Chapter 71: Chapter 71: A Generous Sprinkle of Kyr Nine

As Nay pretended to organize her seasonings, she read the label on the pouch of poison Nom had slipped to her. It read, ‘Kyr Nine’.

Was this a reference to Vonnegut? If the cheeky bastard had read Vonnegut, how? There was no way Kurt Vonnegut books were available in his world.

Nay examined the Marrow.

---

[Liver Marrow of the Frostfang Yeti]

---

Nay pulled an onion out of her inventory.

“You don’t happen to have any milk on you, do you?” she said.

“Does it look like I’m carrying milk with me?” Martygan said.

She looked at him and his meager supplies around the campfire. Then she looked to his fauglir, surely recently stolen, that had a saddlebag draped across its back. That's probably how he transported her when she was unconscious.

“Forgive me, just thought I’d ask,” Nay said.

“Do you need it for your recipe to activate the Delicacy?” Martygan said.

She thought about answering ‘yes’ if it meant stalling his plans and buying her more time. He’d have to drag her along to go find milk somewhere. Then she looked at the poison Nom slipped to her. Too many things could go wrong if he dragged her somewhere. Best to poison him here and get it over with. She wondered if killing him would break their Nether Bond. What would happen to the Flesh Wight? Would the poison kill him or just immobilize him?

Nay guessed she was about to find out. “Milk is not necessary. But, the liver will be much more pleasant to eat if it’s been soaked in milk for some time. There could be excess blood or urine in the organ. It will also make the texture softer to chew.”

“I don’t care about how it tastes, “ Martygan said. Just the Marrow ability.”

“Suit yourself.”

Nay got to work. She consulted the Jezabelle Childe cookbook for the best way to prepare this Marrow because she was curious. She found it under a subsection for [Offal & Sweetbreads].

Jezabelle's Lovely Liver Pate. The secret to a good pate is a good cognac and a good toasted bread to spread it out. For cognac, I am quite partial to the Count Crispin's Reserve label. It has an autumn aroma characterized by toffee and truffle aromas, which I am particularly fond of.

For the bread, ciabatta from any baker working in the city of Crescentia will do. But if you're in a pinch, a Sassissi sourdough won't upset your fancy. Make sure to toast it, but don't forget a drizzle of olive oil, which will enhance both the taste of the bread and the pate.

In a saucepan, combine the livers with shallots, garlic, bay leaf, thyme and salt. Add enough water to bring to a simmer. Cover and reduce heat. After the liver has only a slight pinkness, remove and cool. Discard the bay leaf but spoon everything else along with the livers into a blender or masher. Add the cognac, season with salt and pepper and blend or mash. Store the pate in the container and store in a cooler until firm. Enjoy!

She didn't have shallots or cognac or a blender, best she could do was a pan fry with a butter, flour and onion. And a generous sprinkling of Kyr Nine. That was now her most important ingredient, other than the Marrow itself. But Jezabelle's recipe wasn't required for activating the Marrow, it was just a recommendation on the best way to cook it.

Activation was up to Nay, and she could cook the hell out of this and make it delicious without having to activate, which was the plan. She diced up an onion and seasoned a bowl of flour with salt and pepper. She also emptied the pouch of Kyr Nine into the flour mixture without looking at Martygan. She went ahead and got a saucepan going with her Chef's Thermometer ability.

She cut the yeti liver into strips and coated them in the flour mixture. Then she threw a knob of butter on the pan and tossed in the diced onions.

---

[Incoming Whispering Wind Call From Ilyawraith]

---

Nay didn’t accept the call, but saw she had an option to send a text back. A translucent phantom keyboard appeared in the air before her. She turned so Martygan couldn’t see. She quickly typed in:

A little busy atm. Call back in 5.

She sent it and swiped the keyboard out of the air. After the onions had been sautéed she placed in the strips of liver and they sizzled when they hit the hot pan. They cooked quickly and she made sure not to turn them too much. Just a quick turn and then a toss of the pan was enough.

The Marrow's green motes floated out of the saucepan and Martygan moved closer to watch, practically licking his lips. Nay was pretty sure she heard his stomach growl. So, the possessed Gloom Ranger had an appetite and was hungry. He'd get to enjoy the taste for a short while until the poison kicked in. At least that's what Nay assumed.

She had been careful not to activate the Marrow while cooking it. By his demeanor, she knew he couldn’t tell the difference. She lifted the pan from her heat ring and gave the contents a gentle toss with a roll of her wrist. Then she tilted the pan and poured the yeti liver and onions into a bowl.

She lifted the bowl with one hand and ran her hand through the steam and green motes floating from it, taking in the scent. "Smells delicious. Don't ya think?"

She looked at Martygan and he was licking his lips, eyes locked on the Marrow. She placed a Debuff biscuit in the bowl with the entree. This particular biscuit would nick his stamina.

“Enough!” Martygan said. He grabbed the bowl of liver and onion from her, the Debuff biscuit sticking out of the dish. Steam rose out of the bowl, speckled with the glowing green motes of the Marrow.

He walked over to where he was sitting and started wolfing it down.

“Bon appétit,” Nay said.

