First bite

It didn’t stop.

The headache continued, booming like a drum, without any rest, for half an hour at least, and it had become worse when I entered my house, lessening only somewhat when Ingrid got out.

Along with that, I felt…strange. Like I was making strange choices, and I could hear the spirits speaking, and the mare was barely audible.

The same went for the Ingrid and Lucrezia, but it was…

Why did I ask Ingrid to bring Erik? Why would I need help for this?

-p!

It was maddening, it felt like I was slipping on something and I could not see, or feel, or hear it.

“Mister Victor, I ought to ask you if you need to lay down yourself. Maybe you got a cold, the weather in these mountains is, as you yourself have said, insidious.” the honey-like voice of the man I had helped went through my headache, a relief for but a moment, but I had to remain awake.

The mare needed to-

The drums came again, stronger and stronger, and this time my hands went to the side of my hand, a groan grounding out of my lips.

I almost fell, but a pair of arms, lithe but strong, kept me upright.

Lucrezia.

Unexpected, but touching, and I could see the concern in her blue eyes.

Only for the pain, and it was pain then, to become almost unbearable, like an hot iron going through my brain, or a cannon firing from inside it.

The drilling was certainly close, that much I could say!

-up!

I could hear the spirits, but it was like they were far, drowned by this damned headache.

“-alright?!” I could also hear the elf saying something, but it was also covered, along with something foreign, that made me think I had to go lie down and just let the my better taking the my better.

Wait, what?!

-ake up!

I was French! I would not let myself, if not everyone, think that I was under or above them, even in this place, even when this so called nobility had power!

I saw the stranger rise up from the bed, the shadows dancing under him, his smile no longer trusting but more like a snake, and his eyes going from white to rimmed red, and a feeling of disgust, anger and fury all walled up together in my mind.

WAKE UP!

I didn’t see, hear or feel anything but pain and white, and the pain on my knees when the crashed on the floor.

Those same hands made sure I did not go headfirst, only for a sound, like a sudden vacuum, which made my ears pop, to start in front of me.

And suddenly those hands were not on my anymore and, instead of concern, I heard fury and rage from Lucrezia, alongside sounds of exertion and wind.

A strange wind, and I could not see, stars still present, pain still lingering far too much, to let me be focused enough to pay attention.

All I could feel was the woody floor, and a cry of surprise and anger from Lucrezia.

Listener!

Fight!

Get up!

Blasphemer of oaths, heretic and violent!

I was able to focus, for a moment, to see what was happening.

The stranger had been able to summon what looked like tentacles made of darkness, sprouting from under the bed and from our shadows, thick and strong, mist coming out of them from where they made contact with light.

And Lucrezia was shouting, furious beyond belief, her tattoos shining like a beacon of righteousness and making the need of more appendages to keep her still: “How dare you break the oath of hospitality, you villain! Let me go, so I will cut you down and not use your skin for my sword!”

The mage, because it was a mage who had done something to my mind, I knew it in my heart, simply laughed, more tentacles sprouting and pressing all around Lucrezia.

He probably thought I was not able to fight, and I was not.

I had to think of something, the mare was out, and the spirits would not work so well, not when I hadn’t prepared runes.

Maybe…maybe there were other animals though.

“Please;” I whispered, low enough so that the mage could not hear under the sounds of his laugh or the muffled shouts from Lucrezia, my face pressed against the floor: “I will give you a jar of honey if you bite the mage invading my house.”

I closed my eyes, hoping beyond belief that it would work.

It was late for them to be still active, but my voice had worked before and the wood tiles were just above ground, which was warmer than the naked dirt, so maybe, just maybe…

I saw one ant crawl out of a crack, then two, then many more.

I smiled when I saw a small army of ants start crawling towards the mage, who was saying something or something else to the bound elf, who was, on her part, becoming somehow even more furious.

That was, until the first ant didn’t bite him.

Now, ever been atop of an ant hill? Maybe done a picnic in the wrong place, or just having dug up one that had been made in a vase?

Now try to think doing something like cubic equations with those small pincers going everywhere, something similar to the focus that mages had to have.

Meaning that, for but a second, that focus was gone.

Long enough for Lucrezia to be let go, move back her arm, and punch him through my door, breaking it and maybe, if I had heard right, breaking his jaw as well.

She, on her part, after taking a small breath, immediately turned towards me, concerned and confused: “Victor, what-”

Only for a shadowy tentacle to come from the door and grab her, and another snarl to come from her, while she was dragged out.

I immediately, for my part, got up as well, despite my own lingering pain, and ran behind them, in hot pursuit, but the mage, his legs covered in shadows, was making a distance fast.

Kick him in the shin!

That’s something I would happily do.

“Hunin, Mugin! Twenty nuts each if you keep an eye on them and say where they are!” I shouted, naked concern and anger tinting my tone while I ran in the rough direction they had taken.

Naturally, the birds appeared and immediately, either for greed or something else, followed my demand.

I had oaths, and I would not let them go because a foolish mage decided to hurt people in my house!

And I did have friends, which owed me, unfortunately for this one.