Chapter 196: A Steep Cost

Book 4, Chapter 37 - A Steep Cost

Viper edged closer to the lonely fire Jackrin had built deep in the Spinewood. The mad jester walked back and forth, a bundle of twigs and pine needles in his hands that he occasionally tossed to burn. The flames hissed and spat with each new twig thrown in, embers blown aside, spiraling up like a radiant whirlwind to envelop the surrounds in a beautiful light.

Viper felt not that light's warmth.

He shivered again, reaching out toward the fire, letting its tongues lick his palms and singe away the black cloth covering them. “S-stop using y-your m-mask,” Viper stuttered.

Jackrin skipped around, humming. He removed his illusion making mask and smiled bright, face half dulled by the shadows of the woods. Moonlight shone the boundless wonder and violence hidden in the darks of his eyes. “Hypothermia can cause confusion sometimes.”

“I-I am not s-so far gone,” Viper said. He crumpled before the fire, laying inches from it, his back unprotected against the biting breeze washing through the trees. Wolf howls and feral screeches called from every dark corner where Viper's jaded vision did not reach. He grasped cool earth in his shaky palms, finding irony in his current state. “The Shieda af-fraid of the d-dark,” he muttered. “Ha… ha… How c-close are they?”

“Near,” Jack said. “Very. Drawn to the light of our fire I imagine, or the smell of its smoke, or the scent of blood that won't leave my nose.” He then looked over. “You can sleep, Viper. I alone am enough to silence craven rats and puppy dogs.”

Puppy dog. Only Jackrin would label wolves that could grow to twice the size of bears as a puppy dog. Viper ground his teeth. He pushed himself upright, bones feeling weighted with iron. “The night is m-mine,” he hissed, reaching for the chipped black swords laying at his side. Warmth seemed to bleed away from the fire as he turned to face the darkness, unsure from which corner an attack might come. But so dulled were his senses that he did not notice a wolf break free into the clearing until it was inches from his face.

In the timeless moments that followed, a stained boot crashed into the wolf's head, snapping its neck to the side, and sending the massive creature skidding away.

Viper watched this play out in slow motion. A humanoid animal wearing rags had been riding the wolf, and it was thrown off by the force of Jack's punt, flying deftly through the air and landing on its feet with the reflexes of a rat. The creature screeched, lunging for Jack with jagged knives in its strange, three-fingered hands.

Jack, being the superior devil of the night, grabbed the ratman out of the air and slammed its face into the fire, dousing the flames all at once, holding the vermin's face in it as it screeched and writhed, face melting down till death silenced its cry.

Jack giggled.

Viper felt the sudden cold and darkness down to his marrows. His shivers became more constant until Jack threw aside the ratman carcass and relit the flame with flint and stone. “Do you think Aaron hates me?” he suddenly asked, wearing a manic grin all the while.

“Where is this c-coming f-from?”

“He left me. I'm a liability, aren't I? Too depraved to be among the normal folk. And he screamed at me when I came back.”

“Fool. He worries f-for Eksa. He'd rather we were all t-together.”

“Hmm,” Jack mused. He plunged that twisted dagger of his into the body of the wolf. The blade turned a bright scarlet as it drained the animal of its blood. Jack then began skinning the dead beast, cutting from it a cloak sized pelt with the ease of a skilled butcher. He threw the warm and bloody thing over Viper.

“Thanks,” Viper said.

“Yeah.”

Viper hung his head. To skin an animal so quickly… He wondered just how much practice Jackrin had with such a craft. The mad jester sat down opposite the flame, grasping at pine needles littering the forest floor, and throwing them into the fire one at a time.

“Eksa hated me,” Jack said. “She was afraid of me. It was wrong of me to stay near her as her friend.”

Viper said nothing.

“And it wasn't particularly fun being near her. She's… mellow. Too unwilling to do the hard things. She doesn't like it when I do it for her either. Never used me for anything beyond intimidation.”

“Perhaps that was her way of s-saving you. Keeping you f-from your… uh, thing.”

“I need saving, do I?”

