[REND] B2. 13.1 - Tipping the Tower

I awoke in almost complete darkness. The hint of light creeping underneath the heavy curtains covering my window signaled that dawn had arrived. I was quite sure that the sun hadn’t risen yet, still hiding beneath the horizon, because I always woke up before sunrise, even if I only had a couple of hours of sleep. That was how my internal clock was set since I started college years back.

I sat up in my bed as my mind booted up. “Kelsey didn’t try to kill me in my sleep. Cool…”

For all I know, she could’ve already left my living room. She had the perfect opportunity to escape while I was asleep. And since it was already daytime, I couldn’t easily hunt her even in my Blanchette form. But I was still too sleepy to care if she was out there. I’d check up on her in a bit.

Turning right, I placed my feet on my fluffy slippers on the floor. Following Rule #15, I got up on the right side of the bed. The literal right side.

Funny story about how Rule #15 came to be. One time, when we were on a road trip to Aunt Jemma’s farm, I was a bit grumpy because the ice cream flavor that I wanted wasn’t available at the gas station. Mom told me that I got off on the wrong side of the bed that morning, a common enough expression. But I didn’t really get it.

Like, how the fuck did that expression come to be? What the hell was the wrong side of the bed?

I agonized about it throughout our entire stay at the farm—I couldn’t look it up because there was no internet there—and was eventually able to research it when we returned to the city. According to the infallible internet, the expression came from the superstitious ancient Romans. They believed that the left side of stuff brought bad luck.

I wasn’t into superstition at all, but I was just so amused by this wrong-side-of-the-bed belief and the implications it brought. What if a couple were sleeping on the same bed? Let’s say the wife on the left side had already woken up, but the husband on the right was still asleep. Would the wife just stay in bed until her husband woke up so she could leave? Was she supposed to roll over her husband to reach the right side? There were so many questions!

And so, it became a Rule.

It was a fun origin story, not a logical one.

My questions about the social etiquette of multiple ancient Romans sleeping on the same bed were still unanswered to this day.

“Philosophical musings so early in the morning…” I stood up and stretched my back. It felt good. Would’ve been better if the motion increased my height.

I shuffled to the bathroom and switched on the light. Staring at my pale self in the mirror, I took off my clothes and examined my body—this was a sort of my daily ritual, though not a Rule.

Some purplish and shiny patches here and there. Mostly small areas that no one would notice unless they closely examined my skin. There was a bit of a conspicuous streak of transformed flesh above my navel. That should be covered by my clothes. Not a big problem.

What else?

“My eyes…” I leaned closer to the mirror, pulling my eyelid down. Was it just my imagination, or were my irises tinged red? Not like I had pink eye. Red as in the glowing eyes of Spooky Erind.

It was very faint, but it was apparent that my eyes weren’t so normal anymore.  

This must be the result of transforming into Blanchette and my mannequin form. I had an extended usage of my mannequin form because I was trying to turn Kelsey back into a human for like an hour to no avail. More evidence that using my Adumbrae powers hastened my bodily changes. But no worries. I had pills from Dario that I saved for situations like this.

I rummaged under the sink. Lodged between the bends of the pipes was a tiny container with the pills. I swallowed them, making a mental note that I should ask Dario for more. I’d tell Myra and Deen to shut up about my supposedly ‘Core powers’ for a bit. I’d think of some excuse as to why.

If the pills wouldn’t help, I had already bought some contacts to disguise my eyes. Beyond that… I didn’t know what to do.

“Fuck, I shouldn’t have used my powers too much,” I said, staring at my naked reflection again. Guess I’d put on hold my ‘humanizing’ sessions with Kelsey.

I slowly twirled, checking for more physical changes. I could cover everything with clothes—a short-sleeved shirt would work, but I had to wear pants. I washed my face, brushed my teeth, and put on my clothes that I had taken off. I was about to leave the bathroom when something occurred to me.

I checked the marbled area on my abdomen again.

