I nearly leapt out of my seat when Augustus addressed me, while he and his brother had been speaking I moved to one of the tables away from the bar to drink in silence, which was how I learned I couldn’t get drunk anymore presumably because of the immunity to poisons.

but to the point-

“It really is grand to see you again Marduk, I had hoped to meet with you after leaving the Basin.” The Crimson eyed man sat across from me at the table.

“How did that go? Your excursion into the Great Basin that is.” I asked keeping the conversation off myself.

He scowled something fierce.

“It went well until I found myself at the mercy of the Bahl’umar as they took me prisoner thinking I was working with Ahkula and their Hydra leader.” The grey skinned man sneered in iration at the memory.

Since when was a Hydra running my tribe?

Wait… you don’t think it was that five headed one I encountered do you?

“The Bahl’umar have always been a disparate tribe of warmongers, but they’ve never attacked my people before.” I stated hoping he’d explain Why they were attacking the Ahkula.

“It seems a rumour of a Seer’s death spread throughout the Great Basin and the brutish tribe sought to take ahold of the other and integrate them into theirs- but a war between them began when the Bahl’umar found the Ahkula being led by a Hydra Matriarch of five heads, I believe they called her Guivre.” The red eyed Áes Sídhe replied.

Without thinking about it I brokered the link between Tiamat and me to ask the primordial beast about the name, almost as soon as I’d finished saying the name mentally her voice replied.

‘You would do well to avoid her, she is one of my failures as a parent, there is no such pride inspired in my being with her mention.’

I wasn’t sure whether to push her about it or not so I decided to just continue my conversation with Augustus.

“Were you able to visit any of the other tribes before and after your capture?” I prodded and he jumped on the question.

“Yes! I met with the infallible Oxolautls, was turned away by the mighty Salamanders and hosted by the gracious Ur-Nikkal. Much of my expedition was filled with the wondrous hospitality and respect of the Saurians, imprisonment aside.” He waved the last part aside as he continued. “The Nikkal were most especially wonderful, I learned Ms. Adalgard spent many years trading with them as such they happily accepted my presence and research- their leader- a Priestess of your gods, Siduri I believe?” he asked himself for a moment before nodding his head. “Even in her pregnant state freely shared her time with me.”

Wait… where have I heard the name Siduri before… Fuck Did he say pregnant?!

My bafflement wasn’t given time to settle as he continued speaking.

“Actually it was her that ask me to bring you this-” He retrieved something from his satchel.

“Mushen’s ritual knife?” I questioned, recognising the item instantly.

Much like my sword it was a refractive purlpish-black bladed weapon, its straight handle was made from a dragon’s tooth with a crude red gem encased in its pommel and the obsidian edge was curved like a raptor talon.

Wait

Giving someone the dagger of your father was one of three ways of making a marriage proposal in Saurian culture. As a Sukkal I was constantly privy to those sorts of rituals and other similar parts of our society so it was hard not to take the knife into my hand with all the care capable in my being.

Holding the tool delicately I felt the weight of the weapon settle perfectly in my palm as though it were made for me.

I completely forgot about what happened in Nikkal

Gripping the weapon tight in my hand the recognition sunk in.

Would returning to the only instance of genuine adoration and love I’ve felt toward another being in this world really be so bad? Tiamat might have said she was here, but I still have no clue whether or not she’s conscious of her past life.

[Not all souls are drawn to each other in Death, many part with themselves to find anew in such cases as you have.]

Her words pushed into my mind again.

Was she inferring I’d already found the person I’m drawn to? Was she telling me I shouldn’t expect Alex to remember me?

“I was not told the reason for delivering it, only that when we met again that I share this with you as a gift from her.” The godkin’s voice broke my thoughts.

For all my fear I realised I’d so easily been disarmed and drawn into conversation with him.

“I-” My voice stopped and the thought trailed off for a moment of silence. “Thank you for bringing this to me.”

He brushed my thanks aside with a shake of his head. “Think it payment for giving me directions to your homeland to indulge my research.”

“You aren’t returning anytime soon are you?” I asked and he shook his head again.

“My appetite for research was mostly fulfilled for the time being, if I return to The Great Basin it won’t be for a summer or two, hopefully the war will have subsided to make any more answers I have easier to obtain.” His answer caused a mental sigh of relief as I thanked whichever god would accept it for small victories.

Just when I thought I was free and was about to outright leave and just speak with Theodoric, the man himself interrupted to ask-

“So what does giving a dagger mean to your people?” He asked with a raised brow clearly having seen the care I’d taken it with initially before I put it in a pouch on my hip.

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“It has no meaning,” I replied quickly. “The dagger was gifted to me by Mushen the father of the priestess, but in my haste to part with my homeland I left it behind.”

