Born a Monster

Chapter 33: Born A Monster, Chapter 33 – Fire Reveals

Born A Monster

Chapter 33

Fire Reveals

Cosimo didn’t take me to the shrine himself; that duty fell to one of the Rejects, whose name I still did not know. There were laws against the abuse of blind people, so there was a broom handle between us. He held one end, and I the other, and thus we made our way through the crowded streets.

My System map did many things, but it told me it was not – yet – able to count steps or navigate by smell. But if I cared to invest a hundred development points ...

I had two. Again.

A smell caught my nose. “Pork skewers! Let’s stop and buy some.” The effort of stringing that many words together! I coughed to clear my throat.

.....

“Let’s not.” Said my guide, increasing his pace.

I ground my teeth, but kept up. Inside my shirt, Black Snake’s box bounced, but did not spring open.

“Show some respect. Wipe your feet.” My guide said.

I did so. Perhaps I should spend a copper or two on a good pair of sandals?

“Here, sister, this one’s to see Delphinia the Oracle.”

“Delphinian Oracle, child. It is a class, not a name.”

“Whatever. Where is she?”

“Oh, I’ll guide him from here. Have a piece of sweetbread for your trouble.”

“Mhm. Fanksh.” Without even saying goodbye, his footsteps merged with the traffic in the street.

“Here child, take my hand.” Somehow, I knew where it was, and grasped it without cutting her on the tips of my claws. “Yes, she had said you were special.”

I didn’t feel special. I just felt – well, no, I didn’t feel blind.

The sunlight seemed warmer, cleaner. Like it was embracing me. I even risked opening – no, no, still a bad idea. Bad, bad idea.

“Hellene, your guest has arrived.”

“Thank you, sister.”

“Your name is Hellene?” I asked.

She chuckled, “It is a term for a female Oracle in our faith.”

“So you are both an Oracle and a Truthspeaker?”

“Among other classes.” She agreed. “Come forward, let’s see what we’re dealing with.”

#

Gently, she unwrapped my bandages. She gasped once, paused, and then continued. “These wounds...”

I tried to speak, but the strain on my vocal cords was too much. I sent thoughts to her. “I hear that they’re healing nicely. My System tells me I have nine days until I am healed.”

“That – seems unlikely. But I can see where the skin is trying to knit together. Tell me, what do you know about how that works?”

Well, I explained what I knew. How this appeared to be a contingency, hidden in my System. How I’d learned of it, and my decision to capitalize on it.

She let me finish. “That was extremely foolish of you.” She said. “And selfish. Do you know how many bulls you need to eat to get that level of biomass? Your poor mother.”

I was unable to reconcile the words poor and mother. Mother was ... a monster, an apex predator of the sea. I didn’t have an exact read on her size, but ... larger than this shrine, certainly.

“I – I didn’t think she would set up something that would inconvenience her that much.”

She exhaled. “Mothers sometimes give up more than is good for us to protect our children. No matter what disappointments they throw us, they are always our babies.”

I felt no such feelings through link from my System to my mother’s, but said nothing. Not every truth needs to be shared.

“You are a mother?”

“Among other duties. But let’s talk about you. I sense your parasitic friend has grown quite a bit. You must have been doting on her.”

“I’ve taught her how to tap the darkness on her own.”

Her next words seemed sad. “That will only take her so far. Should she turn on you, should you decide to destroy her, just know you have allies here who would help you.”

“She isn’t harming my healing process.”

“I’ll take that to mean she isn’t helping, either. Am I wrong?”

I sighed. “You are not wrong.”

I could feel the smug rolling off of her in waves. “Well, back to our point, I can see your muscles. I can see where they were cut, and hints of where the scars could be. But you say there will be no scars?”

“So my System says.”

My stomach grumbled.

“Provided I eat enough.” I added.

“Oh, have no fear for that. We eat after the ceremonies at dawn, at noon, and at dusk, though we eat smaller meals than you might be used to.”

“If I could have a bale of hay or two a day, I find they have enough biomass to make up much of the difference.”

“Hay? Your pointy little teeth were made for tearing flesh, not eating plants.”

I pulled my healing lips apart to show her my molars, but it was still a day before she acceded that feeding me like a horse was the best way to help me heal.

“Well, be that as it may, let me see what I can learn. Sunlight reveals.”

“Fire reveals.” I said.

She spent the bulk of two days trying to figure out what made my healing work. I’m not sure she ever got her answers, but she seemed pleased enough when I was able to open my eyes for a few seconds at a time.

“If nothing else, you’ll regain your eyesight, a gift from our lord Apollo.”

I was pretty sure that people saw just fine before he was around, but again said nothing.

She gave me instructions back to the guildhall in the late afternoon of that second day, as she was putting new bandages on my wounded areas. With my fingers, I had been able to feel the patches of skin grow, day by day.

My System assured me I had only seven days until I was healed, and thus I was still on track.

On the way back to the guildhall, I stopped and got three pork skewers for a copper coin. They were filled with fat and grease, and MEAT. I’d meant to save one for Kismet, but ended up devouring even the wood skewers themselves.

