Chapter Ten: Solving the Olgar Mystery
THE SECOND TIME the behemoth moose-rider graces Nilhin with his presence is at the banquet for their successful night hunts, almost a week later. That huge man, as Nilhin had come to learn, was Hvit Forin, the clan leader. Said man was only twenty years old, and had been the clan leader for quite some time due to his father’s untimely demise. Nilhin was sitting at the high table with the other four members of the Orikani subunit, and he was sitting furthest from the clan leader, since Kveda had decided he deserved that privilege, having killed the squirrel beast. Nilhin hadn’t even bothered to fight with him. Ever since that night, that hunger, that had finally been sated, was slowly returning, and Nilhin was starting to crave fulfilment again, only he didn’t know how to get it himself. He needed someone to give it to him, it seemed, like his mother or the squirrel beast.
“So you killed the squirrel beast?” Hvit Forin asked. Kveda nodded.
“I did, because it killed my best friend, Ogar.”
“Oh,” Forin said. The man looked to his older generals, who sat around him for guidance. There was an empty seat at Forin’s left, but apparently it was common knowledge that banquets like this were rarely attended by the prince, the clan leader’s younger half-brother, Mykta.
“Actually,” Gronjas said, “We had our experts look at the corpse. He wasn’t killed by a squirrel beast.”
Gronjas spoke, and glanced at Nilhin as he did so. Nilhin tilted his head. What did he mean the squirrel beast hadn’t killed Ogar? Who could have done it then?
“He was killed by a fox beast,” Gronjas finished.
Nilhin wasn’t sure what happened next, because all the air had been knocked out of him.
A fox beast had killed Ogar. Fox beasts killed through intercourse. There was one person with Ogar, who was performing a sexual act at the time of his death, and it wasn’t the squirrel beast. It was… it was Nilhin. Was Nilhin…? No, he decided, just the very thought was absolutely ridiculous. To think he was a fox beast -- and hadn’t known it -- was foolish in itself. If he was a fox beast, he would know, and his mother would have told him. In fact, if that were true, she would have never died. It was just impossible for it to be true.
“Nilhin?” Gronjas asked, reaching across the table to hold a hand over his. “Are you okay?” Nilhin jerked his hand away from him. If he was a fox beast -- and he wasn’t saying he was, but if he was -- then he didn’t want to hurt anyone. Gronjas looked shocked and concerned at the same time. The rest of the table was looking at Nilhin.
“My sincerest apologies,” Nilhin said. “I’m just… so upset about Ogar. He was our captain, he protected us, and to hear he fell victim to such a foul beast… How did we not notice?”
“We don’t know,” another general, not Gronjas or Hamla, said. “Fox beasts are very smart. They can take the body of humans very young. They’re very clever, and are great at mimicking humans, making them hard to spot.” The man shook his head. Forin’s fist clenched around the grip of his claymore at his side. His claymore was much thicker and scarier than the other claymores that Nilhin had seen, or even his own.
“Could a fox beast be able to rip a sword in half with his bare hands?” Kveda asked, and Nilhin repressed the urge to inhale sharply at being called out. Nilhin slowly turned to look at the man who dared question his abilities. “Because even the strongest humans can’t do that unless they’re immortal, right?”
“A fox beast could, hypothetically, tear even my claymore in half,” Forin said with the confidence of someone who had met and fought against a fox beast. Kveda’s brows furrowed before he whipped his head around to look at Nilhin. The rest of them turned back to Nilhin as well, now that Forin hadn’t given him enough information.
“Could there be a fox beast living amongst us?” another disciple asked.
“Certainly not,” Hamla said. Hamla was a thinner, lankier man than he was bulky like the rest of the broad soldiers of the Hvit Clan, but he seemed far more clever than he seemed brawny. He must be a tactician. “The fortress walls are warded with sigils to keep intelligent nonhumans out. They wouldn’t have been able to enter the fortress.”
“Well,” Gronjas said with a nervous laugh. “There’s an exception to that, but it never actually happens. In fact, the last time it occurred was before the Zaw Dynasty had even come into existence. It was the downfall of the original empire of Aishold. We don’t know much about it besides one of the offspring of a fox beast caused it.”
“Ah, the legend of Xiu Ming,” Forin said with a nod. “It’s a fun legend for children. Mykta is particularly fond of its romantic suspense, but that doesn’t actually happen. Fox beasts rarely have children, and when they do, they’re easy to find. We exterminate them young, before they can become a threat. It’s impossible one would have survived, since everyone here is grown.”
“You kill children?” Nilhin asked, before he could think better of himself.
“No. Fox beast hybrids -- paragons -- are not children. They’re devils, just like their mothers and whatever idiot human is stupid enough to lay with them,” Forin said. Nilhin nodded, accepting this answer.
If Nilhin were to be a fox beast -- a fox paragon -- born of his mother, a fox beast… she may not have told him, to keep him safe and hidden from people like Forin who would have killed him despite his innocence. Was he really that innocent now though? He had… if this was true, then he murdered Ogar, not the squirrel beast. He was a beast. Was that the hunger in him? Was he craving the energy and soul force of humans? Was he really--
“How could we know for sure?” Kveda asked. “Ogar would have wanted to make sure nothing followed us back from that place.”
