Author's Nightmare: Chapter 129 (Patreon)

Solitaire POV: Day 104

Current Wealth: 222 gold 0 silver 37 copper

We’d needed food. It was a ludicrous thing to run out of, given the amounts of everything else we’d been burning through, but life was funny like that sometimes. Usually right before it tried to kill you. Still, what could you do? 

Not die, ideally. 

One small problem with that plan; we had to leave the nice, comfy mansion I’d spent weeks turning into the most immoral fortress I possibly could. Could be worse, of course, we did have superpowers now. Small ones, at least. The main question confronting us was who exactly to send out. 

Shango was a no-go, he was busy doing Shango things with our money. Beam, too, was a bit preoccupied trying not to congeal on the sofa we had him strewn across. That complicated things, because we needed to keep a guard of certain strength in the mansion, always. 

That was the only way to keep the incredibly juicy target that was my laboratory from being raided by the locals. 

In the end, there was only one decision we could’ve made. And it satisfied exactly no-one.

Phelia had to go- her buying power as an established noble was just too much to ignore- and I had to accompany her. I had things cooking, and nothing to do. I was among our best fighters. I was the paranoia freak, which made me ideal for spotting ambushes. 

Alora accompanied us, and Magnus alongside her. Otherwise it was just us and a carriage. We set off with about as much enthusiasm as you might have expected. 

Our vehicle was not the standard for Redacle, I’d seen to that myself. Though it had started as nothing more than a heavy-duty transport, my work had transformed it into something a great deal more secure. I’d bolted sheets of thin tool-steel along its sides, each one less than a millimetre thick but easily enough to stop a bodkin-pointed arrow if it came down to it. The simplicity of them had let Ardin produce a lot, and we’d mostly been using them for testing. That we now hid behind them as protection had been the plan from the start of course, I tried not to make things with only one use when time was a commodity. 

At the front was Phelia, and at her side was me. This was so that I could keep an eye out for any rat bastards trying to kill us, and she could deter them with her nobby face respectively. In the back were Alora and Magnus, squatting and ready to come flying out and mutilate whoever we told them to. 

All in all, not a bad arrangement if I did say so myself. The only downside was that it left me sitting right beside a bitchqueen from hell. 

We rattled along the road, horses hauling the few hundred kilos of extra weight without much issue, roads protesting with each turning of the wheels. It got me thinking. We’d kept the armour thickness low to allow the vehicle to keep moving, that was just the natural limiting factor on any piece of armour. That and mobility. But horses weren’t the be-all end-all of locomotive power, and I reckoned I knew enough about physics and maths to either re-invent or just invent a steam engine more efficient even than the ones actual humanity had abandoned their own horses for. 

My rediscovery of the tank was interrupted, however, as I suddenly caught a whiff of emotion from Phelia, distractingly strong and sharp. 

It was fear, I smelled. And that was fair enough. Subverting my friend group, manipulating Shango, twisting everything to her advantage and putting all of us in danger- Phelia had done a lot to necessitate fear around me. 

But I didn’t like smelling it, I didn’t like feeling it. I didn’t like my head being fucking noisy, even when I had a mere three people around me. And certainly not when I’d be stuck with the feeling for hours.

So I spoke.

“What’s wrong?”

I hadn’t meant to growl it, that was just sort of how it came out. Phelia seemed to recoil, as if I’d just started licking her. Come to think of it, that would’ve been pretty funny, but I figured it wouldn’t exactly forward my current goal of calming the bitch down, so I abstained. 

“What’s wrong?” She echoed, seeming surprised. And cautious. Well, no surprise on the latter point. If I were a woman, living among several billion giant baboons which might beat me to death in a moment of berserk rage if I misread their emotions, caution would be my default setting. In fact, it bloody was my default setting, and I was one of those baboons. 

“I’m asking you what’s wrong.” I repeated. “Something’s clearly gnawing at you. It’s me, and it’s pissing me off. So what’s the matter so I can fix it?”

She stared at me, that way people did when they thought I might kill them. 

“You choked me half to death.” Phelia replied, voice so tight it was almost like my hand was still around her neck. 

“You tried to kill my family.” I replied.

“I didn’t try to kill anyone!” She spat. “I just-”

“-Withheld information which might have gotten us killed.”

That deflated her, but…Interestingly. The way she paused, the way she halted, it was like she was actually considering what I’d said. I wasn’t aware rich people could do that, and studied her for any signs of imminent combustion. 

“...I’m sorry.” She said at last, squirming. Fearful. I still felt that much, fearful. She didn’t think apologising made any difference at all, didn’t think I could be deterred in the slightest. She was watching me for any sign of an attack like…

I swallowed. She was watching me like a very stupid boy had once watched a very violent woman. 

“I’m sorry.” I said at last, not looking at her. 

She smelled of betrayal, that was what I’d been missing. But not mine. I’d seen the way she and Shango had been looking at each other, the revolting, putrid affection growing between them. Love. It made me ever so slightly sick, definitely the worst of all the fucking emotions our dumb ape ancestors had thought was a good idea to evolve. 

But there was no denying that that’s what was blooming. Probably, she’d made Shango promise not to leave her at my mercy. Probably she saw this as some sort of failing on his part.

Well, she was right. Stupid bastard never did let us mere mortals move his convictions when he’d dug them in. 

“You’re sorry?” Phelia didn’t sound convinced obviously, but she did sound surprised. She got over it fast. Quick, that one. Dangerous. “Right, forgive me I- of course. I forgive you.”

Well, that just tasted sour. I was being handled like a wild animal. Not much to do there in any case, anything I said would, at best, just be a continuation in what she saw as a lull before the next outburst. I fell silent, and tried to tolerate the feeling of her jagged emotions scraping my brain. 

She was being sincere for the most part. And she’d been acting out of self-preservation before. I couldn’t blame her for that, not really. Not when I’d done what I’d done for that very same reason. 

Guilt started gnawing at me, but at least this was my own instead of someone else’s. I let it sizzle away in my mind while the cart continued on its path. 

The city was warmer today than it’d been in a good long while, and getting warmer. Winter was almost over, the sky was lightening. I let myself focus on that, let myself focus on everything. Split my attention that special way I’d never met another person capable of managing. 

And it was a good thing I did, too. Because if I hadn’t- if I’d still been busy moping around and self-pitying over my own damned choice to strangle a woman- then there was every chance I’d have missed that faint, slight whistling in the air as something moved through it.

Without that moment of forewarning, my diving tackle probably would’ve come too late to keep Phelia from being decapitated.