#

“Can you carry a torch?” Cosimo asked, before I even had the door closed.

“I think so.” Darn, my voice just sounded wrong.

From my shoulders up, my entire body pulsed and burned with every heartbeat.

“Good, get three days of that goop you need from Sangru, and pick up supplies from Tangars. You leave after breakfast tomorrow. Melchidore requested you personally.”

“I’ll go see Sangru.” I said, and did so.

“Well, let’s see what those sunburned strumpets have done to you.” Sangru said, hastily unwrapping the bandages. “It’s actually better than I expected. Their magics seem to have done you well.”

I didn’t feel the need to tell him they hadn’t used a single healing incantation.

“So, I want you to know this is happening against my recommendation. I take no responsibility if this assignment interferes with your healing.”

“It shouldn’t. It’s just three days.”

“Three days? Who told you that lie? Little miracle, you will be on patrol for two weeks.”

Well, the medicine he wanted me to take would only keep its potency for three days, it turns out that’s where THAT came from. I had to take a limited kit with me to make room for all the bandages, but given how hard it was to turn things in lately, I wasn’t sure that was an entirely bad thing.

Uloned had somehow been roped into Madra’s job, which explained the quality drop in the food. His reputation from the trails preceded him, except that it turned out he had a lighter hand on the spices than rumors gave him.

“You won’t need your own food, squad will feed you.” He told me.

Well, that was new.

I tried to see Kismet, but Lorraine had bad news for me. “She’s on assignment. Don’t worry, you can sleep here if you don’t like your new room.”

“I have a new room?”

Well, my new room had been Jefe’s old room. There were two other beds, each with blankets, but there were no occupants that night.

Breakfast was warm eggs, scrambled, with a plank-like cut of salt mutton.

There was no cart, and there was an additional surprise.

“Here you go.” Melchidore said, handing me a plank of metal rimmed pine that must have weighed half what I did.

.....

“Why do I need a shield?”

“Can’t be a shield bearer without a shield.” She said.

“Shield bearer?”

“Shield bearer. Welcome to the bottom rank of the guardsmen. We move out soon, keep up.”

If I’d known, I would have gotten a pair of sandals or even boots from Tangars.

#

As it was, I was always racing ahead or to catch up, in a mostly futile attempt to forage or even pull up grass as we marched. From the aches in my muscles, particularly my thighs and shoulders, I knew I’d gotten in a day of good exercise for my Physical Training Regimen.

Dinner was a biscuit so hard we had to soak it in boiling water to soften it, and some manner of mutton grease with little bits of meat suspended in it.

All told, it was twenty-nine nutrition, and many of the soldiers grumbled. It turned out I hadn’t been the only one foraging, and there was a soup and salad.

“Shield bearer! Where are you going?”

“To bed? I thought we had an early day tomorrow, with training before breakfast?”

“We do. But you’re also on first watch with these two.”

Oh gods, my feet hurt. But shield bearers made a copper a day, I should have known it wouldn’t be easy.

At least the moonlight was easy enough on the eyes.

“What do you know about guard duty?” asked Chandra.

“Not much.” I admitted.

She and Xexes (a former bandit, by his claim) were glad to show me the ropes. Literally, we had ropes suspended at ankle height around the camp to trip intruders. They also taught me things like how to blink only one eye at a time so that one eye was always open, and how to walk in a random pattern that made it slightly more difficult for an archer to hit me.

By the end of our guard shift, we’d been startled by a plains-cat, and driven off a gopher who thought our ropes looked just tasty. Oh, and I’d had to explain to Xexes that he couldn’t hurt Black Snake with his sword because her body wasn’t made of anything more solid than shadow.

Not that she was a big fan of his attempts to do so.

I admired the moonbeams. They seemed almost physical. Almost as though I could reach out and touch-

[You have failed to tap this moonlight. Moon Magic discovered: Attunement level 1, 10/30 XP. You currently have 0/3 Moon Mana.

You have earned 5XP for Mystic Research; after divisor, 1XP has been awarded.]

Right, because I needed more spells. Of course, with the pain I was in, I had failed to tap anything.

I crawled into my tent, and fell asleep with my shield atop my sheet, located to protect my torso and head should I come under attack.

Wake up call came well before morning. My body ached from sleeping under the unfamiliar weight of the shield. My head, in particular, felt deformed. It wasn’t, although exploration with my fingers revealed I had forgotten to change bandages yesterday.

Simple triad for morning exercise; stretches, vigorous exercise, and sparring. The sparring felt like just whirling the shield around trying not to be struck by sticks.

As I did my best not to be struck in my raw areas, I was struck below the belt quite a bit, and often they would trip me.

Gristworms had gotten into our oatmeal sack, so we celebrated breakfast with extra protein.

My System confirmed I was still two days to full health, and six days until recovery from my injuries. Which was well and good, but it didn’t help with the pain or itchiness.

(Yes, normally I would heal only one box a day on my health, sanity, and serenity boxes when seriously injured; this seems to have been a side effect of Shapeshift Healing.)

I remembered to change my bandages.

#