The world will pay for our weakness. The world will pay for our depravity. It will pay that price a thousand times over. Our evil has grown to threaten all, but I have seen it destroyed.
***
It's working.
Laidu's hand dug into the cold hard earth. At least, it felt stiff. Cold was an alien feeling to him. It was a feeling that he had never experienced. But he imagined it was cold. After all, a layer of hoarfrost dusted the grass around the cabin. It wasn't as icy as some of the places he'd been -Saefel Caeld was the most frigid of locales Laidu had visited- but it was cold enough.
Hopefully, the earth had insulated the creatures within from the harsh Alberion chill. Even in summer, it was quite cold. But Laidu could still walk around without freezing to death.
Did you not hear me? Kasran demanded. I said it's working!
Good, Laidu responded back, forcing sarcasm into the thoughts. That is what you're supposed to do.
Yes. And it is fine handiwork, isn't it? Kasran asked. It was painfully obvious that he was fishing for something, some compliment or remark. Heat, he was growing vain as well. Soon, Laidu would have to deal with a massive ego along with the cruelty.
I am just excellent. You should be happy, no, you should be honored to be my vessel, Kasran said. And it is not my fault if you can't sense my prestige. It is not my fault that you are blind. Oh, wait. Right by your left hand, there's one! Grab it!
Laidu's claws scooped up a clod of dirt, careful not to kill the centipede inside it. The bugs had a use. He dropped the dirt clump, insect and all, into a jar. There's another! Rhaem said. Laidu grabbed it with two fingers, dropping it into the jar, giving the first centipede a very creepy friend.
After a few minutes (and the help of the mad voices in his head) Laidu had about six centipedes, a beetle, and two worms crawling around in his bottle. Now, Kasran said, we get to work.
I hate these things, Laidu said.
I know. Get over it. And hopefully, that miserable piece of slime hates them too.
Laidu walked back into the cabin, washing the dirt from under his claws in the small ceramic washbowl. Soon, the cream-colored basin was flecked with dark dirt, the once clear and only slightly murky water now stained a brown so dark it bordered on black. Dirt under his nails would irritate them more.
He picked up the jar of bugs, carrying it down to the basement, using one hand to grasp each rung. No blood this time, Kasran said. No cheap tricks. Just a hope that the slimestain isn't allergic to these things.
That might be problematic, Laidu agreed.
Well, he isn't a small child. Otherwise, he'd be more fun to kill. Kasran was sick. But that wasn't too surprising. After all, he was a voice in Laidu's head.
As Laidu opened the door, he assumed a scowl. After all, if Torvan was to fear him, and eventually, be more terrified of Laidu than the one who told him to keep quiet. He had to play the part of the monster quite convincingly.
Torvan looked up, meeting Laidu's eyes, before flicking down to the jar in his hand. And that was around the time Laidu noticed his piglike skin starting to sweat. Good. He was afraid of them.
"So," Laidu said, voice cold and distant. "Tell me, do you want to tell me who hired you?"
Torvan shut his mouth, eyes wide. Laidu rolled his eyes. "Fine, then." He set the jar down. "Have you ever heard of the Raededrid Pits?" he asked. Torvan shook his head, as Laidu expected. He would have been surprised if the bandit had; Laidu had just made it up, with the help of Kasran.
"Well, there's an interesting story behind it. You see, it used to be the castle of an old Castilleran lord and his wife. Unfortunately, his wife was barren, and could not conceive an heir."
Laidu drew out his knife, and picked at the dirt under his claws. Washing most of it out helped, but a few pieces were still lodged in there. He assumed the air of one disaffected with his surroundings; if he could make the horror story seem like a calm, casual thing to do, it would be easy to sell the monster line.
"He called upon a sorceress, named Velina, to assist his wife, and to heal her. As this sorceress spent time with the lady of the castle, the lady learned the ways of sorcery, of power. And when the unthinkable happened, she used them."
"One night, she went to retire to her bedchamber, only to find her husband and the sorceress there, together, caught in the throes of passion. Startled, the lord struck her down with a blade, but in her last words, she uttered a curse; that his lineage would be a lineage of beasts, and his seed would sire demons instead of an heir, and that his very blood would kill him. And with that, she died."
