RE: Monarch-Chapter 288: ??? IX

RE: Monarch-Chapter 288: ??? IX

I felt myself hardening. Raising my emotional walls, preparing to endure any combination of psychological or physical assault Thoth might bring to bear. It was almost automatic—as if regardless of what she was asking for, the reaction would have been the same.
The thought of ceding anything she wanted was distasteful.
And yet, rationally, after thoroughly racking my mind for a perfectly logical reason to not part with the information, I came away with nothing worthy of denial at all.
It was in some ways the best sort of question she could have asked.
Any inquiry around my uncanny intuition, or the many times I'd simply sidestepped pitfalls that should have easily snared me was non-negotiable. If Thoth learned of my ability to reset within her iterations, a counter that supplanted her near-omnipotence almost by design, she would handle the threat expeditiously—my memories lost, body cold beneath the steel of whatever sealing magic she used to erase awareness.
This though? The answer was mostly harmless. In ordinary circumstances I would have fought tooth and nail to keep the information from her. Anyone who valued their life would see the benefit of the artifact—and she was likely one of the few individuals on this plane capable of retrieving it from the terrible clutches in which it was held.
Still. Getting the words out was difficult. I chided myself, reiterating that this was effectively receiving something for nothing, then collapsed in a chair across from her, eyeing her boots in disdain. "What you saw was a very convincing projection from a magical artifact."
Her brow furrowed, and she steepled her fingers on her stomach. "I can tell the difference between pain acted and experienced."
"That's because it wasn't acted." I admitted, wincing a little at the memory. "My mind fully inhabited the body. I smelled the iron of my blood, felt every tearing impact rushing to my ears as you tore me apart. It was all very real."
Thoth absorbed that, expression carefully neutral. "I've never heard of such a thing."
"Then it's a relief to discover there are limits to your sight."
"And convenient, that such windfall should suddenly find itself in your possession." Thoth said, her voice direct and accusatory.
I barked a laugh. "Convenient? Please. There was nothing convenient about it. Not at all. The only reason I discovered it in the first place was because it was first wielded against me by an enemy, to terrible effect." I remembered watching the person identical to myself cross the threshold of Maya's household in the middle of the asmodial invasion, and closed my eyes. "And by the time it made its way into my hands, it served better as leverage than any practical use."
"Ah." Thoth's eyes lit up. "Brokered to the asmodials, in exchange for their alliance. That's how you managed it. It must have been priceless."
I looked away. "It was one of several bargaining chits."
"Perhaps." Caution entered her voice. "But I am intimately familiar with the legions and their practices. If you traded them something worth even a fraction of what is being implied, it is laughable that you'd see it again, let alone be allowed to use it for your own devices."
"Unless they erred."
Thoth cocked her head, puzzling over that. Then a dark scowl overtook her mouth. "It really wasn't some desperate gambit to get me to lower my defenses." Her gloved fingers impacted the table, each fingertip striking like a tiny hammer as she thought through it. "They grew overly ambitious, perhaps looking to flex their dominance and capture a weakened opponent. But if that's true, why order them to kill me?"
I remembered rushing down from my vantage, heart racing as Ozra wasted precious moments toying with her.
"Because—"
"Because you knew they would fail. From your perspective, the batch was already spoiled. And I'd been weakened from the work purifying the ley line, ceding perhaps the best chance you'd ever had to rid yourself of me, once and for all." Thoth leaned back, taking it in.
It was uncanny how quick she was. I had a tendency to think of her along similar lines as my father. A cunning brute, capable of clever plans and ruses but slow to rely on intelligence simply because their strength and ability so far outclassed everyone else.
But I could see clearly now how she'd survived all this time.
Why I'd once relied on her.
"Not that it mattered. You intended to kill me and violate our truce, regardless. Said almost exactly that."
After a moment, Thoth made a noncommittal gesture. "In truth, it could have gone either way."
I blinked. "But I've been getting in your way. Causing problems."
"Yes. You have." Thoth agreed, annoyance fading after a moment. "Yet the world does not revolve around you. And this iteration has not been promising from the beginning."
It was the first I'd heard of that.
I decided to take the risk and press for information. "How so?"
She waved me off, annoyed. "Suffice it to say there are several leading indicators we have reliably used over the centuries to predict how likely it is that any given iteration will be successful. And for this instance, they have not been promising." Her head tilted upward suddenly, and she refocused. "You said one of several bargaining chits. What were the others?"
My soul. And yours, once you fall.
I leaned back, mirroring her posture. "That is outside the parameters of our agreement. You asked how I did it, and have seen that question answered."
If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please it.
She shoved the water skins towards me with her boot. "Hells take you then."
The next few hours were productive, albeit unpleasant. Despite my hopes, Thoth seemed to have no intention of leaving. I still intended to wring more information out of her before leaving this wretched wasteland behind, but my mind was still addled, and having her around while my thoughts were cloudy and scattered felt incredibly dangerous.
The good thing was, since I'd clammed up, she didn't seem particularly interested in revisiting the conversation. Or any conversation at all.
But from the way she was cataloguing the various herbs and drying ingredients, jotting down notes on a piece of light parchment, I was slowly beginning to understand that the bounty of the hut was no longer exclusively my own.
I shifted out of her way instinctually as she brushed by me, examining a hanging bundle. I watched, frustration bubbling up, reaching its apex when she reached up towards the clasp, intending to take all of it.
"Glutton." I muttered.
"Excuse me?"
"The wyvern's breath. I need whatever paltry amount you can spare, my lord."
