Published at 24th of November 2024 9:27 am

Book 3 Chapter 27: You're My Favorite Date

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Dantes stood in the antechamber of Argenta’s manor, looking down at the shivering dwarf that had been laid there. It was a massive, well lit space, filled with marble and black stone. He’d spent most of the previous evening playing cards with Alby and trying to get what information about Argenta and Gren out her that he could. All he’d managed to glean is that she didn’t think there was anything unusual about regularly seeing a demon, he was surly, and her mother controlled him with a grimoire of some kind. That last part was interesting, but he wasn’t able to get any more information from her. He knew grimoire’s contained spells, but Argenta wasn’t a mage, at least he didn’t think she was. He’d tried to search around her home, but she didn’t have an anti-vermin enchantment, she had a vermin alarm system. He’d found out the first time he’d tried to spy on her, and it was much more difficult to get around. He’d brought Alby straight back to Argenta himself that morning, and had found Argenta waiting with a priestess and a sick dwarf.

He and the priestess of the healing touch exchanged a nod with him, and both got to work at the same time.

Dantes focused on the smallest, most miniscule parts of the dwarf, the ones that were working to fight against the disease within him, and started to pour energy into them.

The Priestess mumbled a quick prayer and laid hands glowing silver onto the dwarf’s chest.

Through his perspective at the smallest level, he could see the way her power was affecting him. The damage wrought by the disease was there one second, then gone the next, but the taint itself remained, just as it did with Dantes’s healing.

They both finished, and the dwarf’s shivering ceased, his breathing calmed, and he laid still and calm with his eyes closed.

Dantes looked at the priestess, and she nodded her head at him.

He looked to Argenta. “He’s far better off than he was, better if either of us had worked on him alone, but he’s still sick, and each time we’ll be able to heal him less and less.”

Argenta nodded. “It was worth trying,” she looked to the priestess. “You can expect the donation to have arrive before you even return. Please see yourself out.”

The woman nodded, and left the room.

Argenta stood staring across the room until she heard the woman leave.

"The guard you wanted transferred, Pacha, is hard at work on these Uptown murders. He's got interesting theories. Seems to think the perpetrator may be a changeling."

"That's interesting."

"You had many dealing with them back in the Pit?"

"Everyone did. There were some things only they could provide a man down there."

"A clever people to survive any way they can like that."

"They are."

Argenta was silent for a few moments, and Dantes was considering taking his leave, but could sense she wanted to discuss something else.

“Thank you, for returning my daughter to me.”

Dantes nodded. “I’d expect you to do the same for my son.”

She nodded. “Yes. Congratulations by the way.”

“I received your gift. Thank you for that.” It had been a set of glass bottles that kept milk from spoiling. A princely gift that Alessa had greatly appreciated, as had her nursemaid.

“What was she doing at your club?”

“The first time, she’d shown up to gamble. The second time, to pay back what she owed. The third time, to prove she could enter and leave the club without me knowing.”

“And why didn’t you inform me of the first time?”

“I’ve been a kid out doing what his mother didn’t want him to. A lot of people covered for me. I thought I’d return the favor this time. Besides, she did pay me back in the end.”

Argenta shook her head. “She is not to leave Uptown. If she ever appears at your club I want to be informed immediately. I will retrieve her myself.”

Dantes nodded. “After what happened, I can’t blame you for that precaution. I’ll make sure you know.”

She nodded, keeping her expression controlled, but Dantes could sense her anger, as well as the worry brewing under it.

“Thank you.”

He nodded, and made his way out of her parlor.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

…

Dantes, Wane, and Felix arrived at the abandoned factory during the late morning. It had been a long walk, and Dantes had found his patience for walking had been dulled by how quickly flying could get him where he wanted to go. He still made sure to walk busy streets so that he could pick up gossip or enjoy the respect and fear people had for him, but walking through empty alleys at the docks was a different story.

There were no merchant ships in the docks anymore. Only Rendholds own Navy had vessels there, and they weren’t exactly the ones keeping things lively. Fear of the disease as well as ongoing tensions between Rendhold and its many neighbors had killed all of the trade in the city. Priests of the father walked the streets with wagons half filled with the dead, calling for people to drag out corpses so that they could give them their proper rights and burials. Sometimes they simply walked inside homes where death was apparent and walked out carrying a corpse wrapped in black cloth.

“I don’t uh, I don’t need to go inside do I?” asked Felix, a yard behind Dantes and Wane.

“No, you’re here for what comes after,” replied Dantes as he shifted between wands in his wooden hand and readied his pistol in the other.

“Any idea what to expect?” asked Wane as he readied what looked like a stave covered in what Dantes believed to be orcish writing.

