*/*/*


How Quickly The Tide Turns

Drip. One of life's greatest tricks was allowing you to think that things were going well. Drip. 'Everything will be okay' was a filthy lie, Vesli decided. Drip went the blood off Its claws as they stared in incomprehension at the corpses in front of them. The closest one was wearing a mildew-green outfit and a bone-white avian mask. The entirety of the corpse below the waist was gone. How? To their left was about a fourth of a torso clad in was once black leather and cloth. Where the rest was, they did not know. Why? To their right black and scarlet shreds covering what looked to be ground meat. Neither could remember. In the back, there was a heavy chest-plate with strips that looked vaguely purple still filled with a chest, and missing everything else. Their minds tried and failed to pierce the sinister fog clouding their thoughts. "See! I knew this creature would be the death of us all!" His Holy Bastard cried from where he lay gutted and dying a slow miserable death. They noticed sinister movement of fire behind the crusader just as the smell of rot and putrid smoke filled their nostrils. The Hamlet was ablaze like some form of twisted collapsing pyre. What once had been a slowly recovering town was now a destroyed, blood-drenched battlefield.

"Everyone will know what you are," Her Holy Bitch choked out over the blood in her throat. They tried to move. To claim that this wasn't them! Pain flared, arrowheads still stuck in their chest and back. Someone had gotten their chest with a longsword. Likely the crusader who was starting death throws.

Slow applause. "Well done, Abomination," purred the Big Bastard from the Tower, "I knew you would make a great weapon one day". No! They had killed him! They were sure of it! This cannot be real! They refused! NO!

"Rrrrragh!" It broke free of the Stressful Incantation the weak bitch prey-thing had thought to use on It. Bitch. Would! Pay! Its teeth found purchase in her throat and It tore. It ripped! It rended the bitch's prey thing meat from bone! It only stopped when there was nothing left to shred.

Its head turned to survey the pack. "Rrolf," It grumbled, displeased. The weak prey things of the Weald had them barely surviving. Vesli admitted to himself now that he should've payed attention to how this day was going. But he hadn't, and here they were, fighting a losing battle for their lives.

*/*/*

Earlier that day

"Fucking Light!" Vesli held his abused forehead. Bird sat next to his bed holding her own. "Doctor! Was there really need to hover, startle me, and thus cause this situation? May I suggest either shaking my shoulder or I don't know, letting me sleep next time?"

"It was most important I assure you," Bird rubbed her injury. It had to wonder if the Bird-face allowed the rubbing to do anything.

"What is it?" He had to work to keep the growl from his voice.

"I want to meet It," she answered, releasing her head to fix those damnable lenses on him.

"What?" This time Vesli couldn't help the slight snarl.

"I. Want. To-"

"I heard you the first time, B- Doctor. What I cannot do however is comprehend why you have suddenly acquired suicidal urges." Honestly, how did Bird even get such ideas? Oh Vesli, it's not like this tentacle infested Hamlet is dangerous enough! I want to meet the feral and almost always hungry tenet that you share your brain with! I hope that that's no trouble! I know you were considering a slow introduction, but it you could just toss me into shark infested waters and expect me to swim that'd be great! Vesli grumbled to himself under his breath. Starting a day like this left only room for improvement in his opinion.

"My mental status is quite sound. I want to meet It." Inhale. Count to ten. Exhale.

"No."

"I promise I shall behave. Though I do believe that It may need a new name. It is a confusing moniker to use in a grammatically correct sentence," Bird continued. Nope. Looks like there was still room for this day to just get worse.

"The answer is no, Doctor. That is final," Vesli moved to get up. Seems like he might as well be awake for this apparently doomed cycle of the sun.

*/*/*

And it just kept getting better. Go to the training field. Face currently away on one of his rare missions. Find His Holy Hypocrite instead. Leave. Go to the Bank to check the level of his meager funds. Find Her Holy Bitch currently occupying the Bank's time, and with obvious intentions to take as long as possible now that she'd seen him there. Leave. Go to the Tavern to stare at a mug of alcohol and pretend he was drinking it. Find His Holy Bastard. Officially done, Vesli just sat the furthest distance away, his head meeting the table with a whap!