Laidu shrugged. "Supposedly, the sorceress, who quickly was wed to the man, conceived. But, as the story goes, her offspring was not a normal babe. A child shouldn't have fangs, or claws, or ram horns and bat wings. Or a tail." Torvan's eyes grew wide. "The ordeal killed the sorceress; even her art was not enough to preserve her life. The man slit the child's throat, and buried it in secret, in the deepest part of the forest of the castle grounds, under the light of the waning moon."
Yes, very good, Kasran said. The voice fed him the next line. "Now, naturally, the man wished to be free of this curse. He sought an alchemist, who prepared a decoction for him. After drinking it, he had twelve hours before the curse struck again. As this man was ambitious, but cautious, he knew that remarrying so quickly would be seen as a sign of political unrest within his castle. If he could not have a legitimate heir, a bastard son would do just as well."
Torvan's eyes were locked on the jar. He was probably wondering how this related to the bugs. Laidu idly tilted the jar, making sure that the centipedes and beetles didn't get out. He didn't show it, though, but the story disgusted him, sickened him. How could Kasran come up with such a thing? And since Kasran was part of his mind, did that mean that he was that twisted?
"He forced himself on a scullery maid, and nine months later, she gave birth. He was hopeful, this lord. But the decoction was no help. This child was covered in scale-like scabs and blisters, with no eyes, and two fingers on a hand. And, like the last one, it had horns. Horrified, he smothered the child and buried it next to its deceased brother in the forest."
"Years went by, and the lord was terrified. Dozens of cures had been tried, but they all ended in the woman dying, after giving birth to monstrosities. The last straw was one girl, a chambermaid he had forced himself on. Eight months after, overcome with shame and loathing, her belly swollen with the child she bore, she stood upon the battlements, and cast herself into the moat."
Torvan was still riveted by the story, so Laidu continued. "When they fished her out, they noticed something. Her stomach was moving, of its own accord. She then, while dead, gave birth to the spawn of a man and a maggot."
"Like all the others, the lord went to bury the child with the others. This time, he noticed that the trees had sores, as if they were weeping blood, soaking the loamy earth with red gore. When he went to bury this child, the ground collapsed underneath him. The creatures that fed upon the monster children had changed and mutated. They became stronger. Crueler. Every liquid of their body enflamed with venom. And hungry. Eternally hungry." Laidu picked up a centipede. "Say hello to their children," he said. "Very tough to keep alive, and a single bite burns like a firebrand under skin. Or so I heard. That was what the last man said." He walked over to the prisoner, who tried to back away. "That was a day before he died."
"Don't move. You don't want to scare the guy, do you?" Laidu asked with a cruel smile. "They bite when threatened." He stepped over the fake mage circle, jar in hand, and dangled the centipede over a whimpering bandit. "I'm going to leave my little friend with you. Keep him company." With that, he dropped the centipede on Torvan's chest, and began to walk out.
"Wait! You can't leave me!" Torvan bellowed, before stopping as the centipede began to crawl up his neck, stopping, antennae gently feeling the disgusting man's pulse. His eyes widened.
Laidu closed the door, and sat down on a barrel. Now, all he had to do was wait.
***
It took two minutes and fifty three seconds.
"Help! Help! I'll do whatever you want! Make it stop!"
Laidu stood and opened the door, closing it softly. The centipede was crawling down Torvan's arm. "I'll tell you what you want," he said. "Just get the bloody thing off me!"
"Fine," Laidu said, before sitting down in the chair. "You're going to answer my questions?"
"Yes," Torvan gasped, trying to crawl out of his bare skin to get away from the centipede. "Yes I will. Please, just get it off!"
"First, tell me who hired you," Laidu said.
"A man, or I think it was." Torvan's voice grew squeakier as the centipede climbed about the hollow of his neck. "He met us out in a tavern, offered us gold, and the keys to a castle. All we had to do was get there and wait for travelers."
"Oh?" Laidu asked.
