Sticky.

  And cold.

  And wet.

  Those were the first sensations she felt once regaining consciousness. A pretty gross sensation, since she felt them against her face. And arm. And leg.

  She got up, pushing herself away from the ground, damp with the water from the flesh pool where the mermaid was. The same one who apparently had tried to wake Velvet up by splashing some of it over her; an action born from good intentions, but, since that red liquid was mixed with some fluids and a metallic smell, made the result pretty disgusting.

  She shouldn’t have bothered. Really.

  But Dianthus could have bothered, since the guy was definitely a land creature, and was being annoying right before she fell unconscious.

  Which… probably meant that something had also happened to him. Again.

  He’s like a cosmic trouble magnet. No wonder he gets constantly monitored. Velvet thought, stepping closer to the flesh pool to pat the mermaid’s head, since it kept extending her arms forward trying to grab her dress. With her claws. “Do you have object permanence?”

  The mermaid didn’t answer, sinking until the water reached her eyes, both of them fixated on Velvet, dark in color with black, U-shaped pupils, the irises surrounded by a blue pale ring. Like those of whales.

  Velvet had only seen dead whales, since they were hunted all around Charlampia for the oil inside their blubber, to the point where their appearances had become more and more rare with the years.

  But it was told that they remembered faces, even though Velvet half-expected their vision outside water to be blurry. Speaking of water and whales, mermaids were also from the sea, and yet, this one didn’t show any issue with being inside fresh water, which meant that the organs littering the ground, pumping and squirming were modifying it in some way.

  It tasted downright atrocious, in Velvet’s honest and true opinion, but, as long as it did the job, it worked.

  Now, Hyde was gone too, which upped the number of beings that could’ve pulled Velvet away from the puddle she was sleeping in and did not to two.

  Massaging her temple with the hand that wasn’t busy patting the mermaid, she looked around, trying to find the demon spider or, as second choice, the bigger Dianthus.

  Something difficult to see since the lights had been turned off, the candles burnt away with the passage of time, covering the room in a veil of darkness. Maybe one of those squirming, human-sized organs was Dianthus taking a nap on the ground.

  She doubted that, remembering each and every organ in the room before fainting. There wasn’t a single one more, not even superimposed.

  The blessing from the Goddess of Darkness gave her a slightly better vision at night, but she was still human, and missed the light, more so after a dream like that.

  So she summoned one of her paper figurines, holding it in her hand before lighting it up, its small, round head setting on fire. She lifted it up, illuminating the room.

  “They aren’t here.” She muttered, taking a step back from the pool, stopping when the mermaid grabbed her hand, keeping it on top of her head. “Don’t be clingy, I have things to do.” Nudging her head a little, she released her hand.

  The mermaid blew some bubbles, dejected, floating back like a forgotten, rotten log on a lake.

  Splash!

  And then, whacking her tail against the surface, she shoved a lot of water on top of Velvet, drenching her more than she was before. Red droplets fell from her dress and hair, a crumpled, wet, no longer burning piece of paper in her hand.

  Wiping her face with the sleeve that was more dry of the two, she clicked her tongue. “I was going to get some trouts later for you, but since you wanna be a misbehaving fishie so bad, you’re getting the worms.”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

  Clearly the mermaid didn’t understand the meaning of her words yet, squinting at her from under the water, but once she started feeling hungry, she certainly would.

  Leaving the pouty fish behind, she reached into her Demon’s Deal, trying to contact Hyde. He was alive, she was sure of that, but his location was currently a mystery.

  A not so far away mystery. He was deeper in the room, behind the remains of what was left of the chained man’s statue after the Goddess of Death broke it.

  “Hyde? Why are you hiding?” She said, cautiously walking towards the pile of debris, making a circle instead of a straight line. Not as big of a circle as she would’ve wanted, since the room was small.

  “I’m not.” The spider answered. “I’m simply observing and taking note of how cross-espatial possession evolves.”

