Eliona's War 2: Veiled Healer

Chapter 62

Severance was stunned.

This was Ervante? The text over his head proclaimed it so, as did the tattered maroon coat that the man always liked to wear. Even that manic glee was the same. But the rest of him was all wrong.

Severance was staring at a skeletal face, yellowish skin paper thin and drawn taut over a sharp skull. Gray hair fell in ragged strings around Ervante's face. His slight stoop had deepened, appearing as if he tried to bow and got stuck on the way up. He looked feeble, like he'd aged fifty years in the short time since Severance had seen him last.

What had happened?

No, actually, forget that. Questions could come later. Staying anywhere near this freak was dangerous and Severance had no intentions of hanging around. He immediately began to back away.

"Stop," Ervante croaked. His voice was as fragile as a dying breeze.

And just like that, Severance's entire body froze mid-step. Each limb locked into place. Every muscle, every bone, turned into deadweight.

He couldn't move. He couldn't talk. He couldn't blink. Everything had simply... stopped.

Inwardly, he panicked. It hadn't been like this last time. Ervante's horrid skill was even stronger now; it went far beyond uncanny persuasion now. It was more like outright control.

Ervante came closer. He placed cold boney fingers on the side of Severance's jaw, before gently tracing the curve of it, as if admiring a piece of art.

Severance couldn't even shudder, although his skin wanted to crawl right off his body. Even more urgently, he wanted to vomit in the nearest corner.

"How fortuitous... that we meet again." Ervante slid his fingers down and curled them around Severance's neck. He didn't squeeze. Instead, he simply held his hand there and let Severance feel it.

"Severance," he rasped. And he smiled. "Tell me. Tell me... about your clan."

A fuzz settled over Severance's mind like a comfortable blanket.

Dimly, he thought it was strange. Ervante was using simple language now, absent from the fancy words that he was prone to using. But that was good, wasn't it? It was easy to understand. Easy to follow.

Tell me.

The fuzz warmed pleasantly, and even as Severance felt himself relax, a distant part of him began to scream in desperate terror.

His mouth opened of its own accord. "What do you want to know?"

It was the right thing to say. Ervante had asked, and so Ervante must be given an answer. This acceptance burrowed itself into his mind so thoroughly that there was no room for any other thought.

"Everything," Ervante cackled. "Tell me... everything. I want-" he suddenly gasped, his eyes bulging.

Severance staggered, suddenly free from whatever hold the creep had on him. Like a wet rag, Ervante dropped limply to the floor. Behind him stood Awesome Dude, his claw blade still raised. Its curved metal tips glistened with fresh blood.

"Got 'im," the Shade proudly proclaimed. "Thanks for keeping him busy, Sev."

Severance lifted a hand to his neck. His fingers shook slightly. "Yeah."

Violet motes of light began to appear over Ervante's body. They casually winked into being, one at a time. That meant he wasn't dead. Not truly dead.

For one dark second, Severance considered Reviving the man, just so he could kill him again. And again. However many times it took to get that final supernova of true death, instead of this gradual returning.