The sounds of the forest and the cries of the animals cut off abruptly. The sound of the imperial soldiers battling beasts sounded distant. The trees were shorter here, and the ground felt rocky on my back. Thorny bushes broke up the tree line, and a wide, yawning cave mouth opened up on my left.

  The sound of footsteps drew my attention. A man with a walking stick exited the cave, followed by a teenage boy. They stopped just outside the cave mouth and looked down at the newcomers. Their eyes settled on me, and the middle-aged man frowned.

  “Captain Aaski. Please explain,” the gray-haired man asked in a cultured voice.

  Captain Aaski separated from the group and bowed. “Senator Streton. Baz and his huntress did not wait for the ambush. They captured this Truechild and shackled him before we could have a say in the matter. After that, I chose not to risk getting discovered and went along with their plans.”

  Esni scowled and spat out, “Like you could have done any better.”

  Aaski rolled her eyes. “Well, we won’t know that now, would we?”

  Esni took a step toward the captain. “Careful, guard. You have no idea who you are dealing with.”

  Baz put a hand on Esni’s shoulder. “Enough, Esni.” The damned man turned to Senator Streton. “Senator, you wanted a Truechild. We got you one. I don’t see the problem.”

  Senator Streton scowled. “Baz, I wanted Ilya Truechild.”

  Baz shrugged his shoulders. “One Truechild or the other. How does it make a difference?”

  Streton walked down the slope. His voice started to gain heat as he spoke. “How does it make a difference? It makes all the difference. Do you know what makes Ilya Truechild so powerful? It’s because she has a blooming wind core. A core we could have used. This one is a newborn with an ice seed. I could get that anywhere in the Voss range.”

  Streton shouted the last part. His people fanned out and placed their hands on their weapons. The damned soon found themselves circled and looked around wearily. The senator took a moment to calm himself and gestured for his people to lower their guard.

  Baz cracked his neck. “If you want her core, this Truechild is the perfect tool to get it.”

  The senator looked at the damned and motioned for him to explain.

  Baz smiled. “We will infect the Truechild. Once the larva is inside him, he will go mad. He will attack everything he sees. And once he is inside the fortress, he will do all the killing for us. And Ilya Truechild will have to expend all her mana to subdue him. And then we will take her out, rip her chest open, and get you that core.”

  The senator looked at the damned in front of him and exhaled loudly. “We? There is no we. I gave you a displacement artifact to carry out a job, Baz. You failed. You will either replace the artifact or get me Ilya Truechild’s core.”

  Baz chuckled. “Fine. All you have to do is give us a day, and you will get your core.”

  The senator looked at the man in front of him and nodded. “Good. Now give me a moment with the Truechild. I need to ask him a few questions.”

  Baz took a step back and kicked me in the side. “Get up, prey, and answer the man’s questions. And don’t even think of lying.”

  I grunted and sat up. I looked at the senator and asked, “Why?”

  The senator raised his eyebrows. “Why?” He laughed. “Why?”

  I nodded. “They are damned. You are not. So why work with them?”

  Streton shook his head. “You are an infant. You don’t even understand the world your progenitor has dropped you in. To answer your question: because you need unearthly powers to fight a god, boy.”

  I nodded.

  “Now answer this. Do you know who you were in your previous life?” Streton asked.

  I shook my head. “No. I don’t remember anything from my previous life.”

  Streton raised an eyebrow. “Huh, truth? I honestly expected you to lie.”

  I looked at the man.

  The senator pointed at his head. “I am a mind mage, child. Like your punishers. Only better.”

  I nodded again.

  The senator tapped his foot. “Do you know how Larden Starbright plans to defend the fortress?”

  I didn’t lie. There was no point in lying. I answered honestly.

  “My brother is charging the throne. General Lloyd is planning to defend the fortress.”

  Senator Streton sighed. “So, you don’t know anything.”

  I shook my head. “No.”

  Streton exhaled. “Well, this has been a waste of time.”

  The senator started to turn away, and I asked, “Does the senate know what you are doing here?”

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Streton looked at me. “The particulars? No. But they stand with me. Does that surprise you?”

  I nodded. “Yes.”

  Streton smiled. “I suppose it would. The empire to you must look like a utopia. It is not. When you are ruled by a god, there is no chance of changing its direction. And now that god has spawned more of its kind. You!”

  “Me?”

  “Yes. You. What would you know of strife? The challenges the empire’s citizens face. Could you even conceptualize them? No. It is not in your nature.” Streton grimaced and, in a disgusted voice, muttered, “You are not even human.”

  I motioned my head toward Baz and Esni. “Neither are they.”

  Streton snorted. “Oh no. They are. They are more human than most. Humans who have achieved immortality.” The senator tapped his head again. “I can hear their thoughts, you see. Every one of them. I know their insecurities. Their ambitions. Even the vile, disgusting things that one wants to do to you.”

  Streton pointed at Esni and added, “They are more human than you can imagine.”

  I looked at Baz and Esni with a frown.

  Streton placed a hand on the teenager’s shoulder, and his people gathered around him. He smiled at me. “Goodbye, Truechild. The next time we meet, you will be either like them or you will be dead. Either way, it will be good for the empire.”

  A ripple of mana left the teenager, covering Streton’s people, and in a blink of an eye, they were all gone. I just sat there, looking at the spot the senator had been standing. Esni cackled, and Baz laughed.

  “What a fool,” Esni finally said.

  Baz chuckled and shook his head. “He is a man blinded by his hate and ambition.”

  “He would make a good damned,” Esni nodded.

  Baz shook his head. “No. He is just a tool. A tool that will serve us.”

  “For now,” Esni added, and asked, “Now what?”

  “Now, we infect him,” Baz stated, and asked Esni, “Do you have a larva strong enough to do that?”