“Well, there are tests to check for a fox beast,” Gronjas said. “But fox beasts are almost exclusively female. The only women who learn here have been here for far longer than it would have taken for us to realise if she was a fox beast.”
“What about their children? What if one of those really snuck in?” Kveda asked.
“One didn’t,” Forin said with certainty. “And there’s no way to check for those unless they reveal themselves.”
“How do we get it to reveal itself?” Kveda asked, and Forin leaned forward at the table.
“Why does it matter? I said it was impossible for one to have gotten in, and I meant it.” The way he said it made it more of a threat than a statement. Kveda averted his eyes back to his plate, and so did the other disciples. Nilhin was still stunned into silence. Kveda was suspecting him, of course, but if there was no way to tell if he was a fox paragon or not, then even if he was, he would be safe -- although Nilhin wasn’t entirely convinced that he was anything but human. Maybe it was really a fox beast back there that had decided to attack.
“We’ll comb the forests for any foxes, but the chances are they’re long gone. Fox beasts, once they’re strong enough to get ahold of a mage, are typically smart enough to keep on the move,” Hamla said.
“I’ll do an inquiry on possible new recruits being fox paragons, if that will please you, but I agree with my cousin. They’re so rare, and even then, they’re so easily found and executed… it would be so unlikely to have found one, and especially for one to have joined a clan knowing what could happen to it--” Nilhin repressed a flinch when he, or rather than unknown fox paragon that hopefully wasn’t him, was referred to as an ‘it’-- “should it be discovered.”
The banquet continued through the rest of the night. Nilhin ate what he could, but nothing tasted right in his mouth, always so flavourless no matter how many spices were loaded onto the tender meats or the juicy vegetables. He drank glass after glass of wine, hoping to feel something, but it never worked. He didn’t grow intoxicated no matter how much he drank. The books said he wouldn’t, that drugs didn’t work the same on fox beasts, although very little was known about fox paragons.
Was the memory of his mother and her three tails… was that a real memory, rather than the story he thought he told himself when he needed comfort? Was his mother, the nicest and most kind woman, possibly in the entire universe, actually a fox beast, who had never told him the truth? Had she died without telling him? Why had she died if she was a fox beast? She was feeding regularly, probably on her patrons, who why had she gotten sick?
“You’ve had a lot to drink,” Gronjas said, walking around the table. Nilhin wasn’t drunk, but he figured he should be. He looked up at Gronjas. “It’s okay. Mykta can’t hold his liquor either and he’s still bigger than you. I’ll help you to your dorm.”
“Library,” he said, letting Gronjas wrapped his arms around him and pick him up. Nilhin dragged his feet like he saw the men in the brothel behave. He rested his head against Gronjas, and admitted that he was warm and his scent was one that just made Nilhin believe he was safe. “I sleep in the library.”
“Okay, I’ll take you there, but you can’t vomit on any of the books, okay?” Gronjas asked with a laugh. Nilhin nodded against him, sticking out his bottom lip as well. Gronjas looked down at him and let out a soft, breathy laugh before he carted him down the halls and across one of the many courtyards to the library. Nilhin sat behind the desk he usually studied at, where he also slept at, and hunkered beneath the folded blanket he was given by the librarian, Svani.
“I’m scared,” he said, as Gronjas tucked the blanket in around him. “‘Bout the fox beast.”
“Don’t be. Fox beasts like men with strong pyretic energy, and you’re… not that,” Gronjas said. Nilhin’s lip quivered, and Gronjas must have seen him. Gronjas sighed as he sat beside him. “Plus, if there was a fox beast around here, I’d fight them all away from you. I’d keep you safe, Nilhin. I bet Svani would do the same. If there’s a fox paragon… that might be trickier.”
“Why?” Nilhin asked, but still trying to keep the facade of drunkenness. “The stupid books don’t tell me much.” Gronjas stroked the side of Nilhin’s head, and Nilhin leaned towards his soft caress.
“Because fox paragons are some of the deadliest creatures. The legend of Xiu Ming speaks of their power, and if it’s even slightly true, then they’re stronger than any mortal mage, possibly immortals, and… and they’re always beautiful young men. Is that why you’re afraid? A paragon might come and try to take you?” Nilhin nodded pathetically despite it being a lie. “Don’t worry. Paragons also like men with pyretic energy, and Xiu Ming, in the book -- so don’t think it’s too real -- had a wife, a woman. That’s who they prefer. Have you never heard the legend of Xiu Ming?”
“No,” Nilhin said, his bottom lip sticking out as it quivered. “Please teach me, senior brother!”
Gronjas smiled, and nodded.
“Alright, I’ll tell you the legend of Xiu Ming, but you have to promise to stay awake while I do, and then drink a big glass of water, okay?” Nilhin nodded in agreement.
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