Chapter 182: Ravenous
Nicau had only just gotten Chieftess settled—Chieftess! A Name! Otherworld mana, a soul-woven connection, ascension!—when something stirred in the back of the kobold's den. Someone.
The human rescued from the empress serpent two floors above. The slave, almost.
Veresai was… powerful. Nicau knew this, because his first introduction to her had been when the psionic serpent beamed the dungeon directly into his skull to swear him into its service, but he hadn't really interacted with her sense—which he was more than fine with, to be very clear. She had been powerful then and for all Nicau was strengthened by his Name, he wasn't up to fighting her ilk yet.
But now, seeing what she had done, he wondered—for a very brief, escapable moment—if perhaps he should have. If he could have known there was another human in the dungeon, and saved her before whatever had happened to her mind.
Nicau pondered that thought. Because it was a distinctly hero-esque thought, neither that of a pigeoncatcher nor particularly of the persona he'd been building scampering around the underside of Calarata and pretending to be more Romei and the Pirate Lord and a few new names he was thinking over, considering how dangerous it would be to actually go by the Pirate Lord in a city owned by the Dread Pirate. He truly could have been so much more creative. He was never going to forgive himself.
And still there was a part of him that wishes he had saved her from Veresai before it had gotten to this.
At least she was here now, safe in the back of the kobold's den, and the boon from Abarossa was already waking her with mana that just devoured exhaustion. Nicau took one last moment to make sure Chieftess was fully secured, moss piled up under her head and sides, before padding to the back room he had once slept in. It was used for storage now, but it hadn't been much work to clear his old moss bed for her.
For the human.
She was a few inches taller than him, aided by the scarlet-gold scaled hood that took the palace of her hair and waterfall down her back, even scattered over her cheekbones and down the lengths of her arms. Deep brown skin where it wasn't scaled, and her eyes fluttered open to reveal pale gold with slitted pupils.