Lin snarled at the ground beneath her feet. Every step was a task of Olympic proportions, and she felt as if her body might crumble to dust under the strain. She didn’t dare look behind her at the path she had trodden, for if she did, she might have realized that the slope was not nearly so steep as to cause this amount of trouble for her. She might then have had to face the weight pressing upon her soul, begging for her to lie down and drop into the abyss.

Just a few steps further and Your burdens shall be lifted.

A dull part of Lin’s mind knew that she should have feared the ominous nature of those words. Instead, they brought her such relief as to push her forward, the jagged syllables forming wings to rip from her back and lighten the load.

The crunching of gravel beneath her feet shifted. Lin face was angled straight ahead, but she found her gaze focused downward, to so deep within the core of existence that none of reality could penetrate her pupils. Lifting her eyes, Lin found herself standing atop a flat-topped hill peak, covered in rich, black soil. The entire area was bare save one circle of stones containing the final, faded traces of ash and burnt timber.

You came here to dance.

Lin’s throat clenched.

You and T̷͈̒ẖ̷̍́ǫ̷̘͇̜̜̍n̷̳̟̜͗̍̓͜͜å̴̹̹͂ thought yourselves so clever for crossing the tempest to get here.

An old, rotten and crumbling wood boat could just be made out on the distant beach. Lin envied the dead vessel.

You thought yourselves so brave for staying.

Lin stumbled to the center of the hilltop. The black dirt was stained rusty brown. She forgot how to breathe, air coming in and out with panicked, unsatisfying gasps.

But when you began digging,

A pile of dirt, worn by years of wind, towered beside a similarly weathered hole going deep into the earth. The scars on her fingertips tickled Lin’s palms. She didn’t want these hands. They held memories better left in the dirt.

You weren’t thinking at all.

Lin tripped on a pile of bones mixed with scraps of gold and mahogany, sending her flailing to the ground in a sobbing heap. Grizz feebly attempted to push her up, but Lin resisted. She couldn’t face the world as the memories washed over her like a tidal wave. Better to lie limply, amongst the bones. This was where she belonged, with those she sacrificed.

The moon was a bright red, shining over Michael’s grave like a bowl of luminescent blood. This crimson light washed over everything, even creeping into nooks and crannies where it had no place right entering. This unsettling color illuminated two teenagers hauling their wooden boat over the edge of a steep cliff overlooking the grave lake. Despite the immense effort and difficulty of their task, smiles were plastered across their faces and laughter cut through the air.

Jokes were shared with such mirth as to make any professional comedian jealous. The substance of these comments has been lost to time; the remembrance of those joyous words too terrible given the darkness that followed.

As the bottom of the boat cleared the cliff face, a young Linatius stood up and wiped her brow, looking at the rising moon eagerly.

“We have to hurry; the moon is almost at its apex!” Lin shouted excitedly, her voice echoing through the expansive night air.

A tall, lithe figure coated in leaves and grass growing from her skin flashed a smile. “Don’t worry, we’ll make it.” Thona. The dryad had been Lin’s best friend since before she could walk. The pair had even shared a crib. Now they shared a sense of adventure and risk taking.

With the boat securely on land, Thona skipped up the slope, Lin by her side. There wasn’t a joyless moment during the ascent. How could there be? Few things are as wonderful as overcoming obstacles alongside a beloved friend.

“I know the hill is steep, but these Rowan trees are so gorgeous! They’re such good friends!” Thona exclaimed excitedly.

“You tree nerd!” Lin retorted with a giggle.

“It’s not nerdy, trees are the essence of life!” Thona retorted with mock indignity. This was followed by a peel of laughter from Thona.

Lin’s pleasure was so great that she thought nothing of the side long glances Thona gave her, of the moments of pause and deep contemplation, so out of character for the rambunctious creature. But of course, there would be contemplation on this most wondrous of nights.

They were about to commune with the spirit of the moon! What greater wonder was there?

Wonder. Lin had long believed her purpose to be to chase that sensation. To hunt down and gobble every instance of it down to the last drop. She relished in the anticipation of discovering that which she couldn’t even imagine.

In what seemed like no time at all, they reached the top of the hill, looking out over the craterous region of Michael’s grave, with Seatt-hell’s glittering lights tinged red in the distance. The fire was simple to start, as if the timber were begging to be set alight. Lin could have spent all night staring into those dancing flickers,

But that wasn’t why they were here.

