While standing around staring at the wares of the Harpy Marduk felt his heart sink when he spotted a dress that looked like something his Friend had worn often. It was a beautiful crimson red gown decorated with golden stitching and embroidered with flower designs along the hem of the skirt.

A sigh escaped his throat.

‘Am I any closer to you yet? I’m trying new things again… do you appreciate me trying things with the snake woman? I know you’d have said I owed it to the universe to try something so out of the box and left field- but would you really have been okay with it?’ He questioned the imaginary version of his lost love.

‘You once said I should search for the place where the Sun shines or the edge where the water no longer flows. Is this place far enough? Should I travel more?’

‘Would you feel the same way about these Corvus things that look like crows as well? Or would you laugh my worry off and try to capture one for yourself?’

‘Maybe you’d say: The gods gave us an abundance so it's only fair if we make good use of it and take what we want or something close to that.’

He sighed again frowning as he looked at the fabric taking it in his enormous hands, feeling something cold and dark in his mind as he was reminded of his monstrous appearance. But then without any warning his emotions reset and everything felt neutral and empty again, it was like someone flicked a switch to turn them off or wipe it away just when he was starting to feel human again.

I would give advice to the adventurous Suran

Those which haunt you cannot reach you, those which find you will not break you and those who shared you still desire you.

You are from a land of much advice and lessons learned, I am sure that you will come to understand its meaning when it matters most.

The words of Ochre crept back into his mind; it still made little to no sense what the dragoness had been trying to impart to him, making it somewhat frustrating the way she had said he would understand it when things mattered most.

‘I’m from a land of advice and lessons learned?’ He decided to focus on it.

‘A land of advice and lessons learned…’

A realisation came to him and his eyes went wide.

‘Ochre couldn’t have known could she? That I was from a different world? R-right?!’

His fear of the dragon suddenly grew tenfold with a single thought sending him into a panic that there were other beings who could know his secret. It wasn’t one he’d cared for much before but the idea of something knowing made it feel real and scared him.

Though he couldn’t stew in his fear for long as he was interrupted by the other people in the building who finally addressed him.

“You can introduce yourself now.” The Lamia said, breaking past his internal struggle.

“I. am. Marduk. good. to. meet. You.” He turned his attention to the Harpy seamstress and attempted his best Auran introduction from what Adal and Nerva had been teaching him.

The avian woman chortled an enchanting tone with a bright smile on her face “Wonderful~! Wonderful~! You’ve taught him well!” She turned to her friend.

“Thank you, but could you tone your voice down? Saurians are weak to charms and such.” The Lamia asked motioning to the slight way in his stance and how he couldn’t keep his attention off the bird woman.

“Oh I see, sorry” Mila apologised and Marduk felt a pressure that was gripping him loosen. “So what was it you wished for me to do for him exactly?”

“New clothes? Or loincloth, much like myself he doesn’t need more than something to protect his genitals.” The pair were half a breath away from devolving into a discussion about how to dress him when he cleared his throat.

“Ahm! I don’t need any new clothing Minerva.” He stated clearly while giving a flat look to the woman who relented with a sigh and her shoulders slumping.

“You understood us?” She asked, sounding more confused by the idea of it than caring about what his opinion on the matter of dress was.

“I did.” He replied giving up on his plan of not mentioning his ability to understand other languages. “I can understand Auran perfectly, it is just that I can not speak it.”

“What about Centaurian? Or Harpe?” She questioned and he simply nodded, having heard his share of the Centaurian language through the Julia so he assumed he could understand all at this stage.

“T-that… that’s amazing!” She cheered with an excited tone to the confusion of the other woman who barely understood that they were conversing in Suran. “You said Zäna never gifted you with anything for your service! But this is proof of her gratefulness for your work!”

“...” Keeping to himself a moment as he stewed in the idea he wasn’t sure if it really was the result of the goddesses influence or not and didn’t want to attribute something like that to her.

But eventually conceded it made the most sense.

“I can understand how it would be viewed that way.” He breathed a sigh.

“A real gods blessed person!” She cheered in a far more excited tone than he’d expected.

