“Well done.” Gloms voice echoed far, carried by the void all around. I couldn’t move anything, except my eyes.

Well, shit. This is… a bit scary. Ok, no really, it’s actually scary as all hell. I changed my mind, I want out!

“Thou shall not leave.” Said Glom, the brown star. “We are bound, until thou pick and chooses.”

Oh. Ok. Wait, I didn’t say anything. You can read my mind?

“Here better than before. And thy mind betrays a pleasant past. Loved. Cherished. Understood. Though perhaps a little too… overeager, romantically.”

Ok, wow. First off, rude. Sam and I were literally made for each other. Two halves of a whole. You don’t get to judge that.

“…perhaps.”

Secondly, who gave you permission to rummage through my memories?

I got a laugh in response that thrummed along the bones in my body. The ache in my chest, the broken bone, it was still there. But that pain I could care less about. It was just hot, for now. Present, annoying, but only warm.

Alright. So, what are the other prices I have to pay for a boon?”

“A stake in thy soul. A promise. A connection. A tenth of thy future gains when plundering the soul of others, at the least. A half in case thou wish for the greatest power.”

Ah. That doesn’t sound… too bad. I can live with giving up some potential soul in the future. It’s a lot better than scraping soul off of my present self.

“That it is.”

Shush! At least pretend you’re not listening in on my thoughts. Also, are there any catches?

Glom stayed quiet for a while.

I’ve got all the time in the world, by the by.

“There is one. Never sell away more than half thy soul.”

Why?

“Does thee want to be thyself? Or simply a puppet to the powers of another?”

Ah. Yeah. Go above half and you lose control over yourself. Good to know. But you didn’t tell me about the curse yet.

“Thou knows of the curse? Curious.”

You don’t inspire a lot of trust, y’know.

Glom let out a thunderous harrumph. “I am bound to not reveal many things. However, I shall not exploit another’s trust for mine own gains. Thou would do well to choose from a mindset of critique, rather than be swept by earthly sensation.”

Ah. Alright then. That’s fair.

“Thou comst late. There is little I am still willing to give up. Are thou ready, now, to receive a choice?”

No. Maybe. Let me think about it.

A moment passed where I thought precisely nothing.

I’ve got no questions left. I… I think I’m ready.

She made herself comfortable and looked me in the eye.

“Firstly, I present thee a Boon of Bile. If thou offers a tenth of a soul, thy body will change. Thy bile corrodes. Thou eatest, thou consumest, thou hungers evermore. Thou gains the ability to eat near anything, be it rotted, be it wood or stone. Thou gains the ability to fling thy bile as a projectile from thine throat.”

The sound of her voice boomed far too loud for a simple frog of her size.

“Secondly, I present thee a Boon of Natural Poison. If thou offers two tenths of a soul, thy body will change. Thou art noxious, thou art distrusting, thou know how to kill with a prick. Thou will gain pads of poison along thy body. Thy body will create poison, which cannot harm thee. Thou gains the ability to consume poisonous substances without harm to thyself, which thy body will then reproduce from thy pads.”

“Thirdly, I present thee a Boon of Drekki Bone. If thou offers one tenth of a soul, thy body will change. Thou art strong. Thou never break. Thou never bend. Thou will gain unnaturally strong bones, dark as obsidian and tough as steel. Thou will gain the heritage of the Drekki of old, said to have descended of dragons.

“Fourthly, I present thee a Boon of Water Control. If thou offers three tenths of a soul, thou will be engraved with a sigil of magic power. Thou flows, thou art liquid, in body, in mind. Thou knowest change and how to affect it. Thou will gain the ability to control nearby water by straining thy soul.”

“Lastly, I present thee a Boon of Attraction. If thou offers two tenths of a soul, thy body will change. Thou attractest, thou art attracted, thou stick and cling, thou love and wish to be cherished by all, embraced forevermore. Thou will gain sound, smell and looks to attract others simply by thy presence. Thy sense of touch becomes greater and more precise. Thy body gains the ability to twist, turn and contort in nearly every direction. Thou will gain the heritage of the Venja of old, said to have spawned from the emissions of the Unsleeping Princess.