A storm of giggles from Thona lifted Lin to her feet, and before she knew what was happening, they were dancing around the fire, sharing a bottle of mushroom wine that Lin’s parents would surely never miss.

“You seem to be enjoying yourselves.” Croaked a voice from the darkness surrounding the fire. The shadows seemed to swirl and thicken, threatening to devour all the light, even that of Lin’s love for her friend.

Thona, for her part, froze, a look of horrified resignation flashing across her face, only to be banished a moment later by the slightest of smiles. “I’m sorry, is someone there? Would you like to join us by the fire?”

“Quit your deceptions. I have no time to waste on protecting your reputation with the damned. Is this your sacrifice?” The voice was horrid, like nails on chalkboard. It made every cell in Lin’s body reconsider its existence, slowing her dancing to a halt. Her mind, fogged by the wine as it was, took a moment to process what the voice had said.

“Thona… What’s going on?”

Thona put a reassuring hand on Lin’s cheek. “Don’t worry, everything’s going to be okay. Some things must be endured so that a blessing might be earned.” The veracity of her words was weakened by how the dryad choked on them. Turning her attention to the darkness, Thona asked. “Hello Koschei, yes, this is my sacrifice. Is your promise the same?”

Something was wrong. Lin knew that she had to do something. She couldn’t allow herself to be dragged into whatever mess Thona had created. But knowing and doing are as far apart as islands in the ocean, leaving Lin standing there dumbly, desperately trying to cross the violent waters of her mind to action.

“This is not what was requested. I wished for man. Your lover!” The voice croaked out harshly, a bony hand angrily slicing through the crimson darkness. Even in the poor light, Lin could see that it was covered in splotchy bruises tinged a sickly color.

“You wanted who I love most in the world. You were very specific on it being ‘they who I couldn’t live without.’ Well, here you go! Take her and give me what I am owed!” Thona said, clearly containing her frustration as she gestured to Lin.

The shadowy voice let out a displeased growl. “Your insolence is unbecoming. But promises are promises. I shall gift you power beyond reckoning.” Out of the darkness shambled a hunched over man. His unnaturally pale and peeling skin glistened horrifically in the distorted moonlight. His milky white eyes were tinged pink, and his impossibly tall frame was reduced to miniscule by a terrible slump.

Thona’s eyes were brimming with tears, but Lin could see the shining light of excitement in them, a light which had always drawn her to the dryad. Now, her shoulders were gripped tight by viny fingers. “Lin. I’m so sorry that this must happen like this. I’ll be gifted magic to regrow the forests! To destroy the wastelands! Your sacrifice will help the world!”

Lin cocked her head and opened her mouth but produced no sound. Her sacrifice? Thona made it sound so noble. But wouldn’t that require a choice from Lin? What right did her friend have to make this decision and then frame it as a good thing? Rage began to boil inside of Lin’s gut, but it was locked within a cage of confusion, unable to break free. This was her murder.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

That thought motivated Lin to raise an arm, preparing to strike Thona. But before she could manage it, the Dryad had skipped away, bowing deeply to the man stalking into the fire light.

“What are you looking at me like that for? You are not done. Dig!” He rasped with a wave of his hands. Suddenly, Lin’s rage was whisked away, replaced by an overwhelming compulsion to dig. She would rend dirt and rock apart. Tear through it with vigor and zeal. The mist in her mind was so great that her memory could barely penetrate it, sight having been locked away.

The next thing she knew, her hands had been reduced to bloody tatters, lumps of mangled flesh splattering to the ground as she jammed her hand repeatedly against a material her fingers could not breech. It took her some time to process, but Lin realized she had to find a way to remove this new obstacle, and lifting a newly freed stone, brought it down on the hard material three times in quick succession.

The crack filled the air alongside a shower of splinters. “No, you idiot! Don’t break my chest!” The man roared, backhanding Lin. As she went sprawling to the ground, Thona dutifully freed the chest from its earthly prison. However, Lin’s efforts had borne fruit.

As she lay on the ground, unconsciously massaging her aching muscles, the worn and damaged wood exploded outward with a shrill honking. What Fluttered out of it could only be described as a demon of the foulest kind: a goose.

“You dryad piece of shit!” Koschei screamed. “I told you to protect box!”

“Hey! Don’t speak to me like that! I did my job. Now give me what I am owed, or I’ll run your goose off the cliff side.” Thona snarled in response.

The man, surprisingly, replied with a wolfish grin. “Herkth eat you whole. But yes, you deserve payment. Here you go.” With blinding speed, his hand shot forth to cover Thona eager expression, which turned to dread far too slowly.

