“How long?” Crow’s hoarse voice filled the room.
“About a week,” Song Lin smiled. “Sit. I’ll feed you.”
“I can feed myself.”
“Sit,” she commanded. Crow focused on this delicate-looking woman that was easy to underestimate. He often forgot that she was older than him and had climbed the tower previously. Because of her age and accomplishment, many people feared her at that time. No one knew where she disappeared all those years ago and did not know she ruined her foundation attempt to flee the psychopath fiancé that killed her parents.
Crow sat on the edge of the bed in front of her. Lin’er put the tray down and grabbed the bowl. Spooning the foul-smelling liquid into his mouth, she smiled every time he swallowed.
The bitter broth would make the god of stoicism wince. She’d been feeding it to him while he was sleeping because he wouldn’t know or care. She was doing it now while he was awake as punishment for scaring her. Crow understood what was happening and swallowed every spoonful without saying a word.
“I’m sorry,” Crow said after the spoon clanked into the empty bowl.
Song Lin looked him in the eyes and nodded. She put the empty bowl down and grabbed his face. No words were said as she held his head, their breath swapping because of how close their faces were to each other.
He knew she panicked while trying to heal him. It would have scared him to death, too. Finally, he wrapped his arms around her tiny waist and buried his face into her bosom.
“I’m sorry,” he mumbled again.
Song Lin hugged him back, and her hand stroked his head. Her body trembled, and he let some of his presence leak out to calm her. Not long after that, Mara charged into the room, and Song Lin stepped back, avoiding getting tackled by the lioness.
“Ooof,” Crow expelled as he fell over onto the bed, holding onto his little general.
“I’m sorry,” Mara kept saying again and again.
“Mara! It wasn’t your fault.”
“It doesn’t matter. I almost killed you!” Mara shouted, refusing to let him go.
“Well… if you want to punish yourself, I could use someone to test a few potions,” Song Lin said. She climbed onto the bed at some point, and her face was right next to Mara’s. The big grin on her face made the stronger woman shudder, and Crow couldn’t stop himself from chuckling. He loved his quiet and demure Song Lin but had to admit, this crazy mad scientist side of her was also fantastic.
“Th-that won’t be necessary,” Mara muttered, and Song Lin giggled before kissing Mara on the cheek.
“You are adorable.”
Crow lost it and burst out laughing because those words broke the somber feeling. The two both turned to look at him with sinister glares, but he didn’t stop.
“I’m sure our husband would be glad to help with your experiments,” Mara claimed innocently, but the mischievous gleam in her eyes didn’t escape Crow’s or Song Lin’s sight.
“Well, you see, about that,” Crow stuttered as a few more people entered the room. He locked his sight on Song Xue. “I would love to help, but we depart in two days. Song Xue and I will sneak across this floor and attempt to set up a safe camp near the Stairs of Ascent.”
Mara and Song Lin looked at each other before they broke down laughing. Crow wasn’t scared Song Lin would hurt him, but like the soup, it wouldn’t be pleasant.
“Let’s go, dear sister,” Mara told Lin’er. “Since Crow already had dinner, we’ll split his portion of Nadia’s newest creation.”
“W-wait! No way. You can’t take a grown man’s food. Th-that’s cruel,” Crow nearly cried at the injustice, and this time it wasn’t only those two laughing. Crow even saw Nadia behind them with a sparkle in her eye. They continued to joke for a little longer, but he knew it was to dispel their negative thoughts. Almost losing a loved one had side effects.
“Joking aside. There is something serious we need to discuss,” Mara said. At this point, they had all made it to the dining room and were sitting around the table while Nadia kept bringing dishes out to them. “The Scath figured out that the Nightstone wall ebbs as it devours darkness.”
“Huh?” Crow didn’t fully understand that.
“It’s like your metabolism,” Song Lin explained, and Mara closed her mouth. With these types of things, Song Lin and Crow were their experts. “A Nightstone devours darkness, and as it digests it, the light becomes stronger, pushing the darkness away. Well, it basically starves itself until that light weakens. Then it repeats.”
