Ecdysis

Chapter 1. Promise

Tuk

He watched the approaching Fae warily. Whatever it was, it took the skin of his nephew. It could probably do many other tricks worse than that. He wasn’t stupid and he saw the sudden change in that ‘wermaje’ that bought them from the Manor. ‘Albin’ or ‘Al’ as the Fae called him.

That one had dog ears and a similarly looking bushy tail. But, as soon as they left the Manor borders, all that melted into nothingness, shaping itself into a completely different thing with the skin of another and growing large black horns with specks of blue. Even the tail shed its dog-like fur and grew into something huge and fleshy.

And their Domina sold them without a second thought. Wiggling her tail as she was in Heat. He saw the signs, as he had to ensure that young Erf would never be around a wermaje during that time. Murks would be taken to never return: devoured and eaten alive by the insatiable lust of magick beings.

A pang of hurt in his heart. Young Erf was sold off merely a season ago when spring was just starting to give way to the scorching days of summer. With no hope of seeing him again in their future, for the merchant wanted fresh bodies and Domina wanted gold. He had hoped that he was sold to a real merchant at least, one that actually took him into the city, and not this Fae that probably ate him in the Forest.

And now it returned, wearing his skin, to take and eat them too.

“Here,” Two bowls were placed in front of them, and he couldn’t stop himself from gulping at the smell. “This broth is tasty and easy for the stomach. I don't know how much you ate before but, knowing how Chimgen Manor fed their slaves in the early summer, the food was very sparse.”

He took the bowl without a word. Food was not something one would refuse, especially after eating scraps for so many days. Even if it was given by a Fae, not that one could refuse his master without getting lashes most likely anyway.

If there was foul magick in it, at least he would not die hungry. Tuk tried this broth yesterday already and he could not stop himself from the taste that he will likely crave for the rest of his life.

“Is that what you told my Erf before you took his flesh?” Meila hissed and he cringed. The loss of her son hit her hard enough to mouth off at one of their new masters.

Strangely enough, instead of beatings and yells, the thing simply sat there with its eyes closed. Immobile and silent.

And then it sighed. “Please, eat.”

She glowered at him but it changed little. The Fae kept sitting like a statue in front of them with his eyes closed. Without that unnatural silver in the eyes, he looked just like him…

It, he forcefully reminded himself, this was no man in front of him.

“A mere season ago,” it started to speak when the spoons hit the bowls, “A merchant caravan had walked this path. Few carts and many slaves. Heading straight to the city of Samat. And Erf was one of them…”

It spoke softly, slow enough that they could eat while listening to the story. The story of a young murk that found an artefact of old lands, forgotten by all and quietly waiting for someone to find it. How the artefact gave him a gift of smarts. Not all at once, but bit by bit. And Erf took it all. Desperate to understand his place and fate, he borrowed from the knowledge of aeons. Long enough that said knowledge had grown larger than his own.

Tuk didn’t know many of the words that it said but he could grasp that the artefact filled Erf like a barrel of water thinning a cup of wine.

He spoke of the people he met and places he had seen. And then he spoke of greed. The covetous desires of others, seeking to either take him for themselves or break him if they couldn’t play with him. All of which eventually culminated into one important event.

“In a few tendays,” He softly murmured, “There will be a grand celebration, The Divine Ritual. And the Chimgen Manor was chosen as the Host. Probably today or tomorrow Domina would receive a messenger and will head out to the capital to present her offerings to the gods. And it won’t be grain and olives that she would bring. The time of harvest hasn’t come and she has little of both.”

Chimgen Domina probably had plenty for herself. Her villa always smelled of food whether it was after the harvest or in the spring. Not that they could eat that smell, however.

Tuk took another spoonful of warm delight to soothe his rumbling stomach.

“She will bring slaves. Sacrifices to the gods of Flow.” He sighed, “Knowing that, I could not sit idle and let you possibly become one of them.”

“And what are we to do now?” Tuk chose to ask as the Fae in front of him stopped speaking.

“In public, you will be known as slaves of Kiymetl Manor.” Tuk glanced at the wermaje up ahead, riding an enormous beast of a horse, but Fae shook his head, “Not him. I traded for his aid in this, but Albin Shebet Chasya belongs to a different Manor.”

He tugged at his tunic and pulled two seals on his neck. Both had a symbol of scales but one was made out of gold. Probably worth as much as Tuk was bought for or even more. “I’ve done a lot but I am still a slave myself, despite earning the Gestr. And all I could do right now is buy you out. Luckily, the Kiymetl Domina is a generous one and my service will be enough for the three of us. She won’t ask for your labour.”

What?

Fae bowed deep, “Forgive me for not coming for you sooner, but your life of need is over now. You will be given food, drink, and rest whenever you desire. However, you won’t be able to leave the manor at least for some time, not without a guarded escort. The streets of Samat aren’t safe for you at this time. If you need anything else, just ask me.”

