
“That’s… hm,” the angel pondered the advice. It made sense to her. “What traits should I aim for?” The demon folded all six of her arms and considered the question.
“For you? I would start with a demon tail,” the shadowy woman advised.
“Demon?” Brivaria furrowed her brows at that. She was torn between hating that idea and being curious about it. Curse her traitorous instincts.
“Yes. Horns, tail, and eyes of my people combined with your wings should give you succubus demon traits which would protect you from many human weapons and spells. Fangs and tongue of a catfolk would give you their feline grace whereas fangs, tongue, and eyes of a lamia would give you their ability to taste the air, whatever it’s called,” the demon explained.
“Why not lephori or something else?” Brivaria asked.
“The more you interact with a race, the easier it becomes to copy their traits. It’s an unwritten aspect of the skill. You don’t need to worry about getting the best traits possible. You need experience using the skills and traits you can benefit from right now. Lamia or catfolk are easy given your circumstances. Demon traits are harder but more powerful. You should look for minotaurs while you are in this city…”
Brivaria held up her hands, forestalling what she felt was going to be a long string of suggestions. It was bizarre to be talking with a demon, let alone getting advice from one. There was only so much casual chatting she could take with someone who was ostensibly her enemy. The angel knew she had the awareness of a potato but she felt the demon’s suggestions were sincere and, strangely, the demon enjoyed talking.
“I’ll select the skill and work on the tail then,” the angel said. The demon nodded.
“Then I will show you what you should construct.”
The rest of the night passed with Brivaria being tutored by a demon, seemingly by the very woman that had done this to her in fact. It was surreal and heretical but the angel enjoyed it. It wasn’t the same as having Balthazar to talk to and she dearly wished the elder angel would contact her again but, for the first time since the woods outside of Pemburne, the angel felt like she was moving forward again.
The next morning, the Divine Blessing adventuring team assembled in the common room of the inn. They had no plans for breakfast until the smell of cooked food wafted from the inn’s kitchen. Plans sometimes changed. Half an hour later, three girls and a dog left the inn with full stomachs.
“I asked Candice about the address Mr. Collins gave us. She gave me directions. I can lead us there and back,” Nyx spoke quickly and was obviously excited to have something to do. The previous night had left a sour taste in her mouth and the catfolk girl was doing her best to be useful today.
“That’s not the only thing she gave you,” Kseniya said while eying Nyx’s hair which was now pulled back into a ponytail using a piece of string similar to what Candice used.
“Oh don’t tease Nyx. I was tempted to ask for one myself,” Brivaria said with a laugh, coming to the cat girl’s rescue. The conversation about hairstyling quickly swung into full force but all three of them were wary. They’d been attacked just yesterday. While nothing happened overnight, their mysterious assailant could be around the corner or watching them even now. They wouldn’t be caught unaware a second time.
It turned out that Barton was a lot easier to navigate in the early morning sunshine, when given good directions, and when not exhausted after an entire day of traveling. Unfortunately, being easier to navigate in broad daylight didn’t change the size of the city. It was still gigantic. They quickly realized the scope of their issue when an hour had passed and they were still far from their destination.
“Okay, I think we should find a carriage now. We will spend all day slithering to and from our destinations if want to explore the whole city on our tails,” Kseniya said at last.
“I second the vote for a wagon or carriage,” Nyx agreed.
Brivaria had no reservations. It took them 15 minutes to find a horse-drawn carriage willing to take them across the city and then they were moving again. Kseniya let out a happy sigh as the city rolled by.
The lamia took up most of the room in the carriage with her enormous tail. Neither Nyx nor Brivaria minded as they were soon glued to the windows watching all the people and wagons they passed with wide eyes. Trixie was also using the lamia’s large tail as a platform to stand on while sticking her head out the carriage window with her tongue extended. Brivaria also decided to stick her head out to see what it felt like. The first drop of Trixie drool from the dog’s outstretched tongue hit her face and she decided to watch from inside the carriage after all.
The inner city was fascinating to the angel. Dirt roads were replaced by cobblestone roads. Buildings were small and densely packed. There were a handful of large estates to the west and southwest but most buildings were small. The carriage passed many little shops where the shop floor was the first floor and the owner’s home was on the second floor.
The residential housing was compromised of a slew of tiny homes that were narrow, two-story affairs that reminded the angel of books on a shelf. Sometimes the buildings were painted in different colors making the resemblance to books even stronger. There were a few instances of separate homes being stacked on top of one another such that one person lived on the top and one on the bottom with outside stairs to reach the top home. It was fascinating to the angel how many people could exist in such a small space.
