Chapter 7 retooled: What goes bump in the night

Days later, much of the initial excitement had worn off in the southern district of Guarai. Things had mostly gone back to normal except the security at the city’s perimeter had been beefed up. However, these extra measures weren’t likely to last long. The count didn’t spend any more money on the safety and security of the city than was absolutely necessary. He was a consummate merchant through and through.

As for me, the last few days had been anything but pleasant. A persistent, garbled whisper haunted me, causing intense migraines and making me feel extremely jumpy and paranoid. I had reached the point where I seriously questioned my sanity. The problem was as far as I could see this was not some physical ailment of mine but some sort of mental affliction. I was unsure who I could approach to receive help with this.

Would there even be anyone who’d be willing or able to? After all, the standard practice for ‘treatment’ of the mentally sick and physically deformed was barbaric in the empire. Families of such an individual would clandestinely deliver them to a local madhouse, ashamed to be associated with them. There, they would either be used as subjects in various alchemical experiments to find a ‘cure’ for their ailment or, if they were able-bodied enough, get drafted in the war effort. They would be kept on the frontlines till they eventually died. From enemy action, sickness or starvation —it mattered not.

Paol, our fifth squad mate, had spoken with a grim certainty as he explained what he expected his eventual fate to be. He had already been on the frontlines for nearly a year by that point, getting punted from one squad to another. I no we had given him lofty oaths of leaving the military together someday to form an adventuring party, just the five of us. Just another in a long list of promises I couldn't keep.

I was getting sidetracked. Accessing my memories, even though incomplete, was proving to be a double-edged sword. In a way, not knowing was a blessing. Being reminded of old failures wasn't pleasant.

Out of desperation, I had tried some of my father’s meditation asanas to calm myself and still my troubled thoughts. To my surprise, they had seemingly helped a great deal. My father had always told me that meditation, coupled with self-reflection were the twin pathways to attaining a deeper understanding of self and achieving inner peace. This just reaffirmed to me why I considered my old man to be a genuine saint.

"During the day, I had mostly kept to myself, worried that the increased scrutiny might unintentionally flush me out of obscurity. Something told me that wouldn’t be a very favorable outcome for me.

There was an exception, though. My impatience with the lack of progress in finding Aniansi had led me to partially throw caution to the wind. I was no longer content to passively wait for her to rendezvous with the copper-haired family. I had done some digging around of my own with the aid of Leera of course, but had been unable to turn up any leads on her. This probably meant that she wasn’t posted anywhere close by.

The only place where such information would surely be held would be in the capital at the Order’s headquarters. Neither I nor anyone I knew would have a ghost’s chance of gaining entry there. The regional headquarters where she was stationed would also have the details I required, but they would be equally problematic gaining access to.

It was possible my old phalanx would have additional details and records regarding where and when Aniansi was discharged from the Army. I could then hopefully with some luck follow the bread crumb trail all the way back to where she was stationed now.

It was a long shot, but I was willing to bet the farm on this. With Leera’s help, I had hired an adventuring team to see if it was possible to get that information from the scribes assigned to my old phalanx.

I sincerely apologize, dearest father, but for this, I would be willing to grease a lot of palms to coax the information out from them. I was being reckless, I knew, but I was beyond caring by this point.

Presently, I was leisurely rinsing myself under a shower. The water was a touch chillier than I would have liked, but nothing my heightened body heat couldn't handle. Icy cold water was to be expected this early in the morning in the mid-autumn season.

I had found that immersing myself in a comforting routine really helped to soothe my frayed nerves and calm my troubled mind. Just keeping my hands busy while turning off my brain was cathartic.

I stepped out of the shower, my body still tingling from the invigorating cold water, to see two young boys hard at work washing my attire, a service that most other patrons of the bathhouse would have required a spare set of clothes for. But I could dry them out instantly if I so wished, a small perk of my abilities.

I calmly strolled towards the ‘hot’ baths to soak in, glad that I had managed to beat the morning rush despite my fears to the contrary. I didn't bother wrapping up as nudity taboos weren't really a thing among the members of the same sex.