He goggled at the bowed one in front of him. This was not going as Tuk gathered it would at all. Was he him? No. He merely looked like Erf, but was actually taller and not as scrawny, older too — by a year, maybe two, or a whole century if this was a wermaje. His speech and act were of a different man as well.

His eyes. They didn’t just look like two cuts of silver but looked like they shouldn’t even belong on a face this young. Tuk saw Domina’s grandfather once. A wermaje that saw more sunrises than Tuk blinked in his life and yet even these eyes looked younger.

Yet he didn’t act like Fae but like a Fairy. A helpful being of the Forest. Was he truly one of the good spirits, or were he a real Fae that Erf somehow tricked into helping them? A cold chill went down his spine, perhaps the look was not an accident, but a price Erf paid to help them in his stead.

Foolish nephew, he had promised them over and over that he would eventually return with gold to buy them back. But he shouldn’t have done it this way.

“Then give me back my son.” His sister spoke again.

“I am him.” The Fairy whispered in turn.

“Lies! I want my Erf!” She gestured wildly at their new master, “Not a maje wearing his flesh!”

“I am sorry, moth-”

“Don’t say that word to me.” Meila half-sobbed half-begged.

“I am a murk.” A tear rolled down the Fairy’s face, “Even if the magic of Flow can turn time back, I do not know about it nor do I have the power to wield it. I cannot do it.”

“Then set me free! Release me from your mastery and let me live the rest of my life in peace. Let me grieve for my son away from a slave master’s whip on land that I don’t need to till for others.”

The odd eyes opened wide, and Tuk felt a cold wind roll across his back from the intensity of that gaze. He prayed to Gods that his sister haven’t gone too far.

“You have my word.” The Fairy spoke in a coarse and cracked tone, “And I will set my life to make it happen.”

He was struck silent by that proclamation, and so was his sister.

Erf. Wherever you truly are right now, it appears that Gods have heard you.

Thank you.

He peered into that familiar face. Someone else was speaking through his lips but Tuk had a fleeting hope that a murk heart was really beating inside that chest. And that heart still belonged to Erf.

A sudden move made him glance. A few steps ahead, the wermaje was still riding on the horse. A piece of a square parchment with some fancy drawing was in his hands.

His sharp and pointy teeth were bared in a vicious but satisfied grin.

XXX

I silently sat as the cart moved along. Chewing on a needle from a nearby tree. Not the pine kind, but an alien one. Burgundy-red needles on bone-white branches.

It was bitter, but I didn’t care. I was bitter too.

The conversation was a disaster as I dreaded it would be, and I wasn’t sure whether I preferred my mother’s emotional outburst or my uncle calmer but rather apprehensive stance. They looked at me and couldn’t even see a murk, let alone Erf. And I couldn’t fault them for it. I saw myself establishing better connections with the wermages of Emanai — the humans that were somehow enhanced by Flow and lived for multiple centuries, rather than the fellow murks.

And that change happened in less than a month. It was no wonder that they couldn’t even fathom my transformation.

Irje and Yeva were different — they met me after the changes began to take place and were around me throughout this time. It is easier to accept something as it happens right in front of you. Or something that started from a much more believable premise. A murk daimon being smart beyond his years was rather mythical but wermage daimonas did exist so it wasn’t completely out of the window.

An average murk slave turning from the emaciated youth, uneasy of all things magical, into a young man that could talk to wermages on equal terms, and have them actually acknowledge him in turn, was beyond insanity.

A boy that you knew for all his previous life at that.

The fact that I wasn’t actually a daimon was yet another issue and I hoped it won’t cause any issues with my Domina. After all, she valued me for my knowledge and skills, not for the mythical status that I didn’t even claim for myself.

But it didn’t matter that much. Right now I have gotten myself a task.

The task that I was already planning to achieve one way or another, one that was actually possible.

I would bring freedom to my family. I was trying to do it already but without any significant rush to achieve it so far. My own wives didn’t push the issue either, in fact. I would even call their views surprisingly reluctant. Moreover, despite my status, I doubted that Aikerim still saw me as a mere slave anymore. A business partner and even a friend perhaps. She already all but confirmed my future freedom by allowing me to start growing my hair long. A privilege of the free in Emanai.

So it got pushed back on the back burner, as more pertinent matters took priority. Like securing my family and not dying from an acute dagger allergy.

But now that lingering flame got stoked into a blazing fire.

I knew that this won’t change anything by itself, even if I got them land and freedom, it wouldn’t guarantee that they will turn around and call me family in turn. And if they would, it would be a bitter outcome as if I’d bought myself into their graces instead.

But it didn’t matter.

What mattered was that my mother asked something from me. I knew that it was said out of grief and was meant as something unrealistic and impossible but now I had a quest I had no other option but to complete.

