Gentleman’s Guide to Fantastic Beasts 36

Gentleman’s Guide to Fantastic Beasts 36

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Wordcount: 2500

Commissioned by Sivantic.

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We entered the underground enclosure where the parasite and its host was kept.

I was surprised by what I found along its walls and floors and ceilings.

I had already seen the magic of these people time and time again. The massive tree that illuminated all was a product of their efforts. Then, there were their many flying ships, upon which they carried out their trade. Lastly, there was their arms and armor teeming with power and protections for their elites, which conferred greater deadliness and protection. All were the products of their magic and advancements in it.

However, I found the zone of isolation maintained beneath the ground to be something else entirely.

“I cannot sense the ground beyond this place.” The underground structure seemed to be encased in a sphere that isolated it completely from the outside. To my more esoteric senses, it was like my power was touching a perfect sphere that resisted its attempt to pass through to the outside. That massive sphere was being projected from countless sigils on the walls, floors, and ceilings of the structure that were walking into. I felt a myriad of other effects, too. A breeze was flowing through the underground structure, there was light emitting from the very walls, and power seemed through course through the whole place like it was living thing itself. “Is this the ritual field that your people use for your abilities?”

“You’ll have to speak to someone better versed in the arcane arts than I to truly know, but I believe such is the case. We asked the mages to create this place to hold the creature when it approached. Since then, it has stayed here without complaint.” We reached the end of the tunnel. Lucien placed his hand on the door at the end, which had intricate, flowing lines in a design I was unfamiliar with. The flowing art convulsed around his hand and enrobed it, snaking off the surface of the door, and engulfing his hand completely. A moment later, the lines seemed satisfied and they slithered back to the door, and it opened a moment later. Fascinating. “Only I and a select few are allowed to enter here. It limits the people who must be watched for any corruption.”

“Indeed.” This enforced isolation was a good decision. I swept the surroundings with my own wind, searching for any particulate of the creature as we entered, and I found nothing in our path. Even if Lucien had not mentioned it, that factor was accounted for. Good. “I find no traces of the parasite. You can assume that we, at least, will not be corrupted.”

Lucien grunted at my words, and we moved into the single room where the parasite was held.

I needn’t have worried, because I found the creature trapped in the same form of barrier that held the complex in a bubble. It was akin to a snowglobe within a snowglobe. Two different environments, independently contained, with one inside the other. The creature may as well be in another place entirely, despite being in the same room as us. If I could learn this, then I could provide a sterile environment with greater ease than I usually do. The various letterings and lines that littered the environment was the key to the proliferation of sterile environments in this world. My methods relied upon immense amounts of power, which only a scant few could hope to provide, while this one seemed like it could be learned and utilized by the common man.

I shall ask about it later, but for now, I focused on the parasite that decided to ‘parlay’ with the people of the forest.

“It looks like kin to the ones we fought.” Djet’Is spoke as the door closed behind us. Her head just barely didn’t hit the roof of the hall, but she had a bit more space in the room itself. Her gaze, however, was focused on the creature before us. White skinned, with eyes completely black, and hairless, the creature shifted before our very eyes. Its skin gained a healthier tone and its eyes shifted and became normal. A light fuzz of hair grew from its head. I found myself looking at a child with brown hair covered in thick robes, before I reminded myself that the transformation I saw was only an increase in the danger these creatures posed. “Now, it looks like them completely. Like us, save for that bestial look in their eyes.”

Lucien nodded at that.

“Unfortunately, there are few that could discern such things from sight alone. Only the most experienced of warriors and best of mages. Your people will have little issue finding infiltrators, I imagine.” Djet’Is nodded at those words, pride swelling up inside her, but she constrained herself and said nothing more. She saw these people as potential allies. Nothing more and nothing less. “This one wouldn’t have been found, unless it revealed itself. It calls itself Maria.”

“Maria was the name of my host before I overtook her. She was taken to the spawning pool and I joined with her before any other could.” There was an odd quality to the voice of the creature. It was not that of a young girl’s. There was a nigh-unnoticeable rasp. It caught onto my attention and almost immediately that rasp disappeared. Only the voice of a child remained thereafter. “Sir, Lucien, who are these people? Those two, especially, look like they’re from lands far beyond our own.”

Lucien looked to both myself and Djet’Is.

I made my decision while Djet’Is pondered.

“I am a physician and I have studied your people, your methods of reproduction, how you feed, and have grasped the vaguest of your people’s intentions. On my approach here, I found a whole city dead by your people’s hands.” I did not step forward, but I did make sure that it heard me. Though it wore the face of a young girl, and even though it came under some sort of flag of peace to parley, I found nothing in my heart but contempt and disgust at this creature. All that I have learned, even though some part of my mind told me that I was looking at a living, breathing, and thinking being, told me to not trust this creature until proof was rendered to counter my current knowledge and understanding. “After all that I found, my intention is to scour your kind from this planet due to the threat that they pose. I will find all your nests, where you take the flesh of beasts to consume and take children to inhabit, and burn them all to molten slag. Convince me otherwise, if you can.”

The face of the creature changed at my words. Some semblance of humanity was stripped away to show those pure black eyes again. The creature recoiled from me and reached the inner boundary of its confinement. I noticed that a few others stepped away from me as well.

