Finally, here it is!
This is the first chapter of Monster Girl Inn III, the final novel in the trilogy. You can read Chapter II over on Patreon right now, and you will be able to read all the following chapters as I post them, also on my Patreon for 3$/month.
Victor fought to quell the anxiety as it grew somewhere deep in his gut as he led Hazel through the trees of the Hinterland.
“I wanted to thank you again for coming, I know you’re busy,” he said, pushing back a particularly large and low-hanging branch, allowing her passage.
“I’m not that busy,” Hazel replied, “and this is important. In truth, I wish you had told me sooner.”
“We’ve been busy with the inn and the ring seems to be working. It’s just, she said she should be awake in a week, and it’s now the eighth day…”
“These things can be unpredictable. Can you run it by me again?” Hazel asked. “You were a little, uh, light, on the details of some of this. She’s...where did you meet her, exactly?”
“Ilona is her name. We found her in a cave. She’s the necromancer who was sending the undead all over the place.”
“All right. The fact that you’ve got her ill and comatose in your inn means the meeting wasn’t hostile, I imagine.”
He shook his head, ducking under another branch. “No, she wasn’t. She’s sick. Lethally.”
“I got that part, and that’s it’s exclusive to elves. But did I understand this right? She intentionally cursed herself?” Hazel replied.
“Yes. To be undead. To buy more time.”
She let out a small laugh of appreciation. “She’s inventive. And brave.”
“I think more desperate in this case, but yes, she does seem brave.”
“All right. I’m not completely sure I’ll be able to help, though.”
“I know. I might be wasting your time, this might not even be necessary–”
“It’s fine, Victor. It isn’t a waste of time. Even if I can do nothing for the poor woman, I have been wanting to see you and the others, and visit your inn again.”
“We’ve made a lot of progress on it,” Victor replied.
“That’s good to hear.”
A lot of progress felt like a bit of an understatement. Having Nyx and now Delphine around so consistently meant that they’d been able to get much more done, and having Ilona there to care for and fret over had filled them all with a kind of intense, nervous energy.
They’d all been doing everything that needed doing, and consequently, work that he thought might take over a month or even two had been mostly wrapped up in little over a week. Delphine especially was working very hard.
There were times where it seemed like she was full of energy that she was trying to burn off, always asking for a new task and then going at it with an intense, almost ferocious focus.
It had been a trying time for all of them, but especially for Nyx.
At this point, the others were starting to pick up on it. Delphine seemed to be in the know, as she just gave an understanding expression whenever it became obvious that the stress was starting to get to Nyx, but Fiona and Jezzy still seemed confused and worried.
In a way, it was very surprising and gave a deep and, if anything, worrying view into just how much emotions and trauma could affect someone.
After five hundred years, he would have thought she’d be a lot more stoic.
It felt like a double-edged sword.
It was good that she still felt things, and intensely. That the relentless passage of time didn’t wear away who she was.
But it worried him that even fifty years from now he’d probably still have nightmares and have the occasional cry over what happened with his family.
When he’d asked her about it a few days ago, all she had to say was: It never goes away, but it does get easier.
“Oh wow, you have made a lot of progress here,” Hazel murmured as they at last broke through the dense vegetation of the Hinter.
Fiona had told him that they’d be able to clear a path to the main trail and maintain it with a bit of magic and some help from Fauna and a few friendly dryads.
They’d replaced the windows, the front door, fixed the roof and patched the holes in the walls. And thanks to a neat little spell that Nyx knew, the repairs looked seamless.
Speaking of Nyx…
“Oh my!” Hazel gasped as a shadow fell across them and Nyx landed heavily not far away.
“Sorry,” she replied, “but I’m glad you’re here.” She walked over. Her wings were flexing slowly open and closed behind her, and her tail was swaying. “How have you been? Your shop doing well?” She glanced back at the inn.
There was a slightly manic edge to her voice.
“Fine, and yeah,” Hazel replied. “...are you okay, Nyx?”
“I’m just nervous. I was out flying, trying to take my mind off things, but that didn’t help. I’m worried about Ilona...Victor told you, right?”
Hazel nodded. “He explained to me.”
“Okay, good. Will you look at her?”
“Yes.”
They all looked over as the front doors opened up and Jezzy came out.
“Is she awake?” Nyx asked before she could speak.
“No, no change, I’m sorry,” Fiona replied. “Hello, Hazel.”
“Hi, Fiona. Why don’t you show me to this dark elf, Ilona? I’ll see if there’s any insight I can offer,” Hazel suggested.
Fiona nodded. “This way.”
“Are you a healer?” Victor asked.
“I’m a witch,” Hazel replied as they all walked inside.
The main room was still fairly barren. Furniture was the last thing they needed.
“What does that mean, exactly?” Victor murmured, following them upstairs.
“That I have come across a great deal of knowledge in my lifetime, and that yes, I am a healer, when the situation calls for it. You mentioned a ring blessed by a God? I don’t think I’ll be able to outdo that, though.”