And then she was silent, her words still beating as an echo inside my head.

H-hello? A-are you still there?

“Choose.” Her great voice boomed from every side.

Ok. Just gimme a sec, alright?

“Choose.”

I said one second! This is important. I need to think about it.

At the lack of any answer, I mentally breathed a sigh. In all honesty, I was kind of giddy. Like waiting for my turn in a dance, like knowing I was about to receive a gift. But I had to focus. To be calm.

This isn’t a gift. It’s a trade. And I have to choose one. I guess the soul cost up front was for the privilege of even being offered a choice like this. A privilege. An entry fee to a market.

Ugh. Let’s not think like that. Let’s think like this: What do I want?

Not the Boon of Bile. Absolutely not. Maybe if I were starving and had to eat dirt. Not that I don’t do that frequently enough. Haha. Jokes. That’d just prove Glom right though. I’d be a true worm.

Also, I don’t want to be known as “Vomit-girl”. Runnergirl is a bit of an uninspired nickname, but at least it’s not that.

Gloms descriptions of the boons didn’t really say much about how they worked in specific. Maybe she was being purposefully vague. Maybe I just had to ask.

How far can I spew my goo? Does it eat through things in minutes or seconds? Do my skin and teeth become stronger, so I don’t dissolve my own mouth when I spit it out?

“Yes.” A froggy voice echoed.

Oh. Right. You’re still listening in. Great. So yeah, not the bile boon. I do not want it.

My thoughts immediately swerved on to the only magical boon she’d mentioned. The Boon of Water Control.

I could shoot people with streams of water! Pew! Sploosh! Now y’all are wet! I could summon a tidal wave, no, an ocean of water and drown my foes. DROWN! Drown…

How magical. Insofar as changing your whole body down to the bone could not be called magical.

I don’t wanna drown people. The thought alone, it… no. I won’t ever stoop that low.

But I bet changing your body would hurt. Then again, maybe being engraved with magic would do that as well. I saw Ritz. It was like parts of his muscle, of his skin, his bone were just… open. And that’s where the magic was placed, a hollow in the body. As if that were normal.

I shuddered at the thought. Maybe, maybe if I got it engraved on my back, I’d be fine with it. But I don’t know if I can control where it goes. What if it’s on my chest? My belly and legs? My hands? My face?

I’m not even cast-rated. Castrated? Wait, are those two different things? Would I have to castrate myself to use magic? Did Ritz do that? How would that even work for me? Maybe it wouldn’t.

Argh, if only I’d asked. If only I’d… taken some more time. A single day, maybe. A few minutes, a string of words. A sentence.

I think I’m starting to get why the Wolf calls my impatience a flaw. Choices always seem so regrettable in hindsight. And the price. Three tenths. Wow, that’s a lot. I think I’ll have to look at the other boons more before I choose for or against this.

Can I take my time, Glom?

No answer came.

Guess I will then. Alright, what’s next, what’s next?

When I looked inward to remember, the words the half-maybe-god toad had said came easily, as if repeating directly inside my mind.

The Boon of Poison. That one is… weird. Kill with a simple prick? That would be… helpful, I guess. I can’t do too much as I am. Or, well, I can. Just not as much as others. Vinesse sprayed down half a dozen thugs with her steam magic. Ritz can hear the quietest sound from dozens of feet away if he uses his magic. And Avice? She doesn’t even have as much. And still she dueled two people to death. One of them was literally made of metal scales!

So yeah. Poison would be a boon. Pads of it along my body? Well, on the one hand, hugs of death! I am a great hugger after all.

… on the other, no more friendly hugs at all.

Yeah, this just seems too deadly for my taste. Into the box you go, locked away, forgotten!

Which makes me want to ask: What the fff-rick is up with the Boon of Attraction? Like, seriously, just, why? I’d become bendy? How would a greater sense of touch even help me?