She watched him eat with anticipation. She braced herself, getting ready for anything. She wondered how long the poison was going to take. He was ravenous and ate without hardly taking a breath, shoveling the food into his mouth. Not even a 'thank you’ for cooking the food either. She knew he was possessed or bewitched or infected, but the rudeness still irked her.

"You're welcome," Nay said.

But he ignored her and kept eating. He finished all the food, scraping the bottom of the bowl. He stared at the empty bowl and set it aside. Then he closed his eyes and waited.

Nay watched him, uncomfortable.

Now would be a great time for the poison to do its thing.

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"You've tricked me," Martygan said, opening his eyes. "You failed to activate the Marrow, didn't you?"

"I'm not sure what you're talking about," Nay said. "Perhaps if you just wait another minute --"

He stood, drawing his short sword.

Shit.

He blinked and appeared on her side of the camp fire.

“You won’t kill me,” Nay said. “You need what I can do too much.”

“Maybe so,” Martygan said. “But there are parts of you that you don’t need for cooking. I think I’ll remove one for wasting this Marrow.”

He raised his short sword and Nay drew her weapons from her inventory when Martygan coughed and blood splattered her face. They both paused in a sort of Mexican standoff. Nay touched her face with a finger and then looked at the blood on her hand.

Martygan put a hand to his stomach, sensing something was wrong. Then he lurched forward and projectile vomited blood at Nay. She scattered back but not without getting drenched in the face and all over the front of her clothes.

He looked at her, accusatorily, a dark understanding dawning on his face. He opened his mouth and managed to say, “You cun –“

Before he made a horrible retching sound and was racked with another seizure of projectile vomiting blood. He fell to his hands and knees and spewed blood into the snow. The stream stopped after a moment. But he barely had time to catch his breath before the fountain began again.

From behind him, a form emerged out of the woods. It was a polar bear. Wait, no two forms. Because there was something on top of the polar bear. It was a tentacle.

Tuk-Tuk walked into the camp in bear form with Nom atop his back. They cautiously approached as Martygan was busy dying.

“Well, well,” Nom said. “It looks like Kyr Nine lends to quite the dramatic death.”

Nay felt a pang in her chest and she looked down at the Flesh Wight. The black creature was squirming and turning gray. It was working. Martygan dying meant that the Flesh Wight was dying and that their Nether Bond would be terminated.

She felt conflicted about letting the Gloom Ranger die and wished there was another way. If there had been a way to remove the hold the Nether Sister had him on, she would have preferred that. And although he had saved her once before and had helped save Lucerna’s End, he had been turned into something else.

Nom hopped off Tuk-Tuk’s back and slivered his way to Nay. “What do you think, huh? It’s useful to have a master poisoner as your friend, isn’t it? Correction, maybe I’m not a master, yet. But you know what I mean.”

The polar bear shifted into Tuk-Tuk’s human form. He looked down at the grisly scene of Martygan vomiting into the snow with disdain. “This is a bad death.”

“How the hell are your poisons strong enough to kill someone at Bronze Rank anyway?” Nay said. She started gathering her things to get out of there.

“I couldn’t tell you,” Nom said. “I guess I’m just that good.”

“He is a Bronze?” Tuk-Tuk said. He was suddenly alarmed.

Nay nodded.

Tuk-Tuk drew the hand axe from his belt and swung it at the back of Martygan’s neck. At that moment, Martygan rose up and vomited blood into the sky. The axe hit the back of his neck but didn’t break skin. It was stopped by some Bronze-enhance defensive Marrow Eater ability. Some kind of bark skin that seemed to manifest itself.

Martygan’s blackened veins spread across his body and a vigor aura formed around him. His fists clenched and then liquid began to spray out of all his pores.

Everyone jumped away from him. It wasn’t blood that was spraying out of him, but some type of green-tinged liquid. It had a nacreous sheen to it and it was making the snow melt, filling the air with steam.

“It’s the poison!” Nom said. “He’s pushing the poison out of his system! Kill him!”

That’s when they all attacked the still very much alive Gloom Ranger. Nom blasted him with a Disintegration Ray beam. Tuk-Tuk shifted into a polar bear and swiped at him. Nay went to drive the skull-crusher end of Thorninto his head.

But his Bronze-level defensive shell ate all of their attacks. Nom’s Disintegration Ray disappeared into the vigor aura. Tuk-Tuk’s paw scraped across the vigor aura and bark skin body shield. Thorn’s skullcrusher chipped the bark skin, but nothing more. All of their damage had been eaten.

Shadows formed in the snow around Martygan. There was also movement in the pools and streaks of blood he had vomited into the snow. Creatures slicked in blood pulled themselves from red snow. These were nether-infused blood imps.

Netherlings burst from the ground, joining the blood imps, who made chittering sounds, turning their heads in the direction towards Nay and her companions. They didn’t have eyes, their faces a smooth bubble on the top half. The lower half were all teeth.

The swarm of familiars formed a circle around Martygan as he cleansed himself of the remaining poison. The entire half of his lower face was stained red. When he opened his eyes, they were aflame with violet light.

And worst of all, the Flesh Wight in Nay’s chest wiggled underneath her skin with renewed life. The Nether Bond had rejuvenated.

“Well, this backfired spectacularly,” Nom said.

“It was a good Plan A,” Nay said.

“Now, what’s Plan B?”

“Survive.”

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