“Is it really that impressive?”

“Yes! Of course it is!” Her eyes sparkled like sapphires under artificial light. “There are only five half-gods in the country at the moment and you’re the only truly blessed I’ve heard about!”

The excitement of the woman was as infinite as the wonder and energy she pulled from nowhere, it was infectious and made Marduk feel energetic in the way that nothing else had really done for him.

“What’s the matter, Nerva? What has you so excited?” The Seamstress asked, finally fed up with being sidelined in the conversation with how her friend was acting.

“He just told me he’s god touched!” She shared without thinking, making the man in question wince.

Even if he was he didn’t wish for her to shout it at the tree tops, it could cause problems, it always did for those in history from what he remembered. He was no Jeanne D'arc being told to carry the banner and lead the country to winning, but he felt it would be easy for someone to become a saint or celebrity if it got around that he was.

That and Minerva had said that there were five living half-gods in the country which made it clear people venerated them with some obvious amount of celebrity status as to know where they were at all times.

“Truly?” The harpy’s eyes glowed with interest. “I would be more than honoured to sew a new set of clothes for his travels then.”

“Oh!” A realisation hit the Lamia, almost having forgotten what the conversation had started as. “He said he didn’t need new clothing.”

A scoff escaped the bird woman. “Come off it now… you’re serious? He doesn’t want to dress in more than that scrap of hide? Surely you could convince him to wear my fabrics and spread my name?”

“He can actually understand us so you could do it yourself.” Minerva replied and the other woman looked at him with an incredulous glance.

“You’re sure?”

“I am yes, that was why he interrupted us earlier. He made his displeasure clear and said he could understand us this whole time, that it was his gift.” The black haired woman explained, altering the truth some.

…

Silence settled over the three as the Harpy scrutinised him and furrowed her brown brow before turning away and disappearing into the back of the store behind some rows of cloth and fabrics before returning with a thick black cloth and presenting it to him.

“This is macchia a fabric used for the clothing under the suits of armour the guardsmen wear, it is durable and well suited for all types of weather… are you sure you would deny me the chance to dress you in something more desirable when I have such a perfect colour and piece for man such as yourself?” The instant she had started speaking he felt the layers of her magical charm lay on thick and grip his mind.

All he could do is nod his head and the woman smiled lasciviously and clapped her clawed hands-

“Thank you for your Business Mister Marduk! You won’t soon forget my charms~!” He struggled to move his own neck to turn as the woman pulled out a measuring tape and began sizing him without warning.

After a few still moments of the Lamia watching he realised she’d been charmed as well if her eyes were anything to go by, they were wide with surprise, it wasn’t until five minutes later when the Harpy was finished that she clapped her hands again and the magical binding of the charm dropped and felt control return to them.

Marduk dropped to his knees gasping for breath as the weight had kept him from breathing the whole time, and while he was partially aquatic through his crocodilian nature it did not mean could go more than five minutes without oxygen.

It took a moment for him to recover before he growled something low and deep.

“What wraith possessed you to tell the woman to enchant us?!” He angrily demanded of the Lamia who looked shaken, not having expected it to happen.

He wasn’t given an answer which was negated when his lizard wiring cooled his head and he returned to his neutral emotionless state simply deciding it would be better that he doesn’t give people the benefit of the doubt in the future.

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

After the incident with Mila the Seamstress, Marduk cut the day's itinerary short and headed back for the Julia Manor not wishing to deal with people for the rest of the day. He had his own room in their manor so at least he could sit with himself and hopefully rid the vile feeling of being commanded and ordered around without the ability to decide for himself- like he was some puppet to be played with.

If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

Minerva had attempted to quell his mind and apologise for her misspeaking that led to the situation after they had parted the Harpy’s store, but he had refused to hear it, not when he’d had his day ruined by being used like a marionette. It was a genuinely disturbing feeling to have his body move at someone else's word.

As well was the fact that he’d been trying to escape the Corvus that continued to follow them once they got back out into the open, the black birds almost seemed to chase them as he moved through the streets.