Was this here after fighting Illusory Eye? I had my stomach exposed because my clothes were torn. Myra was too focused on finding her sister, but Deen might’ve seen it while we were riding in a car.

“Probably not…” I said, shaking my head.

Deen would’ve mentioned something, right? Or she probably thought that it was just dirt on me. Lots of explanations are available. More likely, this patch cropped up way after, probably because of my fight with Keke. I shouldn’t stress over something that wasn’t an actual issue.

I left my room and found a tall, scaly, horned succubus standing in my kitchen.

The pan she held sizzled as the enticing smell of bacon grease wafted over. There were broken eggshells on the countertop. A couple of plates. Two glasses filled with orange juice from my fridge. Kelsey was cooking breakfast.

An actual monster maid. Good thing that Kelsey was helping with chores. If she didn’t contribute anything, I might consider her a pet of sorts. Rule #12 prevented me from keeping a pet—this came from a real rule imposed by my parents. Mom and Dad shouldn’t have been so worried that I’d possibly torture pets just because I set fire to ant hills and dissect other insects. I didn’t even touch the frogs and lizards in our backyard.

“Oh!” Kelsey jolted when she noticed me. “Good morning, Erind. I hope it’s alright that I’m cooking? I thought of making breakfast, so I wouldn’t be a mere fixture around here.”

“Uh, good morning… Just treat this place like your own house.” It pained me to say those words. “And thanks for making breakfast.”

“Well, I had to make breakfast to avoid being breakfast,” Kelsey said, displaying her fangs as she grinned.

“Come on. Don’t keep bringing that up. I apologized several times—”

“Just kidding. I guess it’s a morbid subject matter to joke about, but doing so lessens the impact. I assure you that I’ve gotten over it. Erm, well, I did have nightmares about it while I slept…”

“Once again, I’m really, really sorry for eating you,” I said, making the most apologetic expression I could muster.

Of course, I didn’t have any remorse for my actions. If I could turn back time, I’d do it again. I wasn’t bothered by the taste of raw flesh and blood when using my Blanchette body. And I found it truly fascinating to eat a living creature as it was talking to me. Kind of like eating bacon while having a conversation with the pig where it came from.

Did that mean that something was wrong with me? Perhaps. But it wasn’t like I was eating Kelsey right now. Bacon and eggs would do. With maple syrup. The Canadians had the right idea, putting sweetness on the salty bacon.

“You didn’t sleep well?” I asked.

“It-it’s nothing… I’ll catch up on some shuteye later. It’s not like I’m going anywhere. Or… doing anything.” Kelsey sighed as she turned over the cooking bacon. “You shouldn’t skip classes for my sake. I’ll be fine here. I’m grateful to be in an actual room instead of the tunnels.”

How much did Kelsey know about her imprisonment? When did her Keke side take control? Kelsey had been very vague about her stories.

She also stuck with the narrative that she ‘met’ Keke only a couple of years ago. Yep, I saw those memories, but I wouldn’t immediately brand Kelsey a liar. Could be that she was traumatized and buried her early memories of Keke. Could also be that the Adumbrae tinkered with Kelsey’s brain to hide them from her. It was annoying when there were so many unknowns.

“Ah, it’s fine. I want to be with you in case Keke tries to assert control.” I took a seat by the island countertop and watched Kelsey finish cooking. “Has she spoken to you again?”

“Thankfully, no,” Kelsey said with her back to me. Her scales didn’t change. Then again, Kelsey might be keeping her emotions in check. “Are you going to link with me later?”

“We can take a rest for now,” I said.

Besides the fact that using my powers would hasten my bodily changes, another problem that I didn’t take into account in my Adumbrae-saving plan was the possibility that the person I was trying to save wouldn’t be very cooperative.

When I entered Kelsey’s mind for the second time, it felt too clean. Too sanitized. Kelsey was there. We talked with each other and all. However, I couldn’t feel the emotions that I expected from her. Given that she was previously controlled by an Adumbrae, she should be scared or worried that a stranger was poking around her mind once again. Conversely, she should be happy that someone was helping her.