"Don't call me that. What for?" She replied, still immersed in her parchment.
"Draughts of vitality."
The feathered quill she wrote with—seemingly without ink, as I'd yet to see her dip it—paused, feather tapping at her lip. "Not the worst idea. How many strands?"
"Six."
She plucked them one by one, gathering double what I'd asked, and laid them down onto my workstation with more force than necessary. "Make me some."
"Make it yourself."
Thoth stared at me, then shook her head. "I intend to burn a small amount of precious mana towards the purpose of alchemy critical to surviving through the next month. It would be wise to contribute what little you can."
I suppressed the urge to roll my eyes.
Of course you're an alchemist.
"Fine. Not like it's that much of an imposition." Several nasty possibilities crept into my mind. The selection of drying herbs was wide, and many of them were not harmless in the proper quantities. Draughts of vitality were meant to be sipped daily. If I were to pollute her draughts with a small amount of sedative or muscle relaxant, something that wouldn't give itself away in taste, that could go a long way to making it easier to escape when the time came.
Discreetly, I removed a pestle from the shelf and piled in a few loose leaves of lotus flower and gilded fern, intending to make a particularly sickening muddle.
"And Cairn." Thoth called over her shoulder as she withdrew to the side of the room covered with alchemy equipment. "If there is an attempt at poison—I will know."
"Your paranoia knows no bounds," I murmured, quietly dumping the contents of the pestle into a bin.
We carried on in silence. It reminded me a little of working in the alchemist's shop in the Enclave, tending the apothecary side of things while my employer focused on anything that required magical attention.
Once entrenched in the process, I found myself a little surprised. I'd expected everything but peace. Yet once the work had started, Thoth kept to herself, her face a mask of quiet focus as she manipulated the rudimentary equipment with ease, leveraging it in ways I hadn't even realized were possible. Her dexterity in combat seemed to lend itself equally to lab work, and I felt myself growing envious as I watched her alter the settings on a tumbler while babysitting a burner, her remaining hand idly grinding something in the pestle. Three projects that should have required unfettered attention, easily juggled.
Her head tilted in my direction, and she raised an eyebrow. "Is that supposed to be boiling?"
"Shit." I thrust my fist into an insulating glove and snatched the bubbling alembic off the open flame. It was only meant to simmer, and exceeding the target temperature for any longer than a few seconds could spell disaster. Still well within the safety window, I managed to salvage what I had. "Good catch."
But Thoth didn't seem to hear me. Now that I was paying attention, she seemed increasingly frustrated with something—though it was impossible to say what. A handful of alchemical apparatuses chugged simultaneously, some I knew the purpose of, while others were entirely unfamiliar.
Curiosity got the better of me. "Is there a problem?"
"Yes. There's a gods damned problem." Thoth removed her gloves, slapping them down on a nearby shelf one after another. Her hands were badly scarred. A sudden surge of mana filled the room, stark in its sudden appearance, like rain after a drought. She held a hand palm out, thumb pressed inward, index and third finger extended as she drew an odd, lopsided outline.
Not unlike a person's silhouette—
I startled as said person suddenly popped into existence. And not just any person. A duplicate. Nearly everything was the same, from the botched eye, to the long spindly figure, to the banded leathers that somehow left movement unrestricted despite their tightness.
The simulacrum I'd suspected. And she'd just summoned it casually.
It briefly crossed my mind that the glass of the nearby window was likely thin enough to dive through.
The duplicate glanced my way before losing interest and turning back to the original. "Is this the best use of mana at this time?"
"It is, and you would do well not to question me." Thoth responded to her facsimile.
"The fact that I am questioning at all implies doubt."
"Just... shut up." Thoth swatted the air in annoyance. When she spoke again, it was in a savage tongue as harsh as it was unfamiliar.
The duplicate crossed her arms and replied.
Thoth shook her head, arguing again, and made an obvious gesture towards the door.
Begrudgingly, the duplicate seemed to accept whatever had been said and stalked away, lifting the broken door from its barricade and placing it back down behind her.
I whistled low, doing my best to disguise how utterly struck I was. "Wow."
"What?" Thoth challenged.
"Just dismayed—devastated, even—to learn there can be two of you."
She scoffed, turning back to her work and shutting me out once more.
But in truth, it wasn't nothing. Not by a long shot. I'd long since wondered how deeply set her paranoia was. If she had any inkling to the truth of my circumstances. But it seemed that truth had escaped her. And she was already lowering her guard, parting with what should have been deeply held secrets, simply because the end was near.
This is no time for pride. I need to figure out whatever it is she needs so badly.
I approached her from behind. "I worked for an alchemist once."
She paused, still facing away, head tilted ever so slightly in my direction. "I'd heard that, yes."
"Of course you have." I chuckled a little, trying to suppress the growing nausea at the premise of what I was about to offer. "Can't claim to bear any real understanding of it. Not really. When the snow thaws I prefer apothecary work, though it cannot reach the same ridiculous heights of its sister art. But I'm more than capable of aiding one who is more familiar than I."
"And this has nothing to do with your overwhelming penchant for nosiness?" Thoth muttered, glassware clinking against each other as she examined the contents.
"More to the point, I want more iron lung potions. And they cannot be brewed through the practice of apothecary alone. The less we breathe whatever's out there, the longer we live. That's simple math." I said with utmost confidence, internally holding my breath. This was a gambit, one predicated on the reality that I didn't need Thoth herself to tell me what she was making. If she assumed I was as amateurish as I'd led her to believe, she wouldn't bother hiding as much from me either. All I needed to commit to memory was the ingredients and a glimmer of the process.
Her golden eye lanced through me as she weighed the option.

Chapter 288: ??? IX