235 (II)

  Dietary [I]

  "Yeah, not sure, Adam. We should play by ear. I can tell you this, though: I don't seem to be affected by the anger of the skill. Anger makes me stronger, but I can also cast it into other people. I can make them lose control of themselves."

  "Like what you did today earlier," Adam said. “I saw it take the Anointed One and consume the rest of the kitchen. Everyone except me, really. He called it the black fire. The black fire of the heart and the soul."

  "Yeah, I dumped a lot of it into him, and he couldn't take it. Not well, anyway. That broke him more than the physical pain. The sheer amount of anger I was feeling kind of burned him from the inside out." Shiv chuckled. "Poor, unfortunate bastard. If I hadn't developed this skill, who knows how all that might have gone? And it's not even because of him. I just forgot about Maiden's Curse, and it kicked in.”

  As he said that, he heard some of the surviving chefs cry out. He turned just in time to see them landing in puddles of blood that had been their Shiv-made seatings a moment ago.

  Adam winced. “Right… I suppose that's going to take some getting used to. It's not just limited to your cooking. We need to make sure to avoid this happening in public.”

  Shiv gritted his teeth. His anger spiked, but it didn't make him react beyond that. Deeper inside, he was burning. His eyes crackled and flickers of darkness danced along the edges. More rage boiled away the impurities in his thoughts. It flowed through him. It cleansed him. That didn’t make it feel any better.

  The Gate Lord reacted, noticing the flames of rage for the first time. "Is that from your skill?”

  "Yup," Shiv said, "I can channel them into someone when I stare at them. I usually see a core inside people as well, it’s like…" He stared into Adam's heart, and to his surprise, he saw it mostly filled. It was churning with dark flames as well. "Shit, Adam, are you doing alright?"

  The Gate Lord's mouth opened, but he didn't say anything for a good few seconds. “It’s what we talked about before. The Ascendants, the Republic, our lives now. It’s part of the reason I came along with you—why I keep working.”

  “Hard to process, so you try to distract yourself?”

  “Yes. Something like that. Your new skill really is going to bother me, isn’t it? Bad enough that you’re a brute, now you’re an emotional brute as well.”

  "Yeah," Shiv replied, understanding how Adam felt better than ever before. "Skill's boosting my empathy a whole damn lot too—it feels like I’m faintly tuned into how you are emotionally when I’m looking at the fires inside your core." Shiv briefly tried to draw the flames out from Adam's core, but found that he couldn't do it. It seemed that his fires were only one-way, and his anger was a gift to bestow, rather than something that could siphon from that which dwelled in the heart of another. “Well. I can’t absorb anger.”

  Adam winced. “I wouldn’t want you to, either.”

  “Best that I take it if I can. It makes me better.”

  “No; it’s still my responsibility,” Adam replied. “I don’t like feeling this way, but I have to. Because I should. Not everything should be pleasant—this shouldn’t be pleasant. I want to face it and master myself. Basically, what you did.”

  Shiv shrugged. “It’s mostly the skill.”

  “Before the skill, there is a choice,” Adam retorted. “And you chose. You didn’t always succeed before, but you always chose to fight your worst impulses. And that’s why I never could fully hate you. Because a beast obeys, but a man decides. So. Don’t try to do that. Even if you can. Let me decide for myself as well. I don't need you to be a reservoir for my wounded feelings.”

  Shiv swallowed and nodded. “Alright, Adam. I got it.”

  "Good.” Adam huffed. “Anyhow, we need to get that bloody slipgate working as soon as possible. We'll have another place to go to when this is done."

  "What do you mean by that?" Shiv asked.

  "I mean that if Plum Blossom’s Anointed Knight stays here, then his power will continue to grow, and the danger he poses will continue to rise. You have beaten him for now, but the narrative law of his existence will fuel him with all the mana he needs to eventually break free from the cage. It will burn him severely, but there will come a point where he is simply too much for even the suppressive effect of the cold iron cage."

  Shiv grimaced. "Damn, the System's really pushing for this piece of shit to end up in that Princess's mouth, huh?"

  Adam shook his head. "You don't know the half of it. I looked at him with my Divination mana earlier. It's… hard to describe the fae. They're like beacons, but they're also roads and pathways. They have trails leading across the narrative when I'm trying to track someone using my Divination magic. It's usually cryptic, confusing. You need to put a lot of pieces together when you're reaching into the System's guts, but with a fae, it's just overwhelming. They’re like towers that curve and bend, shaped to rise toward a specific future. They are bound to a harder fate than we are. We seem to have more freedom of capability to choose and turn along the path. They are stuck on rails, so to speak. They cannot be anything else, and that works to their benefit as much as their detriment."

  And despite everything, Shiv felt a faint sense of pity for the fae. "So they're basically slaves to the System? Or their Fair Lore?"

  "Unable to deviate from specific scripts of strife and lore, I would say," Adam replied. "We have to get rid of him before that narrative gets strong enough to start twisting our world as well. But on top of that, we need to deal with the chefs.”

  "I've been thinking about them too," Shiv said.

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  Said chefs were now focusing on both Pathbearers. Michael Bernstein looked nervous, and he pretended that he wasn't listening in on Shiv and Adam's conversation. "They saw me," Shiv said simply. "The System notification popped up, so they know who I am. We need to scrub their memories, at the very least. And, beyond that, well, we're probably going to also have to do something to cover up all of this. And that means doing something to the entire restaurant. Too many people died here. There will be questions. Families are going to demand answers. There's gonna be investigations and all that. The Prismatic Guard or Inquisition will be all over this place."

