Chapter 9: Naps and ...Nightmares?

Alaric clutched his scorched arm as he bolted through the underbrush. Damn those thrice-blessed, self-righteous Inquisitors. First, this last-minute job on him, and then of all the unlucky hands he’s forced to cross paths with them. Still, the payout for all this agony was more than worth the price of admission.

For far too long, he’d been stuck rotting at Tier Three as a Fleshshifter under the Aspect of Morrow. Now they’d promised to begin his initiation into the organisation, provided he delivered on this mission. Well, mission accomplished. Julia had been gift-wrapped and would dropped off just as they instructed, bonded to that eerie mask they’d handed him. His part was done. Good riddance to that particular headache.

Tier Four was finally in reach. Soon, he’d have the instructions and the organs for his ascension, and he could barely keep the anticipation from curling into a grin. But for now… there was the matter of his arm. He winced again, breath hissing through his teeth, until fortune tossed him a solution in the form of a wild deer grazing ahead.

No need to dig through his kit for the artefact, he already had all the tools he needed. Bleeding freely, he channelled mana through the wound, his blood coalescing into a dense, dark glob. With the force of a crossbow bolt, it shot forward and punched clean through the deer’s skull.

He was on it in a heartbeat. Hands melted into bony claws, tearing deep into its hide as the first mouthful of vitality-rich blood surged into him. A low sigh escaped his throat as his wounds began knitting shut of their own accord. Moments later, the deer was a husk and Alaric stood whole again, refreshed in both body and mood.

He gave the animal a casual word of thanks. Deer blood was a poor man’s substitute for human, far weaker in potency, but for quick-and-dirty field healing it was as good as a fresh-brewed potion.

Now… where the hell was Daniel? They’d split after snatching Julia, each running in the agreed direction, eastward in Daniel’s case. Alaric had felt the artefact’s mana discharge earlier, which meant Daniel had done his part and trapped her. By turning her into vermin, no less. It had been hilarious. Even funnier was the look on the Inquisitors’ faces as Daniel slipped away almost untouched. Those sanctimonious bastards could choke on their own blessings.

He headed east, pulling a dagger as he went. Without hesitation, he pierced his own palm, picturing Daniel’s irritating smirk in his mind.

“Daniel’s location,” he murmured.

As a cultivator under the Morrow Aspect, his divination wasn’t as sharp or esoteric as those walking the Moon’s path, but it did the job. His edge lay in turning his own flesh and blood into the apparatus for it. The process worked like a living dowsing rod, only messier. The blood in his palm twisted, fell, and splattered in the direction Daniel had gone.

Good.

A push of mana lifted the droplets into the air, orbiting him like tiny, wet satellites as he set off at a run. Each repetition brought him closer, until finally…

He stopped beneath a tree. The next use ended with his blood splattering at his feet, refusing to point anywhere. That meant one of two things: Daniel’s location was blocked, which was impossible, or he was standing right on top of it.

Alaric’s brow furrowed.

Then a shiver rolled over his skin, instinct dragging his gaze upward.

Two blazing crimson eyes peered back.

A massive mantis-like monster clung to the branches and in place of its insect head was Daniel’s face, half-eaten away, gnawed to ruin by something else entirely.

It looked furious. And it looked furious at him.

***

“Don’t you ever dare do that again! That was dangerous, Clover!”

I yipped in my most innocent, adorable tone, then put on my cutest face and planted a paw right on her cheek. Worked like magic, Julia melted in seconds. Sure, she kept muttering about danger and recklessness, blah blah blah, but by then I was already being rewarded with scritches and back pats. Life was good. I could tune out the lecture entirely and focus on the important things in life. Like naps.

A yawn slipped out of me. I’d worked very hard today. I deserved multiple naps.

“Well, if it weren’t for Clover, I wouldn’t have detected that hunter at all. I’m quite thankful for her presence today.”

Oh. Look who had decided to join us in the carriage, Inquisitor Agnes herself.

Julia sighed, still clearly not over it. “But she’s small and powerless. That man could have maimed her in an instant. I was just… very worried, that’s all.”

“Your concerns are valid, Julia,” Agnes said with a warm smile. “But that spawn of evil had me to worry about more than little Clover here and he knew the moment he took his eyes off me, he’d be finished.” Her smile soured. “Still, it’s a shame I let him get away.”

“No, no,” Julia countered quickly, “didn’t you say he was possibly a Hunt Aspect cultivator? From what I’ve heard, those cultivators are especially slippery. No wonder he escaped, and you stayed behind to protect me, right?”

Agnes leaned in slightly, her voice dropping. “Well, I don’t think you’ll need to worry about your familiar for much longer. I overheard captain talking about sensing mana from her, which means her soul world is ready. Give her a little time, and she might be able to start assimilating her own set of organs.”

Julia’s eyes widened. “And the Church would sponsor them?”

Agnes chuckled and nodded. “Yes. The Captain wants to give her special attention. Honestly, I was in awe when her body reacted to holy flames like that. They say only the blessed bodies of the Sun’s Warmth can blaze alive within holy fire. Despite her demonic nature, she could become a very powerful familiar for you, Julia.”