As I opened the door to the baths, I was surprised to see a light wispy steam escape the open doorway. Apparently, I gave the staff here too little credit it seemed.

As I eased into the bath, a wave of relaxation washed over me. The warm bath water was slowly lulling me into a peaceful slumber, my thoughts drifting away from my immediate concerns. The comforting heat embraced me, while the tranquil sound of water filling the pool added to the serene atmosphere.

I did not know how long I had been in that state, almost lightly dozing to the gentle sounds around me. Sooner than I would have liked, I heard the door to the bath area open, signaling the arrival of another patron.

He was a tall one, standing nearly a head taller than me. Very few humans ever managed to grow that tall naturally. Such people were highly sought after by the armies and militias of the various human kingdoms and empires across the continent.

Not human

I clutched my head in aggravation. These cursed whispers wouldn’t let up. Just when I thought they had quieted down, they’d start up again.

While I was distracted, the stranger had slid into the water with nary a ripple and spread himself into a relaxed pose, leaning against the smooth stones.

“You ok there, buddy?” His question distracted me from my throbbing headache for a bit, allowing me to focus on my fellow patron.

“I’m fine, just feeling a bit under the weather” I said neutrally, glad I had something to divert my attention from the whispers.

“Yeah, changing seasons can be tricky. But winters are much worse in my opinion though” he sighed somewhat exaggeratedly.

The more the stranger spoke, the stronger my gut instinct became; it was telling me he wasn’t quite human. Something about his speech patterns just seemed a bit off, with an overemphasis on the letters ‘s’ and ‘z’. Granted, it could have just been a foreign accent or verbal tic, and was so minute an aberration that most would never pick up on it, but my sixth sense said otherwise.

With the way nonhumans were treated in the empire I suppose disguising oneself was only prudent on the stranger’s part. Although my curiosity was piqued, I decided being a busybody would just sour the pleasant atmosphere.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

“Not a fan of the cold?” I enquired, continuing to engage in small talk as though I had noticed nothing out of the ordinary. I tried to stay engaged in the conversation with the newcomer, but my focus kept being pulled towards a feeling of wrongness I could sense emanating from his general direction, more specifically his right hand. My curiosity was piqued by the ring I’d seen momentarily on his hand as he was brushing his long platinum blonde locks out of his eyes.

It had a very distinctive symbol, a snake swallowing its own tail emblazoned proudly on its sapphire gemstone. I realized I had seen that very same symbol somewhere but where exactly was the question I was drawing a blank on.

Oblivious to my distracted state the visitor continued animatedly speaking with me. “My hometown had warmish weather throughout the year, so I never saw a proper winter growing up. I will not lie it did take a bit getting used to.”

“It must have been tough adjusting.” I said, in sympathetic tone. “Why did you decide to leave your hometown?”

“Let’s just say I had a bit of falling out with the leadership there and was told to leave in no uncertain terms.” He sighed, shrugging his shoulders as if to say, what can you do.

I nodded my head absentmindedly, barely concentrating on the conversation with the stranger. My mind was still trying to puzzle out where I had seen the symbol last. Then, like a bolt from the blue, it struck me. It had been carved into the stone marker next to which I had woken all those weeks ago.

Who was this man? Was he related to my amnesia, or was this just a giant coincidence? Desperate for answers, I decided to probe him a little.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” I spoke with as much sincerity I could muster.

“Aww, don't be. Leaving my hometown was the best thing that could have happened to me. It broadened my horizons, allowed me to build connections, travel to new places and try new things.” His good cheer was unmistakable. I would almost go as far as to say I could detect a hint of glee in his voice.

“Well, it looks like you’ve certainly done well for yourself,” I said, briefly indicating in the general direction of the ring, hoping my actions didn’t appear as though I was probing him for information.

“Like it?” he asked, proudly showing off the ring to me. “I hear it is part of a set, each worth a king’s ransom.”