  Esni frowned. “But I wanted to play with him.”

  Baz gave Esni a stern look. “No.” His face relaxed. “Esni, think, woman. Once we do that, he will open all the doors for us. We will be able to have our pick of the cattle. And we will feed for years.”

  Esni’s scarred and pocked face crinkled in thought. “For years?”

  “Yes. We will feed and feast like our cousins in the Tyrant Hills,” Baz stated.

  “You mean he will be like the Tyrant King?” Esni’s eyes widened.

  “Yes. He will be our damned king. Just like Tyran. And we will be his people,” Baz grinned ear to ear.

  Esni grinned back. “Oh, I do have a larva that is strong enough.”

  Baz nodded. “Good.”

  Esni grinned and began stripping. One by one her clothes fell to the ground, revealing disgusting growths and discolored skin. Even before her clothes were all the way off, her flesh began to bulge and to boil. Steam started to erupt out of her orifices, and her pores began to release embers into the air. Her skin flaked off, revealing ash-colored skin that wrapped tightly around her bones, leaving a disfigured, veiny face with a horn slowly jutting out of her head.

  The damned woman’s eyes popped and melted, leaving ichor dripping down her cheeks. In place of her eyes, glowing balls of fire appeared. Her body cracked, and joints popped. In place of legs, she now had haunches. Her fingers lengthened and joined into three long claws. She finally opened her mouth, and her teeth fell out. In place of the teeth, she grew new pointy ones—ones designed to rip into human flesh.

  Saliva dripped out of Esni’s mouth as she looked down at me. She sniffed the air like an animal and, in a doubled, shrieking voice, announced, “Oh, he looks so juicy.”

  Baz slapped her head and looked into her eyes. “Focus.”

  I observed her transformation coolly. So, this was what the damned looked like in this world when they weren’t hiding their true nature. I needed to know this. But what could they do when they were in this form?

  Esni snapped her head and clacked her pointed teeth at Baz. With a visible effort, she regained control of herself. She took a step closer to me and opened her mouth. It opened wider and wider until her jaw dislocated with a pop. Esni sighed in relief.

  She finally focused on me and grinned. A second later, I felt a kick on my chest, and I was rolling on the rocky ground. I hit a tree and came to a stop with a groan. I rolled over and saw Esni looming over me.

  She dug her knees into my chest and ordered, “Open your mouth.”

  I kept it closed. She reached down, grabbing my head with one hand, and the other began to pry my jaw open. Sticky saliva drooled out of her mouth, spilling all over my face. Her tongue rolled out like a snake. It tasted the air, and then from deep inside her gullet, a larva began crawling out.

  Baz, who was watching me struggle, ordered, “Open your mouth, or she will rip it open.”

  I looked at the larva rolling down her tongue in disgust. Her tongue curled around it and pulled it all the way out. She finally pried my jaw open a sliver, and her tongue began to reach down into my mouth.

  I decided that I had seen enough. I closed my eyes and slipped into the dark water. Cold rushed into me. My open wounds stung, but I ignored them. I opened my eyes in the dark waters and looked at the large snake that had wrapped itself all around me.

  Its vice-like grip squeezed my body. My bones creaked, and my body burned in the embers of its sizzling fire. In the snake’s transparent gullet, I saw eggs. Hundreds of them. All with larvae rolling inside. They were about to hatch, but the one in its mouth was cracking open and slithering toward me.

  I let the pain and the tension roll off me and into the waters. They soothed me. I was a creature of the dark waters. And the waters were my domain. I reached my hand out to the side, and the waters responded to my will. I closed my palm, and the waters began freezing over, forming a sword in my hand. Not from mana—that was out of my reach—but from essence.

  The dark waters froze. First a hilt, then a small guard, and finally a blade formed in front of me. I grabbed it and pulled. With a crack, the sword came loose from the ice around it.

  The snake looked at me with widening eyes. I smiled at it.

  Before the snake could pull back, I stabbed my sword into its throat. The matriarch choked and gagged on my blade. Its coils came loose, and it tried to slip free. I grabbed its head with my other hand and sliced down into its body. Essence flew everywhere—into me and into the waters. Some of it even reached the other damned circling me.

  I didn’t relent. This was a damned matriarch. She could make more of her kind. I couldn’t give up this opportunity. I needed to finish her off. I pushed through muscle and bone and sliced her insides open with all the strength I had. More essence erupted out of her. My body soaked it up like a sponge, and still, it blinded me for a crucial second.

  Suddenly, I felt something pull on my leg. And then I was flung away. I hit something hard with a loud thud and fell down. Blood rushed down my scalp and covered my vision. Disoriented, I looked up and tried to wipe the blood from my eyes. I finally cleared my sight and saw Baz holding a convulsing Esni in his arms.

  “Esni! Esni!” Baz screamed down at the damned woman. “What happened?”

  I started to get up to my feet and swayed. I rested my back on the boulder and tried to get my bearings.

  Esni convulsed one last time, and the fire in her eyes went out. Baz looked down at her in shock. He blinked and shook the dead damned woman. The woman stayed still. Baz’s hands slowly lowered the woman to the ground.

  His hands clenched into fists, and a loud scream of rage erupted out of Baz’s mouth.

  I shook my head and began to lift myself up again. Everything went sideways, and I slipped down again. Why was this so hard?

  Baz turned to me. Fire began to flicker in his eyes, and his hands began to turn into claws.

  “What did you do?” Baz growled.

  I supported myself with the help of the boulder I had just hit and looked at the damned.

  “She was carrying my young!” Baz screamed and asked again, “What did you do?”

  I took in a breath and looked at the mad damned.

  “You pathetic mortal! I am going to kill you. Slowly!” Baz screamed at me.