My ears perked up at that. Organs, huh? Was I finally about to learn more about these tiers, aspects, and cultivation business? From Julia’s expression, it seemed rare for someone like me to be sponsored by the Church in this way.

I kept my ears pricked for more juicy tidbits, but the conversation slid into dull territory when Agnes started reciting the Teachings of the Sun. If I’d been sleepy before, now my brain was actively staging a coup. One more yawn escaped me. Still, I couldn’t help but wonder, what did happen to that creepy guy, anyway?

[I am back!]

Oh, hey. And where exactly did you go? The moment I picked that option, you just vanished without so much as a goodbye.

[I need to focus while doing this thing… and possibly deal with the aftermath.]

Right. Just like last time, when you went silent while tweaking that detection ritual. Except this time, you were gone for… what, twenty minutes?

Wait. What did it mean by deal with the aftermath?

[Well, we did bring a random alien presence from the spirit world into this one. It was my duty to escort it back unless we planned on causing unplanned chaos. Which is an exciting thought, but might be detrimental to us right now.]

I gave a mental nod. That made a certain amount of sense. My eyes watched the trees sprint backward as the carriage rolled on. Well, at least there were no more surprises right now. I desperately hoped for no further surprises as another massive yawn overtook me. Don’t wake me up until we are finally at our destination, I thought, settling into the rhythm of the ride. Maybe not even after that. I need my naps!

***

There are many ways one might expect to wake up: gently, to the glow of sunlight; abruptly, to a loud noise; reluctantly, to someone poking you. What I did not expect was for my trait to get a bright idea and weaponize it against me, by blasting my brain with an insane flood of flashing screens behind my eyes.

I jerked awake like I’d been slapped, instantly alert and instantly furious.

[huehehehehe! Gotcha!]

Tu lurido, schifoso figlio di puttana!

[uh...]

Tua madre puttana, tuo padre cornuto!

[Oh damn.]

E tutta la tua famiglia di merda che marcisca all’inferno! Vaffanculo e crepa male!

[As much as I’m impressed by your multilingual rage, I woke you because I sensed something.]

I was halfway to launching another insult about his family tree being a perfect circle when I forced myself to shut it down. My eyes slowly scanned our surroundings.

…Wait. Were we back in our cozy forest cabin?

I remembered being carried a few times while I slept, but it didn’t seem like Julia had tried to wake me. Which was good. She got points for letting me enjoy my very sweet, uninterrupted nap, unlike someone. If my trait was going to yank me out of dreamland, there’d better be an actual reason.

And… yeah, we were not back in the cabin.

The bed I was on was noticeably less fluffy than Julia’s. A lone window sat behind it, its curtains fluttering softly. Beside it stood a plain cupboard. I hopped onto it for a better view.

Outside stretched a massive, well-manicured garden bathed in the eerie glow of twin moons: one green and one red. Their light gave the entire scene a strange, eerie tint. Every so often, people in polished armor, not quite Inquisitor-grade but still impressive, patrolled the paths.

So… the Church, then. Made sense. That Leonardo guy had been going on about it, and Julia was on track to become an Inquisitor now. This was probably our next stop. Not to mention, that cabin didn’t exactly feel safe anymore, not after learning Julia had her own set of problems and a growing list of people who wanted her ill.

I hopped down again, my stomach suddenly growling. Great. Now I was awake and hungry.

But why exactly had my trait decided to wake me up right now? My eyes scanned the room again, and inevitably, my thoughts drifted toward Julia. Where was she? I’d half expected to wake up snuggled against her, as usual.

That’s when a strange hum pulsed in the back of my mind.

[Yeah, that… was what I was talking about.]

I snapped fully awake, scanning the rest of the room. It was… big. Not luxurious, but spacious, practical and stocked with all the essentials plus a few extras.

One more thing caught my attention: another door, half-open, with that strange, low hum seeping out of it.

It felt like one of [Trickery]’s pings, but stretched thin and drawn out into a slow, droning vibration that prickled at the edge of my senses. Annoying.

Was it a spell? Some strange ritual? Whatever it was, the sound seemed to refresh itself every second, maintaining that annoying, sustained tone.

[Hmm… something close to that. I can sense the magic at work, but can’t pinpoint the source. If I were to make an analogy, I would say a spell, ritual, or enchantment is active, but its effects aren't directed here. This is more like… acoustic fallout. A side effect of a much larger working.]

I thought that over for a heartbeat before dropping down from the cupboard, moving without a sound toward the door.

Crimson light spilled through the opening. Eerie whispers followed in a layered, like three separate voices muttering at once, none of them making sense.

I slipped through the threshold and looked up.

On the far wall, Julia stood rigid. Her fingers were slick with blood, her crimson-glowing eyes weeping luminous streaks down her cheeks. Her bloodied fingers moved at an inhuman speed, scrawling shapes across the wall. With every stroke, the whispers grew, leaking from her lips, repeating the same syllables again and again, stacked in three overlapping voices.

“Notem, Skalos, Notem, Skalos, NotemSkalosNotemSkalos…”

Over and over. Faster and faster.

I’d barely started processing this rude interruption to my nap when her head snapped mid-motion and her bloodshot eyes locked on me.