“Jasmine,” shocked out of her mind, Spring uttered the word.
“Jasmine?” Thorn asked, tilting his head and looking at Spring. “You don’t look like a Jasmine to me. Don’t get me wrong, you were pretty, and your snowdrops were beautiful. It’s just that they weren’t jasmines.”
“I’m Spring,” Spring answered mechanically, her thoughts racing. Wait, Jasmine Sun is here, and there are several men of the Sun clan. Did they come over to betroth her? Did Salazar come in person? Is he here or in the clanhold?
“Spring is a pretty name. I like it. It’s slightly unusual, and it’s summer now, but it has a nice ring to it, and it suits you.”
Spring nodded without really hearing Thorn’s words as she checked the faces of other corpses. Sadly, Thorn’s aim and power were frightening, most of the humans had their heads obliterated beyond recognition. However, based on their builds, they were at least a decade older than the eighteen-year-old Jasmine.
Wait. This might be better than following Thorn. I could infiltrate Salazar Sun’s court at the highest level. That would give me access to top notch grafts, and I could influence or even obstruct their development, recreating the tools I need while denying humans their weapons. That’s not a bad idea. I just have to approach this carefully, without raising Thorn’s suspicion. How do I do that?
Right!
“Thorn, why are you here? How did you become like that? This?” Spring corrected herself and gestured with her arm, encompassing her whole person.
“A band of humans captured us years ago and used us for medical research. They developed auxiliary organs for humans, second-eyes for the blind, second-voice for the mute, second-ears for the deaf. After we escaped, we realized our stench drove the folk away from us. So, we vowed to liberate all folk the humans hold captive. Our lives are over anyway, but nobody else should suffer our cursed fate.”
He’s so young and naive. He skipped the grim details, afraid they would frighten me, and he stayed quiet about why humans injected them with blood, but it doesn’t matter. This is good enough to work with.
Jasmine stared at Thorn without saying a word, and the blighted slapped his mouth after realizing what he had said. “I didn’t mean your life is over. And, and, we will definitely invent a method with which to return our bodies to their original form. This is just a temporary setback. Don’t consider ending you life. No matter what, you must stay alive and move forward.”
Are you telling that to me, or are you convincing yourself? You’re so cute, awkward, and desperate right now. There’s not a fiber of that charismatic leader in you yet. But when she opened her mouth, Spring’s words were the opposite of her condescending thoughts.
“I’m not considering ending my life. I was thinking, if I could wear this human’s face, I might infiltrate their settlement and help free our suffering sisters.”
Please, don’t notice everything illogical about my request. You always needed Creep to do the thinking for you. Spring stared at Thorn expectantly. After a moment, the young man’s eyes brightened, and his lips drew into a wild smile.
“You would sacrifice yourself like that for our sake?”
Spring nodded, realizing too late she should not have made the habitual gesture.
“Yes,” she added, but her worry was in vain, Thorn failed to notice the irregularity.
“You are wonderful! We were talking about how we should do something like sending spies to humans, finding where they keep our folk, and then free them. However, we have never had the opportunity. But you are right, now’s the perfect chance.”
Thorn unbuttoned his shirt, revealing two dozen lumps the size of a pigeon egg on his chest and abdomen. He tickled a purple-white orb and plucked it. Then he waved it through the air for ten seconds, until its squishy, supple skin grew hard.
Thorn pressed the rigid membrane with his thumb, and the shell cracked, flaking to the ground and revealing a single flower. The flower had a pistil shaped like a gaping mouth, its petals purple on the upper side while white on the bottom, each resembling a featureless human face.
“This is a second-face. We need to graft it at the center of your chest by making a slight cut, like so.” The nail of Thorns index finger turned into a wooden claw. With a swipe he opened a hole in Spring’s wrinkled, brown skin and a drop of black blood oozed out of the gash. Thorn pressed the second-face, its base going through the bead of thick blood.
