The Mook Maker

The shrine was in ruins. 

 

Major portions of the roof, which originally covered the main altar along with the presiding statue of the head of the pantheon, had already collapsed. All the remaining statues had, too, been shattered to thousands of pieces, and another roofed part of the structure sagged precariously, threatening to fall down at any moment. 

 

When a lone shingle hit the stone floor, I twitched, expecting another part of the building to cave in on itself.

 

I waited for a few moments, expecting a domino effect of ruin and destruction to follow, but to my surprise, the wooden frame held, at least for the time being. It would have to be torn down, eventually, and I was certain that the Viceroy wouldn’t be ecstatic about the property damage we caused. 

 

How was I going to handle this? 

 

Place blame on ‘the Lady’, most likely. It was she who was enraged by her original form embodied by the statue, and the responsibility for the subsequent rampage was on her alone. 

 

An alternative shrine, like one the ‘Mutators’, raised with their magic, could be created overnight, if only I understood how the whole mechanism with consecrated ground worked. 

 

The ‘Lady’ - I would have to convince her to take a better name- implied I could do the same should I have a priestess, a chosen one, of my own, and have her to manage the temple itself, as well as all the potential petitioners. 

 

But, I wasn’t sold on the whole idea of the religion, and would ignore it if it wasn’t for our dragon ally, but now, I no longer have a choice. 

 

The shrine would get a new appearance, courtesy of Kirke and her sister-moths. Unlike the ‘Corruptors’, focusing on the brute force and the effect, the ‘Mutators’ were capable of much finer control if they wanted, and were also responsible for creating a royal-jelly equivalent for our kind - the Arcane Fruits. 

 

I found the anthropomorphic moth mommy, her hourglass figure perfectly wrapped in the cloth of interwoven blades of grass, more of a living dress than the improvised grass skirt outfits of my little reptiles, with their parodies of the Hawaiian dancer appearance. 

 

Kirke could literally will the new building into existence, I was certain. Maybe not overnight, but eventually, it would be done. Perhaps I should let their power be employed elsewhere than on the Arcane fruits, or grow stimulants for my chiropteran flesh-crafters…

 

“Kirke…” I asked tentatively, but never got to speak up my idea to her. 

 

With a groan of the wood, and a loud thud, another part of the roof fell down, interrupting my introspection. It was probably for the best that all the local shrines were, by default, a courtyard surrounded by small buildings, rather than the towering gothic cathedral of stone, otherwise there would be tons of stone falling down on our heads right now. Small mercies.. 

 

“My Master?” Kirke replied, entirely unfazed. She apparently didn’t care, since none of us had been harmed, but me, I forgot the plan for the new enshrinement of viridian green. 

 

“Did anyone hear it? Where are the human guards?” I asked instead, looking around and inspecting the damage. 

The host was quiet at the moment, and equally uncaring, only a couple ‘Fleshspeaker’ circled around looking for a good perch among the wreckage, only the original gate fit to support their weight. The ‘Overseer’ variant was bigger yet, and there weren’t any elevated perches to land on, except for the perimeter walls. 

 

A roach-hound crawled through the rubble, then another, both perhaps controlled by Arke herself, without the need to leave her current lounging space, as the other bats circled above. I would speak to their ‘Alpha’ about it later. It was enough that Sora was almost never ‘home’. 

 

“There is just us, my Master.” Kirke said, “There are some of my sisters in the gardens, and my cousins are patrolling the grounds.” 

 

“Just us?” 

This was the Viceroy’s palace, technically a seat of the local government. It couldn’t be completely empty, even after the riots and the death of the city mayor. 

 

“There aren’t any humans in the palace, Master. Only San Hyun-Ki, and he is too captivated by the scroll. Most of the city must have noticed, though.” Miwah continued, her blue eyes fixated on the horizon. I committed a thousand of ‘Eviscerators’ to policing the city. I realised I almost expected the system notification from the violent crashes, but none came.

 

“I have around ten of my sisters there.” Kuma added, gesturing towards the entrance. There were two of the bear ladies, more probably guarded by the gates.

 

“...then the Purger and all the Eradicators…” 

 

…and the ‘evolved’ variants as a security for the relic…  

 

“Noone heading there? I mean, no humans? They must have noticed the commotion?” 

 

I was afraid that by this point, the bloodthirsty system considered a few deaths beyond notice, but Miwah assured me it wasn’t at the moment. 

