Chapter 35: The Truth in the Basement
We passed through the dining room and entered through a door I hadn't noticed before, descending a flight of stone steps. At the bottom of the stairs stood a thick door covered in metal, its surface etched with runes I didn't recognize.
She stopped before the door.
"The smell inside will make you uncomfortable," she said. "I'm warning you now."
"I'm ready."
She began to unlock it.
The moment the door opened, the smell arrived first.
The damp odor of the basement was impossible to mask. Beyond that came an especially rank, fishy stench that made it hard to keep one's eyes open. I quickly pulled a cloth from my bag to cover my nose and mouth, barely suppressing the urge to vomit.
In the center of the basement stood a glass partition extending from ceiling to floor, dividing the space in two. We stood on this side, unable to see the other.
The glass surface was covered in runes.
"Magically treated barrier glass," Sevan said. "Neither physical impact nor magic can break it, and it blocks sound."
"Can it hear us talking?"
"It can. But its voice will be absorbed by the runes."
She pressed a rune on the edge of the glass.
The glass surface became somewhat transparent.
I saw it.
It was in the center on the other side of the glass. Larger than I'd expected, with an asymmetrical outline, limbs of unequal length, and a lower body that transformed from the waist down into something between a snake's tail and legs—a grotesque shape.
Its head most resembled a human's, but the facial structure was incomplete. The nose was sunken, the mouth a horizontal slit stretching from ear to ear. The crown of its head was bald.
Its eyes were yellow, with the distinctive pupils of a snake.
The instant the glass became transparent, those eyes locked onto mine.
The familiar chill returned to my body. What was more terrifying was that though it had never seen me before, it seemed to recognize me.
I stepped back from the glass, and Sevan made the glass opaque again.
"Those pills you were taking," I said.
"Over here."
She led me to the other side of the basement. Against the wall stood a small cabinet containing several labeled vials.
"These are the backup supplies that man left me," she said. "He told me I could take them if I felt the transformation effects weakening. I've kept them all this time and never used them once."
I took the bottles out.
Opening the stopper, I smelled it. I pinched some powder between my fingers and observed its reactions on different herbal mediums. I used every testing method available in my cloth bag.
The first bottle contained mild nutrients and metabolism-accelerating agents, nothing particularly special—it seemed designed to deceive.
The second bottle contained Bittersorrel root powder, which had mood-stabilizing properties.
The key was in the third bottle.
The third bottle contained three things: concentrated Greythorn liquid and Wormwood root powder. When mixed together, their color should have been bright yellow-green, but now it was a viscous black.
I didn't touch it directly with my hands but used the underside of a Stoneshade leaf for testing.
The leaf's underside instantly turned a deep, dark rust color.
That was the characteristic color of dark magic, worse than curses.
I poured the liquid onto the floor and picked up a nearby candle, tossing it on top.
When exposed to high heat, the puddle hissed, releasing an odor even more foul than what already filled this room.
It wasn't hard to identify—it was the smell of burning human flesh.
Dark magic that required body parts or blood as a medium could only be one kind.
"How much do you know about potions and herbs?" I asked her.
"Almost nothing. That's not my area of expertise."
"What about your husband?"
"He didn't know I was taking these pills at the time."
I lowered my head in thought for a moment, unsure how to tell her the final conclusion.
"This invasive potion was made very discreetly," I paused. "These ingredients combined can invade your body for possession."
"Possession."
"Yes," I said, placing the bottle back on the table.
"Sevan." I felt I'd never been this angry before—not at her, but at the thing behind the glass.
She looked at me.
"That dark wizard didn't transform your body to help you conceive."
"He was using your body as a medium."
"Using Serqathi's racial traits as raw materials."
"To transfer his own soul into a more powerful new life."
After I finished speaking, Sevan fell into complete silence, standing perfectly still.
Her gaze fixed on my face for a long, long time.
I felt the same emotion growing.
Then she turned and walked toward the glass, making it transparent so she could face the creature on the other side.
The creature also remained in place, watching her.
"You are not my child," she said.
This sentence was spoken to that creature.
This was the first time in fifteen years she had said it aloud. In the face of absolute conspiracy and truth, words were insufficient to express her rage.
"Nor are you Serqathi's child."
"You are the thing that killed him and occupied his shell."
"Disgusting."
The black marking on her left wrist seemed to deepen further in the firelight.
On the other side of the glass, the creature moved.
It had remained still while we talked, but now it slowly stood up. When it rose, its overall height was greater than I'd anticipated. It walked to within two steps of the glass.
Its mouth began to writhe.
The sound was absorbed by the runes; I couldn't see what it was saying.
There was no expression on its face, but in those snake-like eyes was the shadow of a person.
That dark wizard was hidden inside that twisted shell.
It looked at Sevan from the other side of the glass and smiled at her.
It was an evil smile, full of mockery and greed.
Sevan's breathing stopped for a moment.
I immediately took all the suppression bone talismans I'd prepared from the inner pocket of my cloth bag. The one with blackened edges was still on my person; I handed Sevan two of the three backup pieces I'd bought from Cairn.
"Place them on the glass," I said. "They can amplify the coverage of the runes. If it tries to get out, these two talismans will buy us time."
She took the talismans.
Before placing them, she looked at me.
"Why are you helping me?"
"Because if you don't kill it," I said, "those people will eventually take it back. It has absorbed Serqathi's power and your magic, and it's about to fully mature."
"That day is near."
"Near," I said. "It's been hitting the floor to test its own strength."
"I thought it was just hungry." She laughed self-deprecatingly, and I felt only endless regret. In that moment she was just a woman who wanted to have a family with the person she loved—she shouldn't have to bear such a fate.
"And besides, there should be one fewer of these things in this world."
"Exactly."
She placed the talismans on the glass.
The instant the talismans touched the glass, the existing runes flared briefly. She pressed the talismans down, allowing the energy from both to stably integrate into the overall structure of the glass.
She stepped back.
"I need to end this."
After fifteen years of waiting, she had finally reached this day.