“Don't we all?” Viper asked. “Is that n-not why we follow Aaron?”

Jack tilted his face to the starlit sky. “I feel lost without him, Viper. You don't understand. It's not something I can supress. I need an outlet. A… place where I can serve with morals, than be consumed by… by what it is I am.”

Viper curled further beneath the bloody wolf pelt, feeling a lot warmer now. An owl hooted above him, responding to the distant howls of yet even more Silver Tail wolves. “I think you've convinced yourself of what it is you are for far too long. You believe it and see no other path.”

“What path?” Jack asked. He tucked in his knees and rested his chin upon them. He began swaying back and forth like a child. “She made me like this. She took everything from me.”

Jackrin's sister, a full blood Vampire. “And what happens after vengeance? What will be left of you after it? I avenged my father, Jack. There was nothing but emptiness following. If not for Aaron, I might have lain there in the desert and let the sands claim me.”

“I already know nothing comes after vengeance,” Jack said. “I am a half breed. Neither man nor Vampire. I am hated by all races, cursed from birth, forbidden from loving a woman, lusting after violence…”

“We're all cursed,” Viper said. “That was the plan, was it not? To aid Aaron in building that better world for us? Not everyone hates us from the start,” Viper said, thinking about Ophelia. That Jack could admit all of this implied a kindred fragment remaining inside of him. But always his eyes teetered on insanity. Violence was bound to his very marrows, as were morals he must have learned as a child, and those two were in constant conflict. Jack found true harmony in conducting violence with purpose, Viper realized. That was why he needed a cruel pointing hand like Aaron, over the softer, and more kind Eksa.

Not to mention all the horrors plaguing him still.

“There's more Darkspawn coming for us,” Jack said.

“Mm,” Viper replied. He felt warmed enough to at least disappear into the Umbra now. “So… Dhorjun?”

Jack shrugged. “Gutted in an alley. Eksa was drunk. I… coaxed her into giving the order.”

That manic grin had returned. Viper sighed. “She's returned to drinking, has she?”

“Took less than a cycle since Aaron's departure.”

“I told him as much.”

Trees and branches snapped in the not so far distance. There had to be several if not dozens of Darkspawn approaching the lonely fire. “I should get going,” Jack said. “I… suppose I abandoned responsibility, leaving Eksa alone. Tell Aaron I'm sorry.”

“You saved us,” Viper said. “Aaron pushes too hard. I almost feel it's my job to watch over him these days than anything else. Did you come through Heira on your way here by any chance?”

“Ran past it,” Jack said, standing and stretching. He yawned aloud as a ratman with a spear gutted his shirt just beneath the armpit. Jack casually snapped his elbow down, smashing the creature's head with a sickening crunch , its beady eyes bulging out of their sockets. “Why?”

Ran? He came from the Basin here on foot? “You're… welcome to sow a little chaos there,” Viper risked saying. “Aaron will take the city 'fore long, I think.”

The jester's eyes lit up like a child obtaining presents. “Truly?” he asked, spinning around to throw a knife into the shadows beyond.

“Not too much. The city is bloated with refugees and is lacking in food stores. It should be ready to blow any day now. Just the right nudge will see it under our control.”

Jackrin drew out more knives. “Just the right nudge,” he giggled. With that, he bounded into the darkness, cackling in delight to counter the screeches and howls of his enemies.

Viper cursed beneath his breath. The right amount for Jack was almost certainly going to be the wrong amount. Could even lead to many deaths if things turned awry. And yet the worse it was, the easier it would be for a new high lord, backed by the Saintess, to waltz in and claim the city with cartloads of food in tow. So it is we treat the lives of people as stepping stones to the peak of our ambitions.

All for the unified, equal world whose likeness Viper had never seen in any city he'd passed through. Had such a world truly existed thousands of years past, in the age before the War of Ashes? Would bringing it about truly have been worth it, or would the lives cost in the process be one too great?

He could only wonder as he slipped into the Umbra. Viper made for the Virk fortress where he'd seen Aaron being taken into, letting moonlight be his guide through the woods.