Chapter 25: Ch. 24 – Silence breeds trouble

"Hrngh", Chloe is waking up.
"Good morning, sunshine. Slept well?"
"W-what are you doing in my room, you creep!?"
"I could hardly leave without either leaving the door open or locking you in - and I'd think you want neither. Also, I wanted to make sure that there are no side effects from the familiar bond."
"Wait, that was real? I, I thought this was just a nightmare."
"Afraid it is", I point towards my neck.
"What do you...", she touches the spot where I bit her, the bite marks are still visible, "oh, crap. What have I... what have I done..."
"Is it all coming back to you?"
"Yes..."
"Does anything hurt or feel off?"
"Apart from everything, not really. I, I just have to get used... to being under your control... slave to a monster..."
"Are you really? I don't think I have any unnatural control over you or anything."
She looks up surprised, "You don't? Then what else is that for?"
"It mostly forces us to be on 'friendly' terms. And also lets me share a skill or three with my familiars later on."
"Sorry, I don't believe that. You went through a lot of effort back there and I don't buy that you're that bad at making friends", she's very upset while saying that for some reason.
"Ouch, that hurt. Well, if you don't believe me how about a simple test? I command you to kiss me."
"How about no, perv? ...why did I even consider it for a moment..."
"See, you're still yourself. Mostly."
"Yeah, no. Something inside of me wanted to follow your command, it was faint but it was there. You're definitely up to something."
"Chloe, I mean the things I said yesterday. I want, I need to coexist with the humanoids here. We need each other if we want to end the threat of the demons."

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"No, we don't need you! We just need to endure until the gods send us another 'Lost Child' and then they'll turn everything around. They'll know what needs to be done. They have to."
"Sure, just like all the 'Lost Ones' in the past managed to end the demon menace once and for all."
"Don't be like that. It may be true that the 28 'Lost Children' may not have saved us forever but they still gave us a lot of hope."
Wait, only 28? Didn't Eva say it were 59? Where'd the rest go?

"...what if I told you that they can't send anymore? What if... they've already done all they could?"
"Where's your proof? The gods would never abandon us!"

Elly chimes in, (stop being stubborn and just show her the 'Lost One' symbol... you've really nothing to gain by antagonizing her now.)
(I'm never sure with you if you try to play the shoulder angel or shoulder devil.)
(Neither, I've only your best interest at heart. I want to live, well, exist. When you mistake dust for a vein I'll also perish.)

"Have you been to the church recently? Or tried to pray? There's no response! The gods have left you!"
"That can't be..."
"Go and try if you don't believe me."
"...I'll, I'll do that."

(...I'm afraid this was a big mistake.)
(I know but I still don't trust the 'familiar' status.)

"Sorry to break it to you like that, I know I should've handled that better. I'm... not good with dealing with this social stuff. I'm truly sorry about this. But I need your help if we want to make it through all of this. And for that, I don't want to rely on lies."
"Yeah, I've noticed..."

"One other thing, I'm curious about something. Yesterday you said that you can't afford to hold back anything but here you go wasting over half your SP on 'makeup'. How come?"
"A monster like you wouldn't understand. We morphs... aren't pleasant to look at."
"Can it really be worse than having a vampire running around unchecked?"
"...okay, you're asking for it..."

She undoes her transformation. Whatever her form is supposed to be it wouldn't be misplaced in an H.P. Lovecraft story.
Her skin takes an unhealthy blue-grey shade, black holes replace her eyes, two rows of triangular-shaped teeth fill her mouth, her arms gain a second set of elbows... And whatever other kinds of wrongness I may have missed. Good thing I'm immune to regular mind effects?

After about a minute she goes back to her 'human' imitation form.

"Happy now?"
"Yeah, it is... quite something to take it... sorry for asking."
"It's... fine. People don't hate us morphs, we still count as 'human' but everyone still finds our true appearance unsettling and I understand why. Now would you be so kind and leave? I've to get ready for work and I'd rather not have someone see you here and start asking questions. Can you tell the others that I'll not come to training for a couple of days? Tell them I'm feeling a bit sick and will only do some basic paperwork."
"Sure, also make sure to cover up the bite marks. They got through your disguise."
"Yeah, right. I don't usually cover up scratches and wounds."

I go to the practice hall and arrive first. Today everyone is on time for a change. I inform them of Chloe's absence and everyone does their thing as if nothing had changed. So I do the same. My increased SP now lets me train for one more hour than before, which means like 3 more exp per day compared to spending that hour reading. Am I that much of a slow reader? Well, it doesn't use SP so I guess that difference is fair.

Later when I climb on top of the fortress walls to unleash my few spells I'm greeted by new faces - the flood composition has changed, most of the old types seem to be depleted and in their stead are new ones. Math Rabbits and Zombies I've met in the dungeon, though the latter don't take well to the sun so are unlikely to even reach the gate. But there are also some monster types I've never met before.

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