Book 2. Chapter 27

Book 2. Chapter 27

Despite how hard he racked his brain, he couldn’t come up with those missing three minutes. He’d gone in, seen her standing there in her clean white apron– That didn’t happen. That wasn’t real.

He knew the memories were fake, but he still couldn’t dredge up the real one.

Marksi was chittering at him in alarm from his shoulder.

“Did you go in there with me?” Brin asked.

Marksi twitched his tail in the affirmative.

“Did you see what I ate?”

Again, Marksi said yes.

“Did anything else weird happen?”

Marksi didn’t answer, giving him a flat look.

“Did she hurt you? Or me? Did she do any obvious magic?”

Marksi twitched his tail side-to-side for no.

Even without the memories, Brin could piece together a little bit of what had happened. He’d gone into the store. He’d done or seen something that Bianca didn’t want him to remember. At some point, she’d tricked him into violating her hospitality. How wasn’t important right now; he’d figure that out if he ever got the memory back. He’d left, and she’d used the hold of broken hospitality to cast a hex on him, forcing him to forget what had really happened in there.

He knew what he should do. He should run straight home, back to Hogg, and tell him everything. He risked one glance back at the store.

Bianca stood in the doorway, watching him. Her face was grimy and her “pristine” white apron was covered in blood, as were her hands.

He used [Inspect].

Name Bianca Furda Race Human Age 43 Class Witch Level 36 Description Bianca is a sadist who thrives in her role as the town’s primary slaughterer of animals. She reached level 15 in Butcher before advancing to Witch. Expert in mutating animals and creating monsters. Her familiars are undead amalgamations of farm animals. Currently single.

Alert! [Inspect] leveled up 21 -> 22

She winked at him.

[Know What’s Real] didn’t make a peep. The reason the Skill wasn’t warning him now, and why it probably hadn’t warned him in the store, is because she wasn’t using an illusion or messing with him yet. As soon as he turned away, she would screw with his memories.

He focused, activated [Directed Meditation] and then turned away. He felt the push, the foreign memories trying to implant into his mind. Removing the awful aftertaste of whatever she’d made him eat, making him forget ever seeing her in the doorway. He felt the changes come and resisted them. Jeffrey had been right; most of the battle with mental manipulation was understanding when you were being manipulated. It was easy to stop when you felt it coming.

She screamed. He turned, and saw a white-faced Bianca retreat back into her store. Somehow, she knew that he’d thrown off her hex.

“N-No! Just wait. Just let me explain. Don’t look at me!” Bianca screamed from inside her store.

Marksi hissed, and tugged at Brin. He stumbled following the direction the lizard wanted him to go. It was probably a good idea to get out of here. He never should’ve turned around.

Suddenly, Marksi stopped. He jumped up and pushed against Brin’s chest, then his arm. Brin pulled up his shirt sleeve where Marksi had pressed and saw his skin, dark and discolored. A boil started to grow out of it, growing wider and larger, turning charcoal black. He felt an itchiness on his chest, too.

Bianca knew he’d figured her out. She’d hexed him.

He heard crashing from inside her store. Something huge was moving around in there. Her familiar, no doubt.

That same old question came back into his mind. Fight or flee?

It was no question at all. She’d hexed him with some kind of disease. He could be dead in minutes. It galled him to not know whether or not killing a [Witch] would remove the hex. He’d never thought to ask. Running away certainly wouldn’t help. The only way forward was straight through Bianca Furda.

People on the street were starting to notice the commotion. A younger woman took a step towards him, concern in her eyes. From the other direction, an older gentleman approached. “Are you alright, son?”

“Stay back!” he shouted. Then to Marksi, “Go get Hogg!”

Marksi bolted in a streak of rainbow. The older man looked offended, but didn’t get any closer.

Brin ran into the store.

It was nothing like he remembered. Thick slabs of meat sat in the open air on dirty wooden tables. Flies buzzed around them, crawling freely over the meat. Where he remembered a tray of sweetmeats he saw a bucket full of fleshy sludge, with maggots crawling freely over the surface.

