Chapter 66: Flesh

I tried to hiss, my tongue pressing firmly against my sealed-shut lips, and glared balefully at my betrayer. She-who-was-not-Needle, the lowest of the low, stared back. I could see it in her eyes; she knew what she had done. She knew that she had earned my ire.

As well she should.

I pulled against my bindings again, trying to pull apart the sticky threads that sealed my mouth shut. They held firm, just as they had ever since they had been wound around my snout. I huffed irritably, fighting against the incandescent rage that filled me.

Yes, I had been betrayed. I was less than happy about it.

“Oh, what a cute little fellow!” the Coreless before us exclaimed. In my irritated state, I didn’t even bother to ascribe meaning to it. I wasn’t in the mood. The plots of the Aridae had run even deeper than I had imagined. For now, they had won.

Though I had managed to defeat most of them, the Coreless had come to stop me before I finished. Unfortunately, they had ignored my attempts to convince them that the bad-things were evil masterminds, putting themselves between me and the bad-things.

Then again, it wasn’t surprising. If they had managed to trick the thought-light, of course the Coreless would be tricked as well.

There was only one positive outcome. I had gained a new skill. Though part of me wished that my [Paralyzing Venom] had increased, it did feel nice to gain something new. And it was useful too, though not in an immediately dangerous manner.

In my crusade against the deceptive bad-things, I had managed to gain [Clinging Grasp III]. It was an odd ability, allowing me to cling to surfaces with greater ease. In fact, I had even been able to hang upside down from the ceiling for a short amount of time when the Coreless had left me in the sealed-room earlier.

There wasn’t much else to do while I waited, and I had been bored.

Still, as annoyed as I was, I was happy to have gained an ability that would let me move in ways that I previously couldn’t. That was the one bright side. Everything else about the situation was awful.

“Isn’t he?” my betrayer responded, reaching towards me to scratch against my head-scales. I tried to stop her, but there wasn’t much I could do with my mouth sealed shut.

It felt a little nice, but did little to cool my rage. I singed her fingers with a tiny flash of heat. Unfortunately, the cavern wasn’t hot enough to gather the heat to do much more than that.

“Damn it!” she pulled her hand back, blowing on her reddened fingers and waving them about rapidly. “I said I was sorry! You’re the one that got the Council so upset,” she grumbled.

Again, I flashed an illusion of her removing the threads that bound my mouth shut, just as I had been doing ever since the threads had been tied. If nothing else, the strange orbs of light that filled the Coreless’ many-nest gave me a lot of light to work with.

And again, she didn’t do it, continuing to babble instead. Stupid Coreless. I huffed, the air spilling from my nostrils in an audible gust. I would have been tempted to wander off again, but I refused to allow the evil plots of the bad-things to succeed. These were my Coreless, not theirs.

“It’s just until we leave Orken, little guy.” She tried to hiss quietly to me, failing at the attempt as she always did. “Look, if you’re good I can take it off when we’re alone. Not while we’re in public, though.” She gave me another scratch, and I singed her fingers again. Tried to, anyway. Since she didn’t pull back this time, it probably just felt warm more than anything else.

She turned towards the other Coreless. A moment ago, we had entered what I assumed was this Coreless’ nest, once again passing through an obvious moving-wall. For a while, they jabbered at each other. Eventually, they came to some sort of agreement, exchanging some things with one another. The-female-who-was-not-Needle placed the strange items into a skin-mouth at her side and left the nest.

Despite my extreme irritation, I couldn’t help but be amazed by how many Coreless walked about within the many-nest. There were far more of them than I had imagined; most of them must have been hiding within their nests earlier. Each time that we passed a new one - which was often - I flashed an illusion of them removing my bindings.

They just stopped and stared.

It was distressing, knowing that the bad-things had already sunken their fangs so deeply into the minds of the Coreless - but not entirely surprising. Fortunately, they were not entirely lost. Beyond binding my mouth in threads, they hadn’t been overly aggressive. I knew that, if they really wanted to kill me I would have long since died, and they hadn’t really done anything other than humiliate me. There was still a chance to bring them back to the light of the Great Core.