At that moment, a very intimate and very embarrassing memory flashed in front of my eyes. I will say no more, besides that it involved me, Sam, a line of red rope, and a basket of peaches.

Glom chuckled, long and to herself. I shot her a glare, as far as I was able to. Which I wasn’t, not one bit. I sent a bunch of hostile thoughts her way instead.

You want to know what week old Grung-shit smells like? This! How do you gut a fish? This is how! Want to see a dog giving birth? How ‘bout two–

“Cease! Cease. I shall not gaze too deeply.”

Alright, good. By the way, since I’ve got your attention: What the hell is a Venja?

“A spawn of Rokokoko. They are a variant of humanoid nature, tailed, unscaled, round-eyed occasionally horned.”

So… they’re not human?

“They are.”

W-what?

“All intelligent races the gods see under their purview are human. No matter their looks. No matter their heritage. The confluence of races caused great upheaval, but in the end, it was agreed that all are similarly lesser before the gods. A tail, some scales, or an uneven number of digits doesn’t make the difference.”

Then what does?

Glom was silent for quite some time. “Whether thou can be civilized or not. And whether thou submits to the reign of our gods. I am bound to say no further.”

Bound? Bound by whom?

But no answer came. Not to that question, nor to any further one. Prying any additional information from the slimy frog’s fingers proved impossible. I turned my focus back to the boons. I wanted it done at least today.

Not like the world around us is moving at all. There’s a drop of rainwater flowing down my nose this very moment. It has barely moved half an inch after all this time. But back to the boons.

The Boon of Attraction is… well… it would help making friends, maybe? Or swooning admirers. Or unwanted admirers. I’d heard about those. Mum had a few when she was younger, before she met Da’ in his legion days. But I don’t remember why, or what she was doing at the time.

Relax. Focus. Not on the drop that’s tickling your nose. On the task in front of you.

So, Boon of Attraction. Makes me pretty. Makes me more sensitive. Makes me lithe and agile. At least the latter part would be helpful in a fight. Maybe it’d fix my arm?

…and I would like to be loved. Ever since I got my first big dream after the Wolf carried me out of the swamp, I’ve missed company. Of many sorts. It’s… shameful to admit. But I miss Sam. A lot more than anyone else. Even my parents.

I’m not that good of an Egg. I’m selfish. Ugh. Box.

The fact alone that this was taking up so much space in my mind made me feel all kinds of conflicted. Then again, the Boon of Bile and of Poison weren’t very strong competitors.

What about the last one?

I thought long and hard about the Boon of Drekki Bone. It was the odd one out of the bunch.

It promises… hard bones. That’s neat. No more broken bones would be incredibly handy. Haha. But it also gives me the heritage of the Drekki. Whatever that means. Any notes on that Glom?

No answer.

Dammit. It looks so… underwhelming. But it’s cheap. I can see the use in it. And I know about the Drekki. Big maned lizard things that live in the mountains, strong, hardy and near feral. They’re supposedly descended from dragons. I thought dragons didn’t exist. That they were only found on dead wood, the skin of animals and other things where stories were recorded.

My mind started going wild, imagination set aflame.

Rye the Stoneboned.

Rye, the dragon knight.

Unbreakable Rye.

It could do very much starting with very little, and often did without my own initiative. But the problem remained just that: is this all?

Is it, Glom?

No answer once again.

Tell me? Am I missing something?

No words.

Please?

Silence.

…Glom. I’m serious. Will this help me?

“Choose.” Was all she said. “Choose and be more.”

I stood there, unable to move, unable to think outside of a self-sustaining circle. I breathed in. I felt the drop, now at the tip of my nose.

Calm.

What do I want?

What do I need?

What is required of Rye, to become herself, or that little bit more than she was before?

And then, a single thought came to me.

Glom, will the Boon of Drekki Bone heal me? My bones that are broken?

“…it will.”

And I breathed out, in mind, in soul.

Then I’ve made up my mind. Not a big change. But not a big sacrifice either.

