A Sinner’s Chance

While I hadn't expected Steria's corruption to be as short as Marian's, it took far longer than I had ever thought it would. Arya and I had to wait nine days for Steria to finally awaken, and while her form was just as it had been before, her changes had been far more visible and drastic than either Marian's or Arya's.

The common theme of being in pain was of course there, but unlike with Marian or Arya, it was very clear as to what was causing Steria to be in such pain despite being unconscious. The sound of breaking bone and the sight of her flesh stretching and rearranging as her body morphed from an animal into a humanoid was grotesque to say the least, but that was only the first half. Once the humanoid form stabilized, I had thought she was going to wake up, but not even an hour later, the morphing restarted, only in reverse this time as her humanoid form became an animal once again.

While the process was a bit too much for Arya to handle, there were several memories from Velen that were far more graphic, his world didn't have the convenience of magic or Skills, so any bodily modifications needed to be done manually. Likely the most vivid was when Velen had gotten his arms enhanced, the first enhancement he'd ever gotten and the start of life in the military. Even though he'd been heavily drugged to block out pain and strapped to the operation table, the sight of having his arm cut to his bone and peeled open almost like it was a banana of meat and blood as they worked on the bone and replaced several fleshy bits with inorganic metals and circuitry, was something that was seared into the memory.

When Steria did finally wake up, both Arya and I were excited and curious to find out what sort of Status she had, though we could only take her word for it as she didn't have a Status plate for us to look at, I also wouldn't be able to properly use Seshat's Library on any of the terms since without the Status Plate it would compile all the related records as long as it had to do with the term, even ones that I couldn't read.

Steria only noticed a few differences from what she normally saw, namely her race had become Khetoran Werecat and she'd gained the Retainer title in addition to the Gift, Retainer of Swords, along with a new Racial Skill called Shifting Forms. As far as changes go it seemed lackluster in comparison to what my other Retainers had gained, but I didn't doubt that she was telling the truth as we still shared our bond.

The Shifting Forms Skill did pretty much what it described, allowing Steria to shift into one of three forms, at least according to what she could tell when she used it. The first form was the regular female Khetoran, while the second was about a halfway mix between animal and human. She was still completely covered in fur in the second form, and she stood upright as if a cheetah had a human skeleton rather than a quadrupedal one.

The third and final form was more humanoid than animal, however, she still retained a large portion of the animal characteristics. The small rounder cat ears that poked through long flowy dark blackish brown hair that matched the spots on the tail that protruded from her tailbone. Her limbs almost seemed to have cheetah fur armor as from about halfway from her biceps and thighs down they were thicker and resembled her second form limbs more than a humans, complete with semi-retractable claws on the fingers and toes. 

It was clear even from just looking at them, but all of Steria's forms were based on speed and agility, something she was good at utilizing, but apparently worked differently from how she'd previously fought. Before she'd been fragmented, she had fought mostly covered in heavy armor and wielded a shield and sword, something still viable in her current state, but she thought it would be better to fully lean into her speed and agility and learn a new way to fight.

I did agree that it would be better that way anyway since as a group we didn't really need any frontline fighters since I could take a near limitless amount of punishment which would only increase my strength over time. It would be more effective if Steria was either a hit and run, or we fought side by side as rider and mount as I could more efficiently deal with any wounds she sustained if I could always remain in contact with her. That would be less important once I finished on her set of Communication Jewelry, but I also wanted to make her other equipment as well since for now she would be going into any fight naked. 

My goal for her equipment would be something that she didn't have to take off when her forms switched, either because it changed with her, or some other method so she was never defenseless. However, I had plenty time to prototype and work on it as we made our way to the Forest of Darkness, we'd already delayed the trip more times than I wanted to admit, and I really wanted to get there and back before the first snow of the year, not that the area the Eldur Household held was often subject to snow, even on the coldest days, but it wasn't impossible, and I felt that getting stuck in the snow on our way through the Forest of Darkness was just asking for all manner of problems.

It only took a bit of time for the three of us to break down the nest and pack up what supplies were left as we prepared to leave. I was extremely relieved when I found both the horses and carriage untouched, though it was plain to see that there were a few fools stupid enough to think that going towards the carriage was a good idea, as evidenced by several triggered traps, and a few rotting limbs in some of the webs, likely cut off to free a person from the near inescapable grasp.

There was only a single intact corpse, that of a young woman, which was caught in a web that was quite close to the carriage. As I got closer to the corpse I realized that it was actually rather fresh, and rather than starvation or some other means of a drawn out death that awaited any who got stuck, she had been choked to death by the now faded tattoo I could just barely make out on her neck. A Slave Crest, an illegal one at that, which meant that this woman had likely been kidnapped into the service of an unpleasant person and forced to scout for the traps I set up. I was actually quite impressed with how far she had managed to get. 

I shook my head at the girl's unfortunate fate as I cut her down and began to use Earth Magic to dig a grave for her. However, just as I was about to place the corpse into the freshly dug earth, the surrounding temperature suddenly dropped followed by an unearthly and high pitched wail that attacked one's mentality, trying to instill hopelessness and despair into those who heard it while stoking their deepest fears.

I could only curse as I used Vibro Magic to nullify the sound around me, Arya and Steria, just in time as I could see both Arya and Steria shaking. If it weren't for the fact that I had memories of actually dying, I imagined I would be in a similar state. I also felt that I had an additional layer of protection that had weakened the wail, likely one of my many Yin type Skills. Just as the other two recovered, a ghostly figure eerily similar to the corpse I had just dropped, floated from the surrounding trees. "Don't desecrate me further cretins!" she wailed before her attention focused on me. In response I conjured purple black lighting that snaked around my body, while Arya and Steria prepared their own attacks.

A fresh undead Banshee would be no match for our group which could negate the most deadly abilities, and could retaliate with not one, but two types of magic that was extremely effective against those with unnatural life.