Gentleman’s Guide to Fantastic Beasts 42

Gentleman’s Guide to Fantastic Beasts 42

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Wordcount: 2500

Commissioned by Sivantic.

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Interlude: Gale

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The parasite spread quickly beneath the faint light cast by the Tree of Light.

I could see it as it moved through the air, my vision focused on every single splatter and spill of the parasite. My mundane senses, enhanced to such extreme lengths, wasn’t enough to keep track of it all. However, through my ability to sense power, it was much easier.

The physician had told me to see the differences between each person’s power. He used the power to guide his needles and wires when mending wounds, as well as to ‘see’ without his eyes. He told me when he closed his eyes, he could see a spectral version of each person, their power within themselves like water filling the vessel that was the body. When wounds occurred, they seeped out of the body, until the wound was mended, so even without his eyes he would be able to sew up a wound within minutes.

However, as a hunter, I came to another realization.

I could use the power he used to heal to track targets by memorizing the feel of their power.

And, animals and other small creatures had similar shapes to one another, while thinking mortal beings all differed.

Until the parasite inhabited and took over a host, even as it was killing them, it was like those small and lesser animals.

So, though I could not see or hear them all, I saw every strand that spilled forth from the body I had destroyed.

I willed flame into existence and sent them towards the dozens of parasites that sought hosts and burned them.

But, as I did that, I was attacked myself by another host rushing forward from the people streaming into the city.

The force of the blow was immense, like being struck by one of the older knights, despite the host body being that of an old man. I caught myself, burning the surface of the leather where the creature touched, and found the gates being barred, people running away to safety, dozens of dead bodies by my hand, and a parasite infesting a single body before me.

I wondered where the guards were, and where Halga was, but had no time to think on the matter any longer than that.

An inhuman screech left the old man’s mouth, as he discarded his cloak, and slits formed all over his body and black ichor flowed and seeped around him. Some parts hardened, but most flowed out of him trying to seek hosts, until I set our surroundings aflame. The slithering parasite burned in the heat and the host screeched in anger, while I made sure to raise the temperature around us as near to boiling as I could withstand to make sure the parasite died the moment that it left its host.

I made sure to ignite the clothes and corpses around us, too, just in case.

“Hwwyyyyuuuuu.” The creature growled at me, but I did not speak in turn. I intensified the flames surrounding us. Air fed into flame, until we were both surrounded. I considered escaping by making a gap, but this creature could sacrifice its host and reach another after being set alight. The physician’s tests confirmed that the insides of each host could withstand a truly immense amount of heat and remain a viable source of the parasite. “Why fig-fight us!? We come to helllllllllllppp!”

Liar.

All around me were corpses that they tried to infiltrate and use. Maybe, in their misbegotten minds, they saw what they did as aiding us. However, the physician confirmed such was not the case. The minds and bodies of the hosts were wholly consumed if they were young children, and if they were adults they were streaked and ribboned with infestation down to the very marrow. These are parasites and their infection killed the true person that they inhabited.

They used the memories of others cruelly, in order to achieve their goals, which was to seize control and make the whole world theirs.

I did not speak, as I went on the attack with a hatchet in one hand and a dagger in the other, while wreathing myself in flames.

The creature roared, splitting apart the jaws of the host it inhabited, and charged at me in turn.

It did not know how to fight, telegraphed its planned swipe, and I ducked low to slide under its grasp and hacked apart one of its legs while cutting through the ankle of another.

My hatchet nearly got stuck, and my knife nearly glanced off, because the constitution of the creature was closer to iron than regular flesh. But I sharpened my tools by making the edges ripple and move back and forth, while also reinforcing the weapons with magic. They were composed of the bones of strong monsters, made by the As’Kari from some powerful beast in the Great Desert, and so they were able to hold magic. Normal iron would break and steel would contort and shatter.

These weapons were only possible thanks to the trade we had with the As’Kari back home.

The creature, losing both its legs, fell to its arms, but still turned and crawled on the ground to lunge at me.  I retreated a few steps, to get out of its range, but it opened its maw and black tendrils of parasitic infestations spewed forth from its mouth in a great deluge. It was like it disgorged all its insides at me in a final attempt to infest me.

But at my back was a wall of flame under my control, and I willed the flames to strike at the creature and for the winds fanning the flames to create a sphere around it.

I did as the physician told me to, as soon as I trapped the creature in a sphere of air filled with flame.

I fed more wind into it, compressed the barrier, and the flames within did the rest. There was no need for me to intensify the orange glow. The firestorm fed upon the barrier and the wind I was channeling withing. It churned and roiled as I condensed it more and more. As the orb became smaller and smaller, the flames transformed from roiling tongues of orange and yellow, into a solid orange, then yellow, and finally a pure white.

I held it for a long time, for five minutes, until I let it loose on the bodies on the floor while protecting myself.

Only pure heat came forth from the compressed orb, with no trace remaining of the host and the parasite controlling it.

When I was done with the bodies, I lowered the boundary, and found Halga waiting with trepidation in his gaze with a dozen warriors at his back.

“It’s done. Or, at least, it should be.” I looked at the gate and found it closed. The wounded were being watched carefully by soldiers and if my instructions were followed, then they would be isolated and observed. Several bodies were being burned, while many looked upon the scene in confusion and horror. Halga looked my way, fear in his eyes at my power, but more on the ash that remained on the floor after my assault on the enemy. “That is what needs to be done to anything alive when fighting against the parasite.”