"Bad day?" Aela joined him. Her choosing to sit across the table was a small unexpected mercy.

"It could be better," Vesli admitted, looking up from the table.

"Talk. The Spirits do not like it when they are contained and raging inside you. It is best to give them a voice."

"Bi- Veci woke me up this morning. Because she wanted to meet It," the man confessed.

"Oh ho? Having fun without me? I'm jealous!" And this was what he got for trying. Vesli returned to burying his face in the table's wood grains. "Though I don't see how that constitutes as a bad day," the Hellion continued.

"It is a ravenous monster. It would eat her as soon as look at her. And she wants to meet It. Then the Holy Assholes seem to be everywhere today." Aela looked over at the crusader and shrugged. Having had no real encounters with Raynauld, she had no real opinion of the man.

"I'm sure It could behave itself," she almost pat his head. Her hand retreated at the glaring eye that showed itself.

"No. It wouldn't."

"You're so sour! I know what would cheer you up!" Vesli just groaned at Aela's insistence, his face once more attempting to become one with the table. "It'll be fun~," she sing-songed.

"No."

*/*/*

The Vestal was no longer there when Vesli attempted the Bank again. The nomads who traded in the Hamlet had gotten in a new shipment, and he wanted to see if he could even think of going to browse the expensive wares. The answer was no because his meager funds had gone 'mysteriously' missing.

It had wanted to teach the smug banker a lesson. Vesli had considered it for a long moment. Long enough to make the banker's smirk slip off their face. The man just turned and stalked out of the building. They would have to find another way to store the few funds the Heir didn't tax away from adventuring profits. Perhaps he would see if Dismas or the newly recruited Grave Robber (he hadn't learned her name yet) had any advice for forming a secret stash. Though that would involve trusting them, and Vesli was still not so good at the whole trust thing. He supposed it would only really matter when he had more than the two or three coins he'd stored in his mattress as an emergency fund. Assuming that those weren't gone too. Either way, there was no point in bothering the nomads with another window shopper.

In a foul mood, Vesli decided to just contain himself in the barracks. If anyone wanted him they could find him! He passed by the quest roster board. Stopped a few feet away. Walked backwards to look at it again. Sure enough, Bird's handwriting. But that… That was not the team he was used to. Who in the name of the fucking Light was Tulles and why wasn't Caillot listed? After Bird's insistence on building their teamwork, this was bizarre. Now he'd have to go sniff Bird out and hope she didn't bring up this morning's question again. At least with this topic she'd be easily distracted.

He found Caillot first, and Vesli suddenly understood. The Occultist had had some horrible communication from the Beast he worshiped and was gibbering like one of the madmen that wandered the Hamlet's more dangerous areas.

"Communication with the Beast is always a gamble. He shall recover by tomorrow. His mind will force him to forget so that he can continue his service," a new voice spoke up. Vesli turned to see a new Occultist, wearing robes of green and blue. It growled slightly at the unpleasant smell coming off the fake-furs. This Occultist, while clearly from similar ancestors based on the bone structure, looked nothing like Caillot in Vesli's opinion. This one also made It uneasy. Too much of the Beast around the new male for comfort.

"And you are?" Vesli would not let this stranger know of his unease.

"Tulles. I assume that you must be Vesli. You are, after all, the only… possibility." Tulles' eyes went up and down Vesli in a slow clinical manner. The new Occultist's lip curled ever so slightly in distaste. "I'm sure that our association will only last my fellow's recovery period."

"And I assure you that you two have very little in common," Vesli answered before going in search of Bird once more. The Doctor would be able to explain why they had to deal with that rather just waiting on Caillot to recover himself. Vesli found her at last taking small precise chunks out of one of the Hamlet's poisoned trees with her knife.

"Was wondering when you would come. Assume you met the new recruit," Bird hadn't even turned to look at him.

"Yes." Vesli crossed his arms.