Once alone and with his thoughts properly, unburdened by the presence of other people or the beady eyes of the black birds he released a tense breath.

‘What am I supposed to do in a world of magic where people can control you so easily?’ He questioned holding his weapon in hand, looking at his reflection in the volcanic glass blade.

‘What good is strength and this size if it can’t stop a few honeyed words or a silver tongue?’

‘What would you do?’ He pleaded to an image of the Friend in his mind that he wanted to live by.

‘I’m god blessed, but then what? What am I meant to do about that? What good is being blessed by the moon goddess if all it does is let me understand languages?’

“Damn it all.”

[If I was told by killing you I could rid myself of this Curse, I would do it in an instant]

The words of his mother broke into his mind again and the seeds of doubt sown by her with the final breath of a dying woman started to sprout.

‘Maybe I’m just cursed?’

‘What if they were right…? That staying so close to her for so long cursed me as well?’ Thoughts of his tribes disdain for him came to mind, when they had decided a rumour of his mothers sickness being stricken upon her by the gods as punishment.

It had never sat well with him or made sense to their sensibilities so there had to be some clear answer-

‘Am I Cursed?’

He didn’t know, he had no one to confide in. No one to call friend at least not in the way he would have before his reincarnation into this overfraught world. He would need a direction, something to claim or clamber toward, but the memory of a woman who changed his life wouldn’t be enough, he needed something tangible in this life.

Despite his thoughts descending into signs of madness he didn’t fail to notice the shadow of the bark skinned half-Spriggan woman looming in the doorway of the room he was using.

“Dinner will be made soon,” She said, taking his eyes off some distant image in his mind and drawing them to her.

“I see.” His short reply came out somewhat dismissive causing the brow of the woman to raise.

“I may not have known you long, but I feel like I’m a good judge of character most of the time.” An exacerbated sigh escaped her lips. “What I mean is, you’ve had something on your mind since I picked you up in Ur-Nikkal and sleeping with the high-priestess then the snake woman here doesn't seem to have dispersed whatever that was- and yeah she told me about the being blessed by the gods thing.”

He didn’t have the care in his heart to even distinguish that she’d spoken in Auran, it was as natural listening to it as it was hearing Suran to him even after a few days with her and then this past day in the city.

Turning his gaze away from her he wondered if things would be better if he’d stayed in Ahkula and tried to convince them that he wasn’t cursed and find himself a wife to live out his days with. Maybe if he’d done that he’d have avoided being the stranger in the strange land and in the position where he was used like a puppet.

Maybe it was an odd focal point for him to stick to, but there really wasn’t a way to describe how violating it was to be controlled like that.

“When… when my mother died or before I mean…” He started to explain to the woman but his voice trailed off.

“Right, I think you mentioned something about it before.” Adalgard nodded her head as she leaned against the doorframe.

“She… my mother…” He struggled to word things. “Being a Seer did nothing good for her, almost all of the visions she was given were of deaths and calamities that could come about if small things weren’t altered which wore down on her- and then she was afflicted with the Curse of Self.”

“Mm” The half-Spriggan hummed, motioning for him to continue, she would listen.

“Four years or three and a half at the least, that was how long she was afflicted with it, how long it took to kill her.” He took a deep breath. “But on her last breaths she said ‘If I was told by killing you I could rid myself of this Curse, I would do it in an instant’ which was hard to forget.”

“I… she really said that?” The woman asked back with a surprised look on her face.

He merely nodded his head.

“I can understand how that might affect you like this then… but all the same you’re the most Human Saurian I’ve met Marduk, there isn’t a single one of your people that’ve interacted with who comes close to the level of emotion and care you seem to carry with you- all the rest of them are so empty and void of anything that isn’t primal instinct it honestly makes you my favourite on principle.”

She exhaled in a frustrated manner.

“All this was over something a scared woman said when she was about to die though?” She gestured to him making the point that everything he experienced was bogged down by a single sentence.

It might not have been enough to uproot the seeds but at least her words kept him from stewing in it any longer.

