<< The Culling - Chelsea Wolfe >>
Kai blinked open his eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling.
For a long moment he simply stared up at the thatched roof, the old wooden beams and the bunches of herbs that hung from them.
At first his mind and body felt entirely numb, until he tried to move.
A sharp pain shot through his shoulder and Kai let out a strangled gasp.
His hand shot up but was promptly caught by slender delicate fingers, ending in red, perfectly manicured nails, "No touching little human, it's pulling the Demon's poison from your blood."
Kai turned his head groggily and found a beautiful young woman, who appeared to be no older than twenty, smiling down at him. She had thick mahogany hair that framed a pale, heart-shaped face with large round eyes of a startling violet, a deep red dress hanging from her slender frame and a friendly smile pulling at her full, red lips.
He was momentarily disoriented by her face, his mind still working to catch up to his present.
Where was he? And what did she mean by that? Demon poison?
He turned his head a little further to glance down at his shoulder.
A ringed worm-like creature of a vibrant orange sat atop an angry, open wound. The source of the sharp pain? A wide, circular mouth with rows of pointed teeth that were latched around his injury, pulling and sucking at it in short, sharp bursts.
Kai blanched, his face paling further when his stomach roiled.
He immediately made to grab for it and launch it across the room but as soon as he moved those small, pale hands shot forwards and held him down with surprising strength, "Calm down, now. The Vermi is saving your life. A few more hours out there in that marsh and you would have died. Be thankful that we found you in time."
Kai winced as another sharp lance of pain came from the wound and allowed his gaze to wander about the room.
He appeared to be in some kind of large wooden hut. The furnishings were simple and completely devoid of runic appliances, a hearth burned brightly in the corner instead, the smell of some kind of stew reaching his nose. As soon as it did so, Kai realised that he was hungry.
Very, very hungry.
His stomach growled loudly and the young woman gave him a final warning glance before releasing her hold and turning away towards the clay pot of simmering food.
"You need to eat. Only the Gods know how long you were out there."
Kai frowned, and then winced again when even that action caused his head to pound in discomfort. Every inch of him hurt as though he had been battered and beaten to within an inch of his life.
"What do you mean by that? I think...I think I just passed out for a few hours. It can't have been much longer than that." Kai watched what he now assumed to be a Witch, spooning a small helping of the steaming stew into a makeshift bowl of latticed tree bark with burning curiosity, "And, who are you? Are you Demetra?" He asked.
The Witch snapped her head towards him with a scowl, "Demetra? Don't compare me to that feckless old crone." She warned, her pretty, youthful features curling up into an ugly sneer.
Kai stayed silent but made a mental note to leave this Witch as soon as he was physically able. Katesch had specifically told him to seek Demetra, it was a waste of his time to deal with another.
"As for your first question." She continued, the ugly sneer, a distant memory on her beautiful face, "Time flows a little differently in the marsh. It is why you should never fall asleep." She admonished, settling beside him on the bed and pointing a wooden spoon towards him in a reprimanding gesture, "It was foolish of you to enter it alone with an injury like that."
His heart stuttered at this revelation. Time flowed differently...
So far, Kai thought that he had been away from home for two, maybe three days at most, but if during the indeterminate amount of time that he had lost consciousness on the marsh, more time than that had elapsed, then he would be close to the limit he gave to Aida.
It wouldn't be bad for him to receive help and be guided out from the forest by a capable group, but if he could avoid it, Kai would rather not have the Nasiru Council alerted to his trespassing.
He was not in the mood for a tribunal right now.
"Well, I didn't know it was poison, I thought it was just a burn." Kai mumbled, hissing through clenched teeth when the Witch helped him to sit up, carefully coaxing the Vermi from his wound and placing it onto the wooden side table in a gentle manner.
Kai eyed it distastefully as he ate, but was otherwise silent.
He was sure there were questions, things he should ask, things he wanted to know.
But since the moment he woke, Kai couldn't shake the lingering ache in his chest. Like an old wound had been torn open and was yet to heal over, still dripping blood from it's jagged edges.
He didn't want his mind to wake up fully. He hadn't shed a single tear and he didn't want to. He didn't want to think about those voices and he didn't want to remember the insidious whispering that had almost driven him into the water.
After a third helping of the surprisingly pleasant stew of simple vegetables and forest mushrooms, Kai's stomach was full and the pain in his muscles and joints was beginning to recede.
The Witch's name, Kai learned, was Neave, and Neave loved to talk.
She told him more about the forest, the various plants that you could and couldn't eat, which mushrooms you could consume if you wanted to induce hallucinations and euphoria, how many Witches resided in the Grove, and which of these she liked and which of them she disliked.
Kai allowed her to prattle on mindlessly, but all the while, growing increasingly suspicious as to why she had saved him at all.
According to Katesch, the Fates and the Witches were cautious not to meddle too far into human and Demon affairs.
Unlike the mysterious Fates, Kai had some idea as to how the Witches operated and with that knowledge in mind, he was eager to leave Neave's hut as soon as possible and not incur any further payment.
Because Witches, as Kai knew, didn't trade in gold or knowledge.
If you required a spell from a Witch, to heal a loved one where Artifact Healers could not assist, or even something more insidious; to gain wealth, power or even love, there would be a different cost.
One that also explained why this particular Witch was so youthful, and why her young, bright complexion made the hairs on the back of Kai's neck stand up.