They came to the second story and as they approached the room Ilona was in, Fiona opened up the door and poked her head out.
“Hi, no change,” she said. “And hi Hazel.”
“Hi, Fiona,” Hazel replied.
They’d gotten used to saying that, ‘no change’, to Nyx, because she’d ask so often.
They tried not to crowd as Hazel came into the room. She took off her backpack and set it aside, then did the same with her traveling cloak. Victor studied Ilona as Hazel approached her bedside and sat down gently beside her.
She looked better, there was no doubt about that, and not just because they had removed her curse and all of its most obvious markings. Namely her veins being visible beneath her skin and a deathly pallor. She’d seemed generally less frail and fragile now.
But there was no denying the sickness and the curse had taken a heavy toll on her body.
Hazel touched her wrist for a moment. “Her heart beats regularly, if a bit slow,” she murmured, then put her own wrist to Ilona’s forehead. “Normal temperature.” She held her hand near her nose. “Breathing is a little shallow, but regular.”
Carefully, she leaned in and opened one of her eyes. Peering into it for a moment, she did the same with her other eye. “Her eyes seem fine. Has anything noteworthy happened since you cured her and put on the ring?”
“Not really,” Jezzy said.
“She shifted a little yesterday,” Nyx said. “And twice we heard murmuring, like she was having a bad dream. Once the day before yesterday and once the day after we put on the ring, if that has any significance.”
“Hmm.” Hazel laid her hand over the back of Ilona’s own hand, the one with the ring, and closed her eyes. An expression of concentration came onto her face. After a moment she stood back up, her eyes opening. “It’s doing its job, and it still feels intensely powerful.”
“So there’s nothing you can do?” Nyx asked.
“No. Normally I might try a little magic, but in truth I don’t want to interfere with the ring’s own magical properties. Although it looks like the curse has had no lingering effects on her body–whatever you did removed it completely–Black Cough is very serious. I’ve dealt with it before and I know that even if you manage to get your hands on the cure, it’s usually only a two in three chance that it’ll work.”
“Wait, so, it’s not a guarantee–” Nyx began, but Hazel shook her head.
“No, no, it’s okay. I mean...technically nothing’s a guarantee, but if there’s anything in this realm that can cure advanced Black Cough, it’s that ring. I can feel the raw magical energy. It’s just that this kind of sickness puts a heavy toll on the body. She just needs more time. I could be wrong, but I think she’ll wake up soon.”
“I can’t stand this godsdamned waiting,” Nyx growled. Her wings flexed suddenly and knocked over a chair. She sighed heavily. “Sorry.”
“It’ll be okay, Nyx. She’ll be okay,” Fiona murmured.
“I hope so.” Nyx heaved another sigh and walked out of the room abruptly. “I have to do something or I’m going to lose my patience.”
“Wait, don’t fly away,” Victor said, leaning out in the hallway after her. “I want to come with you. There’s something we need to do anyway.”
“Fine,” she said, heading back downstairs.
Victor turned back to face the others. “All right, I should keep this short with how impatient she is. Hazel: thank you for coming, it was good to see you, I’ll catch up with you later.”
“Same. And thanks for having me,” she replied.
He nodded. “Jezzy, Fiona: I love you, I’m going to go help Nyx keep busy.”
“We’ll be here,” Fiona said. “And I love you, too.”
Jezzy smiled. “You know I love you. Go be with her. See how Delphine’s divinations are going.”
He nodded. “Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. Uh…” He paused, considering the situation for a moment, just in case he was forgetting anything.
It had been a busy day.
A busy week.
“We’ll handle things here,” Jezzy said.
He nodded. “All right, thanks.”
Victor headed back downstairs. He still had his pack, his cloak, his gear from traveling down to Hearth Haven to ask Hazel for help. As he moved through the main room he looked around again and found his imagination roaming briefly.
It was easy to envision it full of tables and chairs, and people. People talking, people eating, people finding a place to get in out of the cold and enjoy some company. And, surprisingly, it was easy to envision himself being on the other side of that for once.
The person helping in the kitchen instead of looking into it occasionally while he waited for food or had a bit to drink.
That struck its own chord of anxiety, though.
He wasn’t so much worried about his role in the situation as he was worried about it not working. He’d become invested, emotionally speaking, but more to the point, he’d become invested in Fiona’s emotional investment in her dream.
When they’d talked earlier about the potential for failure, he’d believed what he’d told her: that there were any number of ways to manifest her dream of facilitating communication between village-dwellers and monsters, but…
It was obvious that this was a very big deal to her.
To all of them now.
Victor walked outside and found Nyx pacing back and forth. Well, they had some different priorities.
“What are we doing?” she asked as he came to stand before her.
“Let’s find Delphine,” he replied.
She nodded. “Yeah, okay.”
Without another word, she scooped him up in her arms and shot into the air, wings pumping as she gained dozens and then hundreds of feet.
And then they were sailing through the sky.