“Interesting.” Crow thought about that and felt it was an issue. “Is that a serious issue? Does the light fade completely?”
“No. The bricks used to create the wall fade sequentially. From south to north, based on when they were created. It fades section by section and repeats that every ten hours—roughly,” Mara hadn’t provided this information to Song Lin as she’d just learned about it herself. It was initially why she came to Crow’s room. “Today, they also created a new patrol that will follow the Fade—the name they gave the occurrence.”
Mara tried to give him as many details as she could. She understood her husband and knew he enjoyed studying the ecology of a place. Loved understanding why certain areas developed specific habits and traditions. Almost all those quirks could be dated back to an event like this.
“Overall, it changes nothing for us, but some Scath are smart enough to exploit it. Today a few of them got into the city before they were killed.”
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Crow looked at Song Xue again after hearing about the recent development. “Nothing changes. We will leave in a few days. If anything, this helps us.”
“Oh, that’s smart,” Mara nodded, already recognizing Crow’s strategy.
“What is?” Song Lin asked. She didn’t have the talent for strategy that her sister and Mara had, but she was smart enough to get the idea once explained.
“The Scath are tracking the Fade,” Song Xue explained to her sister. “He can wait until the Fade passes and check to see where they are raiding from, and we can choose a cave system further away from that area. Should be fewer Scath.”
“Oh, neat,” Song Lin nodded. “Let’s do that.”
“You want to travel with us?” Song Xue asked, her cold, impassive face cracked for a moment.
“Little sister, you forget I’m a better fighter than you—or was. Mostly you forget what I do.” Song Lin held up a small vial.
“What’s that?” Crow asked.
“Invisibility potion,” Song Lin smiled triumphantly. “Provided I don’t get too agitated or my adrenaline spikes, it’ll last at least two hours.”
“Seriously?” Crow looked at the blue-gold liquid inside and couldn’t help but admire Song Lin’s talent. “So getting attacked, running, and things like that break down the chemical faster?”
“Yes, it’s like that,” Song Lin acknowledged. It wasn’t that precise, but close enough that the minor details didn’t matter. She would explain in more detail when they were alone because the rest of the table would only get more confused. “Also, I have a lotion that will hide your scent once used. Last, I traded some potions for a treasure called the Phantom Boots. It’ll completely muffle all sound issued from my feet. You won’t even hear the snap of a twig if I step onto it. Sadly, it is only a sound barrier for my feet.”
“You’ve been busy, but the bigger question is… why do you want to travel with us?” Crow knew it wasn’t simple concern. “You could watch from inside.”
“Scath are what I’m interested in. No offense, but you won’t be able to perform the tests I need. I have various liquids that I want to test on them.”
“Why?” Crow may not understand her process, but that doesn’t mean he can’t figure out what she hopes to accomplish.
“Because maybe I can reverse their change.” Song Lin shrugged nonchalantly, but everyone in the room felt their jaw drop. That wasn’t what they’d expected her to say.
“Reverse?” Nadia asked because she was probably the third most knowledgeable in the room concerning alchemy. Crow even wondered if she knew more than he did because she and Song Lin were inseparable most days.
“We’ve all discussed this before. If you remember, our consensus was that most of these Shadowmen aren’t that way by choice. We also mostly agree that it’s a bloodline corruption.”
“You think it’s alchemical?” Crow quickly captured her thread of thought. Under the table, he felt Song Lin’s hand gripping his. He wasn’t sure if it was excitement or a reward for being capable of understanding her.
“Yes. And if true, there should be a counter-agent, right?” Song Lin waved her free hand at them, knowing most of what she wanted to talk about would go over their heads. Crow was the only one she could talk to that could grasp some concepts of her talent.
Song Lin realized her affection for Crow turned from love to something more profound, maybe adoration or obsession. She knew the moment it changed, and that was when he encouraged her to study other types of alchemy, like poison, to help her defend herself. No, it was more than that—he encouraged her, and his affection for her never wavered, even after knowing her zeal for it. Like now, she was essentially talking about experimenting on living things, and he wasn’t repulsed by her. He even looked a little excited.