The carriage dropped them off near their destination and Kseniya inquired about where they could go to get another for the ride back. The serpent girl was absolutely not going to make the cross-city journey on her tail if she could avoid it. After that was handled, the group went three streets over to their actual destination.
Nyx had explained the general layout of the streets as told to her by Candice then Kseniya suggested taking the carriage to a different but nearby street. If word that a home was broken into reached the carriage driver and he recalled delivering a very memorable group to that home then certain connections would be made. It was a matter easily solved by a little misdirection and some walking. This proved itself to be a good decision as, within 10 minutes, they were already considering a little breaking and entering.
“Locked,” Kseniya said with a frown while jiggling the door handle to Terrance Grand’s home.
“Do you know any magic spells that unlock doors?” Nyx asked the lamia.
“Of course I do. I will show you my best one,” the snake woman said with a grin. She cleared her throat. “Brivaria, if you would.”
The angel stepped forward and peaked through the narrow gap between the door and frame. This one was a lot tighter than the door to Amon Ruthers’ house in Pemburne had been. Thankfully skills didn’t care how much Brivaria could see. She put a finger to the crevice and activated her Withering Ray skill. The metal bolt holding the door closed disintegrated.
The angel’s Withering Ray skill was decay magic rather than true disintegration but, when she targeted small objects, the effect was more or less the same. Whatever she targeted broke apart. It was proving to be exceptionally useful at breaking into places, the angel thought with a touch of chagrin.
“Tada,” the lamia said while pushing the door inward.
“That’s cheating,” Nyx complained but hurried inside with the others.
Trixie was the first to begin looking around. The dog sniffed at a dust-covered chair, inhaled the dust, and sneezed. Brivaria immediately checked on the dog as she’d never heard Trixie sneeze before. Meanwhile Kseniya frowned at the small home.
“No one has been here for a while,” the lamia commented.
The whole house was very narrow but it felt downright claustrophobic to Brivaria. She was thankful she could make her wings smaller. The first floor was a common room with a pantry and a washing area. The second floor had a single bedroom and what looked like a study or work room of sorts with a very small balcony.
Kseniya didn’t enjoy the cramped home any more than Brivaria did so she volunteered to check the first floor. Nyx and Brivaria went upstairs. Trixie looked at the narrow stairs and decided she’d rather stay downstairs with Kseniya.
“Doesn’t look like he packed up and left,” the cat girl observed after opening a chest at the foot of the man’s bed and finding a lot of clothes.
“I’m inclined to agree,” Brivaria said from the other room. The work room was also fully supplied though the angel would be hard-pressed to explain any of the things she was looking at.
Along the wall near the door to the balcony was a table that held all kinds of strange containers with different labels and words she didn’t recognize. It looked more like something she expected to find in the lair of a witch that specialized in brewing potions. She wisely left all of it alone. While the angel was optimistic that nothing in the man’s home was set to explode on touch, she wasn’t tempting fate.
Instead, Brivaria approached a desk with several ledgers. She’d seen these things at the adventurers guild before. The people of Zlithia used them to record information. One was already open on the desk so she sat down to look at it. It took her more time than she would like to admit in order to realize it was an appointment book.
Mr. Grand kept meticulous notes. Each little book had two pages per month delineating his appointments for that month followed by notes on the job performed upon each date. Some sections talked about the pests identified as part of his extermination. Some were notes about the people he was doing work for.
The appointments were all neatly written out but it had been some time since his last note. The point at which the notes ended corresponded with the time frame that farmer Collins talked about. Looking at the appointments, the next client he was supposed to visit prior to his disappearance was the home of Cordelia Westlake. She was something called a baroness according to what Brivaria was reading. The angel would ask the others about it. Her knowledge of the world was decent but there were some gaps to fill in.
Brivaria took the most recent notebook and walked over to the bedroom. The angel froze in the doorway. Nyx was sitting on the bed and tears were rolling down her cheeks. The angel recovered and then went to the catfolk girl’s side.
“Nyx, what’s wrong? Did you find something?” Brivaria asked, her wings fluttering in distress as Nyx sniffled.
“N-no. I just…” the catfolk girl fought back a sob to keep speaking, “I was just looking through his things and then I thought ‘well he’s never coming back’ and then I remembered the brothers and they’re never coming back and…” Nyx squeezed her eyes shut and more tears came out. Brivaria’s tiny wings flapped helplessly as the angel tried to figure out what to do. She didn’t know what she was supposed to do. She tried hugging Nyx and that erased whatever control the catfolk girl had. Nyx began crying in earnest and Brivaria even felt tears welling up in her eyes too.
