Chapter 105 (Patreon)

Chapter 105

He left the others to their chatting and came up to the thick, solid wood with a few knocks on the door using his knuckles.  He heard a muffled voice from inside telling him to come in, and opened the door to quickly shut it behind him.

There on the bed, Genua was holding Ethel in her arms while Len was spooned between the two of them.  They had the covers drawn halfway up and all three of them showed signs of recent crying, though they all looked his way when he made his appearance.  Ethel’s remnants of her missing left hand, a stump at the upper arm from where it’d been cut off by a goblin, was laid over her small sister and the little girl’s pigtails were obviously disheveled.  Meanwhile Genua’s bruised face had darkened and was just barely starting to swell.

Rivens eyes softened at the sight, and he felt a mixture of sadness for them while a flame of hatred sparked for Elder Preen.  Riven still didn’t know the situation revolving around Farrod in detail, but he was determined not to make any hasty judgments of the man - and he motioned to the nearby bedside.  “May I sit?”

Genua sniffed, keeping the side of Ethel’s face in one hand and Len’s shoulder in the other - but nodded silently.

Riven turned the corner and plopped onto the edge of the bed, looking at the floor between his feet while figuring out what to say before turning back to the three of them with as kind a smile as he could muster.  “Uhm, Elder Bren told me about your situation.”

None of the three of them moved or replied, but merely stared back at him.

“So, Ethel… I assume you were using me as a pawn to get out of marrying Elder Preen?  Is that right?”

Genua spoke up immediately with a shaky voice.  “That isn’t true, she isn’t using you, I-”

“That’s true.” Ethel stated unapologetically, fierce determination in her eyes and her hand clamping down over her mother’s mouth.  The young woman gave him a challenging glare.  “Elder Preen is a terrible man, and my father refuses to stand up for me.  For us.  His gambling problems got us here and now we are paying the price.  Len told you the story, and although I did scheme some - none of what Len told you was a lie.”

Genua shot her daughter a nervous glance, but Riven remained calm.  The vampire rested his hands on his knees and nodded thoughtfully, looking out a small window at the top left-hand corner of the cabin room.  “So Farrod actually does know about what’s going on?”

There was an awkward silence.

“It depends on what you mean.” Ethel stated, still trying to remain brave in the face of his confrontation.  “My father knows about what Elder Preen is doing while he’s sent out on these absurd scouting missions, but my father either doesn’t care enough to act or he’s letting it happen to buy time to repay the debt.  Ever since… Ever since my brother died he hasn’t been the same.  He started drinking, gambling, and making risky trips into the wilderness for profit.  He sells what he can from his hunts to try and regain what we lost, but it is a far fetched plan at best.”

Genua cut in with a comment of her own.  “Farrod isn’t a bad man, Riven.  He just… has lost himself.  He’s a shadow of the person he once was… and it pains me to see him like that.”

“It’s still no excuse.” Ethel cut in sharply, obviously angry and having had this conversation before.  “No husband would let another man do to you what Elder Preen is doing.  Look at your swollen face, mother!  Father should be here protecting you, confronting that bastard and keeping you safe!  Where is he now though!?  Where has he been the past twenty times!?  What did he do when you finally admitted to him what was going on!?  Absolutely nothing is what.  You may accept what’s happening, but I won’t be subject to that old man’s-”

“Stop it.” Genua said in a cold, enraged voice while glaring at her daughter.  Ethel cut her speech short, but relaxed again when Genua took in a deep breath and closed her eyes.

Riven shifted a curious gaze on Genua.  “Did you put Ethel up to this?  To manipulate me for her own benefit?  Or was this her decision?”

Ethel cleared her throat, and hesitantly looked back over to Riven while stroking Len’s hair.  “My mother only found out that I was using you after Senna and I had already made up the story to tell our village, so it isn’t mother’s fault.  They were going to give Len away to another family and separate us if Farrod died on one of these trips, it is known in rumors around the village, but if I’m able to leave this family in name: I can take Len with me because the debt won’t follow me.  Please don’t be mad at my mother, this is entirely my fault.”

Riven’s smile faltered slightly.  “So you were doing this for your little sister then… but you were intentionally manipulating me.  Why didn’t you just talk to me about this beforehand?”

The resulting silence was palpable.

He sighed and leaned back on his hands to stare up at the ceiling.  “Well, this is slightly more awkward than I thought it’d be.”

He didn’t see it in their faces, but he could literally hear their heartbeats pick up like drums.  Their pulses quickened, obviously anxious upon hearing his words.

“Awkward?  You… So you said no then.” Ethel murmured, choking up at the last word.  She blinked rapidly, trying to contain her emotions, and pulled her little sister into her chest a little more fiercely.  “I… I’m so s-sorry Riven, I didn’t m-mean to make you h-hate me…  I was j-just trying to p-protect my f-family…”

“And you were protecting yourself.” Riven corrected with a backwards glance and a resigned expression.  “But it’s fine, I don’t judge you for it.  I said yes, so no need to get upset.”

Genua’s face dropped for a moment, then she sat up as if startled.  “You said yes?  You’ll help my daughters leave the family name?”

