Sebastian raised his head, looking at the people around the table, he couldn't even see their faces. Instead of familiar faces, he saw white outlines of fire, with various levels of tendrils throughout their bodies. Some were so contaminated… they appeared to be made of the black tendrils.
Zane stiffened in his chair as the mass of wriggling blackness stood beside him with a pitcher that had just filled his wine cup with more wriggling black. To his relief, anything he had touched seemed to have… withered the black tendrils so they looked like dead black slugs. He knew it was better, but the knowledge that he'd been eating such foul for days… he suddenly wasn't hungry anymore. Fasting was good.
Rommel's stomach tightened only for an instant. He'd eaten meat raw when on the battlefield, these worm like, slug like things were definitely gross, but clearly Lady Aliana's blessings had killed off anything detrimental before it could infect them. As he glanced around the table, if every meal consisted of even half the menu being infectious… well no wonder the empire was blind to their own destruction. He noted none of the Inago were infected, and the Carlos Duchy had the least tendrils infecting them. The visiting royals all had varying degrees of… dead infections.
Jantje stared at her stomach in horror, her entire torso had black tendrils, even if none seemed alive, it made her skin crawl.
Beloved looked down at her favored human, "Nix cleaned you just this morning, Nix burnt them all away, careful what you eat, we will eventually leave one day." Beloved chided as the shared sight fell away.
Sebastian put his fork down, "Majesties, perhaps we have all the ingredients and seasoning… verified before use? Personally, I believe… I am no longer in the mood for sure fare."
Calix and his cousins were all eagerly wiping their hands, when palm sized black chicks popped their heads out of the ground. Soon, half a dozen chicks were hopping around the table…
"Shh, you need not be worried, no need for concern, Nix is too kind to leave such influenced unburned." Beloved giggled as she leapt into Nix's waiting arms, "It's just kind of annoying, so much extra work, rather to avoid, the after to purge."
Ashton swept her up into a princess carry, "My efforts were silent, to not raise alarm, so many infected, so many too far charmed."
Beloved blinked up at Nix, "But dragons are silly, if you do not say, how will they know? How will they change?"
Ashton sighed, "Dragons are greedy, lazy too boot. Just look at their history, all change rendered moot. If I explain every favor, the more they expect, then when taken away, all the more upset."
Beloved gasped as she covered her face, "Dragons are selfish, not one word of thanks! We just showed them the problem, yet in their seats they do shake!" Beloved added indignantly as she turned her nose up at the dragonkin. See if she would help them again!
Leonard wanted nothing more to bathe in boiling water, no, boiling… holy water? These things supposedly came from the church, did he need some time of cursed item to remove it? Beast Gods above, he wanted a mirror… most of the infestation appeared to be in his lower abdomen, but most of the servants and guards heads were overrun with the things.
Jaxon removed his, Monroe's, and his Majesty's plates, "Have everything inspected, nothing is to be disposed of without confirmation from…" He wasn't even sure who to assign, all of them were infested to varying degrees…
Ashton sighed, "Stay in the sun, the light is a boon, kills off infestation, survives only in the empire's gloom." One would think their last few days of clarity would have made them think twice about spending so much time in doors. Everyone had natural resistance to foreign influence, yet the entire empire was constantly brainwashed. Even a dumb dragon should have looked into a common denominator of all its citizens.
Sebastian shuddered, food… but how could the church ensure every household ate their… concoction? In horrified silence he looked up to meet Duke Darnings's equally horrified face.
"The food larders… the food relief… we are forced to send out every year… the church distributes almost all of it…" Jaxon closed his eyes, judging from what he'd seen of the liquids, the influence survived just fine. Blessings over communally shared wine… how had none of them even thought of it? No, how many bones had been used… every day, to ensure that the entire country was constantly reinfested. Bones of the willing to be more specific.
Aaron stared at his plate, Beast Gods above… he'd heard more than once that other nations considered the empire's capital gloomy, chilly, unusually dark by most priests… had they meant it… literally?
Jaxon turned to face the still silent Lucian, "Your Majesty?"
Lucian dazedly met Jaxon's eyes, "I've seen them before… I know… how they're made." How had he forgotten… he remembered the beatings, torture, isolation… but until he saw the wriggling wormlike tendrils… he'd forgotten the most horrific sight he'd ever seen.
Jaxon stilled, "Majesty? How are they… how are they made?"
"A priest will drink blood of the imperial family, then cut their own stomach open… they are kept alive until the infection burrows deep into every bone… then their flesh is removed… the bones are crushed and mixed with salt or boiled in water… they use the flesh for something else…" Lucian explained still stuck in the memory… he'd seen it more than once… when one of his half siblings died.
"Every time an imperial child died… we were blind folded, sometimes I wasn't the only one watching after being dragged into a secret chamber," Lucian recalled, he'd had a half sister two years younger than himself… Keegan… they'd huddled together after being bled, watching… for days. Lucian had sworn he'd get her out of there on the day he was being returned to their father… "What happened to Keegan? The fourteenth concubine born princess?" Lucian demanded looking into Jaxon's eyes. Jaxon and Keegan's time in the church had overlapped for almost a year.