“Wha-” She began, but never finished, her words turning to screeches of pain as her face was ripped from her skull with a wet squelch. The air filled with the smell of chlorophyl.

“Did you think you could threaten me and get away with it?!” The man hissed angrily. “Did you think you could ignore my specific directions and bring me a filthy woman? Did you think there would be no repercussions? Of course not. You didn’t think at all!”

Thona stumbled backward, falling right into Lin’s lap. The impact brought Lin back into her mind. Partially at least. Enough that her maternal instinct kicked in.

As Thona fell backwards, leaking blood and chlorophyl, Lin caught her, rising to her knees to protectively cradle her once best friend. Raising a hand t theo monstrous man before her, Lin’s fear exploded. In the pressurized heat vacuum of terror, that fear was transformed into the purest form of courage.

It didn’t matter what Thona had done to her, Lin couldn’t abandon her!

“You’ve done enough! Leave her be!”

“Leave her be? Hah! Girl betrays you to death and you protect? Oh, I like you.”

His approval did not make Lin feel at all better.

“Herkth, hold her.”

“Wha-”

Before Lin could process what was happening, the goose had flapped through the air to latch it beak onto Lin’s nose, forcing her to let go of Thona.

“Stay there while I finish this. I owe your friend payment!” Koschei said, dragging Thona away from where Lin writhed on the ground. “Here it is! I return you to your family, in heaven. I offer you the power to look upon all of creation with immortal soul. With deal complete, I compel you, perish!” The man’s intonation shifted, as if he were preaching gospel as he pulled an impossibly large wrought iron cauldron from the folds of his cloak. With graceful swiftness, he cracked Thona’s skull against the lip of the giant pot, cracking her skull like an egg.

Though Lin squeezed her eyes shut, she knew from the wet, sliding noises that Thona’s mind was now quite literally in the cauldron… Who was Thona? Lin opened her eyes for a moment, only to shut them upon seeing the strange man shoveling an unfortunate person’s flesh into his mouth.

“Herkth, be gentle. I am finished in moments.” The man said without turning to face Lin. She felt a compulsion to remain where she was fall over her, but it didn’t make a difference, she was too terrified to move. Her eyes remained shut, so she didn’t have to thinking about the snapping, squishing sounds coming from the man and his pot.

She might have remained in this state of frightful petrification until the very end were it not for the damnable goose. The blessed monstrosity ripped into her face without compunction. The pain washed away both the fog Koschei had placed upon her, and the fear that had allowed him to do so. Lin had to fight, it was that or follow her friend into that cauldron.

Roaring with a ferocity she would have said she didn’t possess, Lin reached up with both hands to grasp the Goose by the neck. Its muscles were strong, and she doubted she could wrench it free from her nose without causing serious harm, but that didn’t matter. This goose wanted to kill Lin, so it had to die instead. Sliding one hand to the base of the goose’s neck and the other to the bottom of its skull, Lin twisted with more strength than she had ever used in her life. This moment went on for decades in her mind. An endless struggle of life and death between her and a merciless goose. Truthfully, It was over in a second, the snap ringing over the hilltop, freezing Koschei in his tracks.

“Herkth? Are you okay?” The old man called out with a comically nervous tone. However, Lin wasn’t paying any attention to him. She was too distracted by the horrifying wriggling happening inside the dead goose. The dead goose that was lying right on top of her. It was spasming left and right, and the air began to fill with the fetid smell of burst intestines as the bird’s abdomen was ripped open, revealing a blood smeared rabbit chewing its way out of the goose. The blood splattering Lin’s torso allowed her to remain focused.

“Logath?! Run! Get away from her!” Koschei screamed, his voice desperate. That told Lin everything she needed to know, and the young woman, with hands and arms tired beyond belief grabbed hold of the rabbit before it could completely free itself from the rent stomach lining. It was wriggling too much for her to get a good hold of it with her weakened hands.

Fear overcame Lin. She knew, inherently, that if the man got a hold of her, she was dead. The only thing he seemed to fear was this rabbit coming to harm. Survival had to come at any cost.

Lunging forward, Lin clamped her teeth down hard around the rabbit’s head, squeezing down with a sickening crunch. This moment, in an inversed manner to the last, felt as if it were over instantaneously, but was truly 10 second of slowly breaking down the poor creature’s skull as it squealed in panic.

