The weight of expectations was almost as heavy as the mountain I was standing on as I stepped through the door. This whole trip had obviously been designed to kindle and then slowly fan the flames of panic in me at the thought of meeting this man.
Lord Farris Worther was not what I expected. I had assumed he would be stuck and snobby, maybe with a punchable face and an air of condescension. Instead he just looked…wrong. He was paler than I had expected. So pale I could see his veins under his nearly transparent skin, and he was thin, almost skeletally so.
The worst part was his eyes. They weren’t monstrous or evil looking or anything, just normal blue eyes. But the look in them. It was horrible. Like someone had trapped an enraged monster inside a human shell and then set the creature on fire. His eyes blazed with an almost tangible sense of horrible craving. I found myself pinned under his stare, unable to move as he regarded me silently.
“You are the one they call ‘Gus’,” he rasped, and his voice was rough and jagged, like being dragged over sharp gravel.
I found myself nodding almost automatically, as if the response had been forced out of me. The motion set off warning bells in my head, and I did my best to sharpen my awareness and calm down. It helped. It felt like the fog outside had been in my head somehow, at least a little bit. Now it was gone, and having my brain clear, I was able to spot a few things that really bothered me.
Bennett stood nearby, looking unruffled and almost bored, but his eyes weren’t on his boss. His gaze was locked on some point off in the distance, like he was looking THROUGH the room we were in.
I tried comparing the razor sharp creature in front of me with the dilettante that Bennett had described, and I couldn’t find any similarities. Had he been hiding something from me, or did he just really not notice. “I am,” I responded, realizing I had been lagging behind with my response. “Angus, specifically.”
I didn’t give him my last name. I didn’t know why, it just seemed like a bad idea. “Angus, then,” he rasped. I didn’t like being called Angus. I hated my full name. But from this…thing, I preferred it. I didn’t want my informal name coming out of those thin, bloodless lips. In fact, I didn’t want ANYTHING to come out of them, at least not aimed at me. I wanted to get the hell out of here and not look back. “Do you know why you are here?”
“I was invited,” I said vaguely, sticking as close to the literal truth as possible. “Something about dinner?”
He smiled thinly. “Ah, of course. Please, sit. The food will be served momentarily.”
I returned the smile as best I could, trying not to let on the fact that my instincts were screaming behind my eyes to get out of here NOW. This was wrong. This whole place was wrong. I shouldn’t be here. Hell, nobody should be here.
We sat in jagged, agonizing silence for about five minutes before a maid swept in, carrying a pair of trays. She set on in front of me and another in front of him. Bennett went ignored, not that he seemed to notice. “Ah, our repast,” ground out the monster. “I am famished. Please, avail yourself of my hospitality.”
The smile he gave me stretched his face uncomfortably, revealing too much teeth around the edges and almost seeming to bisect his head. I swallowed, then lifted the silver cover on my tray. Beneath it was a single slice of very rare meat, perfectly circular in a kind of unsettling way.
“Looks great,” I forced out between my clenched teeth. “What is it?”
“Oh, just a little recipe from my childhood,” he said slyly. “I haven’t eaten it in quite some time, but when I learned I would having guests I beseeched my chef to prepare it. I assure you, it is…how do the kids say it these days? To die for.”
Nope. Nope nope nope. There wasn’t enough nope in the multiverse. I wasn’t eating whatever was on that plate. Not even a scrap. Luckily, I didn’t need to. When I removed the tray cover, I had placed it between myself and the Lord. Thinking fast, I cut a small piece of the meat, sold it (and the fork, because I didn’t want to touch anything that had been stuck in whatever that was), and then purchased a new identical fork and a bite of steak.
I did NOT look at what the meat was. I didn’t need or want to know. I just put the bite of medium rare steak into my mouth and chewed it leisurely, giving the Lord a winning smile. “It’s excellent,” I said with a forced smile.
His haunting, mad eyes were tinged with amusement as he nodded. “I am most gratified to hear it. Please. Continue.” He stared at me almost hungrily as I “ate” (again, I categorically refused actually ingest whatever he was trying to feed me, so I just sold it bite by bite and bought myself bits of ribeye). He watched me eat it all and when I was done, offered me seconds (which I politely declined). Once he was satisfied, he leaned back in his chair, steepling his fingers as he watched me in a way that reminded me uncomfortably of a hawk watching a mouse.
“So, might I ask what this meeting is regarding?” I said as I set down the fork on the empty plate. “Bennett made it sound urgent.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t say urgent,” he said with a humorless smile. “More…important. It has come to my attention that you have recently gained access to the necropolis under the edge of the nearby forest.”
I froze. “I…wasn’t aware that place was public knowledge.”
He chuckled darkly. “Public knowledge? Perhaps not. But there are those of us aware. In fact, I’ve been down there myself. But I’ve been unable to return because of certain…circumstances. Which is what necessitated this meeting.”
