These people were desperate. It was my first thought, upon arriving in this... slums... center. Conditions in this place were horrid. They were beyond horrid - they were a form of torture all their own. No sane person would willingly live here, not if given a choice. It's unfortunate then, that I knew better than most how adept men were at taking choice out of the equation. "Shardshire won't allow it."

"It's never worked before-"

"Well be punished if we-" I kept an ear towards the fearful murmuring of the crowd as I watched the man in the center of the crowd plead his case. It stood to reason that they would be afraid. This nation was highly stratified. When I had first arrived here in my flight from the deserts I had once called home, I had been confused by the lack of any martial training among the populace. It was as though the fact that they were entirely dependant on others for their safety had never occurred to them as a problem. As though they had resigned themselves to weakness. Given up the will to strive. Given up on the Command. That was before I knew how godless this land was. Where I was raised to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that mankind must rise up to match the monsters of our land, to lay low the demons of the Adversary - these people had elected to delegate the task of their defense to a chosen few. The wrong few. The few who had quickly placed themselves 'above', as rulers more important than their subjects who grew their food and built their homes. The few who were tainted by his magic. I knew all to well now how that oppression could look. It was why I was training Erwin's men after all, why I was... The flash of rage at the tiny creature next to me was quickly scuttled by the cold reality of the situation. I could see it, in the corner of my eye. The monstrous, terrible, thing that had reaped my soul before I could go to my ancestors. That had denied me sweet repose among the heavens. It was a curious thing really. Sometimes seeming almost to be human in its wants and desires. But I could feel it's thought when I was submerged in the endless see of its soul. Feel them sliding across the unprotected essence of my very being with each passing moment I had remained at rest. It was an alien thing. As far beyond my ability to comprehend fully as the stars are to an ant. And then it had dredged me up out of that abyss, at first merely to swing its horrible approximation of tail too and fro - much against my will, and now, to shepherd it through the lands of men. And in truth, while I would have liked to simply kill myself and be done with it - even knowing that my soul would likely remain in its clutches - I could not. Because while my time as an Adept was done - spiritually if not physically - I could still live by the Command. I could do my utmost to protect those around the heinous thing that seemed greedy enough to defy death itself. A brilliant flash of light drew my attention back to center of the crowd, and I realize that blood loss had left me somewhat lacking in focus. Though I did note I had stopped bleeding out long before I should have. Likely the creatures doing. In the center of the crowd where once there was nothing of note save a man raving against his lot in life, now there stood a Luremaw, a creature I recognized well from my time in the order. They were not the most dangerous of creatures - their human facsimiles were easily sussed out, as they merely repeated a handful of ambiguous phrases, being completely unable to hold a conversation. But more than one unsuspecting person had been lured to their death chasing a suspected thief, or false image of a loved one. Curious though that all of this ones facsimiles look like the same woman though. "I have found a spy in the caves! No doubt here to thwart the uprising!" the man cackled, and a pair of facsimile dragged a small girl I, and no doubt the creature recognize kicking and bucking into view. I found it odd that it cared so much for her, but it wasn't completely without precedent. Sometimes monsters just... took a liking to certain people. Of course, usually people were a part of that monsters reproductive process - as in the case of Arachne or Harpies - but it wasn't completely unheard of at least. As the girl was dragged forward and horrendous burning pain ripped through my skull, and I found myself seeing static for a few moments as I readjusted. My hand thrust up to feel for the source of the pain - a spot just behind my left ear, only to come away just as fast when something bit my hand. "Do something." came an eerie, oddly discomforting female voice from behind me. Or rather, behind me ear. I looked sharply down a the monster beside me. For all intents and purposes, it looked to be on a leash. But I knew better. I felt the other end of the fleshy tendril as it occasionally pulsed in my wrist. Even without that, the malignant growth it had forced on my body was more than enough to remind me what my position in our relationship was. The leash was on me, not it. It stood stock still, its head cocked to one side and a single malignant yellow orb pointed at me, as though awaiting a response. As though daring me to defy my orders. "I - " I started to say but was halted by another fierce pain radiating throughout the inside of my mouth. My tongue quickly found the newest addition to my form. It was a single ear pasted inside the roof of my mouth as though it had always been there. "Quietly." Whispered that voice again. Matronly, and soothing, but somehow none of those things. Like the soft caress of a knife across the skin. "I... don't know what to do." I breathed hesitantly. To quiet for any but the ear in my mouth to hear. I wondered if this was to be my life, a slowly mutating toy for a childishly selfish creature that seemed to neither understand nor care about the horrors it was working upon me. "If any harm comes to her -" there was a pause in the voice, like the sudden stopping of a birds call as an arrow sinks into its breast. "- theN wE wILL." the sudden change in the voice, from a strangely unsettling womans to the blatantly unearthly rasp as it completed its sentence caused me more than just discomfort. It caused me physical pain. It was so foreign a sound that for a few moments, blood beginning to drip from my ear, I could only stand stock still trying to puzzle the words out, trying to associate that voice with language instead of simply noise. Frantically, my eyes scanned the crowd of people. The crowd of innocent, defenseless people. Downtrodden souls who, in another life, I would have died protecting from such