Jaxon stilled… Keegan? He gripped his head as a sharp pain caught him off guard, "Keegan, Concubine… Concubine Renne's second daughter…"
Leonard didn't wait for them to remember, "Her body couldn't stand the concentration of dragon blood, she died half a year after you returned to the palace your Majesty." She'd been little more than a footnote, but… "Her body was returned to her maternal family, I recall Concubine Renne passed away during the stillbirth of her third child about two years later. She insisted on being buried with her first two children." There were no survivors of Concubine Renne's house after the purge.
"Beast Gods above, is nothing safe?!" Jaxon cursed, he couldn't even throw the plates on the ground to vent his disgust. They needed the evidence, Beast Gods above… cannibals. Everyone in the empire was effectively a cannibal!
Noelle shuddered, she'd eaten raw meat before, liked it bloody. But something about eating tiger or human meat… was particularly off putting. She stood up, "For the foreseeable future the Tiger nations will prepare our food separately. Come." Noelle didn't bother with false platitudes.
Tania, Lamont and Rowena stood, all a little green. Tacitly they shared a glance before leaving for the forest, fruits would be more than enough for one night. More than a dozen Inago took up their weapons to follow the four.
Noelle didn't argue, nothing the Inago had prepared at those… things. Either they knew how to rid any contaminated food, or knew how to avoid it.
Beloved ate all the presented apple slices before Nix had a chance to even look at them. Really, the people had been eating the taint so long already… why be so shocked? Anyway! There were more important tasks at hand!
Ashton absentmindedly ate another pear slice, the foxes had all gone off into the forest save Talvi. The big fox… was mourning… Ashton went over the last few minutes again in his head, after a moment his gaze rested on a small inconspicuous fruit. Peaches?
"Nix they are panicked, Nix they can't see, the infested is more than what they eat?" Beloved chirped discontentedly as she once again ate the apple slices from Nix's Ember's female offspring. She would protect Nix! Eat all the apples!
Jaxon stilled at those mocking words… turning slowly he approached the nest, "Lady Beloved, is there a way, to remove the infestation?"
Beloved glanced at the dragonkin, with a great sigh she hopped up, "Of course you can clean it, of course it can be purged, you just need white fire, or holy water to submerge. I know dragons are silly, but it's really not hard, didn't you see? When I helped the once marred?"
"But, none of us have white fire… and how do we get holy water?" Jaxon asked tentatively.
Beloved fell back into Nix's lap, "Find a good priest, pray over fire, but before any of that, you need a messiah! That dragon endures torture, day in and day out, the only thing holy, are the tainted devout."
Sebastian glanced up, all the plates had been cleared, now the falsely calm servants were all listening in as they stared at each other in horror. "Lady Beloved, how might one go about… finding a new messiah, or a being that can defeat the dragon?" If she was going to broach the topic… perhaps… Lord Reece would not turn a blind eye…
Beloved crossed her arms in thought, "Well, the dragon is dumb, but dumb makes him strong, he's also so stubborn! Refuses to move on! You should look for a fighter, one who likes war, because to take from the dragon, the nation will split for sure." Beloved sighed, then scratched her cheek.
Sebastian waited patiently for her to continue.
"A new beast must be tempted, that will be hard… all the land is infested… Too far from the water, too low to the ground, but you'll probably want fire… but it may all turn to sand." Beloved continued, she arched her neck to look up at Nix, who was slowly eating a pear as he looked at some peaches.
Ashton blinked, "Earth will not want it, water did cause it, so wind or fire, they can look into."
Beloved nodded with a sigh, "You should find beasts, not yet in power, bribe them riches, grand ideas you can shower. Offer them crystals, offer them land, whatever you choose, must be quick, must be grand."
Sebastian wasn't surprised, Lord Reece had clearly expressed his desire to leave… still there was now hope. Unfortunately, they were strapped so thin it would be hard to look into beasts of fire and wind while the delegations remained.
Jaxon stared at Ashton, "Ash- Lord Reece, Lord Nix, why not… include yourself among the beasts we could honor as our new Ancestor?"
Beloved blinked, twice. "Nix is of fire, Nix is very strong, but Nix isn't a fighter… does not indulge war."
Jaxon blinked.
Charmaine choked.
Leonard stared agape.
Sebastian nodded.
Lucian squinted.
Neolani stilled.
Melia stopped cutting fruit.
Beloved shrugged, "No matter how you stare, no matter how you look, Nix is not a fighter, not right for you."
Ashton mimicked his Beloved's shrug, "I am not a fighter, I don't care for war, I don't really like blood, just a part of life I endure. I'm not sure what you were expecting, but I'm not material for a Lord."
Beloved's nodded like a bobble head, "If Nix was a fighter, we would not be here, we'd take over the world! The land lovers in fear!" Beloved adding throwing her hands up to encompass everyone. "Nix is too… mellow, enjoying the day, looking for happiness, why let blood the heart break?"
Sebastian nodded at the assessment, Lord Nix had to be driven into a corner before he so much as reacted harshly, in fact… only when he'd been egregiously insulted had he caused harm… though not with fists. Just his raw power had forced His majesty to submit… if he directed it at anything… well the capital walls were evidence that little could withstand his might.