Every person in the room trusted her with their lives, but she could tell that when she became Alchemist Lin, there was some fear in their eyes. Their trust was the only reason she didn’t hide the things she did from them. Especially her sister and Mara, since those two created most of their strategies alongside Crow. Information was power.
Crow stroked Song Lin’s head and smiled. “You can travel with us for an hour and a half each day. If we fight against the Scath when you are inside, I’ll try to capture some and pull you out.”
“Deal!” Song Lin nodded. “Uh, can I bring living ones into your SoulScape?”
“Lily?” Crow asked, looking up at an empty spot in the room.
“It isn’t a good idea. Every Scath have a connection to the prime progenitor through a familial hierarchy. It isn’t exactly a hive-mind but close enough.”
“So the progenitor can sense their children?” Crow asked.
“Yes. Only the progenitor can sense its child’s pain or death, but every direct ancestor Scath above can track those related to it.”
“You mean the direct line descendants?”
“Yes. If we capture one, and its progenitor can’t track it, then it could ask its progenitor and keep going upward until someone can.”
“What if the progenitor dies?” Song Xue asked. She usually remained quiet and listened to them, but occasionally, she dropped a question like this. Besides Song Lin, Crow knew the quiet girl asked because of her assassin mindset. Why kill thousands when she can strike off the head of the beast?
“All its children become subordinate to that Shadowman’s progenitor. They can’t break free on their own.”
“Then what about the Scath that form on their own?”
“That isn’t possible,” Lily said. “Well, not like you think. They are still subordinate because they are created from corrupted blood. They’ll have a progenitor but won’t know who it is until they are within close enough range to be commanded. All Scath are linked to the Scath Draoi’s blood. No matter how diluted, every drop originates from the prime progenitor.”
“And if we kill the general?” Crow asked because it wasn’t information Lily had shared before.
“I’m uncertain,” the little fae said. “Ideally, it’d be nice if it breaks the curse, but realistically, there is probably some unknown sinister method involved in all this.”
“Like its blood,” Song Xue said. “It probably can’t die permanently unless all Scath die.”
Lily nodded at her. “Yeah, probably something like that. If he died, it wouldn’t be surprising if they all sacrificed themselves in a ritual to resurrect the Scath Draoi. It is a logical assumption that shouldn’t be ignored.”
“No matter,” Crow shook his head. “We obviously aren’t strong enough to worry about that for now. The lowest Scath might not be a risk to us, but their numbers can take us down. I don’t want to fight a progenitor, and definitely not any of the commanders.”
“That’s true,” Lily laughed.
“Okay, early morning, two days from now, we’ll leave. That means all of you have two days to shop, explore, and take care of whatever you need to do here.”
“I’m going to visit Darkstar Boutique,” Mara said. “I’ll bring Otto with me.”
“Why now?”
“I ordered something from her a while back. That woman is a very talented tailor.”
Song Lin couldn’t stop giggling when Mara mentioned the boutique.
Suspicious, Crow looked between the two and the other girls who weren’t looking him in the eyes.
“What did I miss?” Crow grinned.
“Well…” Song Lin looked over at Mara, who smiled and nodded. “We felt women crowd you because of that thing between your legs and the fact you are always naked.” Even Otto was laughing. “That woman you found figured out elemental threading so you can wear undergarments impervious to fire.”
Crow looked at the prideful women surrounding him and burst out laughing. “Is that all? I thought it was going to be a chastity belt…”
The moment he said, their eyes widened, and Crow’s jaw fell. Otto’s booming laughter shook the entire building. In Crow’s weakened state, there was no way he could flee from them—he tried.
In the end, it was all a prank, but Crow felt wronged all the same. They spent the next few days making it up to him, leaving a permanent smile on his face.
Acco wasn’t smiling and looked haggard and angry. Otto refused to stay at the house. Instead, he spent most of his time in a local brothel that excelled in entertainment—carnal and otherwise. Even Acco joined him after that first night, but unlike Otto, he couldn’t escape the empathetic vibes coming through the Constellation.