𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐈𝐒 𝐍𝐎𝐓 𝐀 𝐒𝐔𝐂𝐂𝐄𝐒𝐒 𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑𝐘. 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐈𝐒 𝐀 𝐑𝐔𝐈𝐍𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍.
It's the beginning of a new age when Jaylah Imperatrix seemingly returns from the dead to reclaim her throne. And in perfect timing.
In her absence, evil has be...
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Act 2 Chapter 27 JAYLAH
"Do you think those mushrooms are poisonous?"
I glanced off to the side, taking in the pale yellow toadstools. "Most likely."
"Fuck it," he said, peeling away from my side. "Hopefully they're the kind that make you hallucinate you're in a better place too."
"You will not," I said, pointing a sword to stop him. "If I must suffer through every second of this journey, you must too."
Most of our days were of this nature now: Alexander either pushing his luck by attempting to snap my patience in the wildest ways possible or making suspicious and bloodthirsty comments which only furthered my belief that he was a fully-fledged lunatic. Though I preferred those annoyances to his silence. But it was in the long stretches of time when he went without making any sound whatsoever where I was actually concerned. I doubted I would ever get over how silently he moved. It may have been a slave's requirement, but he had the mind of a mercenary. That was what mattered.
On the third day of my recovery from being bitten, we had to go without eating our tiny ration. The only jar of preserves left—beets, this time—was dangerously close to the bottom. Hunting game seemed to be a pointless pursuit as well; I read in the forest guide that most wildlife congregated in the western part of the forest where clean rivers were more consistent.
"We must hold on until we pass through the center of the forest," I said when we skipped the break we normally took to eat, knowing fully well we were nowhere close to the progress I would have liked. "The book says there are plentiful amounts of deer there."
"What are you going to do—sprint wildly at one with a sword and hope it's too stupid to run?"
"We will cross that bridge when we get to it."
"Your determination is endearing, Imperatrix," he said, gesturing somewhat condescendingly. "It's really a shame it will be crushed by the agonizing emptiness of true starvation."
I refused to break, still staring at the path ahead. "I am holding this endeavor together. Unless you have helpful input, do not speak of the matter to me."
"Fine." A group of birds chirped overhead. I assumed I won. But then: "If we drink a stable amount of water from fresh streams, it'll fill our stomachs, mimicking food. The pains will subside, if only for a while."
I supposed it was simple advice if one dwelled on the logistics of it, but never before had I needed to think about my next meal. Trials of allegiance and manipulation were ones I knew well, but starvation was a stranger to me. Just then, the reason Alexander knew such tricks worked dawned on me. Something heavy weighed in my chest that I did my best not to think about.
Not for the first time, I thought of home, of life in the palace. Servants brought trays of freshly-salted pork, elaborate sweet cakes, rare pheasant eggs, exotic fruits imported from Etharia—anything I requested, it was at my fingertips within seconds. Not getting what I asked for was a banishable offense. Now, as I felt the knobs of my ribs against the insides of my arms as I walked, I saw this was not as normal as it once seemed. I was lucky then, and had not thought twice about ordering the servants at will.
