Chloe peered through one of her shadowed eyes as she lay on her sleeping mat. Ellie had long since gone to bed, and she was happy to say nothing had happened to Alicia while she was sleeping in a different room. Before Ellie had gone to bed however, she’d briefly visited Krellik. Ostensibly to mate, but during that session, she’d had a rather interesting conversation.
From what she understood, it sounded like the spirit controlling Ellie’s body had something to do that would require her to vacate the body for a few hours. She was telling Krellik to keep a watch on her body during that time and that she didn’t want the original Ellie to pilot the body during that time. He’d told her that the original Ellie’s soul should be returned on occasion, and she’d countered that she’d do so later. Fake Ellie told him she’d be vacating again for about day while they were at Black Blossom and the original Ellie would be allowed the body during that time. Just not before. Chloe could only guess that she was up to something and didn’t want the original Ellie to interfere, what that was? Well she could only guess. Chloe also wasn’t sure if she should interfere, or leave it be.
For a second she thought about the potential for hypocrisy. Sure she’d taken this body after the original owner had passed before the gods for judgement, but that hadn’t always been the case. Chloe had possessed the bodies of men and women both who very much still had original owners. The battle between spirit and original soul was never gentle on the body, so finding a body strong enough to house her wasn’t easy. In a way she’d been quite fortunate this cycle. Did she have the right to slap someone for something she very well might have done herself if the cards had been laid out just a little differently? The world was full of double standards but perpetuating them didn’t make things right. Her mind flipped back and forth, then she let out a breath. She didn’t know enough. Who was this Fake Ellie? Her shadowed gaze fell on Krellick’s room, the man had gone to bed some time ago.
The room was not what she was really looking at. It wasn’t any different from the bedroom she was in now, or the one she’d been sharing with Alicia. Near the bed Krellick was using however, was a small stand upon which a certain familiar pendant was resting. Glowing with the strength of the soul it contained. Maybe she should take a closer look?
Movement drew her away from her line of thought, and she peered through a different shadowed eye as Myshi came into the tent. She’d gone out to the wagons for her usual check of the babies and application of their unknown medicine. Myshi stepped lightly, moving right towards her before slipping under the covers and wrapping herself around her tail. Chloe hesitated to move for a second but quickly realized the other girl was already asleep.
She sighed and reached over. Spell formula bloomed in her mind as she weaved three elements together in a complex weave of darkness, water and nature. She intoned lightly as she finished her spell, “Dream Trap.” The spell took hold instantly and the sleeping girl shifted, her sleep deepened and a blooming smile touched her face. Chloe didn’t have mind or illusion magic so she couldn’t say what kind of dream she’d just trapped Myshi in, but judging by her face it must have been a good one. Chloe smiled, and extricated herself.
Stepping out of the room without being noticed, she made her way over to Krellik’s and using the same elements, weaved another spell, “Mist of Dreams!” A dark purple and green mist with swirls of pink rippled from her hands and into Krellik’s room. It dissipated after a moment, its work done.
Confident he wouldn’t wake at all, she went into the room. Sure steps took her right past the form of the sleeping Krellik and she reached for the pendent. Picking it up, she held it for a moment. There was a solid weight to it both physical and magical. For a second she was tempted to just take the pendant, but unlike Krellik she had no skill with mind manipulation. Questions would be asked. It was just too risky, so instead she reached in with her magic. Scanning the soul within and the magic constraining it.
She found it was a powerful magic item in its own right thanks to Ellie’s soul. Ellie herself was in a state akin to sleep, magic sigils keeping her unaware. Fake Ellie hadn’t been lying, Ellie would know nothing of her body being borrowed and if she was reading these sigils right, she wouldn’t question it either. The amulet had several nasty sigils to make her more... pliable, docile... more easily supplanted. Chloe set the pendant down, but not before making a change. Nothing too obvious, but Ellie would thank her later. It was a small change, but it would block the nastier functions included. The kind that explained why the other Ellie seemed to think of the original as nothing more than property. In a way she’d been turned into just that. The question was why, and what for.
Idly she stroked the pendant, “Sorry I can’t do more, but I can’t blow my cover just yet. You’ll have to wait.”
With those words she left the room and made her way outside. Terri was on guard duty but was pretty relaxed when she saw her. “Using the restroom?” She grinned. “And here I thought Myshi would be glued to your tail.”
Her tail stiffened and she hugged it to herself.
Terri giggled. “Well don’t let me keep you.”
She nodded and hurried off. Visiting the latrine first, so that Terri wouldn’t think much of her being around, then using her magic to make a temporary back door into the first wagon. Chloe had been planning how to get in unnoticed for a few nights, now was her best chance.
Stepping inside, she walked up to one of the babies and placed a hand upon her. The elements weaved together at her direction, water, earth, lightning, nature and darkness and then spread out through the tiny body of the baby girl she was looking at.
The girl in question was about three weeks old with cute little triangular ears and a fluffy little tail. A young wolfkin from the feel of things, and like many of them she was ill. A web of raised red lines ran up her tiny legs and up her belly with large dark black lumps concentrated on her inner thighs. Chloe’s spell revealed more items that a visual inspection could never unveil. Her body was host to a viral parasite, hundreds of them. They’d invaded her entire circulatory system but the colony was largely concentrated in her legs and lower belly.
Chloe sighed, she recognized the illness, but she’d never found the source. She noted pain receptors were lit up like a christmas tree, the girl’s blood was... toxic, her heart rate was quite high, her immune system failing, white blood cell count virtually gone and parasites were attacking her marrow... corrupting it. The only reason she wasn’t dead was the parasites had altered some of her cells to process the toxins they were producing which was in turn causing the lumps on her thighs to fill with a thick black fluid.
Turning from the kid, she checked the box and used another analysis spell, to study the medicine. Revealing to her what was actually in the vial. Her gaze fell on Myshi’s observations, the notes she was taking, and the girl’s behaviors flashed through her mind. She didn’t think the girl knew. Chloe put it back, made sure everything was the same as usual, then quietly left the room. Slipping out the way she came in, she made her way back to the tent, while already considering what she would do. The cult was hinky, but Byshi’s trading was definitely up to something with these babies, and she could already guess it had something to do with the alchemical properties of that black fluid, that was the real cargo. Her mind flashed to the last time she’d encountered the fluid over two cycles ago and all the unanswered questions she still had about it. Back then she’d been too busy to really dig into the mystery of it. Now she had all these new questions, and was wishing she’d found the time to look into it more all those centuries ago. Slipping back into bed beside Myshi, she set the thoughts aside. “How much do you know?”
The question went unanswered, but Chloe already had a plan for finding out. She just had to connect the dots. With a little luck she’d have her answers sooner, rather than later. Without having to risk her cover.