Chapter 55: Healer

While everything felt wrong, being the only one to accompany Lucas during an interrogation threw Adriana for a loop. He’d said he was grooming her for leadership, but even now she didn’t actually expect to be brought in on things unless she fought for it. Now that he had, she almost regretted it.

The inside of Headman Vinc’s home was modest, but comfortable. Tapestries hung on the wall, and there was a small table near the kitchen where two bowls of soup lay half eaten. Carvings in the wood told stories of children’s heights as they grew, and a family tree taking up one entire wall. It was simple, quiet, and made Adriana’s heart ache.

Shella led the way, moving up to the table and chairs and taking the spot near the wall, pinned in by her two captors. She spread her hands, motioning for them to sit. “What is there to talk about? I assume you’re going to kill me soon.”

Adriana looked at Lucas. He shifted uncomfortably, and took a seat anyway. “I’d rather not, if it’s all the same to you. You don’t strike me as a particularly awful individual.”

“Tell that to the children when it’s time to take their medicine,” Shella returned with a small, sad smile. “I’m sure they’d tell you all kinds of stories. But then, I don’t imagine that will help me.”

“So, do you have Maw Divinity?” Adriana blurted out. She remained standing, hands twitching at her sides.

Shella let out a surprised laugh at her candor. “Yes, I do. I’m at ten percent Maw Divinity, and plenty of assorted Bestia. I don’t think you need to guess what the majority of that is.” She did a little shuffle of her legs to demonstrate.

“You’re remarkable,” said Lucas. “You and everyone here. I’ve never seen so many beastmen in one place, and you all look stable. No one I’ve seen looks liable to turn into a monster, no matter how far along they are.”

“You’re correct,” said Shella. “We’re all stable, and we do not tolerate monsters in our midst. Of course, plenty of your kind would call us monsters, so I suppose it depends on your stance. I can tell this one thinks we are.” She nodded to Adriana.

She opened her mouth to argue, but couldn’t. “Why?” she asked. “Why do you all turn yourself into…this?”

Lucas didn’t seem opposed to the question. In fact, the longer they went without coming to the point, the better. Adriana had never seen him look so uncomfortable and unsure of himself. Shella, on the other hand, looked pleased at the question.

“Why do you consume Divinity? We’re not the only ones who become less human over time. You both are far enough long to barely be considered mortal. You,” she said to Lucas, “aren’t. And yet, if we choose a form pleasing to us but outside your approval, we’re the ones who are monsters.”

Adriana nodded. “So you did it for power?”

Shella’s eyes slid over to Lucas. “Would you say you took Divinity for power, Child of Stephanos? Or did you do it to serve your people? I took this Divinity twenty years ago, before the Maw turned. Back when she was the guardian of nature, and her monsters served a clear purpose.”

Lucas opened his mouth to continue questioning, but Adriana jumped in first. “What purpose was that?”

The beastwoman smiled. If you ignored her spider half, and her unusually piercing eyes, Shella looked mostly normal. Pleasant, even. “Checks and balances, my dear. Humans would serve the gods and gain power for it, but then their hunger and greed turned them against one another and the world itself. So the world fought back, and provided a way forward for any who’d rather a life embracing the world rather than conquering it.”

The small house fell silent. Lucas looked troubled, but at least contemplated her words. Adriana found herself in disbelief, and then anger swept over her like waves crashing on the beach. “Is that what you think Bestia does? Lets you and your village hide away from the big, bad, gods while you hold hands and live as one big family? Tell that to my parents, killed by monsters made by your beloved Maw of Chaos.”

“Adriana,” Lucas started.

“No, she has a point,” said Shella. She bowed her head in apology. “Things aren’t right, and haven’t been for fifteen years now. This is how things were before, and not now. I am sorry to hear of your parents, Adriana. But I did not kill them, nor did my village. We keep to ourselves, and offer no trouble to no one.”

“I believe you,” said Lucas before she could cut in again. “You don’t strike me as someone cruel, vicious, or dangerous. Well, no more dangerous than anyone around me,” he added with a small smile. “What abilities have your Divinity and Bestia given you? How do you serve your village?”

Adriana was glad he was running things. Lucas had a firm but soft way of speaking, showing that he was willing to listen, but he would be heard as well. She bit back her anger and tried to remind herself that Shella spoke true: she had nothing to do with their deaths. With that in mind, she stayed silent, ready to listen.

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“I heal people,” Shella said. “This can mean many different things, based on the need of the person. I provide medicines and tonics for the ill and injured, I soothe the heavy heart and stressed spirit, and I help the members of our little island home keep a stable form. You wish to know my abilities and what I have consumed? I am at forty percent Bestia, ten percent Divinity.”

Lucas and Adriana shared an alarmed look. “What would that even make you?” Adriana asked. “If fifty percent Divinity is a Lesser God, but you have it in Bestia…”

Shella chuckled and spread her hands. “I suppose you could still call me that. With my Bestia I have the mobility and defense to dance and swing among the trees. With my Divinity, I can reach the inner beast of anyone and soothe it, and keep their minds and bodies fit. Tell me: is my life really so offensive that it required sending you two after me?”