“Don’t worry, the graft will immediately close your wound.” As Thorn spoke, Spring felt the hungry root fibers dig into her flesh and pull the wound shut.
“If we leave it like that, the second-face will form a membrane and enter torpor. However, we’re going to feed it a finger-sized piece of skin, and it will change your appearance to match the person whose skin you fed it. Don’t be alarmed, its petals will stretch and envelop your entire body until they cover you whole.”
Thorn worked while explaining how the morbid plant functioned, then moved onto feeding and limitations. “Second-face can only survive off of a single person’s skin. It will wither if you feed it anything else, including another person’s skin. It needs to eat at least once a week. I feed mine once every five days, just to make sure it remains healthy. The mask comes undone if the graft withers for any reason. If you feed it every day for two weeks, it will sprout a pod with four seeds. I will explain everything in more detail, but are you certain about this?”
Thorn held the bit of skin between his fingers, offering it to Spring, yet tense and ready to snatch it back at any moment. “You have no idea what kind of risk you’re taking. Living with humans is dangerous and very unpleasant. It’s hell, really. They smell bad, they are loud, and constantly on the move. They are dynamic and difficult to get along with.”
Oh, Thorn, you’re so sweet. “I will do this for the greater good of the folk. You needn’t worry about me. Even if they catch me, I won’t reveal your existence. Your secrets will remain safe.”
“Huh?” Realization slowly dawned in Thorn’s blank eyes, and Spring seized the piece of skin from him.
He really was foolish in his youth. He didn’t even consider I might betray them, nor what would happen should the enemy discover me. But, why didn’t he explain I can sustain myself on animal blood? Does he not know yet?
Spring had no time to pursue that thought. Thorn stared at her with wide eyes, his mouth opening and closing without a voice before he found his words.
“It’s too dangerous for you. Maybe someone more experienced—” But Spring shook her head.
“I insist. You saved me, I will do everything I can to help you.” She placed the pale skin on the second-face’s pistil, and the graft closed its mouth.
Spring felt a prick from her chest as second-face drew mana from her body.
Uneducated human hunters once described the sensation as the graft growing ice cold, chilling their bodies, and consuming their heat. However, they were wrong. The graft extracted the host’s energy, channeling it to perform magic.
I need to refine and expand my mana. Simple grafts like second-face have a high initial expenditure, but later they draw so little it’s barely noticeable. However, to use activated grafts and symbionts, I will need a large mana pool.
Second-eyes, second-voice, and second-ears don’t consume mana, they draw the host’s blood to sustain themselves and they rarely wither. Second-face, however, will wither if I can’t supply it with mana for a day or two.
The petals on Spring’s chest rustled. The blank faces took several seconds to transform into Jasmine’s features, then they stretched, crawling over Spring’s wrinkled brown flesh. The petals clung to her and transformed her into a jade-skinned beauty.
“You will need to adjust your body to match the skin.” Thorn said when he saw empty sacks hanging from Spring’s chest. “You are lucky your body is supple, we had a hard time with Bough. We had to carve his body.”
Spring nodded and molded herself with skill, which surpassed Thorn and the rest. By the time the nails and hairs of her body grew, she was already a shapely, nude young woman.
“You are great at this! I didn’t know snowdrops were so adaptable.” Thorn complimented, but also reminded Spring that she had overdone things.
I’ve shown too much competence. Will they suspect me? But even if they do, what could I do? Even if I could overpower Thorn, I can’t kill him. He’s the future of the folk, our savior and liberator. If his shiny light disappeared, the future of bloom-folk would grow even grimmer.
“Jasmine,” shocked out of her mind, Spring uttered the word.
“Jasmine?” Thorn asked, tilting his head and looking at Spring. “You don’t look like a Jasmine to me. Don’t get me wrong, you were pretty, and your snowdrops were beautiful. It’s just that they weren’t jasmines.”
“I’m Spring,” Spring answered mechanically, her thoughts racing. Wait, Jasmine Sun is here, and there are several men of the Sun clan. Did they come over to betroth her? Did Salazar come in person? Is he here or in the clanhold?