The thought alone seemed enough, as the yellow eyes of Glom began to slowly rotate, until they were fixed on my body.

“It shall be.” She said.

And then, the change started. Something at the core of my being twisted and compressed. If under my skin was one layer, then it was two deeper. It was hot at first, unbearably so. I couldn’t scream. And after a moment, a sensation like cracks all along my skeleton wrenched my eyes wide open. Like a broken vase, they snaked up until they were knocking at the inside of my head.

I blacked out and awoke again to a slight warm glow that still stuck to my bones coursing throughout. I didn’t know how much time had passed. I didn’t know where I even was. No raindrops hanging in the air. No people sparring in the distance.

Everything was completely black. Pitch black. Nothing all around. Nothing but me. Besides that, I felt good. Great, even. Like I really could run a xanathon. Strong. Like I could hold up the world.

H-hello?

There was no answer.

Is somebody there?

But I felt watched.

My eyes turned. I could move them, just that little bit. It was enough. There was a mountain to my left. Infinitely far away and at the same time right next to me. Its roots were the ground beneath my feet. Its bulk a border, a wall I couldn’t possibly overcome. Its peak. I couldn’t see the peak.

I stared at it for a time, but an unknown something pushed my gaze down. A weight. I stared at the black abyssal ground, unable to move, unable to do anything but sweat inside.

Out of the corner of my eye, the mountain gained a face. Carved from rock. Still. Uncaring. All seeing.

There are thousands of them. No, tens-of-thousands. More.

The largest one, like the mask Avice frequently wore, turned. Its gaze ground against me and I felt small.

It spoke and the world shook.

“A taboo has been broken.”

The voice of the mountain flayed me bare. I felt naked. I was naked, in front of it. A gaze like a million hands touching my skin, pointing at me, crawling from top to bottom. Slowly. Side to side. Inside. Outside. As if I was like, like a… like a lifeless puppet. Like a toy.

“A grave sin against our peace and order.”

The unseen fingers pointed at me and I was compelled to feel shame.

“All knowing.”

The hands rasped against my hair and I cried out to the sky.

“All seeing.”

They stretched my eyes wide to tears, so I had to watch.

“All bearing.”

One pressed against my naked chest. And then through. Squirming. Dry. Uncaring.

“For transgression, thou art cursed.”

It grasped my heart and squeezed it tight.

“To right a wrong. A Boon of Drekki Bone. A curse of unbearable weight. Thou, Elia Rye, first of eighteen, art heavy.”

And then, the darkness passed, sucked away into the world. So thoroughly that the thought it ever was there seemed an insult. A mockery against the fear, the shame, the hate I felt. I remained, standing on stalks of grass like once before. My knees wobbled. My legs felt heavy. Everything was.

I collapsed to the mud, the wetness greeting me like a forsaken friend of ill intent. Memory hit like a storm. I screamed. Loud. And the clack-clack-click-click-clack in the back remained. A low-humming twang rang out.

“It’s not fair! It’s not fair!”

All was normal, at the temple premises. And yet I screamed, until three people picked me up, and dragged me on the unbearably hard stone surface of the temple floor.

“Fret not, dear Rye.” A voice like Glom gurgled. “Thou art a worm no longer. A tadpole, fresh from the egg. The time is nigh. When the sun has been extinguished by sin. When the sky has fallen from the weight it bore. When the land fissured and took abuse no more. When the sea breathed for the first time, and drowned before shallowest holy shore, I will be there. To witness thy living sacrifice. And that of uncountable others.”

I felt my chest and there was no swelling, but I was in pain. I looked at Avice, worried and distraught like all the other three. Four. I looked at my hand, expecting it to budge.

Still fucked. Gods-fucking-dammit.

But the voice was not yet done. It spoke to my mind. And to an extent, I knew what the speaker felt. Pride.

“Now rise. Rise, Rye. Above what thou were once for born. And bear the torch, to carry back, an set alight old and holy Loften, the last city of man.”