Halga’s brow was furrowed as he looked upon it all, then his gaze met mine and he bowed his head.

“Please. Stay one more evening. I’ll speak to all the elders. We shall meet with you again regarding this threat.”

The earnest tone of his voice, and his bowed head gave me pause.

Not only that, but leaving now would be abandoning these people.

“I’ll stay here and render aid and search for any signs of the creatures. Bring them here.”

He nodded at my words and beat strode purposefully while barking directions at all the nearby guards and soldiers.

I supposed that I would see if they would listen better now that the threat was literally at their door.

Now, though, I had to focus on the hunt for the creatures that would bring ruin to this land.

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After ensuring that I could find no trace of the parasite, searching for anything like it through all my senses, I informed a guard that I would be resting and took refuge in an abandoned home. It was a household on the outer perimeter of the city, where the vast majority of the people were meant to live. Dilapidated and missing a rooftop, the middle floors provided a modicum of shelter, but I ignored them in favor of setting up a tarp and a roll at the top beneath the Tree of Light’s faint rays and the black sky.

Once inside and under a dim light, I opened the pack the physician helped me prepare, and gathered water from the air to have something clean to drink and to cook with. I was used to packing for long journeys, but the physician had been far more adept. He packed everything needed to start a fire into a pot, from flint and still to tinder, along with a thick rag to handle the pot safely once it got hot. Packed so tightly within, and bound after the lid was placed, it was barely any trouble in my pack.

Everything else was well stored, as well.

Dried and smoked strips of meat were rolled up together in bundle. Each ration was dipped in wax that was easily taken off once a string was pulled. Heavily spiced and with much added fat, once added to boiling water it made a stew, which was easily thickened by the crackers he provided me. They were made by the city to last a long time, made of only water and crushed grain. Some ground it again and turned it back to flour, and I did the same, added more water, and made a simple flat bread that cooked on a stone.

The spices of the Great Desert were comforting to me, whereas when I first tasted it, I recoiled from the heat and strange perfumes it exuded. My tongue had stinged and my nose ran, while my eyes had watered. Now, I ate it slowly and savored the flavors as I leaned against a wall and consumed the soup with my bread, as water boiled with herbs and citrus rinds. The spices were meant to make the flesh of monsters more palatable. Even the flesh of bears was edible when consumed with the spices provided by the As’Kari.

And, after consuming it all, the bitterness and tang of the dried leaves and tea provided by the physician provided me with a cleansed palate and a calmer mind.

It was after my meal that my watcher decided to come forward.

Clad entirely in black armor that made no sound as she walked, the woman was covered in clothes that blended into nearby shadows.

I knew that she was a hunter the moment I noticed her.

And her prey were the people I was trying to rally to kill the parasites.

“What manner of creatures did you kill? How close are they to the heart of the Kingdom?”

“They’re parasites born of darkness. They find hosts, then infest them completely. They replace flesh, organ, and brain with themselves and empower their hosts with immense strength derived from feeding on monsters themselves.” The woman took a seat across from me, weapons undrawn, and cautious. “We passed by two frontier cities and lesser towns destroyed. But the first true city with a noble as its controller stopped the spread. They know how to find them and kill them and keep them out.”

“I see… but that won’t remain the case if they access all the people of this land. If each one is as strong as that elder you fought…”

“They’re stronger. If they take the bodies of children, they can learn, grow, and train to use weapons and magic. They kill and take bodies of others, but they steal children to give to their young.” Rumors of black clad rogues under the kingdom’s employ have abounded since my father’s time. They found those who would not comply with the will of the King and brought them to justice. When I searched for justice in the wake of all that had been stolen from my people, they were nowhere to be found, and I knew that they were just another knife for the rulers of our land to wield against those who would oppose them. “I’ve seen many children here, black guard, they will make an army if the leaders of this place vanish.”

“If they had not taken this city, it would not have happened.”

“If you had not taken everything from the surrounding lands to shore up your defenses, and left everyone else to die, then they would not have taken the city.” I was tired, and she noticed it even as I spoke. Once I believed in my father’s words. That there was good and that there was evil. That justice would be done. However, from all that I have seen, I only saw what the physician told me. People looking out for themselves and leaving others to die for themselves and their own people without foresight or care. “Do as you will. I won’t oppose you. I only ask that you think on what happens after.”

For a moment, the helmed woman stared at me in silence, before reaching for her helm and taking it off.

The woman’s eyes reminded me of the knight that had come to seize our town once we were known.

Her name eluded me, but the eyes of this woman were slitted and reptilian like the knight’s.

“To do that, I need more information. I beg you to share it with me. Please. I know that I ask for much…”

My anger flared at her words.

“My father and my people died. They were left to wither and act as decoys when a whole fortress was made mere days away from us. We were judged as trash to be discarded… and when we built a village of our own your people tried to take it from us, until we showed our strength.”  I spat out the words, but the anger faded quickly as I spoke and spoke. Even after I coursed power through my body to stay awake and refreshed, I could not muster the will to continue and just stayed slumped against the wall. “But fine… ask, shadow of the kingdom. Ask and learn from me without a hint of fucking shame.”

There was the faintest hint of shame on her face, but it was smothered and she nodded.

I see.

This one thought that there was some redemption for her in the future if she saved lives now.

I almost laughed at the thought.