Lucas shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “You do not offend me, Shella. However…”

“Ahh,” said Shella, inclining her head.

He didn’t look too happy about it himself. “However, my orders are to secure the Maw Divinity. Will you surrender it to us peacefully?”

“No,” said Shella. “But neither will I offer you violence. This Divinity is important to the health and safety of this village. If you take it from me, everyone here will suffer. People will die, and the pain may spread out into the world as people flee.”

“Lucas, you can’t be serious,” Adriana said. “You know me, I dislike beastmen as much as the next person. Not you,” she added.

“Oh, I wouldn’t be offended either way,” said Shella with a gentle laugh. “Your words can’t hurt me compared to what’s coming next.”

Lucas coughed and stood up. Adriana stood as well, fists balled, waiting to hear something she knew she wasn’t going to like.

“Then if you won’t surrender your Divinity peacefully, my orders are still to bring it in. And the Hierophant said it was dead or alive. I don’t want to hurt you. Will you come back with me peacefully?”

Shella smiled sadly. All the lines of her face stood out then, making her look twenty years older and more exhausted. “If you take me, people will die. I won’t fight you, but I will not go willingly. And my village will not let me leave.”

“Please don’t make me force it,” Lucas said, fingers twitching in frustration. “Is there nothing I can do to convince you to make this easier on everyone involved? I don’t want to have to hurt you.”

“And yet, you’ll have to, to get what you want.”

After a month of traveling with Lucas and the others, Adriana had mostly been okay with everything. They went from island to island, killing monsters, rebuilding some, and inspiring the people who needed a hero in their lives. Their goal was to counter the Maw and eventually defeat her, but this one woman, beastly or not, wasn’t a threat.

“We can’t do this,” she whispered.

Lucas grimaced. “We have our orders.”

Adriana shook her head. “So what? Are you going to murder this woman just because they told you to? How many other people like her have you killed?”

“Adriana,” he said, but it was too late.

She stormed out the headman’s house, and into the village. Tobias, Eva, and Iris sat nearby, and jolted when she came out. She ignored them and walked past a woman with feathers instead of hair, and golden, piercing eyes. The lizard-man from before scowled at her from against a tree. So many inhuman faces, angry at her, at all of them. They were about to be a lot angrier.

She went back the way they came, through the well-trod forest path to the beach. Someone called her name, but she didn’t listen. Adriana picked up the pace, running along until she burst out of the treeline and came back to clean, yellow sand and a pale green sea. She only stopped when she made it to the surf, and the warm water washed over her feet.

Her Godmark had come alive again, bathing her hair and hands in small, blackish flames. It wasn’t often these days that she noticed it. In some ways, Adriana embraced the obvious cue that she was strong, she was special, and she was not to be fucked with. Now, it felt almost like a sham.

There had never been a time in Adriana’s life where she had particularly cared for anyone who took in Bestia. It disgusted her, but the past few weeks had softened some of that. They weren’t common in Hessiopolis, but in Juthida and Mykarkos she’d met some who had been friendly, normal people. These beastmen, they had gone further and retained their sense of self. If Shella wasn’t lying, it was her influence that helped keep them sane, and maybe even shaped their bodies they way they wanted them.

And now, one way or the other, Lucas would kill the entire village. Just because the Hierophant said so. The stuck-up bastard barked for Lucas to jump, and the young man would just sigh and ask how high. And the rest of them would follow him.

A few minutes later, footsteps alerted her she wasn’t alone. The beastmen on the beach gave her plenty of space, but Davos wasn’t afraid of her. “Hey,” he said, coming up beside her. “Water’s good?”

“It helps a little,” Adriana admitted. She almost laughed, with a sharp intake of breath that petered out before it could finish. “They’re either going to kill that woman, or bring her back to Hessiopolis in chains.”

“Ahh,” said Davos. He nodded and said nothing for a little while longer. The lack of a proper response irritated her, and he knew it. It made it easier for her to keep talking.

“No one’s going to do anything about it. I don’t know if I can. I can’t fight them all, can I? And if I could, why would I do it for this strange woman? I don’t know if I can do this. Does that make me a coward?”

She stared at the Duskbreaker, waiting for them just a short ride away. It wasn’t just the Children of Stephanos she had to worry about. All of Hessiopolis would be against her.

“According to your standards, yes,” said Davos. “According to mine, no. You are acting in your own best interests. There are few things more painful in the world than seeing injustice, and being unable to stop it. In this instance, you could probably put an end to it. But that would mean accepting the consequences of your actions. Are you prepared for that?”

Just a month ago, it wouldn’t have been a question. She’d killed the monster in the arena to prevent it from suffering at the hands of the Children of Stephanos. But now those same people were her friends. Or at least, they were supposed to be. Could she turn against them, for a stranger?

“I’m such a coward,” she muttered.

“There are worse things to be,” said Davos. “But maybe it isn’t over yet. Let’s go back, and maybe we can figure something out.”

Adriana let herself be led back to the beach, and then to the village. Her heart, now full of doubt, ached.