Heartworm

The scent of overwhelming spices was pleasant. Phern’s tent usually set my nose into a confused spiral, but on this night, it was more of a reminder that I had survived. I was thankful for that. I wished I could remain in the comfort of the estate, but with that far behind us, I’d have to once more deal with the cozy but cramped rooms of Phern’s magical tent. The very best part about it was the limited set up, which allowed us to already relax in our rooms after our day's walk. Cecelia had assured us that although our pace today was slow, we could afford the steady pace. She said that the guards would still be fumbling around to figure out just which way we had left Thrieve. I had no doubt that with the Council in Thrieve, our path would be discovered, but I trusted in Cecelia that we would at least have some time before they were following behind us.

While that meant that the next few days of our journey would have to be at a quicker pace than today, we would at least have some time to recuperate. Which for me, was something I needed, badly. Having been tortured, killed a handful of times, and thrown into a battle with capital guards, I wanted nothing more than a quiet night of peace. While I was nowhere near Lilith’s level of pain tolerance, something which I’m unsure if I will ever be able to reach, I was certainly getting better at handling the inevitable pain of our journey.

‘What I have learned, I have done so over centuries, little morsel. As do most Deathless. You will be infantile in that regard for some time.’

If I survive that long. A Deathless hunted by the Empire doesn’t come with the promise of a long life.

‘What Deathless isn’t hunted by the Empire their entire life?’

Oh. Right. The thought that existence as a demon came with the constant fear of being killed was difficult to stomach. I suppose I had always known that, but when I was taught that demons were threats for most of my life, it never struck me as harsh. Being one certainly restructured my beliefs on the matter. Had Vyra been raised with the constant fear of being discovered and killed?

You still haven’t talked much about your own life, Lilith. Were you hunted from a young age?

‘Most are. Deathless live in the shadows cast upon the land. Wherever breeds the promise of meat, and the safety from the Empire’s holy light.’

Apologies if this sounds strange. I’m sure you know how little I was taught of Deathless in the academy. But did you have parents?

‘Most do.’

But did you?

‘Not exactly. I am an anomaly, you could say. I am none the worse for not having parents. Parents offer instruction, nothing more. I did not need instruction.’

I don’t think that's what parents are for, Lilith. They’re supposed to love you and raise you.

‘Did yours?’

I sucked in a breath and peeled away the blanket on top of my bed roll. As I slinked underneath the thin fabric, I laid my head down onto the small pillow and mentally shot back a response to Lilith.

They raised me.

‘That was only half of your criteria.’

I know.

‘Then I would say you have no right to judge me on the matter of parents. I have survived for centuries, and become the most feared Deathless there is.’

You’ve never been one for humbleness, Lilith.

‘Those who are the best, have no need to be humble.’

Would the best Deathless die to a traumatized student?

‘Go to sleep, little morsel, before I send our body to the bottom of the lake.’

I wrapped the blanket tightly around my body and closed my eyes. Learning more about Lilith felt like I was chipping away at a stone wall with my fingernails. What progress I did make was painfully slow, with no assurance that I’d ever uncover what lies beneath. I knew she wasn’t keen to share herself with me, but if the two of us were stuck together, I wanted to feel like we could make it past the basic acquaintance phase. I’ll put it on the top of my list of priorities, I suppose. Just below spending time with Cecelia on our journey. The thought of being around her brought the same comfort that I used to feel inside of Vyra’s dorm room. The happy memories pulled me into the tendrils of slumber.

* * * * *

“I need your help, Sebil. Come with me.”

I believe the noise I heard in response was a kind of affirmative answer, so I left the tent entirely to wait outside. We had taken camp next to the edge of the Uroro Lake, the blond woman saying it was a good indicator that they had made enough progress. While I hadn’t been to this lake in at least a few centuries, I remembered just how deceptively large it was. While we had reached an edge of it within one day’s walk of Thrieve, it would take multiple more days of travel to attempt to reach the other side of it.

Looking out across the still water, it was like I was gazing across a canvas that was painted with the stars and the moon across the reflective surface. The folly of humans often made me forget how beautiful parts of this world could be. The parts untainted by the ever growing hunger to conquer and harvest more. The very same humans with insatiable hunger for more wealth and land argued that Deathless were the insatiable beasts of the land. Hypocrisy. A talent of humans.

I heard the shuffling of Sebil as he trudged out of the tent. The man would have a beautiful sight before he died. Even that much, he didn’t deserve.

“What is it, love? Why on earth did you wake me at this hour?”

“I already told you. I need your help. Follow me.”

I cared little for how I emulated the little morsel’s speech patterns. If Sebil suspected anything, it wouldn’t matter for long. I could tell there was a hefty dose of hesitation in the man’s face, but he followed along regardless. He always was a people pleaser, it was only fitting his habits would die hard enough to lead to his death.