But there was nothing.

Recalling the time I linked with Deen, there were lots of ‘ambient’ emotions and thoughts. It was like swimming in molasses. Not that I had tried to do that in real life. In contrast, my trip to Kelsey’s mind was like touring an empty room. I didn’t even notice any trace of Keke.

I’d say that was a bad thing. That Adumbrae was actively hiding from me, meaning that it was awake somewhere there. Keke probably continued to influence Kelsey.

“Maybe it’ll take some time for more effects to show,” I said. “We’ve got good progress so far, like you’re a bit shorter, including your horns, and your features are looking more like you. Some patches of scales have receded, too.”

Kelsey didn’t say any more about that topic. She presented me with a plate of bacon and eggs and a glass of orange juice. “Here you go. Breakfast cooked by an Adumbrae. If you can buy me ingredients, I can cook more elaborate meals for lunch and dinner.”

“I didn’t know you could cook. I mean, beyond just frying stuff.”

“It’s one of my hobbies that I gave up when I… left…”

“You can practice cooking here,” I said. “I can cook, but I’m a bit lazy. I usually just order sugary or greasy foods. Don’t think I’ll get high cholesterol or diabetes with my inhuman body, but it would be a nice change to eat something healthy.”

“Thanks again for letting me stay. Eat up. I’ll wash the plates later.”

“Are you going to eat the same thing?” I asked, pouring a generous amount of maple syrup on the strips of bacon. “Like, are you fine with bacon? Would it taste different with your, uh, non-human mouth?”

Kelsey dangled a strip into her mouth and bit half of it. While chewing, she mumbled, “Still tastes like bacon. My tongue may have changed color, but it functions the same way. What’s odd is the feeling of chewing with my sharp teeth. Anyway, are you really not going to law school today? Don’t interrupt your life for my sake.”

“Nope,” I said. “I wouldn’t be able to concentrate in class anyway, with so many things going on. That reminds me, I should tell Myra and Deen about it, or they’ll worry.”

“Don’t say anything about me.” She sipped the orange juice. “Also tastes like orange juice.”

“Your secret’s safe with me until you can meet Myra again,” I said, composing a message to send Deen. She wouldn’t buy the excuse that I had a headache, so I just mentioned ‘resting for my mental health’. Sounded plausible enough after our Three Bs’ mission. “And send.”

“Is it really fine for me to stay here?” Kelsey asked. “I’m not sure how long it’ll be until I can somewhat look human again. Our last session didn’t make much progress.”

“We’re both experimenting with my link thing,” I said, wagging my finger. “It’ll take time until we figure out what to do. And you’re free to stay—” I paused as my phone vibrated. A call.

From Mom? My mind ground to a halt as I remembered an important detail—Mom would be visiting next week. Next week was a few days to go! We were supposed to talk about where she should stay. Definitely not at my place. Should be easy to convince her to stay at a hotel.

“Hello, Mom,” I loudly said, glancing at Kelsey.

“Good morning, Erind dear,” came Mom’s confident voice. During these shit-filled times, it was sort of comforting to hear her speak. But gone were the days when I could rely on Mom fixing my mess for me. “I hope I didn’t call you too early. I was hoping to catch you before you left for school.”

“I’m still in my condo, having breakfast,” I said. “How’s things over there in, uh, Switzerland?” Took me a moment to remember that Mom should be in Zurich at this moment.

“I’ve just finished dinner, dear. Everything is swimmingly fine. I’ve reduced my mountain of work into a pile. By next week, I’ll be free to tour the city with you. I miss my little Erind so much.”

“Mom, I’m twenty-three. But ‘little’ is apt to describe me. No need to rush your work. It’s not like we can spend the entire day just shopping and stuff. Law school calls. I have cases to read and all that.”

“Of course, dear. You shouldn’t compromise your studies.”

We chatted for a bit more, just usual mother-daughter nonsense, until we came to the most important topic. I asked Mom where she’d be staying for the four days she’d be in the city.

“How about I stay with you?” she suggested.