"Was not my decision. Heir impatient. Bothering. Irksome. Insistent on this job in the Weald getting done now and that we must be the ones to do it." Whack! Off came another chunk and in it went to Bird's satchel.

"Was it said why?"

"Some infected corpses that need cleansing or some nonsense like that. Did not pay attention. New Occultist unnerving."

Vesli snorted, his arms relaxing again. "That we can agree on. I'm almost positive his shadow was growing tentacles."

"Would have like to observe that. Would have made interesting sketch," Bird tied up her satchel of wood chunks for transport.

"… Do I want to know?" Vesli was sorry for his behavior earlier, though he was too proud to apologize, and was certainly not about to allow Bird her request.

"Wish to experiment with creating stronger poisons from the wood itself. Possibility of bypassing natural resistances if poison is familiar enough to be allowed into the system," Bird started back.

"Doctor, I am going to pretend that I understood that, and just nod my head," he took the sagging satchel from her and tossed it over his shoulder.

"Is quite easy to explain. Essentially disguising the poison without diluting it. Works by-" Bird accepted his help and silent apology, by chattering away.

*/*/*

They had been waiting on their temporary team mate to appear for hours, and it was almost sunset by the time Tulles had deigned to show up. It had dubbed the lout 'Rat', a sentiment Vesli echoed completely. But he would retain civility when working with the man to make this as painless as possible. Though Vesli would also admit that civility had icicles hanging off it. Matters of civility were not helped by the fact a shipment of supplies had been lost off the Cove, and they were having to already debate on rationing. Now with the temporary healer in tow, the party made its way into the forest to cleanse the infected corpses.

The paths of the Weald were twisted and infected. It was only a matter of time before the group encountered danger. Piles of ooze coagulated on the skeletal remains of some poor souls. And the skeleton-goop creatures turned to attack, because there was no such thing as a peaceful creature in this diseased forest.

Grunting, Vesli yanked his chain back to his hand, the links dripping with the remains of the slime he had just bisected, the bones within the Eldritch monster having cracked and splintered as the monster's gelatinous body shuddered. Bird, her legs moving as fast as her mouth for once, shot past him and stabbed the weakened monster as it collapsed, slime spreading across the floor as it died. Glancing over his shoulder, Vesli saw Aela swing her glaive through the remaining two slimes, beheading both with one swing. Rat sat by, 'preparing to aide' when the man felt it necessary. "Any injuries?" he called out to the two women of the party, in all honesty neither he nor It cared about Rat's health.

"I am fine," Bird told him, wiping the slime from her dagger.

"Same," Aela said, the barbarian sending an irritated look over at Rat as she shook off the slime, 'accidentally' getting some on Rat's shoes.

"Alright then," Vesli nodded, looking down at the map he had been making of the area. "Let's press on then, we want to get as far in as possible before we make camp." Nodding, Aela and Bird fell into stride with him, Aela clearly not trusting Rat to watch his back or Bird's while the avian herself just happily chattered away, idly cutting away samples of anything of interest they passed. Their journey was hard enough already, given the meager supplies they barely had enough to get through this mission intact if they were lucky and rationed everything. Having a combat healer who fought and likely wasn't good at healing certainly didn't help matters.

They were halfway through another overgrown path to the next open area when Vesli heard the barking. Taking a stance, nervously swinging his chains in a steady rhythm, the two personalities waited. The second he saw the pack of zombie mutts charging their group Vesli swung but missed. Grunting, the man felt his shoulder slam into a tree as Rat summoned sky-ghost tentacles, which It snidely stated that Too-Many-Names was better at it, the eldritch creations knocking him aside and sending Vesli's attack wide as the rotting canines were barely fazed.

"Damn it Rat!" Vesli yelled as he righted his stance only to cry out in pain when one of the undead mongrels pounced and sunk its fangs into his arm. Bird quickly came over to him and started stabbing the growling hound in the throat until its jaws went slack and it fell from his arm. Aela was chopping up two of the canines while the last was focusing on Rat. It was almost an even match between the two, but Rat eventually won while Bird wrapped Vesli's bleeding arm and Aela wrenched her glaive from the dogs' corpses.