 

“No, Master. They seem to be hesitant to approach the gates.” She replied, her focus still elsewhere, communicating with the rest of the host. 

 

I suppose the ‘Ravagers’ in full armour might discourage the random onlookers. 

The humans might not see my bear ladies as approachable, even if I saw them as cute, despite their size. 

 

“My sisters wouldn’t let anyone through, Master.” Kuma suggested, with a yawn, “We have this place for ourselves.” 

 

A lockout it was, then. 

 

I was suddenly very aware that I had left the castle today just with my pants on. My girls didn’t mind, but I wasn’t putting on much of the image for the others. There might not be a riot, but I would still have to talk to Viceroy about the damages. He was locked there with us, wasn’t he?

 

San Hyun-Ki was the Sage’s name, wasn’t it? The Viceroy’s name was … 

 

“Wait…” I asked, silently cursing my memory: “The Viceroy isn’t around either?” 

 

A quick gesture to Kuma and Ekaterina stopped them from poking the dangerously leaning remnants of the structure, ready to tear it down, while I awaited a brief summary, or explanation. I would be helpless without the ‘Alphas’ doing all the micromanagement.   

 

“No, Master.” Miwah continued, “He left this morning to talk with the humans in the city and recruit additional guards…”

 

Oh, I supposed it was for the best, leaving him to talk with his own people, to reconnect with townsfolk, and do whatever was necessary to run the human part of the province. It was what we agreed on earlier, anyway. Though I wasn’t quite certain if I should send him a message that the ‘Viridian High Lady’ was unsatisfied with the decoration of the shrine, and decided to all but demolish it. 

 

“So, is the city more accepting of us?” I asked, before realising that the vast majority of the people would see only the shifting air in the moving ‘Eviscerator’s wake, all of them swarming the city street right now, while the other breeds stood guard. 

 

“He needs….different guards. Some of his human-things didn’t like the woman volunteers, Master.” Narita finished the explanation Miwah started, micromanaging the host of the thousands of invisible anthropomorphic werewolf ladies without letting them run amok was a struggle of its own.

 

If only I could have more ‘Alphas’ - I suppose managing the entire breed would take a toll on Miwah and Brave, and it was only the ‘Eviscerators’ alone. Then it was Tama and Helmy, and all the fiery madness of their breed.

 

Luckily, there were no explosions, even if Tama - and likely a lot of the little ‘Purifiers’ - were bored now. The gorgeous silver vixen took her place on my side, wrapping me in her embrace, and soft, fluffy fails, while the little ‘Displacer’ decided that she required her share of attention too.. 

 

Being ‘my personal Displacer’ was probably a chore, especially now that Sora had to babysit the angry dragon from destroying anything else, especially if my feline had so much propensity for wandering off into the world. 

 

Perhaps I should send Nereida there instead and have her spray the dragoness with water to douse her ire.  

 

The octopus-girl currently levitated head-down, displaying her contempt for gravity, her tentacles wriggling in the air, and made me reconsider. The dragons weren’t cats to be sprayed with the water bottles, and Nereida did need to stay in reach of the water source, or moisture, to have powers.

 

“For Master!” The ‘Displacer’ protested, likely sensing my thoughts about water and cats, pressing herself closer. The soft-furred and cute feline momentarily distracted me for a while.

 

“Please, little one, go get my clothes…” I sent her away, and as she disappeared into the shifting rift monetarily. 

 

“We will take this to the garden.” I gestured to the others, deciding to leave dealing with demolition - and everything else - to a later date. 

 

With the teleporting feline gone, I gestured towards the rest of the girls around.

 

“My ladies…” 

 

With Tama hanging to my arm, I left the wrecked shrine compound behind, considering the implications of raising another black tree in the ruins as the shrine, as the one back the fisher’s village, and whether it was even feasible with another ‘Tree of Arcane’ sitting nearby in the garden. 

 

Were they even the same thing? 

 

I suspected all the ‘Mutators’ creations came inherently enchanted, but I wasn’t certain what said enchantment was, specifically. 

 

Or was the black tree simply the symbol, a living statue resembling the ‘tree-hydra’ which Ari had offered as the one displayed on my flag?  

 

No, someone had linked that down with the ‘Lady’s’ power. I suspected we’d need both a human - a priestess, or shrine maiden - and a ‘Mutator’ staffing every new site. I wasn’t still comfortable with the idea of playing god… 

 

As I looked at the ruins one last time, I made up my mind to postpone the unavoidable demolition in order to avoid the 'Lady' being dissatisfied with the replacement and tearing it down once again. She had quite a temper, and the strength to punch through the stone walls.  

