Born a Monster

538 Mystic Talk

In short order, I found myself on the way east by southeast, the Twelve Daggers mountain range across the visible horizon.

“Well,” the arcanist said, “We have about two days of walking. Whatever shall we talk about?”

I sighed. “I am Rhishisikk. Among my other classes, I am a Truthspeaker. I literally cannot lie to you.”

“Oh.” he said back. “My name is Nogar.” He began pointing at our guards. “Doran. Mohr. Negla. Zoltar.”

“The GREAT Zoltar.” Zoltar said.

I blinked. “Your parents named you Negla?” I asked the thin guard.

“They did.” she said. “You aren’t the first to mistake me for a male.”

I shook my head. “I will not be the last.”

She shared a laugh at that. “So long as my male wife remembers my gender on nights when I want him to, we’ll have a happy marriage.”

.....

“I wish to state,” Nogar interrupted, “that none of us wish to be eaten.”

“Wait, I thought that was a rumor.” Mohr said.

“Uruk. Hobgoblins. I already have all the evolutions common to your kinds.” I said. <1 >

Mohr turned his head and spat. “I hate finding out when rumors are true.”

“Never meet your heroes, or your villains.” Doran said.

“What have I ever done to you?” I asked.

“Not to me.” Doran said. “My aunt was a blood sorceress when the empire was young. You might have met her briefly, when she was going to sacrifice you.”

I rubbed my eyes. “You’re going to have to be more specific, Doran. Trying to sacrifice me seems to be a hobby of the normal folk.”

Doran smacked his lips. “There will come a day when we are not allies. This is all the warning I intend to give you.”

Nogar shrugged. “More civil than I expected from Doran.”

“Yeah.” Mohr said. “You could at least slap him.”

Zoltar chuckled. “He looks like a midget newt, but look at his feet. Look! Look at how he walks.”

I tried not to be self-conscious and to walk normally. I tried.

“GYAH!” Zoltar said. “How do you DO that without snapping your neck?”

“I’m very flexible.” I said.

“And you have delicate ankles for the size of your feet.” Negla said. “Almost womanly.”

I snorted. “There is nothing wrong with my ankles.” I said. They were, now that I was looking at them, somewhat thin. When had that happened?

Was there any advantage to thicker ankles, like those on a plow horse?

“Oh, have I OFFENDED you?” Negla asked. “Perhaps you should comment on my ankles?”

I knew where that line of conversation was going. I admit it; I was snippy. “What is it like?” I asked her, “being so fragile that words cause such damage?”

She slapped her thigh. “Damned if I know. Nogar, do you know?”

“Normal.” Nogar said. “Most days I feel just like a normal man, surrounded by you vicious and violent misfits.”

They broke out in laughter, but it felt like more of an insiders moment, so I didn’t join them. Much.

“These,” Nogar spread his hands, “are more than just my bodyguards. These are my brothers, and my other brother who happens to be female. These are also my circle of fellow mystics.”

“I have no way of telling.” I said.

“Prove it.” Mohr said. “Guess.”

I shrugged. “You seem like Earth to me.” I told him, knowing by his broad smile that I was wrong.

He held out a hand, letting me see the burn scars. “Fire.” he said, proudly.

“I would have guessed Doran or Zoltar for fire.”

Zoltar sniffed. “People always think I’m fire.”

“Air?” I guessed.

“I AM THE GREAT ZOLTAR, MASTER OF THE STORM! BEHOLD MY POWER AND FEAR ME!!”

Everyone else looked to the sky, so I did as well.

“The sky remains sunny, and clear of storms.” Negla said.

“He, at least, respects me.” Doran said. “I am of Apollo.” he said, indicating the shortbow on his back. “Archer. Sun Acolyte. Sky Acolyte.”

“I am terrible at this.” I said, failing to make it sound like a surprise.

“Guess mine, anyway.” Negla said. “I think the spear gives it away.”

What had Gamilla’s element been? Why was that so hard to remember?

“Blood Adept.” I said, just to break the silence.

“Wolf Totemist!” she said, blinking her eyes to wolf-yellow and then silver and back. “Nobody guesses that. You should see the looks on their faces when they learn!”

