Wiping away her tears using a moss-stained elbow, Renalia surveyed her surroundings. A dozen or so black carcasses lay around her, opened and drained. They ranged in size from a mouse to bigger ones, like badger and beaver.
But none could compare to the armored bogling Lexi and she had captured the day before. The biggest two could easily fit into that carapace, which Malchim had placed prominently in front of the workshop.
Some boglings precluded identification, though. Some had been too decomposed before the bog reanimated them. In others, the hunters that dispatched them had more destructive skills than a clean, lethal, [Pierce]. Or, as Renalia was starting to learn, there were more animals in the world than she had known.
But she spent little thought on the previous life of boglings. Her attention gravitated towards the glow of cards within some of the hides. Scrambling toward the front of the wagon–where the older kills were placed–she quickly shifted through and stacked them.
The stacking she performed under the pretense of making room for newer kills. It was not necessary, given the small number of corpses queued up by Malchim and Shim. However, it was a natural action by someone on a wagon bed.
After all, the best kind of lies were ones that didn’t even need saying. They flowed naturally from people’s assumptions. Organizing a wagon load was more believable than pawing through carcasses to peer inside each one.
Doing so on the older kills yielded nothing. The lack of glowing rectangles confirmed a theory she had thought of the previous day during the dissection. The barely perceptible glow from [Bogling Speed] yesterday was much fainter than the Cards from fresh kills. She suspected that without bog magic nor a Core to sustain it, the cards would disappear eventually.
She would not be surprised if bogling cards had the same hour limit that human cards had.
From Deck Day to a person’s twentieth birthday, a new Card would appear in their Core on each birthday without complication. But on Vigil Day–the twenty-first birthday–the person had one hour to decide which Card in their Deck to replace with their new Card. Otherwise, the new Card would disappear after an hour. Hence, it became a tradition to reflect on one’s life and remain vigilant during the hour of birth.
This possible similarity between the human and bogling cards reassured her. In addition to the same size, shape, glow, and iconography, it meant that the magic worked the same way. Even if the source was different. And was the source really different? Maybe boglings get a Card on their reanimation day too.
All the villagers knew the story of how Saintess Lasserie had sacrificed herself to conquer the Ten Sins ravaging humanity. And how God had honored her sacrifice by gifting her children with the Ten Cards of Virtues that formed the first Decks.
But she had learned at a young age that Papa grew up on a different origin story for Decks. With a different God. And Granny had shocked her last year by proclaiming that God did not exist. She had felt like she sinned by just hearing those words.
She had waited with bated breath, but no lightning had struck Granny, nor had any kind of divine punishment. Nevertheless, she had checked with Father Cornelius during Confessional. He had blurted out, “There’s no saving that old hag.” He had then reconsidered and reframed it as God’s test for her to show Granny the correct path to God.
She had known the contempt the two had for each other, so did not even try to convert Granny. Though her faith in God had remained strong, her trust in the Church had eroded. She had started listening to Father Cornelius’s sermons with a more skeptical ear.
“Reny,” called Marcy from behind her. “Here’s another one.”
Right, no time to waste. She duck-walked to Marcy, not trusting her knees against the rough wood of the wagon bed. There was no danger of a bogling attack, surrounded by a dozen hunters in the village. So she had spent [Bogling Skin] activations to protect the soles of her muddy feet from splinters.
Oh, she realized, I have magical shoes now. Expensive ones, with real bogling leather!
Marcy gave her a frog the size of an adult hand. She grasped the frog across the middle and slipped her fore and middle finger through the slit in the belly. Accustomed to estimating the center by now, she pinched her fingers without looking. The awareness of a leaping power affirmed that she found the right spot.
Muttering thanks, she turned back to the front of the wagon with the frog close to her body. In a smooth motion, she directed the Card into her Core, which eagerly slurped it up. She smiled as her Core reflected the Card fanatic that she truly was.
But why was [Delete Card] written on her Core Card and not [Add Card]? Has she ever had a desire to delete cards? And what would deleting cards accomplish?
When she had added Granny’s [Find Herb] to her Deck, she had experienced a tiny desire to go out and gather herbs. But it wasn’t really that strong or demanding. And after a few hours, it felt like a natural part of her. Would deleting that card make her lose the motivation to gather herbs? She didn’t think so. After all, she had learned from Granny and Myfanwy how useful herbs were.