“Wait…” Ethel said while quickly beginning to wipe her own tears away with her remaining hand.  “You said yes?!  What was it that Elder Bren said to you?!  Just, just to make sure we’re thinking of the same thing…”

Riven shifted uncomfortably on the bed, feeling a little odd with all three of them staring at him so anxiously.  “He basically said you told him and the other elves that I expected to be paid for my help.  That I did what I did to acquire you as a thrall…”

“... And?”

“And that I expected him to wipe out your family’s debt entirely if I do this.”

Genua’s voice caught in her throat, and the middle-aged woman almost sobbed when she finally spoke the words.  She repeated what she'd heard:  “All of our debts, gone?  You would expressly change Ethel’s original terms just to help us?”

Riven slowly nodded.  “I said I’d do it.  Honestly I don’t like being tricked like this, but-”

He was interrupted when Ethel flung her arm around Riven’s shoulders and began to loudly sob.  And by loudly, it was extremely loud.  She violently shook, rocking Riven back and forth with the sheer violence of her crying, and her mother and little sister joined them.  Riven quickly found himself in the very center of a group hug, very wet with tears, and very uncomfortable with two scantily clad elf women and a little girl in a reed dress hugging onto him for dear life.

“What’s wrong!?” Athela burst into the room, black hair flowing in her wake, lasering her sight onto Riven with a growing scowl.  “RIVEN!  WHAT DID YOU DO!?”

“I DIDN’T DO ANYTHING I- HEY!  OW!”

*WHACK*

“Stop that!”

*WHACK*

“GOD DAMN IT ATHELA GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER, I DIDN’T DO ANYTHING WRONG!”

*WHACK*

“Oh, now you’re just hitting me to be a turd!  I SEE THAT SMIRK!  AZMOTH!  AZMOTH COME SAVE ME FROM ATHELA!  THAT’S AN ORDER!”

Azmoth’s cackling, which had been rather loud up until now, briefly faltered and then resumed again when the large, lumbering demon entered the room.  Athela was pulled out with a quick yank from two of Azmoth’s clawed hands.  There was a high-pitched squeal of surprise, and the door slammed behind her when she went.

With a bruised skull and an irritated mumbling, Riven then found himself back in square one.  The crying had gone from purely crying to a mixture of laughing and sobbing, with Genua eventually being the first to let go.  The woman cleared her eyes, pulled her two daughters off of him and bowed.

“Thank you Riven.” Ethel’s mother stated with a quivering voice, happy tears sparkling in the moonlight while she held her two daughters close.  “I cannot thank you enough.  You will literally change all of our lives if you do this, and it would not be the first time… since you saved Ethel once already.  I will do my best to repay you for your kindness.”

“As will I.” Ethel said shakily with wide doe eyes and a sniffle.

Len raised a hand.  “I won’t.  Since sister is going to become your whatever it is, I’ll be seeing you lots.  You’ll be baking me cookies regularly.  That’s what the deal with Ethel was when I participated in her evil plan to use you.”

The other two women burst into melodic laughter, and Riven’s growing smirk quickly washed away the irritation he had towards this small family for what Ethel had done.  At a loss for words and feeling somewhat like a willing idiot for accepting their scheme, he took this as an opportune moment to excuse himself.

He stood up, not sure what to think about any of this and giving them a small bow.  “It’s been my pleasure to meet all of you, and I again thank you for nursing me back to health.  I’ll be seeing all of you in the morning, and I wish you a very good night.”

“You’re not staying with me?” Ethel asked, a mixture of teasing and genuine disappointment flittering over her words.  “You should stay.”

Riven opened his mouth to reply, but quickly shut it and shook his head.  “I shouldn’t.  You’ve been through a lot and I don’t want to take advantage of that.  I’ll talk to all of you tomorrow, have a good night.”

With a wave and another polite smile, Riven stepped out of the room to shut the door softly behind him.

“I wish Farrod would act like that.  That he’d become the man he used to be.  Riven reminds me of him when Farrod was younger and not so broken.”  Genua glanced over at her daughter Ethel who was still staring at the shut door akin to the time she’d been a young girl and had first been stung by a bee.  The older woman grinned. “Riven was quite scary at first, but after getting to know him… He’s a real cutie, that one.”

“Isn’t he though!?”

“And polite too.  I was not expecting him to go out of his way to wipe out our family’s debt… does he know how much we owe?  Riven really is a kind man.  He doesn’t fit the stereotype of vampires very well.”

Ethel hid her face when she felt a blush coming on, and she wiped her tears on her mother’s shoulder.  “You’re embarrassing me, mother!  And don’t act like this is any kind of romance, it isn’t…  Though I wouldn’t mind if that’s what it turned into.  I’m just volunteering to be his regular meal for his help.  Let’s go to bed, this has been a traumatic experience for all of us.”

A small voice called out from down below.  “But you promised me we’d make cookies!”

Genua’s fingers traced across her youngest daughter’s back, scratching her child’s skin lightly until she got an involuntary moan of contentment.  “Another night Len, another night.”

“Can we make cookies for Riven in the morning then?!  He was telling me he liked cookies!  I promise I’m not making it up, he really did say that!”