“I think it’s because you usually bite them in the groin.” Mohr said.

“Of course I do.” Negla said. “It’s funny.”

“It IS funny.” Nogar said. “And I, as already said, am an Arcanist. Master of no particular art, but a student of all.”

“Illusionist.” Mohr said. “With a cruel sense of humor.”

“Seconded.” Doran said.

“All in favor?” Zoltan asked.

“It was only the ONCE!” Nogar insisted.

“Oh.” said Negla. “Oh, do the human female! I want to see the eyelash batting!”

Doran batted his eyelashes.

“Exactly like that.” Mohr said.

“Once, you adult-aged children.” Nogar repeated. “It was once, and never again.”

“What about you?” Doran asked me. “Can you assume a female form?”

“I... I think so, yes.” I said.

“You don’t know?” Mohr asked. “I mean, I’m happy with the masculine body my father gave me, but you don’t absolutely know?”

“How hard would it be for you to try?” Zoltar asked.

“Not very.” I admitted. “Twenty minutes. Thirty, on the outside.”

Never. Never admit that around bored warrior wizards.

It took amazingly little time for them to find a reason to rest for ‘ten minutes or so’, and less to reveal that it was all a dumb and simple plan to pressure me into testing the limits of my transformation.

They had other questions, like could I become animals, which yes I could.

Could I become imaginary animals, like a winged pig? I didn’t see much point, but yes.

Had I ever tried eating myself for bacon?

“You must be joking.” I told Mohr.

“No.” He said. “I mean, people sometimes eat their own fingers, right?”

“Most people turn on each other for food, first.” I said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen even that, though.”

It was mostly to distract me, and in retrospect I’m ashamed of how well it worked. It didn’t seem like an interrogation, so it didn’t occur to me that there was anything amiss.

Four men, one tomboy female; the last thing I should have been willing to do... well, that I actually did... was to become an uruk female. I was still only six, so there were no breasts to speak of. But honestly, they were strangers, and I should have known better.

“Your ankles were thinner as a man.” Negla laughed.

“Does your skin look like that under your scales?” Doran asked. “How gross are you?”

Mohr poked at a piece of my discarded skin, eventually picking it up to examine.

“Did you get SMALLER?” Zoltar asked. “Does that always happen?”

“Yes, and yes.” I told him. “But it doesn’t change...”

“How do we know you’re not just a eunuch?” Doran mocked. “Perhaps if you let us...”

.....

I raked my nails across his extended hand. “Enough.” I said. “I know what you’re doing.”

“You’ve no clue what we’re doing.” Negla said.

“What do you think we’re doing?” Nogar asked, a cruel smile on his face.

Remember when I said questions are neither truth nor a lie?

“I wondered,” I said, “whether you knew the truth of the assignment we were given. How many sections of the wall were taken down, how big of a gap there was in the ward. Because, ” I paused. “Because odds are not all of us are coming back. If I rage against you because of a fit of bullying, I’m less likely to endanger the mission to keep you alive, or to risk my life to recover what’s left of your body if you fall. Isn’t that your goal, here?”

“Uh, Gun-muk?” Doran asked. <2 >

“No.” Nogar said. “No, we were bullying you. You don’t really know who’s at your side until you see them alone and helpless.”

I turned my head and spat. “Or when you fight them. Personally, I think we’ve wasted enough time.”

“Are you sure our words haven’t hurt you?” Negla asked.

I shrugged. “Maybe a little. They WERE well chosen.”

Negla’s smile meant more to me than her hollow apology.

<System. Revert to main form.> I sent

[Error. Multiple main forms found.]

<The reptilian form!> I sent. Cripes, I didn’t trust these people, they didn’t need to know...

<System. Transformation. Rhishisikk Form.>

[Transformation begun. For the next eighteen minutes, you will be in pain.]

Was it kindness or cruelty, that my System warned me each time?

And then, the bones in my left shoulder cracked free of each other and began moving, and neither my words nor thoughts were coherent.

<1 > For those to whom it matters, Doran and Mohr were Uruk, Negla a dusk-skinned hobgoblin, and Zoltar and Nogar were samples of the red skinned variety.

<2 > From uruk fairy tales; a mud woman with the ability to take but not keep many shapes.

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