A lul of silence settled, the only sound beyond breathing for a moment was the gentle clip-clop of hooves on the floor as Laeticia’s body moved to fill up everyone’s mugs with precisions I didn’t think possible for a body without a head. The silence wasn’t awkward, just the result of the conversation meeting its end for the moment, Augustus didn’t want to speak more on his trip for the time and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to say anything to prompt why Theodoric asked me here.

Thankfully it wasn’t long before the warlock excused himself and his brother saw him off leaving me alone with the herculean looking grey skinned man, his red skinned attendant and the Dullahan.

The first thing Theodoric said once we were alone again brought me back to reality-

“So have you found any leads on your woman?” He asked with genuine care in his deep tone.

“No, nothing specific.” My reply elicited a sombre nod from the man.

“As I said in the woods- They’re a frightful thing those women we love.” Same as when he had the first time I wondered what that really meant.

What had he dealt with or been dealing with that made him say that?

Maybe it's a comment on the hole they leave in our lives when they’re gone or are taken from us…?

His mood switched suddenly while I was thinking about what he said.

“Now tell me seriously, that knife- it wasn’t nothing- that priestess my brother mentioned… she put her foot forward for marriage or something similar right?” His stone carved face barely moved as he watched me.

Sigh I breathed a long sigh internally before ignoring his question and asking one back.

“You called me here, for what reason, Theodoric?”

He furrowed his brow and pursed his lips for a moment before responding.

“Without really meaning to it seems I’ve gotten you caught up in our politics. I wished to apologise firstly, then ask for what reason is Caturix holding you in his residence?” His familiarity with the king's name made me wonder if there just wasn’t much care put into the title or if he and Augustus were related to the leaders of the clans.

“...” I stayed silent for a moment wondering whether I should betray the trust of the king just to answer my other saviour's help.

It was a hard thing, that desperate need to avoid breaking peoples trust, to avoid putting so much faith and trust into people the way my Saurian wiring wanted to at every given moment. I was back for the most part but not wholly enough to not feel a physical pain when I destroyed that trust.

I guess I could justify it if they’re related right? Just keeping the family informed?

“He didn’t want word to get out that I’d been attacked by the Spriggan’s as far as his men could tell, for no reason.” I shared and his eyes went wide leading to him apologise again for us being attacked in the first place.

“I can understand that, if word got around the Spriggan’s couldn’t be trusted to protect us…” His voice trailed off. “For once father you are capable of greater thought”

He whispered the last part under his breath.

If I had eyebrows I would have raised them.

“So your Brother?” I questioned bringing the conversation away from me.

“Hm? Oh yes- you’re already well acquainted with him, how did that happen?” He asked back.

“He wanted to experiment on me for his research while I was being imprisoned for murder, then he helped the nobility of the town we were in usurp the man who imprisoned me.” I laid out in a dry tone, or dry as a tone as my grumbling deep crude voice could manage in this crocodilian body.

As often as I remembered I was like this I forgot I was like this.

There was a line from a show or something I could remember now that made me think of it.

The Big man forgets what he is sometimes

Yeah I haven’t been human in a long time have I? But I suppose now isn’t the time for that.

I continued talking with Theodoric long into the night, eventually becoming more acquainted with Laeticia as well as the pointy eared man while we drank and spoke.

----------------------------------------

It took… far longer than I would like to admit to come to terms with what I heard from Augustus about the going ons of the Basin, accept Mushen’s dagger and its meaning as well as the fact that Lappe likely wouldn’t recover from what happened for another couple of months at the least.

Apparently as great as magical healing was, it couldn't just repair the damage of the Barghests curse when it drained someone, they would need to naturally recover.

For the time being I kept Mushen’s knife on my hip with my sword to keep me from forgetting about it, otherwise my time was consumed with avoiding Augustus which wasn’t very hard considering he had no clue where I was and I had no clue where he was.

Anyway aside from all that, my first few weeks in Bailey were otherwise uneventful as I spent my time exploring parts of the city with my personal guard and the goblin attendant. Despite my attempts to get to know them better to pass time since I don’t really have any hobbies in this world, both the guard whose name was Baldomar and the attendant who had said a few times she couldn’t give her name so I just gave her one with some thought- which led to me giving her the temporary name of Jasmine, it wasn’t anything special I just thought it would be nice to actually refer to her as something.

I’m getting sidetracked from the point, despite my attempts they weren’t really willing to open up to me about anything which was a bit disheartening but I understood they were here to serve me and not be my friends. It would just be nice to actually have people to hang out with seeing as Theodoric wasn’t in any position to either with him being a criminal and all, however that happened it was the case he couldn’t be seen around the city otherwise he’d be killed.

I have no idea what to do while I wait for this… well prophecy? Tiamat told me about, to happen.

And maybe that wasn’t how you were supposed to go about seeing something through, but I really had no clue what to do next since the main part of what she said was so clear…