The brothers, Duncan and Rory, were a pair of surly boarfolk known as gaborn. They’d abandoned their vacation plans in Pemburne to help Brivaria, Nyx, and Kseniya rescue Nyx’s brother along with some missing hunters. The two men died fighting the monster that was holding the survivors. They’d met the brothers and seen them die in the same week yet those scant days left a powerful impression on the cat girl.
There were footsteps of someone coming up the stairs. Trixie padded into the room and went over to Nyx. The golden sunchaser put her head on Nyx’s lap. Her big, brown eyes looked up at the catfolk girl and the dog whined softly. The crying drew Kseniya as well though the lamia had more trouble making it up the stairs. She stopped when she saw Nyx crying just as Brivaria had.
“What happened?” Kseniya asked, immediately looking around the room as if an attacker was still present.
“Duncan and Rory,” was all Brivaria could say and then Nyx sobbed harder.
“I’m sorry. I just… I’m sorry,” Nyx choked out between sobs. Kseniya’s face fell as Nyx began babbling apologies.
“Oh sweeting…” Kseniya’s tail knocked over things in her passing but the lamia paid them no heed. Nyx had one hand on Trixie’s head so Kseniya took the other while lowering herself closer to the floor and into Nyx’s vision. “You have nothing to apologize for. It hurts. We all miss them and we’re here for you.”
They stayed that way for some time. Trixie kept her head on the catfolk girl’s lap and whined softly. Brivaria hugged Nyx from the side while trying and failing to blink away her own tears. Kseniya squeezed Nyx’s hand and held it until the tears dried up. More would fall later but that was unavoidable. Words didn’t fix grief. Neither did time but it would help. The dark mood broke and the group went back to what they had been doing.
“No, Trixie, stop,” Nyx protested as Trixie licked the catfolk girl’s face. It was hard to tell if the dog was still trying to comfort the girl or if the hound found Nyx’s salty tears tasty. Brivaria dried her own eyes with a hand towel from her inventory. Kseniya was straightening up the room. She’d tipped over a small table in her earlier haste.
“What’s this?” the snake woman asked. Brivaria walked over to see what Kseniya was looking at. The lamia turned and held up a red piece of fabric. Nyx escaped Trixie’s attention long enough to look at it. She sniffed and Brivaria passed the towel to her.
“The table cloth?” Nyx asked before wiping her eyes and then blowing her nose into the towel.
“It’s no table cloth,” Kseniya countered. She turned and showed the group. It was a red robe with a stylized emblem stitched into the front. Brivaria knew she’d seen the emblem before but couldn’t place it. Seeing the angel’s interest in the emblem, the snake spoke up. “Do you recognize this?”
“No but it looks familiar. Maybe we should take it with us?” the winged girl suggested. Technically this was robbery. They were stealing from the man’s home but they’d give it all back if they found him. That meant it wasn’t stealing. It was borrowing! Brivaria decided it didn’t matter, partially because she’d already done this before and partially because she didn’t really care either way. That brought up questions about whether her lack of caring was natural or the result of her inner demon.
“I think so though depending on what it means we may not wish to carry it openly,” Kseniya offered it to Brivaria and the angel stored it away in her inventory. Nyx offered the used towel back shyly and the angel poked it with a finger to store it as well. She’d clean the towel later. “So what did you two find?”
The group went over the notebook Brivaria discovered in the work room. Nyx looked through it and found several instances where Mr. Grand went fishing with or called upon friends outside of work. A few even had addresses listed. They would be good to question about his disappearance.
They narrowed their options down to a few people but ultimately decided to make their way to the Westlake estate first. Brivaria got a brief lesson in nobility and the peerage as Kseniya explained the rank of baroness. It was unlikely they would be able to visit the baroness let alone do so unannounced. Hopefully they could speak to someone on the grounds to find out if Mr. Grand had even showed up to his last scheduled appointment.
They had a couple clues to go on so they were in decent spirits upon exiting the small home. That lasted right up until they realized there were no carriages anywhere nearby despite the instructions Kseniya received earlier on how to find one. They were back to getting around the streets of Barton the hard way.
Name: Brivaria
Race: Angel
Class: Apprentice Shaper of Flesh
Level: 33
Stats: Health 70/70, Mana 132/132, Stamina 91/91
Attributes: Physique 56, Endurance 35, Arcane 63, Spirit 66, Awareness 35, Presence 69
Active Skills: Current Control, Defensive Bulwark, Healing Touch, Wind Formation
Passive Skills: Alternative Form, Flesh Sculpting, Infernal Seed, Inventory, Lesser Flight, Lesser Shapeshifting, Lingering Decay, Rest, Traits (Angel)
Magic: Light of Decay
Affinity: Corruption, Decay