Chapter 44: Worst Nightmare
Chapter 44: Worst Nightmare
Eventually, I feel Theodora go to sleep. Penta and I sneak over to Seong’s house, pour enough from the Everfull for them to do their thing, and return to our room undiscovered. Taline and Seong work hard throughout the next day making the feast, though each for vastly different reasons. Penelope spends most of her time with Theodora. From the flashes of their souls I suspect they’re exchanging illegal magical secrets and other girl stuff.
The day is mostly boring, or at least as boring as an impending genocide can really be. With my part of the whole plan more or less outsourced for now, the best thing I can do is stay out of the way and very accurately tell the others I’m doing so in order to train. That is what Penta and I spend the day doing, after all. As boring as it is, practicing cancel commands at least takes a lot of focus. It isn’t difficult to let the time slip by at first. I learn a fair bit, such as the fact that since my tendrils can touch my own body, I can use them to invisibly scratch my butt when it itches. It works even when I’m sitting down or my hands are busy! That’s probably a solid third-best thing about having hatched. Cancel-command-wise, though, we make progress… just not enough. Even with Penta’s help I’m going to have to practice this for many months. Yet despite how engrossing it all is, as the hour of the feast approaches things slow to a crawl, my hammering heart anticipating the moment that will make or break our operation and possibly our lives.
When I finally go down to see the banquet, I can’t help but be impressed. Taline has set up a positively massive table in her home, making room for the nearly thirty slimed individuals around the village. Though weaker than me, nearly all the hosts I’ve yet to meet have something interesting about their soul, likely a talent even if not a great one. Things are already bustling when Penta and I get there, with a dozen conversations going on at once while Taline finishes arranging all the food on the table, complete with chitin utensils and fancy ceramic plates.
The food, incidentally, is incredible. Though I can’t spot any meat, there seems to be no end of delicious dishes the likes of which I’ve never seen before. Fruits, vegetables, breads, rolls, pies, platters, soups, sauces, spices, salads…! I freeze on the staircase, drooling over it all until Taline spots me and hurries up to give me a hug.
“Vita!” she cheers. “There you are! This was such a good idea! Thank you again for this, and for… you know. Come on down! You’ve been cooped up all day, come meet your family! Everyone, this is Vita! She showed up the other day, and—”
Taline drags me down the stairs, oblivious to my rapidly increasing discomfort. A dozen kindly farmers are on me in an instant, filling my vision with warm welcomes and smiles.
“Sister, it’s wonderful to meet you! I’m—”
“Aunt Vita, you’re the one that will find the others, right?”
“Hey, welcome to the party! It’s wonderful! I heard you planned this?”
“N-no, I didn’t plan any of it!” I stammer. “I just—”
Intend to kill all of you.
“—gave Taline the idea. I really didn’t do anything.”
A parade of hugs and handshakes follow as I meet all the members of my “family.” I try my best not to listen, not to pay attention to them. I don’t want to know. I don’t want to know about my sister Amalie, or my nephew Darnell. I don’t want to hear about the parasite who named himself Kasper because he’s imprisoning a man named Kasper. I don’t want to see how happy they all are. They all feel so safe here. And the man who made it all possible for them…
Remus sits at the head of the table, his slime overjoyed beyond words. To see this community he built prosper, I swear I almost see a tear in his unburnt eye. Yet he didn’t build it, did he? He stole it, so we’re going to take it back.
“Vita, it’s wonderful to see you again,” Theodora breathes, the wispy woman approaching me from behind. “I’ve been looking around for you, but I haven’t even seen a spark of you or your talent today.”
I turn around and smile.
“Theodora! Hey! Sorry, I’ve been practicing cancel commands all day. Penelope has been teaching me, so—”
“Oooh! A fellow student of the magical arts, are you?” Theodora coos.
“I wouldn’t get your hopes up too much, Theodora,” Penelope says wryly, approaching the pair of us. “I’m not sure if she’s the researcher type. But she wanted to learn, and I see no reason not to teach her. This is our haven from Valka, after all. Let us trade our magic freely!”
“Hear hear!” Theodora agrees happily, laughing like a wind chime.
They chuckle together for a bit before a loud clap rings out, Taline getting everyone’s attention.
“Gather round, everyone! Dinner is on!”
A resounding cheer shakes the house, and all of us quickly find a seat around the table together. My mind wanders to Lyn’s shack, wondering what it would be like for my family to sit and eat around a real table. I’m tempted to lay into the meal immediately, but I have no idea what Seong might have laced into the food.
Seong stands up, ringing their glass with a spoon to get everyone’s attention.
“Ah’d like ta propose a toast, if ah may,” they hiss. “Ta friends, family, and community. May weh always be protected from monsters and men.”
Another cheer swallows the table, everyone raising their glasses in unison. Everyone except us. Penta shudders, standing up to get attention.
“W-wait,” she stammers out. “I have something I’d like to add, if that’s all right.”
Most people give us pleasant, expectant smiles, but the looks we get from Seong and Penelope almost make me want to grab my spear in self-defense. It’s right behind my chair, just in case; a lot of people bring weapons everywhere they go, so it’s thankfully not suspicious to keep it on-hand.