 

Be as it may, we would still need Ari, or other attendants, for it. Or rather, Ari having attendants, maybe? 

 

However, thinking of Ari, who would be forced to actually manage the shrine - and I didn’t like the idea of having a priestess of my own - reminded me of something else Narita mentioned. 

 

“Narita, what did you mean by women volunteers?” 

 

Shouldn’t it be ‘female’ volunteers? What ‘female’ volunteers? I felt confused, and Narita’s particular way of speaking wasn’t helping right now. 

 

The excited ‘Fleshspeaker’ who found a perching spot above the archway and a second atop the wall surrounding the garden, however, clearly knew what was happening, judging from their enthusiastic chirping ‘For Master!” that followed. 

 

Though, their ideas of fixing humans in order to create better guards were, so to say at the very least, peculiar, and explained nothing. 

 

“What do you mean by that? What improvements?” 

 

“For Master!” 

 

“A volunteer?” 

 

“Yes-yes, Master. Three female human-things you approved, Master.” 

 

“Oh…” I said, with a nod. There had been a few humans, five I think, that survived the transition through the portal, and were subsequently ‘blessed’ by the ‘Fleshspeakers’ without being turned into the mindless thralls, or even without any visible deformities the often bloated, zombified humans had. 

 

Volunteers. Immune ones. 

 

“Ones with complete immunity, just as Ari had. There is a lot of potential.” 

 

I thought aloud. If we found more like these, there wouldn’t be any more zombification, mutations, and agony caused by the ‘Defilers’ healing powers, not to mention the promise that even the Arcane Fruit didn’t have the side effect. 

 

There was even one human volunteer who had been a soldier! 

 

“Five brought to have blessing, four survived. 20 percent mortality…” I said, somewhat sad in the tone of my voice, while Narita enthusiastically confirmed with:  

 

“Yes-yes, Master.” 

 

Lack of training may have been a problem for the Viceroy, considering the volunteers were recruited from villages and possibly had never handled a weapon before. 

 

“So the Viceroy hated that they were untrained?”  

 

Naturally, three inexperienced recruits couldn't replace the losses suffered by his personal guard, and we eliminated most of the province's army. Then loss of the one-fifth of the remnants to the experiments before would be absolutely unjustifiable. 

 

“His men didn’t like women volunteers.” Narita explained helpfully, “Stupid human-things. The one you selected broke the arms of one guard.”

 

“What?” 

 

“Improvement in muscle works!” My rat girl explained helpfully, but somehow ignored the implication: “Mia healed the stupid human-thing.” 

 

Did they cause the incident with the Viceroy a mere day or two after we struck an agreement? 

 

“Improvement? By who?” 

 

“Rye said she would give them retractable claws,” was the answer, followed by the excited chirping and chanting of “For Master! Master!” from the few of my chiropteran monster girls who found a purchase on the walls, and above the entrance. 

 

The gate between the garden and the shrine was sturdy, and undamaged, but this time, instead of the crash of falling building, my mind was filled with the insane ideas only the ‘Fleshspeakers’ would entertain, where retractable claws and poison glands for humans were one of the sanest on the list. 

 

A suspicion arose in me that the 'Fleshspeakers' and 'Overseers' were competing to produce even more monstrous creations, and Rye, being the youngest of the named, wanted to go beyond the others. 

 

“No… not that…” I waved that away before the list suggestion went overboard, “So the Viceroy was offended again?” 

 

I would worry about ‘Overseer’ and ‘Fleshspeaker’ contests later. 

 

“One of his men had disobeyed his orders by attacking the female volunteers, Master,” was the reply, this time from Miwah.

 

All armies had disciplinary issues, as long as Viceroy didn’t blame them on us, it would be fine.

 

“And then?” I asked carefully. 

 

“The Viceroy set off to set up proper recruitment throughout the city, Master. He needed sons of wealthy families as officers, and visit as many larger households as possible”

 

I didn't realise that gender could be a concern for the natives regarding women serving in the military. Given their evident magical powers, the priestesses, who were mostly women, defied the notion of strict gender-based stratification, so I once again didn’t understand what the problem even was.  

 

In the worst-case scenario, they could come back and become Ari's bodyguards, assistants, or apprentices. 

