Born a Monster

385 285 – All is Well

The roads, full. The rooms inside buildings, full. The roofs... I expected more people to roll over to their deaths. The walkways inside the walls (which were nicer than the walkways at the main base), full. People had even strung up makeshift hammocks, which were full.

It was almost enough to make me write off sleep. Unfortunately for me, it was the first night of the new moon. I’d need to find somewhere...

The floors of the jail... holy cripes. It took time to realize nobody was sleeping in the well.

[Lucid Dreaming Successful.]

I fell asleep into a mist that had the consistency of cotton candy, and the smell of peppermint. It was all the colors of the rainbow, with extra shades of pink and black. The ground was made of some sort of gellatin pebbles coated in sugar.

I summoned Manajuwejet. “Kid, you pick some of the most interesting places to arrive in. I can feel the diabetes lurking in the shadows.”

“I’m not sure I’m susceptible. I’m working on the... I don’t think I’ve grown more than three kidneys... not since the first set.”

“And who’s the new kid?” He asked.

“My name is Manahuru.” The disease spirit replied. “I know that the mana part of our name refers to magic, what is juwejet?”

.....

“Pretty sure we two aren’t on a first name basis.”

“Not yet, but I grow on people.” Manahuru said.

“Kid, you want to turn this turkey loose for a while?” Manajuwejet asked.

“Not currently. We’ll be in a battle tomorrow, but not while friendly troops are all around.”

“You want to go before Sobek with ... you know, I’m just your spirit guide.”

“Wait. Sobek, like the god?” Manahura asked.

“Like the god. He might not even threaten my life tonight.”

“Please, can I just wait here?” he asked.

“I’d rather not lose you here in the dream space.” I said.

“Well, can I stay with the spirit guide?” he asked.

“You may NOT.” Manajuwejet said. “I am not a babysitter, especially not of little snack-food spirits like you.”

“I am one level short of Manitou!” Manahuru screamed.

“Yummm.” Manajuwejet said, waving a claw. Where he waved, the River Nile appeared.

“Nice.” I said, “New ability?”

“Old ability, new lower cost.” he replied.

I blinked. “How do you get things at lower cost?”

“First, you build up thirty points of Divine Essence. You anywhere close to getting one, yet?”

“Not significantly closer, since the last time we’ve talked.” I admitted. “But I’m getting there, slow and steady.”

Manajuwejet sighed, stood aside, and pointed both his claws at the portal. “Your meeting awaits.”

“Thank you, Manajuwejet. Do I owe you for the portal?”

“Depends how long you spend talking to me, and not to Sobek.”

“Have a good night, Manajuwejet.”

“Yeah, yeah. Say it with your feet.”

So I walked through, to see Sobek talking to... Sobek.

“And here you are.” said the Sobek I guessed I should be talking to.

“At the appointed time, here I am.” I said, with a slight curtsy.

“Never attempt that again. You are not built to do that properly.” he said. “Let us discuss vengeance.”

“Are these things that must be performed during the current conflict?”

Sobek sighed. “Just the part local to you, the part you call the plains.”

“Can I name someone without knowing their identity?”

“Ambitious. Whom would you name?”

“Does the Raven’s agent have a feather in the area?” I asked.

Sobek snorted. Yes, crocodile head, snorted. “You think you can uncover that agent? You understand that I want three COMPLETED quests of vengeance?”

“Am I free to offer more than three?”

“Why would I place my seal on quests you don’t intend to fulfill? To quests you might or might not actually answer?”

“Can I name them against a member of a group?” I asked. “For example, a champion of one of the tribes opposed to Rakkal?”

“Hrm...” Sobek said. “That’s not particularly how vengeance works. You aren’t actually a member of Rakkal’s family, you know.”

“Well, if they have to have harmed my family, then only Hortiluk is available for vengeance.”

“There you go! Imprisoned my older brother is EXACTLY the sort of thing that I can approve of as a reason for vengeance.”

“And what about members of the enemy army, forcing me to sleep in a crowded environment tonight?”

“Again, can you name them? The ones who planned this... I don’t even know what to call it. A displacement?”