  “Well, you won’t be seeing anything but the start.” Another voice joined, this one belonging to Dianthus. Well, at least she didn’t have to search for them separately.

  “Busy becoming friends while I slept in a puddle?”

  “Making physical contact with someone under the influence of a Deriliam is unwise, as you can see with our friend here.” Hyde said, with the tone he used for Velvet when she fucked up something after he told her it wouldn’t work.

  So her curiosity got the better of her, as she rushed her pace to finish the circle, coming face to face with Dianthus sitting on the ground.

  He raised his head to look up at her, a gaping hole where his left eye was supposed to be.

  Just like the hollow moon.

  “Looks worse than it feels.” He said, the lack of an eye not managing to erase his condescending expression.

  “I hope so, because it looks atrocious.”

  “I told him to wait before grabbing you.” Hyde said, starting to climb her dress, avoiding the wet patches. “And he didn’t, because, and I quote-”

  “What’s the worst that can happen to me, the amazing Chosen One?” She finished in the demon’s place.

  “I didn’t say the last four words, but I appreciate you calling me amazing.” Dianthus grabbed some of the debris behind him, trying to push himself up, but, due to lacking half of his vision, one of the stones he touched gave up, and he sat down again.

  Moving to the side he could see, she offered him a hand. “Those four were part of your inner monologue.”

  He dusted off his hands first, with magic, if Velvet might add, the dust sliding down his gloves like water down a duck, or, to be more elegant, a swan. Then, he extended a hand, touching her wrist before flinching back, frowning.

  Can the Deriliam’s influence affect him further? So much for being so strong and unbeatable and-

  “Why are you wet?!”

  And a damned clean freak.

  “And why are you hiding here? Did getting cursed make you go mope on the corner?”

  “Because the mermaid kept on splashing that gross water at me.” Despite lacking an eye, he managed to side eye Velvet from head to the puddle forming around her feet.

  So that’s why the floor was so wet. It all was Dianthus' fault!

  “Nevermind then. You’re an independent, strong Chosen One that needs no knowledge mage’s help.” She pulled back her hand, but not before Dianthus gave up and grabbed her hand, getting up.

  Just to instantly use a cleaning spell over his gloves, removing the red, watery stains. And then, before Velvet was about to whip her wet hair at him, he used the same spell over her, removing all the dirt and water, drying her clothes, skin and hair.

  “So you can show some gratitude.” She said, looking at the hole in his face. “But, shouldn’t you be focused on not getting possessed?”

  “I am inmune.The Deriliam isn’t trying to take over my body, it’s…” Removing one of his white gloves, the material too delicate and expensive-looking to be leather, he revealed the skin within.

  Red, serpentine lines crossed his hand, parting the skin and blooming into small, bloody flowers. With a flash, Dianthus erased them, burning his hand to ashes, before it regenerated.

  Then, the lines appeared again, blooming into flowers as they did.

  A single drop of blood fell down before Dianthus burned it, and he clicked his tongue. “It’s more like drinking. Some of my flesh is disappearing. Not faster than I can regenerate, though, but I don’t know where it’s going.”

  “I can only assume that the Deriliam is creating itself a body from your own.” Hyde said.

  “Like a starfish? Snap one Dianthus in half, get two?” She eyed him up and down, just like he’d done to her previously.

  “Starfishes do that?” Dianthus squinted at her. “It wouldn’t be two of me, it doesn’t work like that.”

  “Did you try?”

  “Igern gets really creative when pissed. Now, imagine if it had worked, he would have lost it.” Putting back his glove, he rolled his non-empty eye. “More than he has.”

  Then, he looked expectantly at Velvet. “To cut the Deriliam’s connection we need to modify that guy’s formation-”

  “Cardomos. Even if you wanna be a petty loser, he was an important figure on the last Machia. Use his name.”

  Dianthus pressed his lips in a thin line, but didn’t say anything else on the matter. “Look, if we fail, we can make Igern meet two Dianthus.”