[Beastborne: Voracious] (Book 5) Chapter 27

I’m not actually considering this, am I?

Hal watched the two Kinslayers like a hawk, then snapped his attention back to Tristal. All the time he was being distracted by this, he could be using his Copper Kol’thil to finish the word he’d started. He didn’t know how long the free use would last, it felt temporary, like a surge similar to when his Monster Core went up in Rank.

Enough power to wield and use if you did so smartly and quickly, but all too soon it was gone.

And yet, this was a momentous occasion. It wasn’t the sort of thing that he could have ever expected, much less prepared for even if he had. What did you say when there were two copies of yourself from different realities of Earth that wanted to defect to your side?

Moreover, one of those Kinslayers had nearly killed him and very likely killed Besal. He still struggled to suppress his rage about that.

“I’m not—” he began, but Tristal pulled some gem out of his pocket the size of a small child’s fist.

“This is yours,” she said. “For hearing me out. Think of it like a gift. You remember those magazines that they used to send out for CDs, spend a few pennies and you get something? Think of it like that.”

Hal took it and eyed her. “Didn’t they scam people into paying exorbitant sums after the initial trial period? That’s a bit more like an ISP giving you a good deal for the first year then jacking up the rates.”

Tristal looked a little put out, but she smiled and extended her hand, palm up. “Then you can feel free to give it back.”

“No, thank you,” Hal said, dropping it into his Inventory. What the hell is [Magicite] anyway?

“Then we have an accord? Need I remind you, it is rather freezing out here and none of us have much in the way of experience with this place. Is there somewhere warmer and preferably more comfortable to talk?”

Hal turned to the Kinslayers on their knees. “Remove your hoods.”

They did so without a moment’s hesitation.

“Look at me.”

The shock that ran through Hal could have knocked a mule down. They both were obviously him only… one was clearly on some sort of human growth hormone or whatever it was because he was quite a lot larger than Hal.

However, the same underlying bone structure was there, they even had the same expression of faint curiosity at seeing a similar—but not identical—face.

And the other one, the Kinslayer he had thought dead was… well, he was a she.

Everybody always wonders what they would look like as the opposite gender and here I am, staring into the female equivalent of myself.

Despite himself, he couldn’t help but approve a little. Not bad.

And then he realized what he had just thought and cringed.

“Me too,” the woman said with a worryingly wet chuckle. “I am… sorry for what happened,” she added. “We were commanded by Hirash.”

Hal tightened his jaw until it creaked.

Tristal shot a warning glare at the Kinslayer. She turned it into a smile in a flash when she looked back at Hal’s thundercloud expression. “It is no excuse, but it is the truth of the matter. They didn’t want me to know, being that nobody knew I was a Founder at the time, but Hirash nearly forced her to fight you, to find a way in and probe your weaknesses.”

And here, Hal had the feeling that Tristal was struggling not to reveal something but eventually gave up because she motioned to the dragons high overhead in an exasperated way and said, “Do you recall when you were fighting the Kinslayer and something changed what they saw?”

This was clearly news to the Kinslayer who looked up with fiery purple eyes and said, “That was you?”

Tristal shrugged. “I told you, Hal. I am a friend. You would have fared much worse if not for me. I do not take the credit because the whooping you gave our friend here was one for the record books, but I am not going to downplay my part just to make you feel good.”

Hal did remember. And if they had orchestrated the reveal with the Kinslayer acting surprised and shocked, it was a remarkable piece of acting.

“I will hear you out,” Hal decided at last. “But they stay here until then, and they will be guarded.”

Tristal looked back at the Kinslayers. She clearly was conflicted, but something about her made Hal believe that she wanted to ditch them entirely seeing how they were holding her back.

Time to see just how much you care about other people, Hal thought, watching her out of the corner of his eye. Two of us can play this game, Tristal.

It hardly bothered him that she knew his name. If she knew where he was, then it stood to reason she knew his name as well.

But he could not in good conscience take the Kinslayers into his home, not until he was absolutely certain of them and he was anything but at the moment.