threats as my current master. Then they darted to the creature again, itself still totally still. Waiting. *** It was kind of interesting watching Thane think. I mean, the big guy was probably the most dangerous human I'd ever met, and he was literally training rape happy bandits to use magic for the hostile take over of some far flung village if what I'd gleaned was true. But he was weirdly hesitant to just yell something. I would have done it myself but I didn't think much of anything a monster had to say was going to be received well. Assuming a talking monster was received well at all. I had done my best to prompt him before I had to create another mouth and start handing out stern talkings to but he seemed hesitant to do so. Finally, he steadied the trembling in his right hand - the one holding his sword, and turned away from me. "Wait!" he yelled, immediately drawing the attention of every single person in the crowd. It was a testament to how stressed out they were by the yelling old guy that they hadn't immediately noticed the naked man and two monsters standing behind all of them. Talk about a poor survival instinct. "Ohohoho! What do we have here? Little Binder thought he could make it here through the Stonespear Hive and avoid the blockade?!" the man on stage cackled. Stonespear Hive? Oh the Rockwasp things. "No!" Thane cried out, and for a second I thought the desperation in his voice was real as his gaze darted back and forth across the gathered crowd that had backed away from us the minute he'd started yelling - though none towards the angler fish monster, which was just sitting there, taking deep shuddering breaths. "I swear on my honor! Please, leave my daughter be." Thane said, his voicing dropping from a panicked yell to more of a loud conversational tone when the surrounding villagers stopped whispering among themselves to examine me and Thing Two more closely. It wasn't lost on my that Thane had referred to Nadeen as his daughter, which I guess could pass if you didn't look too closely at them. Nadeen was pale from her near death conversion to a... whatever she was now. A Sort of Thing I guess. And Thane was pale because his current body had literally never encountered sunlight. They were an eerie, ghost like, matching pair. "What proof do you have that you aren't here to quell the rebellion?!" yelled the guy on stage who was quickly becoming a nuisance. "I... What would you have me do?" Thane asked with a pained grunt, playing up his injuries. "If I had wanted to stop you, my monsters could have done so while none of you noticed me. Instead, I only spoke out when you dragged my daughter here." Thane pleaded. His head turned fractionally to me when he said 'my monsters' but I let it slide since that was the entire point of making him do all this. Nadeen looked half way between furious and relieved as she watched the proceedings. No doubt she was exceptionally confused at her 'father', who was very much someone she thought was dead, standing in a cave speaking on her behalf. If I had been standing right next to him she probably would have said something on the matter. As it was I was just thankful she stopped struggling and didn't use the lull to try and kill someone. "Hmm. Why... why are you naked?" The shit disturbing guy whos name hadn't come up yet asked tentatively, coming down from his zealotry long enough to notice Thane's lack of pants. "...There were bandits in the wood." Thane replied stonily. It wasn't a lie technically. Just - he was the bandit. "...Hm." The man said after a moment. Then seeming to come to a decision, his hand flicked towards the creepy identical women holding Nadeen, who promptly flounced - yes flounced - towards the Angler fish head before both they, and it, disappeared in another flash of purple light. "Lets talk somewhere more private." he offered, hopping down off of his stage. The villagers all seemed to take that as their queue because they began to disperse - leaving a wide berth between themselves and us. I was surprised as hell myself. As much as I'd done this whole 'raise the dead' thing so I could have a human face do my talking for me, I pretty much expected my usual luck to kick in and force me to kill all these people. If I was being honest with myself, a tiny part of my would have sort of preferred it. A thought that did not at all comfort me. The other guy - who's name he still hadn't deigned to fuck tell us - gestured towards us with one calloused hand and began walking away, obviously expecting us to follow. Thane dutifully began to trudge after him, and was quickly stopped when another nearby villager threw what was most likely a potato sac with holes cut in it at him. He hurried to get it on and in a moment of curiosity I forced him to drop his sword and snipped the tether tying us together. I don't think he even noticed at first, despite the momentary spray of blood from the severed flesh tube before it withered and fell off both of us. It was only when he pulled his head out through the whole in the top of the sac tunic that he noticed, gazing down at me where I'd quickly run over to pull his sword away and hand it to Nadeen. "Huh." I whispered into his ear so as not to be overheard by the nearby workers who had begun to get the carts back onto their tracks, hefting mining picks over there shoulders and wandering into the dank caves surrounding this one. "You..." he said hoarsely, one hand twitching towards his ear but stopping with a flinch, his thumb running over the small bite I'd given him so he didn't draw attention to the literal mouth on his ear. I examined him carefully before shrugging. It was a strange sensation. He was still me. Or rather, a part of me. A being of my flesh and blood that I felt I could bend to my will using Gore Terminal, regardless of whether he was physically connected to me. I briefly debated testing whether or not I could yank his soul out of the thing, but decided now wasn't an opportune testing time. "I gave it even odds your body would shrivel up and die if it wasn't connected to me." I cooed to him pleasantly. Thane merely stared blankly at me, though a small twitch seemed to have developed in his right eye. "Excuse me." Nadeen said, inserting herself into the conversation at last. Thane and I both turned to her, and I saw Thane take note of her sharpened teeth when her mouth opened. "Yes dear?" he said through gritted teeth, playing the dutiful father. "What the fuck is going on?" she asked. It was then, hearing that familiar phrase from the otherwise semi polite and childish Nadeen that I realized.

I was a terrible parental figure.