And if there was a chance, I knew that the Great Core would succeed eventually.

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The-female-who-was-not-Needle continued to babble nervously as she walked. I was beginning to think that she felt guilty for this. Good. “I know you don’t like other monsters, but you need to be more careful. They wanted to drop you in the null-water, you know. I don’t know if you saw the future and just knew that they wouldn’t, but that would be bad. There’s a reason we only build our cities and towns over null-water, you know.”

She coughed. “Well, maybe you don’t know. I’m not even sure that you can really understand me. I mean, you’re obviously intelligent in some way, but it’s hard to tell sometimes...Okay! How about this? If you can understand me, move to my other shoulder. If you can’t, stay where you are.”

She stared at me for a second, pausing in her babbling to look me in the eyes. I stared back.

The-female-who-was-not-Needle let out a breath. “Damn. I guess not.” She stopped jabbering at me for a while, just walking silently through the many-nest. For some reason, I got the feeling that she was upset.

As she should be, betrayer that she was.

Soon enough, we found our way to the outside of another large nest. I could hear the ringing of ore-flesh against ore-flesh, repeating itself in a pattern of beats. We stepped inside, pushing past the moving-wall that blocked the entrance.

“Valera! How’s my favorite customer?” A large Coreless turned and yelled out, baring his teeth.

“Favorite, huh? Does that mean I get a discount?”

“I don’t like you that much. Maybe if you brought some more Cores back so I could have a bit more variety to work with.” He paused. “Did you?”

“Not this time,” she jabbered back.

“Then no discounts. Give me a moment to finish up, and I’ll be right with you.”

The-female-who-was-not-Needle moved to a fake-pedestal that rested against a nearby wall, sitting down silently. Meanwhile, the Coreless resumed his work, continuing to batter a piece of ore-flesh again and again. As I watched, a relatively small fang of ore-flesh began to take shape. I watched, amazed by the process. Was this how they created their fangs and their second skins? I had so many questions.

If my mouth hadn’t been bound shut, rendering me almost entirely defenseless, I might have tried to wander around. This nest was fascinating, one of its walls covered in fangs of ore-flesh and another with the second skins that the Coreless wore. Most were slate-gray, but a rare few held the glow of mana-light, marking them as different from the rest. I couldn’t help but wonder how they did that; while infusing fangs and skins of ore-flesh with mana would have been trivial for even a lesser Core, the Coreless shouldn’t have been able to do it. It was something that had always confused me.

I wanted to know the secret, but I didn’t know how well the shaper of ore-flesh would guard it. For now, I decided to wait with the-female-who-was-not-Needle, listening to the rhythmic ring of ore-flesh as the minutes passed by.

Eventually, however, he seemed to reach a stopping point, wiping his brow and turning towards us.

“So, what can I do for you?” he jabbered towards the-female-who-was-not-Needle. “The blades are still holding up, I’d hope. Hasn’t been that long, and considering - wait a minute, who’s the little guy?” The shaper of ore-flesh pointed a finger at me.

She tried to idly scratch at my scales again. I singed her fingers again. This nest was hot, so it was more effective that time. She jerked back and looked at me as if I had betrayed her. The feeling was mutual.

“They’re holding up perfectly, thank you Kal - and he’s a new pickup,” she grumbled. “Haven’t named him yet. He’s normally much cuter, but he’s in a very grumpy mood right now. He’ll come around, hopefully. Doesn’t like the muzzle. Council’s orders.” She shrugged, causing me to bob up and down on my perch.

She leaned in. “And actually, I was hoping that you would be able to make me something special before we head out again.”

“I guess that depends. How long until you leave? You know that these things can take time.”

“I’m not sure. I don’t think it would take that long, though. It’s not for me.” She paused for a moment, pointing a thumb at me. “It’d be for him. A little present for saving my life.”

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