“Mistress Adalgard and Master Marduk, the food is ready now, Lord Sophus and Lady Geneva ask that you join them for Dinner.” A slave's voice broke through the silence that had settled between the two.

“Alright. Thank you Aldo.” The Half-Spriggan replied with her attention still on the lizardman. “C’mon you’d better eat, you told me when we were ferrying the Azul that Ahkula needed to eat lots right? Better make sure you’re full so that you can prove you’re not cursed right?” She offered a hand to the man.

Huffing he accepted the hand and stood up on his own following behind the woman toward the dining hall.

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

Seating themselves at the large table in the main dining hall of the Julia manor, Marduk noted that the lady of the house, as the slave had said, was sitting next to her husband and their two sons were sitting on either side of them as well.

All of them being Centaurs same as Sophus.

His wife was a little shorter than him as far as he could tell, had long curly and sleek looking black hair, pale skin, hazel eyes and the lower half of a Shire. She wore an ivory white Chiton with a blue and gold embroidered sash around her waist, the caparison she wore was of the same blue but with golden accents and trim instead of embroidery.

And their sons must have been twins because he couldn’t tell them apart. They both had short brownish black hair, dark coloured eyes, fair skin and had the lower half of a Shire. They both wore deep crimson red tunics with a gold pin for the darker red cloaks they wore, the caparisons they had were also red but with the gold trim and some designs embroidered into it.

It was the first time he was seeing them as he’d stayed out of the eye of the house while Minerva had been distracting him all of his first day. As well though the children he and Adal had saved were sitting on Sophus’ side of the table, with himself, Adal and the Lamia on the side with Lady Geneva.

The food served ranged from fruits to marbled meats all grilled or baked to perfection laid out on the large table in such a way that everyone could reach out and take what they wanted. Being mostly carnivorous Marduk took several large steaks dripped with dense juices while everyone else had a mix of both.

Enjoying the rich smooth flavour of the charred meat he thanked the Four Great beings and made part of his meal as an offering to them.

While he was making short work of his plate a conversation started between the hosts and his wrangler for the day.

“Minerva, you say you and our Lizardfolk friend took to the merchant’s district today?” Geneva asked before taking delicate bites of her food.

“I- uh yes we did Ma’am. Though we didn’t make it far.” The Lamia replied briefly, giving a curt bow of her head.

“Why was that?”

“A friend of mine, a seamstress, ended up taking all of our time- she’s rather chatty.” Minerva answered avoiding the details of their trip.

“That’s unfortunate- would you mind telling him that I hope he gets to see our fine town in its best light?” The older woman asked cordially with a gentle smile.

“O-of course Ma’am.” The Lamia answered reflexively before stuttering out a response quickly- “I- actually Lady Geneva I found out earlier on our trip that he is blessed by the god he served in his tribe to understand all language, it's just a matter of him not being able to speak it!”

“Oh my! That’s a wonderful development!” The Lady of the House couldn’t help but say.

Almost all eyes drifted inadvertently to the man in question, he felt himself shrink under the watchful gazes as though he were some circus attraction.

“Ahem- Actually there was something I wanted to ask you about Minerva, when you two were out did something happen?” Clearing her throat Adalgard asked a question she felt was rather pertinent considering how she’d seen him return from their day out.

While she had the context of his worried thoughts and muddied way of thinking, it was clear something had terrified him, she had only ever seen one other scared Saurian before. That being her friend who had survived a Hydra attack and been the one to inform her of them and their threat.

“No I can’t say anything did, though he was concerned for the Corvus that he was sure were following us around, but he wasn’t convinced of them being harmless.” Nerva lied and spoke a truth to obfuscate things.

Marduk himself was continuing to shrink in his seat just trying to enjoy the meal when he noticed Sophus perked up at the revelation of his opinions about the black birds. It wasn’t hard to tell the way he, his sons and Adal seemed to tense up was connected to the birds being a problem as he’d thought.

“Is that so?” The head of the house commented before the conversation switched topics and changed to the training his sons had undertaken that day and what business Adalgard had conducted with the stock she had brought to the port town.