I would have dismissed that as a tall claim if I couldn’t sense an eldritch aura emanating from it. The harder I looked at the ‘sapphire’ gemstone in the ring, the more varied colors I could see glittering and sparking at the edges. Whatever this was, it wasn’t some mere bauble, that’s for sure.

But hang on, if the ring really was worth that much, then wasn’t he being a bit too cavalier with it? Was that because he had faith that I wouldn’t try anything untoward, or that even if I did, he would be able to handle it all the same?

“You shouldn’t reveal that to a stranger,” I cautioned.

“Oh, don’t worry, I wouldn’t usually. But I know you’re the trustworthy sort, half-breed,” he stated cheerily, giving me a subtle side-eyed glance which implied much more than was spoken.

I found my hackles rising. There was definitely a patronizing undercurrent to his tone and words. I already hated being reminded of my nature. So being reminded of that fact in that tone wasn’t doing my mood any favors.

That realization was secondary in import to the fact that he knew or at least guessed my identity somehow. How and how much did he know? Who was he, and was he part of the Eldorian authorities?

No, that was far-fetched. The empire was a human supremacist force to the core. They would never permit any non-human to be in any official position of power within its borders. Regardless, I followed my knee-jerk response to try and wriggle out of this situation by using the age-old maxim: deny, deny, deny and obfuscate.

“I’m not quite sure what you mean,” I said in a clipped voice, struggling to appear unruffled.

“Oh” he sighed theatrically before starting to lazily stretch as he got up as if he was about to make his leave from the bath “My bad, I must have mistaken you for someone else then.”

I had barely a moment to blink before he blurred in front of me, his right hand now sporting sharp claws, closing in dangerously towards my neck. I just managed to deflect the strike with my hand, despite being in a very awkward position.

That showed me that even though I could not quite match his speed, I was more than his match in terms of strength.

His follow-up strike was even quicker, his claws extending to the size of small knives. He used them in a scissor strike with both hands, aiming to decapitate me.

My body temperature spiked to five hundred degrees, and golden-red mana flames violently erupted around me. In my desperation to drive away my attacker, I had called on ‘Flame Shield,’ my only mana technique that I could activate near-instantaneously.

In a grand display of athleticism, my opponent converted his lunge into a somersault, sailing right over my head.

In ideal conditions, I’d be able to maintain these flames and heightened body temperature for roughly ten minutes at the cost of a third of my total mana reserves. But these conditions were anything but ideal. I was partially submerged in a large pool of water, which was slowly smothering my stubborn flames and sapping away my heightened body heat by distributing it and converting some of the water’s own volume into steam and vapor.

I’d been forced to waste a large chunk of my mana reserves with just those two maneuvers from my adversary. It was beginning to dawn on me that this was no chance encounter, and my opponent had very cleverly selected a battlefield where I was at a significant disadvantage.

As we faced each other, sizing each other up, waiting for who would take the initiative to attack next, the stranger slowly broke the tense standoff by raising his hands in mock surrender.

“No need to be shy, half-breed,” he said, slowly circling around me, keeping me in his peripheral view as he made his way back towards his earlier spot. “You’ve been under surveillance of interested parties for quite a while now.”

“Who are you? What do you want with me?” I demanded, not in the mood to engage in any roundabout, hollow small talk anymore. I realized that something about him had been putting me on edge from the moment I had laid eyes on him. It was not something I could put my finger on until now.

He reminded me of a house cat one of our neighbors used to keep, who had a tendency to play with any rodent she caught for hours before killing it.

Quite like our squad’s serjeant now that I thought about it. Being reminded of that cantankerous, holier than though lout was enough to foul my mood further.

Oh oh that reminded me where else I’d seen the ring’s symbol. It was drawn into the gravel along with other potential symbols by our squad when we were trying to decide what our future adventuring party’s name and sign would be. After almost three hours of back and forth we had settled on that symbol.

“Oh, you don’t need to worry your pretty little head over that, half-breed,” he said, chiding me gently. All amicable pretense was gone now, with him not bothering to hide the undertones of cruel mockery present in his voice. “What you need to worry about is how much and what part of your cute students you’ll find if you accept any job offer from someone wearing this type of ring.”