“In what way?” I asked suspiciously.
“Simple,” he said coldly. “I have ALSO become aware that you’ve been fraternizing with elements of the community I find…distasteful. The Silent Pond are rabble rousers at best, and dissidents at worst. Your arrangement with them runs counter to my interests.” The way he said that made it clear that running counter to his interests ran counter to MY interest in staying alive.
I swallowed, hard. I was prepared to fight, but considering I was pretty sure Bennett was at least Intermediate and this guy was using him like a sock puppet, I was almost positive I would die. I’d prefer not to be murdered by…whatever the hell this guy was. But since I hadn’t been, I could only assume that he didn’t want to kill me yet. “So…how might we solve this problem?" I asked, my throat dry and almost as raspy as his from the nerves.
“Why, Angus, I’m so very glad you asked,” he said, his voice almost vulpine somehow despite the rasp. “You see, as I mentioned, I’ve been down into the necropolis myself. In fact, I managed advance quite deeply inside. But when I was in there, I’m afraid I got lost. I dropped a precious family heirloom and it broke. I managed to recover the majority of it, but I left a small piece behind, and I require that fragment to be returned quite urgently.”
Reaching down, his hands found his tightly buttoned wine red shirt. He carelessly unlatched several buttons, pulling his shirt apart to reveal what looked like some kind large purple gem in an intricate gold setting FUSED into his chest, right over his heart. As I watched, the gem throbbed with a sickening, almost perverse light, giving off faint wisps of the same kind of vapor forming the fog outside.
I was floored. What the hell was he doing? Just showing me this? I wracked my brain for what the hell he might’ve done to make him confident enough to show me that. I went over every interaction…and then I got it.
Reaching for my power, I tried to buy myself a piece of that meat I’d sold, just to confirm.
Purchase: 1 8oz slab of Thrall meat. Price-200 Delyrans = 10,000 USD. Accept?
Now it made sense. He’d been feeding me some kind of magical binding flesh meant to subvert my will. No wonder he made me eat the whole thing in front of him. I swallowed heavily, glad he had no idea I was a speaker and had no context for my powers, because I had a feeling I wouldn’t have fared well if that had been noticed.
“This,” he said silkily, fingers running over the facets of the gem. “Is my heart. As you can see, there’s a VERY small piece of it missing, right here.” He pointed to one of the facets, which I’d failed to notice had a small gap in it. The throbbing misty light cast eerie leaping shadows that somewhat camouflaged the gap until he pointed it out, but one I saw it I had no idea how I’d missed it. “As you might imagine, missing part of my heart has made me quite sick. Be a dear boy and go retrieve it for me.”
It wasn’t a question. But then, I was supposed to be a thrall, which I imagined was the same thing that had happened to Bennett. Still, despite being unable to refuse, I felt like I could get away with asking for some clarification. “Of course,” I said casually. “Can you tell me more about it?”
Bennett was being odd, but not in a robotic way. More like he was being forced not to think about certain things. My best bet to fake being enthralled was to act the same way, which meant barring some obvious tells, I should act normal.
His glance was sharp, but not suspicious as much as annoyed, I thought. “Very well,” he said after a moment. “It’s a small shard of purple stone the size of your fifth distal phalanx.” I was a bit shocked that HAD a translation, but I guess it was inevitable they would name the skeleton bone by bone. “It will most likely be guarded by a rather unpleasant pile of bones. I advise you to go around him. You would not survive single combat.”
That fit. I was starting to put this all together. Based on the mission he’d given me, I assumed the original owner of that body had taken it into the necropolis, found that rock, and gotten possessed by it. It had fused with him, but been damaged before the process was complete, and he was now sick or possibly dying because of the injury.
Which meant if I brought him the shard he would NOT be dying and longer, and I had a feeling that would be bad for me and basically everyone in this town. I wasn’t sure if the pervasive air of oppression and misery had started after this guy got possessed, but I was betting he definitely hadn’t made it any better.
For now though, I just needed to get the hell out of this place. Immediately. So I did the smart thing. I agreed. “I’ll be happy to retrieve the shard for you, my Lord,” I said in my warmest, friendliest voice. “I’ll begin the search right away. Is there a way I can contact you if I run into any trouble?” I didn’t want him to send Bennett with me, so best to establish lines of communication on my own terms.
He reached into his pocket, pulling out a pendant with a well worn piece of what looked like hematite on it. “Rub this with your thumb three times to make contact,” he said dismissively. “Now begone. Your presence tires me.”
Standing, I nodded deeply, then turned and followed Bennett out of the room. I tried not to rush as I did, but it was harder than I’d have liked. I needed to talk to…well…everyone. We had a huge problem. Whatever the hell was going on, I was NOT prepared for it. But I knew where I could start. Luckily, a very old guardsman owed me an unconditional favor. I supposed I would be calling it in after all. Time to learn some local history.