“Xavier, can this not wait until morning? The moon is high in the sky, and we need all the rest we can manage.”

“You’ll be able to rest in a moment.”

We had walked far enough by this point to be long out of earshot of the camp. That was all that I needed. It would be easier that way. I hated how picturesque the midnight sheen had painted the clearing we stood in. It was an open field, surrounded by some trees on the perimeter, lit by the cool glow of the moon reflecting off of the nearby water. It was as if some God took pity on the fiend to allow him to gaze at the beauty of nature as he died.

“It’s beautiful, love. I sincerely hope this was not your reason for bringing me so far out here, Xavier.”

While I was turned away from the man, I gently sliced across my index finger to draw enough blood for what I wanted. The red ichor flowed through the air, twisting into the solid form of a flower. The blood swirled into a saucer, detailed with the small petals that emerged from one another to form a large circular pattern from the smaller accumulated petals within. With my creation finished, I moved towards the murderer and pushed the blood flower into his gloved hands.

“Are you attempting to demonstrate your progress with blood magic, love? I must say it’s impressive, but I hardly-”

“What is it?”

“Sorry? I- It’s a flower, love.”

“What kind, sparkplug?”

His brow furrowed as he looked at me with confusion. I could almost hear his filthy oil slicked gears moving in his head. Ever the problem solver, with more theories than solutions.

“Zinnia.”

“Her favorite.”

I watched the man’s face with a smile. It was like witnessing weeks worth of inventing and problem solving superimposed into just a few seconds of consideration. My nickname, in isolation, most likely meant very little. Even Phern had taken to using it for Sebil. But I could see the dots connecting within his mind as he considered our mutual knowledge. Zinnia’s were not native to most of the Empire. I sincerely doubted he knew many who had even seen them with their own eyes. But we both knew one person who had.

“I don’t understand…”

“Say her name, sparkplug.”

“You aren’t Xavier…”

“Say it.”

Having realized at least enough of the situation to recognize he was in danger, the man dropped the flower and moved a hand towards the leather belt that was loosely strapped around his waist. I had been waiting for him to try such a thing. I let the shadows wreath my body like a warm coat, the form that I was far more comfortable in taking shape before him. My claws had wrapped around the metal wrist of his right hand before he could grab one of the gadgets in his belt. The metallic limb sent a thrilling electricity through my body, the perfect opening for him to use his left hand to reach towards his belt. With the click of some strange device, the two of us were pushed away from each other with a violent pulse of force, as if a wall had been launched into my body. I dug my claws into the dirt to slow my momentum and regain my footing. The man was now around twenty feet away from me. He seemed to think that was enough distance to reach for another one of his inventions. I gave him little time to act as I already lept onto all fours to close the distance in an instant. As I neared the man, a net of fibers wrapped around my body, having suddenly erupted from within a small cylindrical capsule in his hands.

The netting was aggravating to slice my way through, but it was made significantly worse as the fibers itself became electrified. I could feel teeth clenching together painfully as I successfully cut my way through it. The man had already fetched another device from his belt, reminding me just why I hated his incessant hoarding of every one of his creations. He was like a culmination of multiple markets of spare parts that he had assembled into one weapon or another. He launched a metallic disc towards me that separated into six smaller discs as they journeyed towards me. With the open wound on my index finger, I drew enough blood from myself to form it into a thin sheet of coagulated blood. The discs sunk into the blood harmlessly, and I emerged from the layer of blood to clasp my claw around his metallic hand once more before he could manage to pull any more tricks from his seemingly endless belt of wonders. I could see his wide eyes glance across my body, recognition filling his mind after witnessing a trick I’d used in our previous fight. Sharp gasps of fear brushed across my face as he looked at me, the hot breath of someone who knew their fate had found them.

“It can’t be… Lilith?”

“In the shadowed flesh.”

“How…? What did you do to Xavier?”

“The little morsel is doing just fine. Resting for the night while I take our body on a journey of vengeance.”

“This whole time… You were the reason he acted so strange around me.”

I pushed the man down to his knees, the metal of his prosthetic creaking from the vice grip my claws had on it. The fear in his eyes felt rehearsed, like he had worried this day might come for him. He always was a smart man, I doubted that he expected to be able to hide from me forever.

“I want to hear you say her name before you die. If you beg enough, I might even make it quick.”

“Lilith, I’m sorry! I told you before that it was an accident! I never wanted-”

“I DON’T NEED YOUR FILTHY LIES, SPARKPLUG.” My claws yearned for his blood to flow across them. My right hand was slowly wrapping around his left shoulder. I was having to fight back the urge to rip his body down the center. I need more fear from him. I needed the most pathetic apologies to fall from his lips. I needed tears of imminent death to stain his face before I tore it off.

“It’s not a lie! It was never supposed to happen, she wanted-”

“SAY HER NAME!”