“You’re new at this, aren’t you?” Manahuru asked.

Sobek slapped him. I never saw him move; his left arm just blurred slightly.

[Your bound spirit is unconscious, and may cease to exist.]

I pulled the shattered thing out of my aura (which was untouched). “This one was...” Okay, not an ally.

“I would recommend NOT bringing spirits to our future meetings. Two weeks, servant. By the full moon, know of TWO quests of vengeance. Know names. Know specifics. Know what you intend to enact as your vengeance. And... if it survives... that is NOT a tool. Your hands, your magics, your will, not that of followers.”

“I shall report to Manajuwejet as I have potential quests.”

“One more thing; quests which you have already accomplished are not quests.”

“Difficult but possible?” I asked, remembering something a prior Sobek had told me.

“Difficult, but possible. Now, pretend your spirit has offended me, and depart.”

“I thank you, mighty Sobek, for your forbearance.”

I left, and made my way... how to explain it? It is a dream feeling, a direction that has no physical direction. The steps I took whisked me away to an oasis, a shanty town for spirits. I saw no trace of Manajuwejet, and so started to whip up the Celestial Heavens mana it would take to summon him.

“Hey, shaman.” said a whirling cylinder of sand, approaching me. “Pity about that wounded spirit, there. Hand over your mana, and maybe we’ll let it die naturally.”

“We?” I asked.

The frog behind and to the left of me chuckled. I checked over my right shoulder, to find a monkey with a knife already leaping for my head.

It was instinctive; I bit him. Not the Jaws of Wrath; I just BIT him.

[You have scored a ORANGE critical for four times normal damage.]

[You have defeated a spirit in the Dreamlands, six experience awarded; after divisor, you have received 1 XP of Dream Warrior cultivation.]

“MONK!” blurbled the frog.

“Oh, it is ON!” the sandstorm screamed. It came in, trying to strip my skin from me.

Having no shield, I took the stance to block with one. Dream logic, that worked. My System went berserk, bombarding me with messages.

The storm HOWLED. Remember when I purchased that damage augmentation for Jaws of Wrath? I hadn’t. The idea that I could parry with an attack was... well, it shouldn’t surprise me. I had parried with knives, with swords, with the hafts of axes. But to do it instinctively...

These were spirits, these were more kin to me than the humans were. And for them to behave like... well, like humans...

I should have taken the discount for the ability working only when I was angry.

I swung into its side with the spiked club that Jaws of Wrath had become. It wasn’t a critical, but it was enough.

“THIS ISN’T OVER! You haven’t seen the last of us.” But he grabbed the frog, and fled. For now, things were over.

, I activated.

I followed them between the conch shells, the tents, the discarded shoes.

“For the love of Gothmog.” a mummy wrapped in black bandages, dripping blood, said. None of the drops of blood reached the ground, vanishing before then. “What did this to him?”

“I did.” I said, stooping to enter the tiny pyramid. “I trust that this is a hospital, neutral ground?”

The reactions of the frog and sandstorm told me all I needed to know.

“Close enough.” said the mummy, growing to tower over me. Bonus, I could also now stand up straight. “If you cause any problems here...”

.....

I held out Manahuru with one hand, the ball of Celestial Heavens in the other. “I bring a patient, and payment.”

I saw the stars reflected in the dark red blood of the mummy’s eyes. The way it licked where its lips should have been. “I’ll accept that as payment.” He bent over Manahuru.

“Hey.” said the sandstorm. “We were here first.”

“Monk is a friend of mine as well.” the mummy said calmly. “He will live, and heal. This one... I cannot guarantee this one will survive. Disease is adjacent to life and death, his position along that axis of forces is not doing him any favors now.”

“What are his odds, roughly?” I asked.

The dark mummy shrugged. “Twenty six percent chance, on his own. I can raise that to seventy four, but not to a certainty.”

I handed over the mana. “I’ve survived worse odds.”

Don’t ask me why I didn’t recognize them as gumdrops. I hadn’t been given a lot of candy, but I still knew them as little bundles of sugary energy.