Even with the shameful cards like [Resist Hunger], what was the benefit of deleting them? They didn’t cause hunger, but resisted it.
Although it had been eight consecutive days that she went to bed without hunger pains, the craving still haunted her mind. At night, she still had nightmares of frantically gobbling up mud and rocks, unable to satisfy the throbbing void within her. And during the day, she still squirreled away pieces of dried fruit, nuts, and jerky in a hidden stash, just in case.
Just in case they stopped feeding her. Just in case all seven of her [Resist Hunger] cards were on cooldown. Just in case she couldn’t find any herbs to eat.
It was stupid, she knew. But she couldn’t help it.
Unlike the sudden shocks from boglings, or even bullies, the fear of hunger was a constant presence. The awareness and the threat of it were always in the back of her mind, just at the edge of consciousness.
Maybe deleting a [Resist Hunger] card would lessen the persistent need to hoard food? These oldest cards of hers had increased to level four around noon, improving their effects by a factor of ten. Each card now offered a ten-minute respite from hunger every hour. So she really only needed six of them.
But before experimenting with her Core Card, she should get as many bogling cards as she could before they vanish.
Reaching into the beaver, she found a white card depicting a jaw with two large incisors. The associated instinct suggested the skill would allow her to chew through wood, and possibly even stronger stuff.
It may be useful if she could apply it to her hands. Unfortunately, the Card left the impression that it would enlarge and strengthen only her jaws and teeth. This meant she had to put whatever she wanted to chew in her mouth. After her experience with [Bogling Nose], this [Bogling Chew] was decidedly unappealing.
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The next Card, [Bogling Dig], from the badger made her excited, though. She could imagine using it to dig up turf for peat farming. That was the one part of their work that she could not help with before, the hoe being too long and unwieldy in her hands.
The next animal resembled a mouse, except somewhat longer. Its Card gave the impression that she could see with sound, which made no sense to her. Seeing is seeing and hearing is hearing, right? Not having the time to experiment, she named it [Bogling Echo] for how it seemed to work.
And that made twenty.
The last bogling on the wagon was another fox, with a [Bogling Dodge] Card. This time, instead of slipping into her Core unimpeded, the glowing rectangle she held overlapped with her navel.
In her mind’s eye, borders surrounded her two rows of cards. Typically, one would select a slot for the new Card, which would replace the Card in that position. But this was the perfect opportunity to experiment with her Core ability.
She activated [Delete Card] and mentally targeted her first [Resist Hunger] Card, but stopped herself in a panic. In her eagerness to add more cards, she had forgotten the necessity of showing ten cards during the Deck Day Ceremony.
Ten human cards.
The whole reason Granny gave her the [Find Herb] Card was so she could hide and keep the rare [Disinfect Self Wound] Card.
Calming herself with [Dull Emotions], she looked over her bogling cards.
12. [Bogling Skin] - Common - Level 3
13. [Bogling Claws] - Common - Level 3
14. [Bogling Sight] - Common - Level 3
15. [Bogling Speed] - Common - Level 2
16. [Bogling Nose] - Common - Level 1
17. [Bogling Leap] - Common - Level 0
18. [Bogling Chew] - Common - Level 0
19. [Bogling Dig] - Common - Level 0
20. [Bogling Echo] - Common - Level 0
The last four stayed at level zero since she had not tried activating them yet. However they manifested, the new skills wouldn't be as easy to hide as the nose had been.
Without a doubt, she had to keep the physical enhancements, since they helped her hunt and kept her safe. Similarly, she would retain [Bogling Dig] for its usefulness in getting peat out of the ground. So that left the unpleasant scent one, the chewing one, and the weird echo one. Yes, she would definitely take [Bogling Dodge] over any of those.
She wanted to understand what [Bogling Echo] did before making a choice, though. Hopping off the wagon, she said to Marcy, “I’m going to the outhouse really fast. Be right back.”
“Sure, no hurry,” Marcy replied. “All the hunters have returned, so this is the last one.” She nodded at the mess she was washing.
Whatever animal it used to be was indiscernible. The hunter who bought it back had ravaged it. So it appeared more like a blanket with many holes in it. It was a fairly big blanket, but that wasn’t what drew her attention. Hanging next to it in midair–the original center of the animal, she assumed–was a bright green rectangle.
Seeing her shocked expression, Marcy said, “They really tore this one apart, poor bogling.”
Renalia shook her head at Marcy’s misplaced sympathy. Whatever animal this was, its size would not have made a good bogling pet.