And complete it, I shall.

Even if it would take me years. This wasn’t something I could rush anyway. I already tried and only pushed them away further. I glanced at the quiet duo in the back — in the meantime I will simply be nearby, ready to come at a moment’s notice but not forcing them to make a decision they weren’t ready to make.

“These things are poisonous, you know?” Albin’s voice spoke from the side. Glancing at him I saw him nodding at the needle in my mouth, “Don’t keep it in your mouth for too long or your ass will curse you for days.”

“Yeah, I can see why it would be.” I mumbled back while still chewing on it, “It uses a completely different set of amino acids at least. A different evolutionary path all the way from an early life-form. This isn’t just a different type of tree, plant, or even kingdom. This is a different type of life altogether.”

I spit it out and my mind eagerly jumped into the provided distraction.

A chuckle escaped my lips. A mere ‘distraction’ my ass. Humanity spent thousands of years searching for signs of life among the stars. Countless Navigators sailed into the depths of space trying to answer that seemingly simple question asked by Enrico Fermi: “But where is everybody?”. And here I was in the middle of a close encounter of a chewing kind.

Terrestrial life was extremely diverse, but it relied on rules established extremely early in the evolutionary ladder. Like the form, shape and function of fundamental blocks of life. These ‘trees’ were real alien organisms: unique lifeforms on an alien planet, different from Earth.

This planet had a very similar composition to Earth, and the life on it was also carbon-based. Again no surprises there — Carbon was a king of versatility among other elements — its ease of forming up to four bonds as well as linking to itself was highly documented. Not even Silicon could easily compete with how flexible Carbon bondings were.

Our own life used these exact properties extensively — stringing Carbon atoms into long chains and forming proteins, nucleic acids, and lipids. Or closing them into rings to create carbohydrates and other sugars.

Based on my extensive scientific research of licking the damn thing, I knew that it relied on similar principles but ultimately evolved its own versions of organic molecules that allowed them to interact with the world, harvest the energy, and, most importantly, grow and reproduce.

Albin shook his head, “I think your tongue is numb, I couldn’t understand half of what you said there. You aren’t trying to poison yourself again like you have done last night, draining all my wine?”

“Worry not. I was just thinking to myself about how different these trees truly are. And what a unique thing that actually is.”

No wonder my nanites couldn’t identify these trees. And yet I wasn’t surprised they had chosen that form to replicate. After all, on Earth, the trees had evolved multiple times. Some shapes simply made sense.

“They are rare because most of them are cut on sight - these are the trees of the Forest, and if a lot of them grow in one place they would eventually attract stronger creatures. But few are left alone for the lumber they provide is exceptionally strong. If you venture past the borders of Emanai onto the territory of the Forest, red and white would be all you could see.”

“Well, it is their world first and foremost,” I hummed. “We are the invaders that slowly take their lands in order to survive ourselves.”

“That is an interesting point of view,” Albin tugged the amber earring, “Most consider them to be the invaders trying to overwhelm Emanai.”

“Because they grew up with them outside of the borders, the creatures of the Forest constantly assaulting our walls. As such, it became a mundane part of life. But their abundance is only local, these trees cannot be found anywhere else but here. And I am fairly sure the monsters are as well.”

Humanity explored quite a lot of systems already, probably thousands more while I lay dormant in the shuttle. But we were still limited by our speed of expansion. Wormhole travel was fast but not precise without a beacon on the other side thus limiting the speed of exploration. We expanded far and wide, yet that ‘far and wide’ was still less than one per cent of the entire galaxy. And here I was standing among the alien life and only marginally caring about it.

After all my words were true even for myself. It would be one thing to finally meet a grey alien humanoid telling you he comes in peace, and quite the other when you realize that certain trees might not be trees at all. Especially when I had a crisis with my family.

But that didn’t mean I would ignore it either.

“Am I allowed to grow one of these trees inside Samat?” I asked my companion.

“I guess?” Albin shrugged, “This is something you should be asking your Domina if she doesn’t mind a poisonous tree growing in her Manor. Why are you interested in it anyway?”

“The same reason you found me interesting — they are unknown to me. They represent one of the voids of my knowledge that I am too curious to ignore.” I scratched my head in thought, “Perhaps they will give me insights about the creatures of the Flow. And possibly the emergence of magic in general and wer and wermages in particular.”

The horned head swivelled to take a look at the patches of red within the passing forest, “You think they are magical?”

“I dunno yet, so I won’t assume. But Flow has been only found here just like these trees. One might not be caused by other but they are related somehow for sure.”

“I think you had forgotten the creatures,” He grinned, “I recall you said they were only found here too.”

I looked at him sideways, “I did not. But these trees don’t try to eat me on sight.”

Only to hear his laughter in turn.