"Yes. He mentioned you. Said to look out for you and a Vesperati. But we were to abduct the girl you were travelling with. He wanted her alive. And untouched."
"How did you find us?" Laidu asked. He still didn't mention Skaria or Karik'ar. Good.
"We were told you'd be travelling this path. It wasn't that hard. We ambush travelers normally oh please get it off me, get it off!" he said, his confession shifting into desperate pleas as the centipede climbed up his jaw.
"You mentioned that this person might have been a man. Why do you doubt?" Laidu asked.
"He...he killed one of our band. Told him to die. He just spoke and ordered him to die, and the man...he just slumped over." The centipede was at his nose. "The man's skin changed. The...the thing's skin darkened slightly, and his hand blistered over. That's not normal. Not normal."
Changing skin was probably a sign of Kazalibad. "Well, then," Laidu said, but the bandit began to scream. The centipede had bitten his nose.
"Get it off! Get it off!" Torvan shouted. "It burns!"
"Relax, you big brat," Laidu said, yanking the centipede off the bandit's crooked nose. "It's not poisonous. At least, no more than your average centipede." He dropped the creature on the ground and crushed it underneath his heel. He didn't have to, but they always gave him shivers up his scales.
"But...the pit.." Torvan's eyes widened even more. "That was all fake?"
"Yep." Laidu chuckled. "I was never going to hurt you. I just convinced you I was." He smiled. "And that's all I needed." He relaxed.
"The mage circle?" Torvan asked.
"Oh, that's real," Laidu lied. The circle would be an invisible, intangible, nonexistent shackle. It was the linchpin to an imaginary cage created wholly by the fears of Torvan. It was a good trick, that someone had taught him. The only kind of prisons you could break free from were the kind you saw. You were kept captive by the chains you couldn't see.
"I'll be back down with some food. I don't want you dying on me, after all," Laidu said.
"You...you're not going to feed me them, are you?" Torvan asked, horrified.
"Who?" Laidu asked.
"Your....your friends. You killed them. You ate them!" Torvan sputtered out.
"What friends?" Laidu asked, smiling evilly, before opening the door and slipping out. Just to screw with him a bit more.
Laidu grinned, happy as he could be. The mask he had hated had come off. He practically bounded up the ladder, nearly danced across the cabin floor.
It took a few minutes before the joy settled down, and that horrifyingly tired and heavy melancholy settled down on his heart. He slunk into a chair. Besides Torvan downstairs, he was alone. No one else was there, no one else was with him, his friends were a ways away-
His friends! Laidu chuckled, and the melancholy vanished, evaporating, the black sludge that weighed down his heart flowing free. Why would he be lonely? His self-imposed exile was over. He could see them all. He could see Thaen, Indra, Skaria, and Karik'ar.
He could see Kyra again.
Laidu yanked the bandolier over his head, adjusted it so the leather fit snugly against his chest. He cracked his knuckles, and leaned his head to one side, massaging the sore muscles. Even his bed, a straw mattress, made his head rest at an odd angle. Well, after a while, they'd get better. Or less stiff, at least.
Well, at the very least, you're happier, Rhaem said, in a voice almost as cheerful as Laidu felt. Kasran grumbled something under his breath (which was strange, Laidu thought, seeing as he didn't have breath to grumble under), and the other voices just kept murmuring in the dark, echoing resources of his mind. Slightly frightening, but Laidu didn't care as much.
He didn't have to act like a monster. He could go see the people he liked, the people who made him feel better, just by talking to them. At the very least, he could sit by them, and soak in the ambiance. Man was a social creature, and though Laidu didn't look like one, he was a man. Well, part of him was. And that was enough for him.
He was practically whistling when he opened the door and headed out. Karik'ar had left him a few instructions. Two boulders, with a tree growing on top of one, take a left, and then follow the path to the camp. Laidu smiled.
Today was a good day. A very good day, if not an excellent day. Such were the thoughts that floated through the Changed Ranger's mind as he walked through the forest. They were the best kind of thoughts, the ones made of light and love and hope, the kind that made their thinker seem like he could float on clouds, over the sky.
He could not have been happier.