Tristal leaned in a little, inviting Hal to do the same. When he didn’t, she shot him an annoyed almost childish glance, but then tiptoed closer and whispered, “She is likely going to die in the next few hours if somebody doesn’t care for her wounds. I am not a healer, neither are the big guys. The best I can do is make her forget the wounds, but they will still very much be there.”

Hal nodded. He wasn’t about to ask Noth and especially not Buffrix to heal this woman. Not only would that require more explanation than he had time for, but because he had a way of healing her himself.

Normally, [Assimilation] required him to have a bond with a person to use his own HP to heal them. But there was a workaround.

“I can heal her,” he said, looking at the Kinslayer. “But she’s not going to like it. I will not risk any of my friends on this.”

The Kinslayer lifted her chin in defiance. “I will make amends for my… transgressions,” she wheezed, “but I will not beg. If you wish me dead, put the blade to my neck. I will make sure… ‘Giel’ does not interfere.”

Hal extended a hand toward her. Giel tensed for a moment as if he might move, then went still as a statue.

“I will need to take control of you for a moment,” he told her.

Her purple gaze never left his. “I am yours.”

There was something formal and definite about the way she said the words that deeply troubled Hal, but time was wasting. He made a clawing motion as the Gold Kol’thil slid onto the back of his hand.

[Dominate] formed an arcing lash of golden lightning that struck the Kinslayer square between the eyes. In an instant he was connected to her in a way that was ordinarily impossible.

The only person he had ever done this to was Ashera, and it was not a comfortable experience at the best of times, and this definitely wasn’t that.

This woman’s mind was dark and foggy, ragged at the edges where nothingness was slowly eating away. She was in tremendous pain.

Tristal was right. The wounds from their battle were killing her, and without some healing they would prove fatal.

Hal couldn’t help but think that was fair, and yet he still used [Assimilation] to exchange HP. Of all the uses of [Assimilation], using it for healing was pretty terrible. It had a bad conversion ratio, barely over half of the HP he used would be given to her.

And yet, as he watched that was not the case. It wasn’t the case at all. Instead, it seemed to act as if he was giving HP to himself and against all reason, every drop of health he lost was a point of HP she gained.

But that wasn’t the extent of her injuries. While Hal was still unsure whether Besal was safe or not, there was no such question about her Khaeros.

It was dead.

The ragged hole in her consciousness confirmed that, though he didn’t know how he knew it. It was just… obvious. Like the way the world smells before it rains, as if everything was opening up, only in reverse.

Her body was shutting down.

Summoning his Gold Kol’thil once more, Hal used [Preserve] on the wounded area that seemed to be spreading. It halted almost immediately. He tried to use [Mend] on it, but that didn’t seem to do anything, so [Preserve] it was.

There would need to be a more permanent solution, but for the time being, she was stable. And it had only cost him a quarter of his own HP, something he easily made up by stepping out of the Kinslayer’s sense of self and using [Assimilation] on himself to drop his SP and MP to restore his HP.

For a moment, he was going to relinquish control, then thought better of it. For now, he could do exactly what he wanted with her, and that made her safe.

He didn’t like it, but he didn’t need to like it. “I’m going to keep you under watch for now,” he told her. “I will not do anything further, but if I release you, there is a chance you will die. Until you can be fully looked at, our connection will remain.”

The Kinslayer looked up at him. There was greater understanding and comprehension behind those eyes than he would have liked to see. She understood the true reason he was doing this, even if he couldn’t tell when [Preserve] wore off without [Dominate] connecting them.

“You will get no complaints from me,” she told him. “Already I feel myself clawing back from the brink. You already had my aid, now you have my loyalty. I am… sorry for wounding you. It is not an emotion I feel often. A blade does not regret the actions it does, because those actions are not their own after all.”

Hal snorted. “You are not a blade. A blade has no mind to think, no heart that beats, and no soul to tell it right from wrong.”

The look of concern and frustration on her face was oddly satisfying, and through the forced bond of [Dominate], Hal could feel a mingling sense of awe that she desperately wanted to keep hidden.

He turned to Tristal. “Let’s have that talk.”