I grit my teeth, enraged this villain was threatening my charges right in front of me and I couldn't do anything to stop him. Not without burning through significant amounts of mana and causing a lot of collateral damage in the process, that is.

Such overt displays of magecraft would attract all the wrong kinds of attention from the Empire. Only Grog and his wives were somewhat aware of my abilities. That I knew of. And I would like to keep it that way. Something told me the less people knew where I was the better it was for me.

My opponent smirked knowingly, apparently guessing what quandary I was stuck in. He inhaled deeply through his parted lips, his eyes briefly flickering in the direction of the bath house entrance.

“Well, half-breed, while I enjoy your company a lot, I have other stuff to take care of,” he said as he got out of the pool. He gave me ample opportunity to attack his supposedly defenseless back while he wrapped his towel around himself. But I wasn’t falling for such a transparent ruse.

“You think I will let you just waltz out of the door?” I couldn't decide if I should be impressed or incensed by the sheer gall on display here.

“We both know neither one of us can go all out right now,” my opponent replied, finally turning around to face me again. “But if you feel differently, we can always continue where we left off.”

He knew that I knew he was right. I couldn’t afford to continue; all I could do was grit my teeth in impotent rage. My mind was running a mile a minute, I wanted to rattle his confidence and sow doubt so that he didn’t think he could threaten my charges with impunity going forward. “Cocky demi-human, aren’t you?”

His confused and surprised expression was very gratifying to me. This was the first time he had looked anything short of self-assured in this entire encounter.

“How…?” The question died mid-way on his lips as he searched my hard gaze for an explanation that would not be forthcoming. “Here I was beginning to think the tales of your deeds were highly embellished.”

“If you think I won’t hunt you down to the ends of the world if you harm even a hair on my charges’ heads, then you are gravely mistaken.” As an additional intimidation tactic, I pumped mana into my eyes making them momentarily glow an ominous red.

Instead of fear, all I could see in his gaze was predatory anticipation.

“I look forward to that then,” he said jovially as he opened the exit door to the pool room “Toodles, half-breed.”

He closed the door as he left. Still having adrenaline pumping through my veins, it took a few minutes for me to calm down and think clearly about a few tangential matters.

Could this be who the mages had been looking for nearly a week ago? I couldn’t say for sure since the mage council insisted on near-total secrecy regarding their activities. I would have to ask Grog to make the Count aware that a dangerous felon was now loose within the city.

Regardless, I was no longer in the mood to continue enjoying the bathhouse’s facilities. As I waded through the pool to reach its steps, another errant thought wormed its way into my head. Where were the other customers and attendants? I was not willing to believe no one had heard all the commotion which had occurred in this area of the bathhouse.

With a sinking feeling, I hurriedly climbed out of the pool to check on the attendants and patrons of the facility. By happenstance, I managed to catch a glimpse of my reflection from my peripherals. Instead of my naked pale form, a charcoal black figure with three glowing ‘eyes’ was glaring back at me.

My startled double take showed just my normal reflection. Wait, why was I wasting time on a trick of the light? I needed to make sure everyone in the bathhouse was okay.

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As the stranger made his way out of the nearly empty bathhouse, he was waylaid by a non-descript man of indeterminate age. In mere moments that facade sloughed off him like butter melting in a hot sun leaving him in a very conspicuous cloak and grey mask which had the symbol of a great serpent eating its own tail. At the center of the ring formed by the snake were two stars.

“You think yourself to be very cute do you, Nu? You know Alpha didn’t ask you to approach the potential candidates. If you step out of line again Alpha will have your head.” The warning was delivered in a sharp, no-nonsense tone.

“Aww, come on, Beta. Here I go out of my way to help ease your burden, and this is the thanks I get?” His jovial tone and high spirits did nothing to improve his colleague’s mood.

“This is not the task assigned to you. Don’t think we aren’t aware that you are trying to sabotage our potential recruits.”

Nu feigned being cowed by the chastisement he had received, but both of them knew he was not being serious. “Ok, fine then. Let’s focus on the main order of business.”