"It burns," he hissed out as Bird cinched the bandages tight, giving the wrapped part of his arm a soft pat of reassurance.

"Hmmm, likely infected with rabies. A stint in the sanatorium recommended for treatment," Bird mused as she looked close to unbandaging his arm to inspect it for samples.

Before the man could give his opinion on being sent to that hellhole, Rat stalked over "Why did none of you help me," the rodent hissed, his robes in disarray. "And what did you call me?" Rat's gaze turned towards him.

"We were dealing with the rest of the pack," Aela growled, shoving Rat aside as she made sure Vesli and Bird weren't hurt.

"I'm alright Aela," Vesli winced as he flexed the fingers of the damaged arm, "The Doctor already took care of me."

"Lucky," Aela teased "How come I never get to take care of you?"

Giving a mock gasp, the man grinned as he got to his feet. "Why Aela," he teased back, "I wouldn't dare steal away the brothel's best patron." The hellion's only response was a bellowing laugh as she gave him a hearty slap on the back.

"Just let me know if you ever feel like taking up theft then," Aela chuckled as they set off once more, a clear divide forming with himself and the girls on one end and Rat on the other. They had been walking for another twenty minutes when Aela held out her hand for everyone to stop. "I see light up ahead," she whispered, the much taller barbarian able to see things farther than the rest of them. Crouching down, the group crept forward and spotted a small camp of bandits, with a couple of knife-wielding shits and two blunderbuss bastards.

"On three we attack them," Vesli ordered the group silently, "Aela, you're going to charge with me. Veci, keep throwing those plague grenade things you make at them. Tulles... try not to get in the way." Orders given, he held up three fingers and did a silent count down before charging out, using the chain to strike the brigands' campfire and sending sparks up into their eyes, blinding them. Ignoring their screams of pain, which for one turned to screams of fear as flying sky-ghost tentacles started ripping the man apart, Vesli selected his target.

Swinging the iron links so they wrapped around his arm and covered his fist, Vesli punched one of the knife-wielding shits. The makeshift gauntlet cracked the brigand's ribs as the started scream turned to wet gurgles, the disgrace of a man dropping his daggers and coughing up blood. Looking down at the thrashing, Vesli knelt and quickly snapped the sorry bastard's neck, ending the suffering. Hearing a gunshot, he looked up and saw Aela having used the second knife-wielding shit as a shield and, as the blunderbuss bastard who'd fired at his own comrade stared in horrified shock remaining rooted to the spot, Aela caved in his skull.

It was almost a flawless attack and would have been were it not for the bleeding gash on Aela's arm from part of the gunfire that hadn't been blocked. "Don't worry," Rat said cockily, "I can fix it." The eye sockets of Rat's skull glowed before Aela let out a scream as her cut just grew deeper and longer.

"Fix it?!" Vesli yelled, punching Rat in the face as Bird rushed forward and used one of their two remaining bandages along with some of her own medicines to fix Aela's arm. "You made it worse you bastard!"

"The Wyrd Reconstruction is not an exact ability," Rat growled, spitting out blood and possibly a tooth. "It was clear that the Beast does not favor your barbarian pet."

"Keep it up and my axe will favor your balls," Aela spat angrily before delving into a stream of curses most of which even Vesli didn't know and greatly impressed It with their creativity as Bird pulled the bandage tight.

"Come on," the man growled, forcibly yanking Rat to his feet and urging everyone onward, "Let's just get this job over with and never work together again." The last part was directed at Rat who was more than happy to agree. Sadly, their luck at getting the jump on the brigands didn't last long as the next group of murderous beings surprised them instead, Rat giving a rather loud and high pitched scream of fright at the sight of the two goop monsters, a madman, and one of those spell casting female cultists.

"Aela!" Vesli growled, "Take Tulles and remove the psycho and his ooze friend. The Doctor and I will take out the cultist." Bird matched pace with them as they charged the female cultist who cursed in return. Giving a roar, he let It out at the same time as the cultist sent a blast of black magic at him and his vision went dark.