It turns out that dwarf dinner is… pretty bland, actually. No meat in it but there is a lot of mushrooms and something that seems to be like a potato but green on the inside. We are served in our room, which is a relief; I was worried that they would make us eat in the dining hall with the rotting food nearby.

When I ask for salt, there is a bit of a fuss. The dwarf outside is taken aback by the request, but he returns with a jar containing large white chunks.

“This is rare. What do you offer in trade?” He holds it close, as if he’s worried I’m going to snatch it from him.

“How about ten healing potions?” I slot one of them out and hand it to him. He looks at it critically, then nods. A moment later I’m holding a good amount of rock salt and waiting for a chance to refresh my supply of healing potions.

The salt is interesting in itself. When I open it my Eyes of Alchemy tell me that it’s an ingredient.

Salt - Banish

When I’ve seasoned everyone’s food, I stash away the rest in my pouch. There’s a lot of it to make potions with, but I still hope I don’t have to banish a lot of demons or anything.

Eating is not as easy as I’d like. Not because of the dwarf utensils, although they aren’t a great fit for my hands. No, it’s Marika who makes things difficult. She won’t let me get a bite in without a question.

“Tell me about how you got cursed by a god!” She is so excited that she is vibrating.

Between gulps of mushroom stew I speak. “Well, I was in… a bad situation and Jinx came to me. He offered me a new life, and I didn’t realize that he would follow the letter of the agreement we made rather than the spirit.”

Theo nods in understanding. “All the stories of Jinx say he delights in making people think they are getting what they want, only to have it turned around on them.”

“I asked for a healthy, strong body that wouldn’t get sick, and this is what I got.” I wave my hands down my torso. I get sympathetic looks all around. “I mean he didn’t lie, but…”

“So you were an alchemist before you met Jinx?” Marika asks.

For a second I pause. What should I tell them? I’m suddenly afraid of their reaction. Will they be excited that I’m from another world? What if I’m treated like even more of a freak? What if their religion treats people like me as demons or something? Maybe I will be banished!

Marika and Theo are watching me, and they know I’m delaying my answer. “You don’t have to tell us if you—“

I cut her off. “No, it’s ok.” I have to trust someone and they’ve been good to me. My first friends here deserve the truth. “I’m actually from another world.”

I explain my situation, from my illness to my death. I tell them about how Jinx offered me a second life and I agreed, but I was too loose in my language and he made me into this. When I finish, I sit back on my haunches and wait for their response.

“Oh, an otherworlder,” says Marika. “Was it a magical world?”

“I bet it wasn’t,” says Theo.

“You’re not, I don’t know, afraid? Or worried?” I look back and forth between the two. “This isn’t a crazy story to you?”

Both of them shake their heads. “Not at all. Most otherworlders come here of their own accord, from magical worlds. Dimensional travel and all that. People like you who come via a god’s will are rare, but not unheard of. People certainly won’t think anything bad about you.”

“What about Bale?” Caine asks.

Theo pauses before answering. “Bale was—is—something different. Him being an otherworlder isn’t really important.”

“No,” says Marika. “If people knew who brought her here, they might be afraid of her.”

There is a long moment where nobody speaks, and nobody meets my eyes either. I can’t bear it so I break the silence. “Who’s Bale?”

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

“Bale is… like a demon. He’s the worst thing in the world.”

Theo nods at Marika’s words. “Bale is what we scare children with when they’re naughty. He’s what we use as a curse when something terrible happens. If your house burns down you might say Bale visited it.”

“But he’s dead, right? Or mythical?”

Heads shake all around. “No. He’s very real and very much alive. He’s trapped, though. Nobody knows where exactly. But he can’t be killed.” The tone of her voice tells me Marika believes what she’s saying.

It takes a moment but I realize I smell fear. Not nervousness, but actual fear coming from all five of my human friends. I look at them, confused. “So if he’s trapped or whatever, we’re all safe from him, right?”

“Bale can’t harm us as long as he’s contained,” says Theo.

“Bale did things. Terrible things. He killed so many people. He made an entire country into a hell. He came from another world, like you, and wanted to go back. But even killing all those people wasn’t enough to collect enough magic to open a gate to his world.” Marika pauses. “Do you want to go back?”