 

 “And the volunteers?” 

 

“Still protecting him.” 

 

The human volunteers weren't immediately driven away by him, at least. The idea of him making another complaint and me having to apologise didn't excite me, but I needed to keep up appearances. Dealing with the natives proved to be quite frustrating. 

 

“There were some households that …didn’t agree with his policies, Master. He said that we could confiscate their properties….” 

 

“Dissidents?” I offered, 

 

“Dissidents, Master.” 

 

I sighed. Next time, I won’t apologise - he couldn’t complain we are scraping the bottom of the barrel here with volunteers with this kind of approach. 

 

The little ‘Displacer’ returned with a couple of her sisters, and brought my clothes, and the one - and I was quite certain it was the same one as before - was quite enthusiastic in helping me dress up, even if she was considerably shorter. 

 

Tama helped. 

 

“For Master!” the little feline meowed, and I was quite annoyed by Sora’s practice of appointing an adjutant. Provided, Sora now had different duties, and more difficult ones at that, but I decided to acknowledge the effort of her smaller kin. 

 

I pointed at the little, excited cat-girl and announced, 

 

“You would be my personal Displacer. I name you … Kasha” 

 

“...and a mother to your progeny?” Tama teased with the sultry tone, gesturing to the cat-girl, but I paid it no mind. It was just to stop the rotation in place, and keep the enthusiastic and affectionate feline close by. 

 

It was stupid term anyway - the ‘personal Displacer’ - but it was probably what Sora meant with her adjutants, usually her smaller sisters, tasked to attend to me while she made herself busy elsewhere, a habit perpetuated by the named ‘Warpstalkers’ upon receiving their Arcane Fruit, and thus promotion. 

 

I never asked why it was so, but it, hopefully, ended now, as a collection of nine more cat-girls materialised from the ruby fog, excited to be around, as another obnoxious window invaded my view. 

Unit Named! Kasha, the Named Displacer Skill “Stalker on the Boundary lvl. 11” gained.

 

For once, I was glad the system didn’t acknowledge the role with some form of title, and I waved it off. 

 

There were other things to deal with right now.  

 

“So … the Viceroy… he accepted the volunteers in the end?” 

 

“For Master! Master!” The crowd of anthropomorphic kittens cheered, apparently very willing to be ‘personal Displacers’ with the energy and the eagerness of their own, but it was beyond the point. 

 

“He asked whether we could train more adepts, Master.” Miwah replied, interrupting the newly formed anthropomorphic kittens vying for attention. It was cute, but I had to focus.

 

“Adepts? What is an Adept?” I queried, confused, then it occurred to me. The natives might be referring to the ‘elites’ as ‘adepts’ - one hell of a confusing terminology.   

 

I petted the newly named Kasha and disregarded Tama's comments that followed. It didn’t seem that any of my girls minded their cat-girl cousins. Even Narita - an anthropomorphic rat - didn’t show any displeasure with a teleporting feline around her. 

 

“We are not sure, Master.” Miwah answered, while a lone, ‘Fleshspeaker’ jumped down from the perch, hopping down close to me, with “For Master!” 

 

The bat monster-girls, with their mind reading, were much better positioned to answer, and I found out the ‘Adept’ was that those ‘ninjas’ or ‘elites’ plaguing us were called by natives. One learns every day. 

 

I never thought of it - and it was dangerous now, as probably every ‘Overseer’ and ‘Fleshspeaker’ in the host was eager to test what they could infuse the drones, and any unfortunate human, with. The idea that an ‘Adept’ could easily run up a vertical wall, and have abilities we couldn’t match without overwhelming numbers, was suddenly offensive to the ‘Fleshspeaker’.

 

They wanted to fix it, and now, they have plenty of ideas to share. 

 

The host murmured in the back of my head. 

 

“No. No raids to capture adepts.” 

 

It seems it sparked an interest. 

 

“For Master!” 

 

“No. Angela cannot take all the drones to find if the next village had an adept.” I said, patiently.

 

“For Master!” I'm still sometimes confused by the 'Fleshspeaker's' train of thoughts, and even the shared link with the host doesn't help. Now their minds connected the dots and were getting slightly obsessive. Their mental rant, control of our telepathic link, were soon joined by the small herd of cat-girls. 

 

“What?” 

