Venomous Gaze (VG) - Chapter 13 - What Remains (Patreon)

“This place is a complete mess,” Kathrine muttered as we stepped into the council chambers. “Someone really wanted the council dead.”

“Well, either that or they wanted to send a message,” I replied.

“They attacked high-ranking members of all the ducal houses,” Monique snorted. “There’s no way the attackers wouldn’t know the shit storm they were calling down upon themselves. As far as I’m concerned, those two objectives are one and the same.”

I nodded, then took a moment to survey the room in order to figure out the best place to collect my samples. The room was surprisingly modest, considering it was where the ducal families met to debate the country's most important decisions. The room was made of plain stone, made more for the safety of those inside than to show off the country's wealth or impress visitors. There was very little adornment along the wall; It did have modern brass gas lamps, fed through the wall, giving them a very clean look. 

There was a set of comfortable-looking chairs set against the wall, probably for the rare case where there were visitors, and a large, impressive fireplace against the far wall to heat the room in the winter, but that was it for ornamentation; There were no paintings or tapestries hanging on the walls, or unnecessary furniture cluttering the room.

The center of the room was dominated by a massive, round, heavy wood table. The top had been built in five separate pieces, with clear dividing lines between each. It had probably made quite the impressive centrepiece, giving each of the ducal representatives a clear and equal space at the table. 

Considering how thick it was, and the blast pattern on the floor, it had also been what had saved the surviving council member’s lives. 

Carefully stepping around the debris, I made my way to the table, crouched down, and ran a finger along the underside of the table. As soon as I did, the familiar scratching feeling behind my eyes returned with a vengeance. This time it was like something crawling around inside my head, clawing to get out. 

“You know, one day you’re going to touch a poison that you’re not immune to,” Pierre grumbled. “And when that happens, you know someone in the family will take full advantage of your condition; That is, if the toxin doesn’t just straight up kill you.”

“Yeah, well, I haven’t found anything capable of doing that yet,” I replied. “And while I know that you’re right, there could be something out there I’m not immune to, I’m not going to hold back on the off chance that I may, one day, run into that toxin. I’m just as likely to find something I’m allergic to and choke to death eating some exotic dish as I am to wander into that toxin, so I’m going to take full advantage of my power.”

I rubbed my fingers together, noting the oily texture, before bringing the strange residue up to my nose. 

“You weren’t joking when you said the attackers wanted the council dead,” I muttered. “The toxin has a Lilithan flower base. It’s difficult to work with, but if done properly, it makes a potent neurotoxin. If I don’t get the proportions of the antidote just right, it’ll aggravate the poison instead of neutralizing it.” I shifted, turning so I could see the others. “I would recommend putting on gloves, if you haven’t already. I don’t want to have to treat you as well.” 

When I did, a slight shimmer sitting just above one of the wall sconces caught my eye. As I squinted at it, the scratching in my head grew louder nearly drowning out the rest of the sound in the room. 

Then, nearly as quickly as it came, the noise disappeared again.

I blinked as the shimmering fell away, and I was left staring at a massive spiritual hawk just sitting there. The same spirit which had been sitting on Damien’s shoulder.

“If you wanted a closer look at what I was doing, you could have had the integrity to come in yourself,” I growled. “Or at least sent your pet in while it was visible, instead of skulking around.”

“What are you…” Kathrine stared, half turning so she could glance at the wall before pausing. “Oh. I see,” she said, before turning back. “He did warn us that he would be watching.”

“He did,” I admitted. “And I probably shouldn’t have been surprised; however, I’m still suffering the side effects of testing the toxin, and it’s making me a bit touchy.”

As I turned back towards the table, fully intending to take samples of the toxin that I could analyze back at the manor my eyes swept across the back of the room, and I instantly came to a complete stop.

Crouched in front of the fireplace was a gangly, vaguely humanoid thing that appeared to be made of some sort of oily smoke. It vaguely reminded me of a spirit, but it had a wrongness about it. 

The scratching in my head reached a crescendo, becoming so loud that it seemed to spill out and fill the entire room. Then, a moment later, it was gone again, and in its place a single hissing word filled my head. Abomination.

Whatever the thing was, it seemed to be content to sit there and watch us. It didn’t seem to have realized that I had seen it, so I crouched down, making sure to keep track of the thing in the corner of my eye, and opened my satchel. 

Instead of grabbing an empty vial, I pulled out my box of tags, quickly flipped through them, and pulled out four which I hoped would get my message across: Danger, Unknown, Hidden and Fire, then slipped them all onto a chain. Once that was done I quickly browsed my bandoleer and pulled out a pair of cloudy orange vials. 

The first into the hollow in one of my hatchets before placing it on the floor next to me. The other I palmed before sitting up again. 

The thing still hadn’t moved, so I decided to take a small risk and turned my back to it, just for a moment. 

Even with the mask on, I could tell that Kathrine was staring at my weapon. “Catch,” I called, before tossing the tags, followed a second later by the vial. 

I didn’t bother waiting to see if she caught them or not; Kathrine was far more dexterous than I was, and unless I really botched the throw, I had no doubt she’d catch everything. 

Reaching down, I swept the selector switch on my hatchet from the failsafe position, past the setting that caused the vial to shatter, and to the third setting, then casually lifted the weapon. 

There was a slight tinkling sound behind me, followed by a series of quiet mechanical clinks, which I could only imagine was Kathrine preparing her own weapon. As I stood up, I spared a glance backwards to confirm she’d slipped the vial into the handle of her clockwork rapier. 

“Young master Morewinn, would you come closer for a minute? I have a serious question for you,” I shouted.

“Important enough to require me to risk myself with the toxin?” he shouted back. 

“Absolutely. If you get exposed, I swear on my honour that I’d do my best to treat you,” I yelled. Of course that immediately set Gideon off, muttering some obscenity, but I ignored him and slowly started making my way around the remains of the table. 

The shadow sat up and focused on me, but it didn’t seem that concerned. It was more like casual interest, seeing me do something it hadn’t expected.

“What’s so important?” Gideon asked from the doorway, his cape wrapped around his face. 

“It was your family’s troops that cleared the room after the incident, right?” I asked, not bothering to turn to face him. Not while I was so close to the shadow thing.

“Of course. They checked for other explosives, assailants hiding in the wreckage, traces of the bomb…” he said.

“Other spirits?” I asked, turning just enough so I could see him out of the corner of my eye.

Both Damien and the hawk tilted their heads the exact same way. “Of course. If there had been a spirit in here, one of my men would have noticed it.” 

The shadow thing backed away, agitated by how close I was getting. I squeezed the trigger on my hatchet, causing the pneumatic injectors to plunge into the vial within the axe head. Seconds later the pressure forced the liquid out of numerous ports along the blade, completely coating the weapon. 

The room was flooded with the smell of Silversbane and Wolfshead, causing the creature to immediately shoot to its feet in a panic. Before it could escape, I jumped forward and brought my weapon down on its shoulder, feeling only the slightest resistance as the hatchet tore clean through its torso. It just barely managed to dodge backwards, just barely stepping out of reach before the axe completely cut it in half. 

Even though it had survived the intial blow, it was heavily wounded. Shadowy tendrils reached out from each side of the wound, reaching for the other side, before coming too close to the spirit-severing toxin and retreating again. 

Someone behind me gasped. My guess was that whatever power it had been using to hide itself had been broken by the blow, so I took a couple of steps back.

“No spirits, huh? So what do you call that?”