That’s a question that I hadn’t thought about much. After a moment, I shake my head. “Not really. Not right now, anyway. In my old world, I was a sick kid. I died a little past my seventeenth birthday. My family wasn’t there for me, and I had no friends. I think I’d rather stay here with you.”

All of them visibly relax. I chuckle, which isn’t transcribed and sounds like a minor rockslide. “What, you were worried I’d start killing people to open a way back?”

None of them laugh. My own feelings change to confusion and a little dread. “What? Why is that so serious?”

After a long pause, Marika speaks. “Everyone knows it was Jinx who brought Bale to our world. Whatever he wished for, it made him into monster. A lot of people dislike Jinx’s worshippers because of Bale. If you started talking about going back to your world, and people knew Jinx brought you here, there could be trouble. It’s just too similar.”

“No worries there. I’m staying here where the healthcare is free and I’m a scary monster instead of a sickly girl. Although I wouldn’t mind finding some clothes.”

Everyone laughs at that. “A troll wearing a dress! That’d be something to see!” Caine says, and the other two guards laugh with him.

I grin, because it is funny, and then the laughing stops. “No, no! I’m smiling! It’s not supposed to be scary!”

Marika pats me gently on the shoulder. It’s about as high as she can reach. “It’s all right, Ellie. Just… troll smiles are inherently scary, you know?”

I pout but of course she’s right. Not that I’ve seen myself yet. But maybe…

“Is there a mirror anywhere I can use?”

Marika jumps up. “Yes! In my pack, with my makeup and things!”

Theo groans. “I told you to leave that behind. It’s no use out here.”

Marika roots around in her stuff for a moment and comes up with a hand mirror and a triumphant grin. “So you said, but now Lady—I mean, Ellie can see herself! So it wasn’t useless at all!”

I take the mirror gently. It’s not made of glass, but instead some polished silvery metal, which makes it a little bad in terms of quality compared to what I’m used to. But it’s good enough to show my face.

It’s a good thing it’s not glass, because seeing myself is so shocking that I drop the mirror. My face is, to be polite, terrifying. I have two pupils in each eye, arranged horizontally like an infinity symbol. My irises are a sick looking yellow. Where my eyes should be white they’re black. My nose is just a slit in the middle of my face; how can I smell so well with barely even a nose? But my mouth is the worst. Somehow I missed the fact that I don’t have lips, and that my teeth are always visible! All those smiles that I was so careful to hide my teeth…

I open my mouth and see that it’s full of teeth, like I suspected. There’s rows and rows of them, waiting to pop up and take their place. I can’t even tell where the tooth I lost earlier was. Past my teeth my throat yawns open like a sinkhole. There’s no doubt in my mind I could swallow someone’s head whole. Then I wonder why the heck I thought of that. Must be the troll part of me.

“I bet you’re very pretty when you’re a human, Ellie,” says Marika with a touch of pity. “You are human, right? No elves in your world, or dwarves, or anything like that?”

“I was a human, but I wasn’t pretty.” Memories of my old life flash in my mind. “I was frail and weak and sickly. My hair was thin and scraggly, and my face was sunken. I didn’t look good at all.”

Compared to Marika, who looks beautiful even here in the dim light of the dwarven lantern, I feel ugly indeed. But there’s nothing I can do about it so I push the thoughts away. “What about the king? How can we help him? If he’s poisoned then we need an antidote.”

“My schooling taught me that to make a magical antidote you need the original poison and an alchemical reversal agent. One of the most common is quicksilver, but of course that’s a poison itself.” Marika pats her pack. “I wish I’d thought to bring some of my schoolbooks! You could have learned all the basics from them.”

No thank you! Trolls don’t go to school. “So we need to know what poisoned him and we need a reversal agent. Will the dwarves let me have any quicksilver?”

“Most likely they’ll let you have anything you want as long as it’s in the service of fulfilling our bargain. And don’t be coy about asking, either. You’re better off just being straightforward with them. Dropping a hint to a dwarf is like asking an elf what’s for dinner.”

I’m about to ask what the heck that’s supposed to mean but everyone is nodding like that’s some sage advice. Instead I choose to pretend I understand and we spend the rest of the evening finally able to talk properly.

While the others sleep, I think. It really sounds like these dwarves are are pretty inflexible in their interpretation of deals and such, so I had better put my best effort forward to cure their king. But without any idea what poisoned him, how can I make an antidote? Then it comes to me, and I quietly head for the door.