The stench hit him like a physical blow, knocking him backwards. He gagged, and seeing Bianca pressed against the far wall, said, “People have been eating this!”

“And I’ve been healing them through the meat. See? Do you see what I’ve done? They get the meat, and they get free healing afterwards!” She held up her hands, as if trying to placate a rampaging beast.

He stepped forward.

She jolted back, slamming against the far wall. “Stay back! We can talk about this!”

“Remove this disease you gave me and we will. We’ll talk!” said Brin. The boil on his arm popped, leaving an oozing open sore. He felt more and more boils start to grow beneath his clothes, and one on his face.

She shivered. Her eyes darted around wildly. “You don’t have to tell anyone. You won’t tell anyone. You won’t. Good boy. Good boys don’t tell what they’ve seen.”

“I won’t tell anyone! I promise! I’ll swear an Oath if I need to. Just undo your hex!” He started to feel a bit feverish and hot.

At one point he stopped walking, so she wrapped him in a hug while he sobbed into her shirt. He didn’t know how much of this was his real reaction, and how much of it was the lingering effects of the hex, and how much of it was his body reeling after a [Witch] had come inches from killing him.

Bruna patted him on the back until he was ready to walk again. “You didn’t do anything wrong. You couldn’t have done anything else.”

He knew that, obviously. But it was one thing to know that with your brain, and it was another thing to understand it with your heart. His brain knew that it was self-defense, that he’d given her more chances than was wise. His heart was sick.

When they got to his house, she told him to lay down, but he didn’t want to get his bed all dirty so he lay down on the floor.

He wanted to fall asleep, but couldn’t. Bianca’s final moments replayed himself over and over in his mind. He tried to meditate, but couldn’t.

He heard Bruna clattering around in the kitchen. He called out to tell her he wasn’t hungry, but she didn’t listen. Half an hour later, she entered his room with a steaming bowl of chicken soup.

Chicken, like the meat. Like the meat in Bianca’s shop, the disgusting rotten... but Hogg never sourced his meat through Bianca. He was one of the rare people who always bought directly from the [Farmers]. Now Brin knew why.

He told Bruna that he wasn’t hungry. He couldn’t see how he would ever be hungry again, not after what he’d seen. Not with the stench that was still clinging to his clothes.

She ignored him and put the bowl into his hands. It was warm. Hot. Too hot for a normal person to touch, it might’ve burned him without [Heat Resistance]. It didn’t even cross his mind to worry about whether or not he should eat something served to him by a [Witch]. This wasn’t a [Witch] like Bianca. This was Davi’s mom.

He took a bite. It was scalding hot. He expected it to churn his stomach, to throw it up again. Instead, it was one of the best things he’d ever tasted. It seemed almost profane to be this hungry already after what he’d just been through, but it just tasted so good.

Did [Witches] have a special Skill for this? Or maybe Bruna was an amazing cook? He didn’t think it was that; her family enjoyed comfort food on the bland side of normal. This was probably ordinary chicken soup. He was just hungry. He’d been through something crazy, he’d been forced to do something awful, but he was alive. He wanted to stay alive, and that meant he had to eat.

“The hex disappeared the moment she died, and I cured what was left of the disease. You’ll want to get something from Calisto to prevent scarring. I know you like your scars, but these will be ugly ones. I would remove them myself, but...” She shrugged. At first he thought she meant he’d need to pay her or something, but then he realized that she probably thought that he wouldn’t want a [Witch] using her power on him more than was necessary after what he’d just been through.

Out of pure practicality, he should probably keep the scars. They weren’t deep, but all of them together might give him another percentage point on [Scarred, but Healing]. It wasn’t worth it.

“If you wouldn't mind. But leave one.” He pointed to the open sore over his heart. “To remember.”

“There’s no use remembering filth like her,” said Bruna. “But if that’s what you want...”