 

“For Master! Master! Master!” The ‘Displacer’ meowed, joining the exchange within the vast telepathic network, buzzing at the back of my head. They would be back in a moment, and there were plenty of targets to choose from. 

 

“No, ladies. No. We won’t provoke the humans…” I ordered. It was against the ultimatum I sent through the survivors of the last battle - we would leave the other human territories alone, if the dragons and their priestesses kept their disgusting ‘sealing’ magic to themselves. Those messengers didn’t even reach the other town by now, I thought. 

 

“For Master?” The both ‘Displacers’ and ‘Fleshspeakers’ wondered, while the murmur echoing through my brain settled down quieter. 

 

“Yes. I didn’t say anything about the truce, but as long as dragons don’t mess with us, we won’t mess with them. Besides, there would be another of those barriers to worry about!”  

 

I had other things to worry about than the ‘Red’ bastard, and the girls answered in the affirmative: “For Master!” 

 

The concept of walking, exploding melons filled with the toxic, man-eating fungus was a terrifying method of bypassing the barrier, but I trusted it would remain only in the ‘Fleshspeakers’ fantasies. Focus, I thought to myself, and perhaps others as well,  

 

I turned towards Miwah and said: “I wouldn’t answer to the Viceroy. Where is he right now?”

 

“Meeting with the merchants, Master.” Lily interrupted, all of the sudden, “We could be selling a lot of fruits to other towns instead.” 

 

Selling the addictive substances to the humans was only a marginally better idea than one of the raiding other villagers for the test subjects, and I was in no mood to approve it at the moment.

 

“Do not…” I said, but never finished the sentence, as something else occurred to me. The berries, even drugged ones, and various fruits my reptilian followers created with their magic, should follow the same logic as the aggressive rejection of other powers. 

 

They were toxic. At least, they should be, but the volunteers, they supposedly agreed in clear mind. 

 

Lily blinked, her dual eyelids made it noticeable, a typical tic among the ‘Corruptors’ as they tried to comprehend my thoughts. She probably did. I sensed her presence. 

 

“The volunteers aren’t addicted, aren’t they?” I asked, thinking aloud, “...and the people who have them, and are intoxicated, aren’t dying?” 

 

“Master? None of the humans died from human-feed berries.” 

 

“We need to find out whether your berries cause immunity, or whether it is another thing, and Fleshspeakers just erase whatever was there.” I thought aloud, while the excited bat-girl shrieked “For Master!” in excitement as her mind babbled something about stimulant glands. 

 

The lizard-girl blinked again. 

 

“Oh, yes! We are giving more berries than ever, Master! Humans like their feed!” Lily suddenly spoke up. 

 

“No, no, we will need to find out whether your berries cause immunity to side effects…” 

 

“Yes, my Master!” The answer was so immediate it terrified me they would experiment on the humans to find out. I still remembered Angela’s raid to obtain the samples, and her sisters were more than keen to repeat it… 

 

“Find more volunteers first…” 

 

That would be tricky. 

 

I realised there was no way around it - we had to somehow convert more of the population to our side, even if only to find out about the extent of the immunities in a more humane way which didn’t involve Lily’s berries or mass zombification. 

 

“Kirke? Kirke, get me the Arcane Fruit.” I called out. 

 

Finding the proper term for the drug-berry, and for the fruit that served as the royal jelly of sorts, would have to wait. Luckily, the moth-girl knew what I meant. 

 

“Yes, Master!” 

 

She buzzed away. The ‘Mutator’s’ ability to fly was certainly convenient, so I rushed towards the centre of the garden. Down the stairs, outside the boundary of the now ruined shrine, laid a realm of madness where the thousand of the different comprehension defying plants were brought to bloom. In the middle of it laid the pulsating root of corruption, a tree of arcane, with its glowing, spiked fruits, ready to be harvested. 

 

The ‘Mutators’ were there, at least a few of them that were assigned to watch over the garden, and Kirke had already recovered one of the magically infused produce.

 

I took it. 

 

I looked at the glowing, spiky produce, once again exploring its unusual, otherworldly texture, and unnatural gleam, resembling a cartoonish interpretation of radioactivity. It's unnatural, eldritch energies did help my girls - and I would have to find out whether enhancing the few human loyalists would also bear the same results.  

 

“Ask Ari to come.” I ordered, “We would infuse her with the arcane fruit, and be prepared to heal her if anything goes wrong…” 

 

There wasn’t much dispute over this. 