“I-I just want to say… I’m happy. I’m so, so happy to see a large family like this,” Penta chokes out. “But there should be a better way. There is a better way, but we’re not looking for it.”
“Vita,” Penelope growls. “Not here. Not now.”
“It has to be here and now, Penelope! We’re all gathered here, and—”
“I regret ever putting those fool ideas in your head,” Penelope cuts her off, standing up. “Sorry, Remus. This one is my fault. I’m… going to take a walk. I can’t listen.”
She stomps out of the house, leaving Penta fishmouthing long enough for Remus to speak up.
“You two talked then, I take it?” Remus asks. “Penelope has always been oddly empathetic towards her host.”
“W-why is that odd?” Penta counters, looking back at him. “They make us who we are, and we’re trapping them in a living nightmare! Do you ever stop to think about why we don’t find that insane?”
“Because we deserve to live, too!” Remus snaps. “If it’s us or them, why shouldn’t we choose us?”
“It doesn’t have to be one or the other! We’re designed to think this way! I… I mean, Penelope thought we were artificially designed. Seong agrees. I think we’re bioweapons. We have to be. That’s where we come from. We’re designed to hold onto our hosts and keep them hostage, even when we don’t have to. But instincts don’t have to control us! If we put a little more effort into it—”
“Put more effort into what?” Remus presses. “Into playing nice? Into trying to share? Why would the humans share what is theirs by default? By all means, Vita, if you have a solution, if you have something that will actually work— please let us know. Do you think we don’t care? Of course we do. We just have no other option, and we’re adult enough to recognize that.”
Penta grimaces. I watch through our eyes, seeing her flick her gaze around the room, taking in a mix of hard and sympathetic faces. No one speaks out to agree with us, though. No one has an answer. Even my answer, my promise, is a pipe dream for the far future.
“Well?” Remus asks. “Do you have a solution, Vita?”
“Sorry,” Penta answers, hanging her head. “I guess… I have nothing. Accept my apologies. I didn’t mean to bring down the mood.”
She raises her glass, forcing a sad smile onto our face.
“For our hopes of a brighter future, then. Let’s… have that toast.”
Remus smiles, nodding. He stands up with his glass as well.
“For our hopes of a brighter future.”
We watch as everyone else brings the cup to their lips and drinks. I watch, with a hunger that goes beyond the displays of food surrounding us, as one by one the Nawra die in droves. The weakest first, then the next and the next, the Nawra’s true bodies failing in sequence. As they do, one fucking idiot can’t help but shout in joy.
“Oh Watcher, I’m free. I’m actually free!”
Shit! All the still-living slimes turn to stare, horror mounting on their faces.
“Poison,” Remus breathes. “Seong, you—”
“Sorry, slime, ah’ll be seeing mah real friend soon,” the poisoner hisses, drawing a knife in one hand and a pair of darts in the other. “And for the record, ah tossed all the antidote off tha edge. It’s already over.”
With a sudden jerk, Seong’s body snaps across the table, crashing straight into a shoulder-check from Taline.
“Seong, you bastard!” the motherly slime growls, kicking at Seong while they’re down. Every time the poisoner tries to get their footing, another talent-pull from Teline knocks them back down to the ground. “How long have you been one of them!?”
Remus watches the exchange for a moment, then suddenly moves. I can see him do it, now; my vision is many times better than it was back when his attacks all seemed like teleportation to my eyes. I’m no more capable of stopping him than I was then, however, and before I know it there’s a hand wrapped around my neck.
“You didn’t drink,” Remus accuses, lifting me off the ground. “You knew.”
“What the fuck is with old people and choking me lately!?” I spit back.
I feel Taline’s slime die, and just as suddenly a dart sprouts from Remus’s throat. Taline herself is alive but unconscious on the ground, Seong bloodied and breathing heavily from their position on the floor, hand still pointed towards the dart they just threw.
“Seong…!” Remus hisses, right before his eyes roll up and his body crumples to the ground, unconscious.
Not before the slime blitzes up his arm, though, straight inside me.
In a panic I tear into the massive soul, scraping to get purchase as the Nawra physically and painfully ejects Penta out of my spine, taking her place. Instantly, my body is no longer mine, Slime-Remus’s massive spirit making even his pathetic ooze body too tough for Penta to defend against. Not that she doesn’t try, already fighting to worm her way back into my head and push him out.
She’s got no chance, though. And now Slimus has all my memories.
“You okay, kid?” Seong coughs, slowly crawling to their feet.
“I think I’ll be just fine,” Slimus remarks, grabbing my spear and smashing the butt of the weapon into Seong’s temple.
“W-what’s going on!?” Theodora asks desperately, her slime still alive and in control. “Who’s who? What’s happening!?”
“This is the end, I’m afraid,” my voice claims, as the absolute horror that I cannot retake control truly starts to settle in.
“The end? What do you mean?”
His soul suffusing my limbs with power, the false Remus whips my spear across Theodora’s neck, splitting it open.
“You’re too strong, Theodora,” my voice says coldly. “I won’t be able to restrain you for later. Sorry.”