She removed the open sores and black boils with her thumb, as if wiping away a dirty smear. Then she stayed with him until Hogg came back, and by then he was done crying.

Down in the cellar, Brin shivered. He’d bathed and changed his clothes, and his hair was still wet. Normally, his resistance to the elements would’ve been enough even in these cold cellars, but right now he seemed to be vulnerable to everything.

Hogg slapped his hands on his knees, smiling. “Well then. I have a few apologies to make. What order do you want them in?” By now Brin knew Hogg well enough to know that he only acted this cheerful to hide how intensely uncomfortable he was.

“You don’t have to apologize for anything,” said Brin. “I’m not mad at you.”

“Ok, let's start more recently, then. Sorry for sending you away like that, and sorry for not walking you home. I’m sure the last person you wanted to see right then was another [Witch],” said Brin.

“It’s fine. Bruna is fine.”

“Well, no it’s not, but let me explain. We had a really gross familiar and a busted open doorway showing everyone that many of their recent memories couldn’t be trusted. Those are [Witch] signs and everyone knows it. The first moments after a [Witch] is uncovered are vital, because people start looking around and thinking about what else has been going on. A lot of [Witch]-hunts start just like that. [Witch]-hunts are a disaster in the best of times, but right now, in this situation? A [Witch]-hunt could very well mean the death of every man, woman and child in this town, including you and me.”

Brin shivered. “Makes sense.”

“I had to get on top of it. Thankfully, everyone seems to be seeing reason so far. We uncovered Bianca very quickly, after all.”

“Did we? She’s been in this town for years,” said Brin.

“I know. That’s my other apology. I knew Bianca was a [Witch]. I gave her permission to start breeding chimeras in secret,” said Hogg. “She was one of the seven ‘nice’ [Witches], so I guess I owe you a gold for figuring her out. Although, I have to be honest, I really wish you had stopped searching for [Witches] yesterday when I asked you to.”

“Me too. I’m sorry.”

“Eh, don’t apologize. This worked out great for me. I learned that one of the [Witches] I had trusted wasn’t worthy of that trust,” said Hogg.

“So you knew about her? Did you know about her husband and son?”

“Her husband and son left the moment they found out she’d switched her Class. They’re both alive, living in Dull’s Bog, last I heard. I verified it myself. You have to understand, Bianca never fooled my [Inspect]. She was low leveled. Twenty-five when all this started, but when she started breeding chimeras, her level shot up. She got strong enough that she started thinking she could get away with things. That, or the power made her mad. That can happen with [Witches], especially ones who aren’t carefully managing their growth. The Wyrd is cruel and unforgiving with those who use it carelessly.”

“Are you sure they’re alive? She could’ve altered your memories,” said Brin.

“I don’t think she was strong enough for that when they left town. I’ll check again when I get the chance, though, just to know for sure.”

“What about the rest of them? Are you sure they haven’t been messing with our memories?”

“On System Day when I upgraded my Class, I stopped being able to make invisible eyes. That left a big blind spot, because whenever I checked on them I had to be physically present which left me vulnerable for them to get their magic on me. Now that I have visible eyes, I can keep them under surveillance day and night. Which I will. If they have a problem with that... well, they know where to find me.”

“Was it her? Was she our traitor, or is there someone else out there?” asked Brin.

“Hell if I know. We’ll have to wait and see what happens from here.”

After their conversation, Brin found himself walking. Sleep wouldn’t come. [Meditation] worked in small spurts, but he always found his mind going back to the scene in the [Butcher’s] shop. Tomorrow would be better. He’d get over this; he just needed some time. So he walked.

He walked from one end of town to the other, then back and forth again. He didn’t have anywhere in particular to go; he just needed some time to process what he’d been through today. He didn’t want to talk to anyone, and for once the good people of Hammon’s Bog gave him a wide berth.

It wasn’t until he walked right through the town square that he realized what a bad idea that was, because someone was waiting for him there.

Zilly was there, and she was ready for their duel.