Koschei wrenched her up, but not in time. The rabbit hung loosely from Lin’s hand as he roared wrathfully. “What have you done?! Sickening whore, I’ll make you regret that!” He punched Lin in the face, sending her stumbling backward to land against the cauldron. Her face teetered over the edge, giving her an excellent view of a corpse, whose flesh had been boiled from the bones that were tree like in nature. An odd sensation passed over Lin. She felt as if she should feel something looking at the stranger’s corpse, but she didn’t. It was just a random person’s bones, obviously.

Once again, survival trumped morality.

Koschei spun her about to look into his bloodshot, milky eyes. “Was going to make this quick, but you have chosen agony!” He began to utter harsh, guttural words as his hand slid to cover Lin’s face.

Her entire life flashed before her eyes. Not in some final, revelatory moment before death, but like a display. A strip of film showing every aspect of Lin’s life and every ounce of impact that she had had on the world around her. And she was forced to watch as piece by piece, those impacts were ripped away, not only from her but from all those who knew her. Koschei forced Lin to be a witness to her own destruction as a member of collective reality.

The sorrow of this loss, the unnecessary cruelty of it all, froze Lin in place, until there was nothing but a shred of herself left. The her that had vowed to survive, the her that had thoughtlessly and ruthlessly murdered innocent animals in her quest for crucial seconds of life. All for naught? The shred began to wiggle, threatening to be sucked into whatever maw Koschei employed to devour memories, and with it, Lin would be lost, forever.

NO.

Her hand slipped into the cauldron, grasping a shard of shattered bone to thrust it into Koschei’s heart, sending him stumbling back. The shred of Lin remained, empty though it was, it was her. She turned to flee, only to be stopped by a sharp cackle.

“You think this stops Koschei the Deathless? You are fool, little girl. You are mine. I own you. Your mind. Your memories. And your body.” Lin tried to run, but her left arm was frozen to the cauldron. Turning to look, Lin became sure she was hallucinating. For sliding into the veins of her hand, like a snake into a tunnel, was the black fibers of the wrought iron cauldron. A burning sensation began to creep up her arm and into her chest, and Lin implicitly knew that it was her bone marrow being replaced with iron.

Logically, she only had seconds to live.

“I wanted better host. More handsome, less pretty. But you must suffice.” Koschei rasped, prowling toward Lin with hunger in his eyes. He never made an effort to remove the bone stake from his chest. “With cauldron in bones, you won’t have issues of old body. I shall punish those who thought they could curse Koschei the Deathless. Be honored.”

Lin wasn’t listening. Not really. That seemed like a terrible idea in the moment. Why listen to the bad guy monologue when she could search for a solution? There was only one that she could think of: the rabbit. It was no more than a corpse in her hands, but he had seemed protective of it… It had been inside the goose, was there something inside of it as well? Lin desperately hoped not, this had all been gruesome enough already. She lifted the rabbit with her free hand, discovering that fate smiled upon her. It’s broken little mouth had been stretched unnaturally wide, allowing for a small chicken egg to push its way out.

“Put that down!”

Lin had mere moments before Koschei’s grasping hands would reach her, and she had no free hands to grab the egg, so she did the only thing that she could think of. Lifting the rabbit to her mouth, she wrenched the egg out with her teeth and bit down as hard as she could manage. A warm and slimy yolk filled her mouth, sliding down Lin’s throat before she realized what was happening.

“No! No no nono nofddkvnasdojpvn fajdips bafom!” Koschei’s screams turned into nonsense as his body crumbled to dust before Lin’s eyes. Moments later, with the final rending of metal, the cauldron was gone as well, completely inside Lin’s body.

Silence.

Wind washed over the hillock, carrying with it the sounds of Seatt-hell. People laughing and crying. Parties celebrating the full moon. Joy and sorrow.

Yet, on this hill, Lin felt nothing. As if she were a plastic bottle devoid of water. One errant move could end with her crushed. But did that even matter? Who would weep for her? She was no one, even to herself.

A second gust of wind and with it came… not sounds. But memories. Her memories? Yes, but not only them. ALL of the memories. Everything that Koschei had stolen over thousands of years flooded Lin’s mind in an instant. A viking sailing over the English Channel, a woman entering a giant, white, house. And her hands around Thona’s throat as she smashed her skull into the cauldron. Lin not only remembered all of this. She had lived all of this.

collapsing to her knees in shock, Lin clutched her skull for fear that it might split in two.

Who am I?!

You are ME. KOSCHEI THE DEATHLESS.