Liquid gushing from her neck, the horrified woman raises a hand to cast, only to collapse unconscious in seconds. I know death is so close behind, she has no hope. Not with Penelope elsewhere. Where the fuck is Penelope, anyway?
“An excellent question,” Slimus murmurs to me. “Thank you so kindly for thinking about her location for me. I’m not sure why I can’t access your talents, but it’s no real issue. As pathetic as your body is, Remus was a man of all skill. You should have poisoned yourself, girl.”
As if I’ll let you keep my body for long. My talents are mine, not yours. You will tire. You will weaken. You are nothing but FOOD! I WILL SHATTER YOU, REMUS!
My body shudders as the slime feels my certainty firsthand.
“Yes, you’re quite dangerous, aren’t you? I suppose I’ll just have to kill you quickly and take someone else. But first, that plague mage.”
Damnit, he’s going to kill Penelope. And she doesn’t even know what’s going on! For whatever reason, she’s all the way over by the bridge.
Strength from the slime’s soul fills my legs, and I can do nothing but rage and strike against the enormous power holding me hostage. Damn it. Damn it! And the others were even more helpless than this!? How is he using his soul like that, anyway? He shouldn’t be an animancer!
“It’s not animancy,” the slime snaps, indulging me as he runs over to murder my friend. “Why would it be animancy? Everyone can use their own soul if they know how.”
His condescension just makes me even angrier, and I continue striking with all the force my tendrils can muster. More, more, more! Harder, harder! I have to kill him! I have to destroy him! I HAVE TO! Yet no matter how hard I strike, I don’t seem to have any affect. Nothing. My blows may as well be a breeze. Penta fares little better, her body of ooze glancing off of the interloper’s to no effect.
Soon, Penelope comes into view. She’s actually crossing the bridge now, though she turns to look our way when we get close. Slimus slows me to a pace I might hold were I not possessed by a super-martial-artist, creepily shifting my features into an excellent facsimile of how I’d act if everything was fine. I quiver, disturbed to my core.
“Hey, Penelope!” my body says against my will. “Sorry about Penta, earlier. Why’d you run off?”
He moves me towards the bridge, Penelope’s facial expression shifting towards a smirk.
“I wouldn’t come any closer, if I were you,” she intones haughtily. “Not unless you want an audience.”
She points down, leaning fearlessly on one of the rope guardrails.
Remus’s old slime stops, my memories of the perception event no doubt flashing through his mind.
“…It’s far too soon for the mists to clear again, isn’t it?” my voice asks.
Penelope just shrugs.
“If you don’t believe me, go ahead and peek off the edge. How’s Penta doing?”
Remus raises my eyebrow.
“She’s fine? Since when have you cared about how Penta is doing?”
Penelope sighs.
“I don’t. I’m assuming, then, that you didn’t do the smart thing and stick her in a rat before drinking the poison.”
“No, but who cares?” I’m forced to say, screaming for anything else on the inside. “The Nawra are dead. We did it!”
“Not all of them,” Penelope answers, her talent flaring to life.
I notice it happen, and because I notice, Remus notices. He hurls my spear as hard as he can, but it’s no javelin. The weapon flies off-course, gouging a bloody chunk out of Penelope’s side before it careens down into the abyss. Though the blow surprises her, it does nothing to stop her. She finishes manifesting her talent, the magic taking hold.
“That would make you Remus’s, then,” Penelope hisses, immediately setting about to heal the wound in her side. “No way Theodora can throw like that. I should have guessed from the bloody speartip.”
“Call off your magic,” my captor demands, drawing my knife. “If I can’t go over the edge, I’ll just cut the ropes to kill you.”
“Oh, by all means, strand yourself on an island about to be torched by Gladra the Annihilator,” Penelope answers cheerfully.
The pressure in my neck starts to lighten, as the two Nawra struggling for dominance begin to slow.
“If I’m to die I may as well,” Remus-slime hisses. “Call it off!”
He is dying, too. I feel it. Whatever Penelope is doing attacks his body, dissolving and destroying it. Rapidly, he starts to weaken, and my tendrils find purchase. I squeeze.
SHATTER.HOW DARE YOU PRESUME TO CONTROL WHAT IS MINE.
I lap up his fear, laughing internally. In a final act of desperation he twists my knife around, moving to plunge it into my heart. Just as desperately, I shoot tendrils out of my body on instinct, holding my own arms back. It’s little surprise my spirit-arms are stronger than my muscles. I’m so dumb. My soul can touch other souls and me.
Everyone can use their own soul, huh? You fucking idiot.
“You were like this from the start,” the slime cries, despair taking him. “I thought you were my daughter! You murdered my newborn daughter!”
And you’ll never get to see her again.
His soul cracks, then fractures, then shatters into a dozen pieces like a pot dropped on stone. I lap them up, gorging myself on his broken essence. If I can stop people from reaching the afterlife, this is surely how. Good riddance.
Grinning, I collapse to my knees, taking a few deep breaths and relishing the feeling of doing so on my own power. I never realized what being possessed is actually like. Breath calming, heartbeat slowing, I know it’s finally over.
Only when the aftermath of the fight fades away do I notice Penta is dead.