“Well, if it’s the last one, I can help out before going. I can hold it in for a little while.” She reached out to help Marcy handle the ungainly mess, aiming her hand through the green glow.
The sense of strength passed through her fingers and she almost gasped before activating [Dull Emotions]. Marcy had an uncanny ability to perceive what people were feeling, and Renalia did not want to explain why she was so happy all of a sudden.
A strength card! And an uncommon one, too! It’s what she always wanted. It just took a very convoluted route to get to her. But do human and bogling strength abilities work the same way? She couldn’t wait to try all her new cards out.
But under the dulled emotions, she kept her focus on holding the bogling hide while Marcy scrubbed with a brush. And she kept her fingers tightly pressed together while helping maneuver the bogling hide, a rectangle of light superimposed on each hand.
What would happen if she let go of the Cards? Would they dissipate? Would they stay in the air where she let go? Or would they travel back to the center of the boglings they were from? Or, even worse, would they travel to her center? She couldn’t imagine carving her belly open, even for an uncommon strength card she had always wanted.
Her active imagination didn’t get the message though, as it showed her stomach split open with gushing blood and spilling innards.
Thankfully, [Dull Emotions] was in full effect or she would have shuddered. It allowed her to note with curiosity how the viscera–as Malchim would say–seemed like a smaller version of what the armored bogling had. She didn’t understand why they needed a new word for it. It made perfect sense to call them ‘insides’ since that was where they were supposed to stay.
With an objective eye, she saw they were each colored human blood red instead of bogling midnight black. But she doubted human innards resembled bogling ones. At least her imagination had edited out the hard-shelled eggs the bogling had.
She cleared the image away and forced herself to think of nothing. Focus on the random melody that Marcy was humming, she thought to herself. For, without any disgust from suppressed emotions, her curiosity wandered toward whether fresh human corpses had Cards in their bellies.
It scared her, sometimes, the direction her thoughts took in the absence of emotions. She joined in Marcy’s humming. Just two girls cleaning a massacred undead corpse. Completely normal.
Once finished, they struggled to get it up in the wagon. So Shim came to give them a hand.
“Good thing I cleared up some space,” Renalia remarked.
“This is nothing,” Shim said dismissively. “There used to be bigger hauls in the past.”
“Yes, Lexi mentioned something similar. I’m still impressed that there are so many.”
“Well, it helps that boglings run at the hunters instead of running away. I doubt beast hunters can get so many in a day.” He beamed, even though he had not personally gone out into the bog.
Marcy, who had only looked at Renalia while the other two conversed, blurted out, “So you’re going to see your mom and dad?”
“Yes, I’ll have a quiet dinner with them. Instead of this.” She gestured toward the crowd outside the workshop.
Just then, a hunter squealed as he removed Penny from his inner thigh, followed by raucous laughter from those around him. The crowd had started a game of dare, letting Penny nip at various parts of their bodies.
Sammy took Penny back while the crowd around him started another round of outdoing each other with dares. Sammy didn’t look worried, and Renalia trusted him to keep Penny safe, knowing that he took his caregiving duties seriously.
Marcy, with her unpredictable train of thought, followed up with, “What will you do if you run into Ullock?”
An uncomfortable silence descended on them, a stark contrast to the noise outside the workshop. Renalia rubbed at the ribbons around her neck with a knuckle. “Um, I don’t know. I don’t really want to talk to him.”
Marcy pursed her lips. “Do you want me to walk with you? Or maybe Shim?”
Shim, surprised at being mentioned, mumbled, “Uh, yea. I can go with you. To, uh, see your parents. If you want.”
Marcy rolled her eyes dramatically. Renalia appreciated the offer but did not think a companion would make a difference. After all, her previous encounter with Ullock had had an audience.
Besides, she didn’t think Ullock would be still mad at her, given how things had ended. And based on the reactions of the hunters today, he couldn’t find fault in her bringing Penny into the village, right?
“No, thank you. It’ll be okay.” Noticing Marcy’s skeptical glance, she quickly added, “No, really. I’ll be fine. There will be lots of people there, too. I’ll just avoid him.”
She held her knees together to pantomime the need to pee. “I really have to go now. I’ll talk to you guys later.”
But really, the eagerness was due to the Cards. Twenty in her mind’s eye and two in clenched fists. Somehow, just eight days after Deck Day, she had a full Deck.