  “Not good,” Adam muttered. “That will draw Investigators and Diviners to us. Well, we have a few choices, but I don’t think any of them are good. Your grandmother, the Neath, or…” The Gate Lord hesitated. "Or the Educator. Maybe she can offer us some aid.”

  Shiv did a massive double-take. "What? You want her to paint them into her tome or something?”

  Adam shook his head. "I don't know what she might be able to do, but considering everything we're facing right now, it is an option. Just maybe not a kind one.”

  "And what about the kitchen?" Shiv asked.

  Adam shuffled uncomfortably. "Well, buildings burn down due to issues in mithril connectivity and magical spell consistency all the time. There could have been a mishap within the kitchen that spiraled out of control." He gestured with his hand, turning his index finger, and let Shiv catch on to the implication.

  A breath escaped Shiv, one that contained the ghost of a disbelieving laugh. "You know, Adam, I wouldn't have expected you to come up with that."

  "Why?"

  "Because when we first met, you were Mr. Honorable, and you would have hated this."

  "I still hate it," Adam admitted with a bitter scoff, "but it's not like we have any better choices. That's been my life recently, just one bad choice after another. Bad choices between each other, bad choices forced on us by bad people." Adam’s weariness slipped through, yet he kept himself composed. There was a dignity there that he just wouldn't let go of. "For the best outcome possible, we need to accept some… imperfections. Damn our discomfort. Choice is for the powerful and the privileged. I wouldn’t claim to be either right now, considering the forces arrayed against us."

  But then Adam looked down, and Shiv realized there was something else he had to say. "We might have one more option on top of that, however," the Gate Lord continued. "One option that involves that heart you have.”

  Shiv gestured at him to continue.

  "Apparently, the Anointed Knight might be able to wipe the minds of the survivors better than either of us can. And more importantly, he has the capability of restoring a few victims to life, or some molded facsimile of it. He can maybe put up a facade for us—make it seem like the kitchen is still running and clean his own mess up to a certain extent.”

  "What the hells does that mean in clear-speak?" Shiv asked.

  "The heart you hold contains the lingering essence of the chefs that were slain. That's why its vitality is so potent. That's why you can hear it echoing sometimes, psionic thoughts leaking over to you. Now, the replicas won't have the originals’ skills, because they're technically not the originals. They're just clones molded from bread, but they will be empowered by fae magic and tied to the Anointed One himself. He assures me that this can help him do… some things. But he has an offer for you. Specifically you. He won’t tell me about it. He wishes to strike a bargain.”

  “The fuck? Why? He wouldn’t even make eye contact with me when I left the room.”

  “If you would have me guess, he simply wishes to be spared from further torture at your hands. In exchange, we are to return him to the Fairwoods.”

  Shiv didn't know what to say to that. The thought of letting a bunch of bread replace the staff here and working with the Anointed Knight after all this was utterly repugnant to him. Not to mention risky. "How do we know that this isn't his attempt to break free or to get one over on our asses?”

  "Because he's willing to do more than bind himself to you. He wishes to offer a piece of his soul to you as proof of his word. However that works. I can’t tell if he was being metaphorical or literal. The latter, I suspect. Also, he offered something similar to me—tried to bribe me into killing you.” Adam snorted.

  “What’d you say?” Shiv asked, curious.

  “I told him I’ll kill you when I feel like it, and that'll be because you were being an annoying Omenborn bastard, not because some bread appealed to my greed.”

  “Shit, Adam, you’re that confident you can put me down?”

  Adam sneered. “Shiv, when I really try, you won't even know what got you.”

  “These are real big words for a little guy in grabbing distance.”

  “Yes. That's why you should assume I already fired an arrow in advance. And that this is merely one of my clones.”

  The twosome stared each other down.

  And then snorted.

  “I’m going to wrap you in so many skin decoys the next time we spar,” Shiv said jovially.

  “And I’m going to shoot you in the back of the head endlessly while you fling yourself around, desperate to find me. Let’s be honest, Shiv. The best chance you have is pulling me in half right this instant, considering that abysmal Awareness Skill of yours.”

  “It evolved!”

  “To Farsight,” Adam replied, his face contorting in disgust. “It breaks my heart. Maybe ask the fae if he can do something to replace the skill. Change it into Bread Vision or something.”

  “Ouch,” Shiv said. “That bad?”

  “If I had a pet dog that developed Farsight, I would have it euthanized.”

  “Holy shit, okay, I got it. Damn, Adam. You really take your Awareness seriously, huh?” Shiv folded his arms defensively.

  “It’s the most important skill.”

  “Yeah, the Educator would agree.”

  Now it was Adam’s turn to grimace, and Shiv grinned instead.

  “Alright.” Shiv sighed, stretching his neck. “Fun as slapping our cocks together has been—”

  “Please don’t describe it like that…”

  “—I’m going to see about talking to this piece of bread. Figure out what he’s offering and maybe hurt him a bit more. After that, we can pick what kind of shit we wanna eat. In the meantime, you wanna look over the chefs? See if I missed anything about them?”

  "I can do that," Adam said. "But Shiv, just..."

  "Yeah, I'll keep myself controlled," the Deathless said with a slight huff of annoyance. "I won't hurt him any more than I have to."

  "That's a very, very large spectrum, Shiv.”

  "Yeah, well, I'm not going to promise anything more because right now, I both want to and feel like hurting him.” Then, Shiv’s rational mind came up with a simple solution to making sure the bread knight didn’t piss him off too much. “Actually, I can find out if he’s jerking us around. Maybe.”

  “How?”

  “I'm going to have some help again.”

  “Please don’t tell me you’re going to have one of your orc—oh, Cullywier?” Adam asked.

  “Yeah.” Shiv grinned. “Cullywier.”