 

We gathered under the boughs of the unnatural tree, and the moment after, Ari was brought through the ‘Displacer’ rift. 

 

Some ‘Displacers’ left, except for the newly named ‘personal one’ - Kasha - but the rest of the ‘court’ was present. 

 

The crazy human girl we had once found in the ditch at the side of the road has come a long way. She might not look different, other than being clean and fed, in an actual robe instead of rags, but she was certainly something more than she had been, her presence registering closer to the members  of our horde than the random human villagers or townsfolk we struggled to understand. 

 

I never thought of her this way. 

 

With her came the sensation of the Serpent, the seemingly unregistrable entity longed within her mind. A subtle, but real presence, proving the girl I called crazy might not be actually insane. 

 

Or perhaps she was. I did not know.

 

Ari kneeled down in front of me, lowering her head, speaking some words in her native tongue. 

 

I was certain she felt more and more the part of the host, and her speech, though utterly incomprehensible, did spark a meaning in the back of my head. She was ready and had no fear. 

 

The natives, the humans, hated us, but she didn’t care, not showing any issues with my girls. It didn’t matter if it was vulpine ‘Purifiers’ or insectoid ‘Mutators’, or the levitating tentacled form of the ‘Tidereavers’. 

 

I wasn’t sure if Ari had seen Nereida before, but she remained unfazed. It wasn’t probably any different from being dragged through the shifting void by the anthropomorphic kittens.  

 

“I am going to infuse you with the power of this…” I said, “It may be dangerous, you could refuse…” 

 

Ari spoke again. She did not refuse - how I understood that, though; I wasn’t certain. The local language was gibberish just the same, but the differences between this human girl, and the host were fading. 

 

I could sense her mind . 

 

This wasn’t any different from our smaller kin repeating the phrase, while the telepathy did the work.

 

I looked at Narita with an unspoken question, but there was no denial. 

 

“Yes-yes. She is ready, Master.” 

 

They understood her, too.

 

It made me less hesitant about what we were going to do - after all, Ari was an exception to all the rules, the ‘Defiers’ power healed her instantly, the ‘Fleshspeaker’ manipulation gave her strength maintaining her appearance, and the shifting void beyond didn’t bother her either. 

 

If this worked on any human, it would be Ari. A chosen one - even if I didn’t buy into the religious aspect of it. 

I nodded at the rat-girl, and with the simple gesture, the power was transferred. I should have given Narita the fruit, too, but that would be remedied later. There were far too many distractions right now. 

 

The glow swept over the girl, her body trembled. She looked down, trying to focus, as the floating, pulsating notification acknowledged the transformation, announcing to the world, or perhaps just myself, that the…  

 

The Incarnate is Chosen!  We are rushing towards the end of times!

 

There was, however, not the time and the place to think about the nebulous message about ‘end times’. 

 

The transformation has occurred - the girl still looked the same. 

 

It was a good sign, probably. She was the one who spoke with her fellow humans, after all. 

A herald, the system, loving its drama, called her such. 

 

Ari looked up. 

 

Her face remained practically unchanged. It was the same young, tanned girl, with long black hair, same as before, but the eyes…

 

Her eyes were now golden, snake-like, with the slit pupils like the snake emitting a mild glow.

 

They weren’t a reason for distress, since the ‘Corruptors’ have the same eyes, even some of my mates had the striking, shining gaze. It was hardly unnatural for the standards of our horde, but the humans, humans, might have a problem with it. 

 

What surprised me was Ari’s words. She did not speak in the same language as the locals did; she spoke in ours, young, melodic voice, only slightly accented, yet strangely fluent

 

“My Lord! My Master! This one is ready to serve! We welcome your blessing with our very being!” 

 

An instantaneous comprehension of language was something different. Only the ‘Lady’ had that. Even the ‘Fleshspeaker’ drones struggled with it, controlling their fleshy puppets. 

 

Wait - I paused - she said we. The presence of the Serpent, the immaterial entity nibbling on the memories, was gone. It was usually just weak, hidden, laid in wait, now completely absent. 

 

“Is it you, Ari? Or the Serpent?” I asked, 

 

“This one is Ari.” She smiled, then giggled, her mouth showing the fags the humans did not have, “But in the end, all shall be one with you, my Lord.” 

 

She giggled. Something she exhibited before. 

 

The human - or now, not so human - still kneeling, touched her belly in a meaningful gesture. 

 

“Your sister is going to join you soon…”