“All of the other areas of acute corruption have been guarded by animals afflicted by the sickness. Their skin is usually melting, but they fight like mad. The corruption itself will be a bunch of animals melted together and connected in a disgusting central mass.”

Wane sighed heavily. “You always invite me to the nicest parties.”

Dantes shrugged. “What can I say, you’re my favorite date to bring.”

Felix was slowly orienting himself to hide behind a nearby barrel. A smart move, and one Dantes didn’t not fault him for at all.

Dantes didn’t send in any rats or roaches, both times he’d done so he’d wound up losing them to sickness or losing control of them, but he did fly onto the roof with Jacopo, then slip in with him as a rat to take stock of what was happening inside.

The old factory floor was empty. None of the old machinery was still there, it had all been broken down to be reused or sold for scrap. Rendhold tended to prefer gutting things with value to losing them completely, as was only right.

Dantes and Jacopo saw their target almost immediately. A pile of stray dogs and cats that had started to be connected by melting flesh and pools of pus. There were a few dozen of the afflicted animals surrounding it, slowly decomposing to join the pile.

Dantes and Jacopo both descended at once, shifting into human form at the same time as they landed.

Just as the diseased dogs and cats started to react, they both sent their will through their respective wands and sent out a wave of frost.

Unlike the rats and roaches they’d encountered in the past that had frozen instantly, the dogs and cats were too large to be immediately affected, and started charging.

Dantes backed away a bit, firing a shot from his pistol to kill one of them, and having the fingers on his wooden hand extend and sharpen to pierce two more as they leapt into the air toward him.

Jacopo caught a cat by the scruff in midair and bashed it against a nearby pillar before kicking a dog in the snout with enough force that the crunch of it could be heard above all of the yowls and barks in the room.

Wane entered with his stave and charged the dog nearest to him. He only tapped it with the stave, but it flew backwards with so much force it killed another dog when they collided. Their limbs shattered and their bodies in a tangled mess not unlike the congealing pile of disease they were protecting.

They fought for a few more intense moments, but before long there was nothing left to kill. Dantes mercifully moved to any of the diseased animals that were still trying to get to him, but too weak to do so, and quickly ended their lives. Then he turned to the mass in the center.

It writhed and screamed at him as he approached it. He and Jacopo took the flasks of oil they’d prepared and started to douse it. They’d used wands the first few times, but it was a waste of the charges, especially as access to magical tools dwindled with the Academy’s sealing.

Once the mass was covered, Dantes knelt next to it, and drew Tel’s finger from his coat. He placed it against the creature and sent a small amount of will through it. The fire spread quickly, and the creature screamed in agony as it burned to death. Dantes could feel the corruption in his locus face a bit with its death, but it wasn’t enough. Just bailing a boat as it slowly sank.

…

Felix and Wane both looked over everything. Felix held a small spyglass with which he examined everything, and Wane, wearing thick gloves and a mask over his face, examined everything more directly. Dantes kept watch and checked on everything else in the city as they worked. He’d taken them to other sites to see if they could come up with any new information, or solutions, but never one this fresh. He hoped it would make a difference.

“It reminds me a bit of necromancy,” said Felix as he examined the charred remains in the center of it all.

Wane nodded as he poked through the innards of one of the diseased dogs. “It’s similar. Remind me of the flesh golem concept, but these creatures were all alive when they were mixed together. That’s much stranger. As is how it’s connected to the spread of disease in the city.”

“Do either of you know much about necromancy?” asked Dantes.

“No,” said Felix. “I’ve always stuck with enchantment.”

“I only know some basics,” said Wane. “There are no necromancy specialists in all of Rendhold. It’s legal, but there's so much bureaucracy to go through for it. You need permission from the academy, permission from the next of kin to use the corpse, permission from the city, a controlled environment, sign off from a priest of the Father.” He shook his head. “Even those with a knack for it pick something easier and more profitable.” He sighed wistfully. “Merle always hated that. Another example of bullshit getting in the way of the pursuit of knowledge.”

Dantes nodded, he didn’t particularly like the idea of having any of his loved ones experimented on and raised as skeletons, but no reason to bring that up at the moment. “Any other insights?”

Felix and Wane exchanged glances.

“No. This magic, this energy, and the way you work with it. It’s unique to you and her and other druids from what we can tell. It’s somewhere between our abilities and those of priests and clerics. “

Wane nodded. “We can make guesses. Clearly there’s a metaphysical relationship between these constructs and the disease in the city. You already knew that though.”

Dantes clenched his jaw. He was hoping they could provide him with some new insights, some way to counter what was happening. He slammed his wooden hand into a nearby wall, denting it, then began to have a coughing fit. Wane reached out to pat his shoulder, but he held up a hand.

“I’m okay.” He wiped his mouth on his sleeve. “Let's get back to the Vixen.”

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