Her mother gave an amused laugh, then winced when the bruises along her face flared at a more sudden jerk of her head.  “Yes… That’d be fine.  We’ll make cookies for all of them in the morning, now go to sleep.  Your sister is right, tonight has been rather traumatic and I’m in need of some good rest… and I wish to wake up early to see if I can find your father.  I wish to talk to him, to try to bring my husband back home.  I miss him.”

Ethel grimaced in irritation, but didn’t say anything further on the matter when she saw her mother’s yearning gaze out the window.  She and Genua then ended up falling asleep in one another’s arms - with a sense of being far more safe and secure than they’d ever felt in many years.  As for the little girl Len inbetween them?  She fell asleep thinking of what ingredients she was going to poison her sister’s cookies with for making her participate in this ludacris plan of hers.  She’d been promised cookies tonight, and Ethel had fallen through.  Ethel would therefore pay, no matter how many other delicious, scrumptious cookies she helped Len make in the morning.

Revenge would be sweet, and revenge would be hers.

***

“This is disgusting!  Oh by the hells!”  Fay puked over the side of the window and out onto the grass in the morning rays of sunrise - letting Athela hold her hair for her as the other demoness loudly cackled at Fay’s misfortune.  Occasionally Athela would give Ethel an irritated glare, but fortunately for Riven there'd been little drama between the two even despite Athela's confided misgivings on Ethel's manipulations.  If anything, the demoness actually thought acquiring a thrall was in Riven's best interests - and this was a fast-track to getting one without bending Riven's morals.

Meanwhile Genua was chiding Len for trying to poison her sister - the cookies of which had ended up being ones Fay had taken instead of Ethel and was now paying the price for.  The cute little elvish girl pouted in the corner while she was lectured, staring at the floor and pooching her lips while humphing loudly every couple seconds to the increasing irritation of her mother.

Len had zero regrets.

“I am so sorry Fay…” Ethel said while coming around the side of the house, ignoring the stares of other people in the community to clean up the mess the succubus was making.  “I’m so, so sorry… I think those cookies were for me.”

Azmoth chortled in the back of the room while playing chess with Riven at a table far too small for a demon of his size, keeping himself hunkered down alongside Dr. Brass in order to not hit the ceiling with his head.  “No, this is karma.”

“Karma for WHAT?!” Fay screeched at the brutalisk without looking back just before projectile vomiting again.  Her wings and tail went rigid, and she hiccup-gagged with another lurching noise.

“All evil deeds you’ve done!  Succubus always more evil.  They most evil of demons.” Azmoth called back over Fay's splurging amidst the laughter of Riven, Athela and Dr. Brass.

Meanwhile, Dr. Brass raised an eyebrow and sipped on some water from a wooden cup.  “I didn’t realize you knew the concept of what karma was, Azmoth.  Hey Riven, would you mind talking to me sometime in private?”

“Yeah, sure.  Later today.  Is this about the vampiric change you want to undertake?”

Dr. Brass deflated upon Riven’s out-in-the-open announcement, but the old man grudgingly nodded despite curious glances shot his way from Genua.  Meanwhile, Azmoth just continued to laugh at the succubus and her misfortune.

Fay spit out remnants of gastric juice and glared up with black eyes at Athela and Ethel, hissing through her teeth.  “Remind me to kill that flaming, four-armed son of a bitch later.”

Even Ethel had to keep her smile under wraps at the absolute display of mocking laughter all of Fay’s companions were giving her, though she still definitely felt bad about the revenge prank her little sister had done.

Riven was doing a rather good job teaching Azmoth how to play chess at the kitchen table, and the large, lumbering  demon was gingerly moving piece by piece with his huge claws whenever Riven would instruct him on how a piece could move inbetween laughter.  Miraculously and to Riven’s surprise, Genua actually was a solid chess player and even had a board with pieces stored away.  He hadn’t thought these elves would have chess on their planet but was very happy to see otherwise, and when he’d spotted it she’d taken it down out of one of the storage baskets being hung from the ceiling alongside herbs to let him set it up.

“The queen can go  in any direction - diagonal, or straight - and all the way until it hits another piece.  It’s the most powerful player and you don’t want to sacrifice it if you can help it.”  Riven touched the large central figure of the queen, the moved to the king with his pointer finger next.  “This is the king . If he is threatened by another piece he is placed in ‘check,’ which means you must protect him by blocking the attack or eliminating the threat, or you must move him out of the way.  This is an absolute rule, and if you can’t do it then you’re in what’s called ‘checkmate’ - this will lose you the game.”

“This complicated.” Azmoth stated with a huff.  “It may take long memorize these pieces and what do.”

“Nah man, you’re a fast learner.  I can already tell you’ll get it in no time!”

From within his robe’s pocket, he started to feel the black orb Allie had given him pulse.  He looked down, smiling widely at the thought of speaking with Allie again.  She’d not picked up earlier that morning when he’d tried calling to update her on events, and he was very keen on talking about the Chalgathi revelation and world quest.

He pulled the black communication orb out of his pocket, infused mana into it, and began to talk.  “Hey Allie!  God damn, do I have a lot to talk to you about.”