And also why, when trading with a Witch, it was advisable to bring companions with you to share the cost.
For the Witches only traded in time.
To a Witch your wealth was in your remaining lifespan. If a human had forty years to live, they could trade for a far more powerful spell than an older man, approaching the end of their life.
And once taken, those years would be added to the Witch, keeping them young and beautiful for as long as they continued to Trade.
It was not only Kai's home country who conducted these exchanges either. The Witches were finite in number and nearly every human residing on Zenin knew of their whereabouts. It was also why the Council restricted citizens from travelling to the Grove without express permission.
If everyone began to trade their time without sufficient reason or control, the life expectancy of their country's human population would begin to drastically decline.
Kai had already guessed that when Katesch had informed him that she had given him time, that this was what she was referring to. His only doubts lay in quite how much time she had passed and whether that had been all she had given.
The overwhelming burst of vitality didn't appear to account for only a few added years, and from the eagerness of this particular Witch, Kai was beginning to wonder if she had added an exorbitant amount of life to his existing span.
As the hours passed, her formerly calm and polite manner was beginning to unravel and Kai occasionally caught a greedy light flashing in her violet eyes, her fingers brushing over his skin with an increasingly uncomfortable frequency.
The next time this happened, her nails brushing his gold blonde hair away from his hazel eyes, Kai weaved his head out of her reach and placed the empty bowl onto the table as he cleared his throat, "Thank you, Neave. For saving me, for feeding me and...for the creepy worm thing." He added, cringing at the sight of the now bulbous creature, seemingly satiated with copious amounts of the Demon's poison and more than a little of Kai's blood, "But I really should be leaving now. I was told that I had to meet Demetra specifically, you see? So, if you could point me in the right direction, I'd be very grateful. Just let me know what I owe you."
Neave's hand dropped to her side and once again that ugly sneer morphed her pretty features, "Ugh. Why Demetra? She's useless, you know. She hasn't conducted a trade in decades, even the humans know she's a good-for-nothing."
And then, Neave leaned forwards, her red, loose-fitting dress, lined with black lace slipping intentionally from her shoulder as her hand slid across his thigh, "Why don't you trade with me handsome? We can settle on a fair price, I'm sure. I might even let you take a few months for free if you want to pay me in - other ways." Her eyes flickered downwards and suddenly Kai was certain as to why Neave had become such a popular Witch with human men.
But strangely, even though he may have jumped at this alluring offer in the past; after all, what was a few hours of sex with a beautiful woman in exchange for a lower cost to your lifespan? Kai found that he was wholly uninterested.
Her touch did nothing, even her beautiful face and the clean floral scent that emanated from her hair and skin may as well have been coming from the bloated Vermi wriggling atop the wooden table.
It was nothing like he'd felt a few nights prior...
Kai shook his head clear and brushed her hand away from his leg, he didn't want to process that thought just yet, but one thing that he was sure of was that he had no intention of sleeping with a Witch in exchange for stew and a gross, poison-sucking parasite.
"That's ok. Just tell me what I owe and I'll leave you be. I'm sorry for imposing for as long as I have." He replied, cautious to keep his tone gentle and respectful.
Neave leant back with a disappointed pout but otherwise made no move to push him further.
She waved her hand in the air dismissively, "Forget it. A trade can't be sealed unless both parties agree beforehand and you didn't ask for me to save you. I did it without permission."
Kai's brows pulled together in confusion, "What? But...you just said you'd take a few months off if we...you know..."
Neave simply gave him a wicked grin and held her hand out to pull him up from the bed, "Can you blame a girl for trying? The Grove is lonely sometimes. Besides I'm sure you'll come crawling back to trade your life with me after you get a load of that wrinkly, old crone."
'Girl? You're probably hundreds of years old, you deceitful hag.'
Kai scowled at her words as they left the hut. What if he had said yes after all? She had simply attempted to trick him into her bed with lies and Kai did not appreciate that.
He only hoped that Demetra was a little more reserved than the Witches he could see now. All of them young and beautiful as they watched him pass, shooting a mixture of greedy smiles and scathing sneers of jealousy at Neave as she pulled him along by the hand.
He staggered a little as they walked, his body still feeling battered and sore, his now bandaged shoulder a dull, but persistent throb.
But Neave paid his struggles no mind.
They passed rows of similarly constructed wooden huts to her own, with no sign of even a simple market stall. The Witches here appeared to live in one single, shared community of limited resources. But none appeared to be unkempt or wanting.
And why should they? Kai realised. If you had infinite years ahead of you and the power to create whatever you wanted, why not live as they did, with no reliance on gold or governance?
But there was one hut that was set apart from this seemingly harmonious community, as though it were shunned from the bright forest clearing of giant fir trees and forced to stand in their gloomy shade at the very edges of their society.
This was the residence that Neave led him to, pausing when they reached the cracked wooden door, with dead flowers beneath the murky windows and a shattered pot on the doorstep as though it had been thrown against it and then simply left there to gather dust..
"Here we are. Good luck, little human, and remember -" Neave bent her head towards his ear and whispered gently, one hand reaching out to press against his chest:
"Come back to me anytime you wish, I would gladly fulfill your desires in exchange for that deliciously long life of yours."
Kai gaped after her as she left, blowing him a kiss and giggling to herself as he shook his head in bewilderment, 'Damn...these Witches are crazy.'
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