I’d love to spend more time lying here, but there’s work to do.
“No time to rest just yet, Con.” I struggle to my feet, my chest aching in such pain. “We have to find out more. This demon is down, but not dead.”
Con looks annoyed as he sits up.
“So what? We tie him up with that special rope of yours? Torture him to make him talk? Not sure how well that’ll work.”
“Now that’s just silly.” I shuffle back towards my bag, hoping I remembered the healing powder. “We clearly don’t need rope. It’s incapacitated from its injuries.”
Con shakes his head. “Okay, but what about talking with it? These things only speak that weird stuff. Unless they’re pulling from people’s memories, they don’t speak no human language.”
“They speak Enochian, similar to the angels, but there are ways to translate that, if necessary. However, I don’t think we need it since you have a rather useful skill.”
I make it to my bag. Rifling through it, I find what I had hoped. A small vial of a glittering dark powder. It can mend my wounds, and heal my bruises, but it costs something most aren’t willing to give.
Luckily, I am not most. I pull a small pinch of dust out and throw it at my chest. The effect is immediate. Bones literally snap back into place. Blood starts flowing again through mended veins.
The pain increases to unbelievable levels for an instant, but becomes non-existent soon after. I groan and then stretch, making sure everything is as it should be. My chest feels almost like new. Well, except my clothes. But I can mourn my coat later.
“Hey, Branner. What is that stuff? I could use some after that fight.”
“You do not want this, Con. It’s dried blood of the fae. It can heal wounds and extend your life, but it costs a bit of your humanity each time. The more severe your wound, the more it takes. And with you being half demon, you have very little to give. Your demon abilities will have you healed soon enough.”
I replace the vial in my bag. “It’s time to get to work. Let us see what this beast knows.”
I cross back to the mayhem the battle with the demon left. Not much could be done about it, but I’m sure the Doctor’s staff will clean it all the same. The creature that had been tormenting us was lying sprawled on the floor, pieces of his arms and torso missing from his body. So much was more visible now.
Between the dust, blood, and outlines of wounds, I could see his entire form. The serpent tail fused to the humanoid torso was as strange as last time, but there was a stranger sense to it. Like it didn’t belong, even to such a foul beast as this.
“I’ll need one more item.” I run to the pile of destroyed bookshelves and start sifting through the wreckage. The statue I was initially trying to get should be in here. After a short search, I find it.
“Con! I’ll need you to hold on to this. It should help you acquire a connection with the beast,” I call back to the boy.
As he walks over to get the figure, the doors to the study burst open. Several servants enter the room, followed by the undercook, and finally Doctor Maladar himself. They gasp at the destruction in the room.
I look around from the destroyed bookcases, to large holes in the walls, to the beast itself, sprawled upon the ground.
“I’d tell you this isn’t what it looks like, but I can’t imagine what you believe this to be.”
I was not very gifted with humor, but I had been told it helps to disarm a bad situation.