I understood now that the anguish on his face, the tears that formed in the wells of his eyes. They were not, as I thought, and hoped, of fear. They were tears of regret. The churlish inventor wished to confuse me to the very end.

“Calliope… Gods, I am so sorry, Calliope…” The man began to weep. I hated how little he seemed to care about the fully fledged Deathless that towered over him with a body coated in shadow and claws and teeth bred to rend. At this moment, it was like I wasn’t even there anymore. “It wasn’t supposed to happen… I never wanted it to happen…”

“You filthy creature. Begging for forgiveness from a woman you murdered.”

“...It should have been me, Calliope…”

I wasn’t even holding onto the man anymore as he sat helpless on his knees and cried. The moonlight of the lake was reflected within his steady stream of tears. Sebil was not a good liar. Not nearly good enough to have constructed such a sorrowful display. None of this seemed to fit with my memories.

I remember the man knelt next to the lifeless body of Calliope in his Gods forsaken laboratory. He was the reason she was taken from me. My beloved sister. Her life traded in the carless ambitions of a human. She told me that he could be trusted. She begged with every fiber of her being that he was different from the rest. That he was going to help them. That trust had gotten her the only thing one could expect from putting faith in a human. Death.

“You knew I would find you eventually, Partillo.”

“I know, Lilith. I knew my time would come around, eventually.”

“My sister was just an experiment to you. I imagine that is all you seek from the little morsel as well.”

“You mean Xavier? Gods no! Calliope was not an experiment either, Lilith!”

I raised a claw towards his face, the muscles in my hand were trembling with inconsolable anger. “My own sister was just another curiosity for you to sate!”

“I loved her, Lilith!” Sebil latched his hands onto my own hand, and pulled my claws down towards his chest as he weeped. “I loved her so much, Lilith. I vested so much of my heart into Calliope, I fear I died on that day as well.”

“I wish you did. It is one of my greatest regrets that I failed to kill you.”

“You didn’t fail, Lilith.”

My hateful glare wavered as he spoke. I began to wonder just what he meant, but as he began to move his hand, my eyes narrowed in preparation. If he tried anything aggressive, I could pluck out his heart before it’s next beat. To my utter confusion, the man began to unbutton his own shirt, peeling it off of his body and dropping it into the dewy grass beside him. His bare upper body was a perplexing sight. More specifically, his right arm. Just above where the prosthetic metal arm connected to the flesh, thick black lines pulsed underneath his skin. The flesh itself looked vile, like it was on the brink of death, but had never been given the mercy of decay. The thick menacing lines traveled up his arm, snaking like a spiderweb into the side of his chest and across the front of his chest. It was a vile infection of some kind.

“You already sealed my fate on that day.”

I narrowed my eyes at the pathetic man. While I would have loved to kill the man when I did, I was unaware of what he could be talking about. The infection across his body was innate magical, yet I knew no such magic that could cause such an affliction.

“When you took my hand, and nearly my life, you left me with a blood curse. Something I’ve spent every moment since that day attempting to identify and cure. I’ve never met a problem that couldn’t be solved with science, yet this issue remains.” Sebil looked up at me, a resigned gaze meeting my wrathful glare. “It is killing me, Lilith.”

“Then you would have no issue with me cutting you down here and now.”

“A merciful death? I thought I was speaking with Lilith.” I sneered at his aural jabs. “If you want the slow and painful death you’ve no doubt dreamed of, then your best bet would be to leave me be.” Of course I wanted him to suffer. It was everything he deserved for betraying the trust my sister had placed in him.

“How long?”

“Even with everything that I have done to slow it, I would say… a month or two. Though with how much this trip has exerted me, that time might be approaching quicker than I thought.”

“Sparing you now, for the promise of more suffering...”

“I’ve suffered every moment without Calliope, Lilith. But if you desire even more, then I won’t hold it against you.”

“Even with the last bit of sand dripping out of your hourglass, you try to remain cordial. You may drop the act, sparkplug, I’ve seen how heartless you can be.” Heartless is the only word for a man that kills his own love. Heartless is the only word for a man that dashes trust and quashes faith.

“I wish I were heartless, Lilith. I would not have attempted what I did on that day if I didn’t love her.”

All this talk of love. I had no doubt that Calliope loved Sebil. She’d waxed poetic to me each and every day about the young inventor that was more curious than afraid of a Deathless like her. I wasn’t sure if I believed the man when he said that he loved her back. He certainly played the part well back then, but crucially, a loving man would not have killed his muse. An accident, he claims. An accident that was only allowed to happen because he had the gall to play the part of a God on that day. The realm of Gods is no place to emulate when you are but a feeble mortal. His hubris should have led to his swift demise, yet it was my sister who paid the price for his arrogance.

“I let you slip from my grasp once before. I do not make mistakes a second time.”