I hadn’t imbued my voice with nearly as much power as Djet’Is and her father did, but I suppose that it worked well enough.

“Physician! I would rather you not use such power against our guest.” Lucien had a palor to his face, and when he looked at me, I could tell there was fear in his eyes. When Djet’Is and Kan’Is did this, both froze their foes and made their warriors pay attention. However, it seemed that I only elicited fear? I’ll need to practice more. All I’d wanted to do was to make sure that I was heard. “Step back, please, and restrain your power.”

I did as I was asked, but kept my gaze on the creature.

I thought that it would be stunned into silence, but instead it spoke with a faltering voice.

“I… I understand. Most of my people believe that is the only path to survival. All our encounters with those from above have been as such. We find either those we must domesticate, or those who must be destroyed.” I refused to call the creature Marian. That young girl was dead. Her brain and innards and muscles were replaced by simulacra created by the parasite that now apparently had access to her memories. This creature was becoming more and more dangerous the more I learned of it. “Physician, you must understand, that all my people do not believe in our current methods. Some of us wis to take the bodies of the dying or those about to die, so that we may live full lives ourselves. Would you condemn us to lives in the darkness, of hunger and pain, forever when there are those among your people who perish and can host us?”

That wasn’t a path I had considered possible for these parasites.

“Do you mean to tell me that the young girl you have overtaken had died? That you had taken her body before rot set in?”

“I do and that’s what we can all do. Those who kill so many of your kind intend to create powerful weapons. They intend to take their bodies and match its growth, building it upward with as much potency and power as they could, and unleashing them upon the world. However, the truth is, we can take any body that is recently deceased to make our host.” The parasite spoke, but I reminded myself that this could all be lies. Though I intended to keep my mind open, I did not intend to be fooled. However, as I looked upon the creature, it raised the robes that it wore, and revealed a terrible scar upon the stomach of the young girl. A scar from front to back, which denoted that the young girl had been bisected. “Many of my people can be convinced away from that path, if they can be assured that they can be given the bodies of the recently diseased. Without the support of the many, those acting against your people will lose power.”

“How?” I asked.

“Their path requires sacrifice by the many. Once we take a host, we cannot transfer to another. Many have taken over the bodies of monsters and lesser creatures to create armies. They have sacrificed their futures for our people to act as pure numbers, so that others may be able to have complete, true bodies.” The parasite explained and gestured at itself. “In this body, I will be able to live for many more years than them. I will be able to use tools, think more clearly, and live a far better life. Those who take over the form of a dog will live as a dog their entire existence and never change. Would you force such a fate upon your children or your children’s children?”

The parasite levelled its gaze upon me.

“Your people already fight and wage war with one another. Many of your people die from conflict, let alone disease and other means. All you need to do is keep the bodies intact and give them to us, then we can live our lives below the surface with forms that will allow us to flourish.” The parasite championed its cause to us. This was not the knowledge of a small girl, so I could only determine that these words came from the parasite. It spoke with a sound logic, with reason, and hope to reach a compromise. “I am aware that your society values burials and has many funeral rights, but casting those aside can give us all peace.”

On the surface, its words were persuasive. It presented a logic to their actions, then they explained that the current conflict could be undone, if we complied with their desires.

Perhaps, if they were in the position of superiority, their words would’ve been heard.

“It would be better to simply destroy you all, parasite.” Djet’Is was raised a leader for the As’Kari. Her views were for the sake of the tribe for generations and generations. The proposed end of the conflict, where we gave the bodies of our fallen to them, would only look like a cessation of hostilities to her. The reason didn’t matter, only the outcome did, and the outcome of this deal was that the creatures we faced now would gain a steady stream of bodies, gain more power, and gain more strength as we could do little against them. “You assume that the people you fight fear you, but even the people of the forest see the threat you pose. If not for the threats posed by their own people, the people of the forests would’ve put your own to the torch and to the sword.”

Lucien nodded at her words.

“Indeed. I see no reason to comply with your demands. The royal family already answered your grand ritual of darkness with their own tree of light. They foresaw the evil you planned to render with their prescience and acted against it, even while you were all still hidden in the depths of the deepest darkness.” The lord of the city spoke. None of the fear he showed me was present in his eyes as he spoke to the creature. What had these people lost in the onset of the great darkness, as the waves of monsters of the parasites crashed upon their walls? They already excised those that they cannot save, then reinforced those that they had to keep. The greatest weapon of the parasites had already been answered, and now they were gathering to face the creatures, and discovering all that they needed to discern. “What we can offer you, creature, is tolerance within a secured area of land and monitored by our people. We can give you bodies and even offer you trade in your seclusion, as long as you submit to our rule and aid us against our enemies, but only if you guide us against your people who seek to assault us.”

The parasite looked at the two of them with a lack of comprehension and understanding.
However, I could only close my eyes as they spoke.
The two of them spoke like leaders or parts of a nation.

The parasites were indeed a grave and terrible threat, but was it the end of their people?

Many would die, and it would be a tragedy, but there lies the strength of a coordinated society with so much people and resources at their disposal.

Tragedies can be endured by the nation and the outcome wished by the leaders can be reached, regardless of them.

Such was the case in my world, and such remained the case in this one.