“Spring is a pretty name. I like it. It’s slightly unusual, and it’s summer now, but it has a nice ring to it, and it suits you.”
Spring nodded without really hearing Thorn’s words as she checked the faces of other corpses. Sadly, Thorn’s aim and power were frightening, most of the humans had their heads obliterated beyond recognition. However, based on their builds, they were at least a decade older than the eighteen-year-old Jasmine.
Wait. This might be better than following Thorn. I could infiltrate Salazar Sun’s court at the highest level. That would give me access to top notch grafts, and I could influence or even obstruct their development, recreating the tools I need while denying humans their weapons. That’s not a bad idea. I just have to approach this carefully, without raising Thorn’s suspicion. How do I do that?
Right!
“Thorn, why are you here? How did you become like that? This?” Spring corrected herself and gestured with her arm, encompassing her whole person.
“A band of humans captured us years ago and used us for medical research. They developed auxiliary organs for humans, second-eyes for the blind, second-voice for the mute, second-ears for the deaf. After we escaped, we realized our stench drove the folk away from us. So, we vowed to liberate all folk the humans hold captive. Our lives are over anyway, but nobody else should suffer our cursed fate.”
He’s so young and naive. He skipped the grim details, afraid they would frighten me, and he stayed quiet about why humans injected them with blood, but it doesn’t matter. This is good enough to work with.
Jasmine stared at Thorn without saying a word, and the blighted slapped his mouth after realizing what he had said. “I didn’t mean your life is over. And, and, we will definitely invent a method with which to return our bodies to their original form. This is just a temporary setback. Don’t consider ending you life. No matter what, you must stay alive and move forward.”
Are you telling that to me, or are you convincing yourself? You’re so cute, awkward, and desperate right now. There’s not a fiber of that charismatic leader in you yet. But when she opened her mouth, Spring’s words were the opposite of her condescending thoughts.
“I’m not considering ending my life. I was thinking, if I could wear this human’s face, I might infiltrate their settlement and help free our suffering sisters.”
Please, don’t notice everything illogical about my request. You always needed Creep to do the thinking for you. Spring stared at Thorn expectantly. After a moment, the young man’s eyes brightened, and his lips drew into a wild smile.
“You would sacrifice yourself like that for our sake?”
Spring nodded, realizing too late she should not have made the habitual gesture.
“Yes,” she added, but her worry was in vain, Thorn failed to notice the irregularity.
“You are wonderful! We were talking about how we should do something like sending spies to humans, finding where they keep our folk, and then free them. However, we have never had the opportunity. But you are right, now’s the perfect chance.”
Thorn unbuttoned his shirt, revealing two dozen lumps the size of a pigeon egg on his chest and abdomen. He tickled a purple-white orb and plucked it. Then he waved it through the air for ten seconds, until its squishy, supple skin grew hard.
Thorn pressed the rigid membrane with his thumb, and the shell cracked, flaking to the ground and revealing a single flower. The flower had a pistil shaped like a gaping mouth, its petals purple on the upper side while white on the bottom, each resembling a featureless human face.
“This is a second-face. We need to graft it at the center of your chest by making a slight cut, like so.” The nail of Thorns index finger turned into a wooden claw. With a swipe he opened a hole in Spring’s wrinkled, brown skin and a drop of black blood oozed out of the gash. Thorn pressed the second-face, its base going through the bead of thick blood.
“Don’t worry, the graft will immediately close your wound.” As Thorn spoke, Spring felt the hungry root fibers dig into her flesh and pull the wound shut.
“If we leave it like that, the second-face will form a membrane and enter torpor. However, we’re going to feed it a finger-sized piece of skin, and it will change your appearance to match the person whose skin you fed it. Don’t be alarmed, its petals will stretch and envelop your entire body until they cover you whole.”
Thorn worked while explaining how the morbid plant functioned, then moved onto feeding and limitations. “Second-face can only survive off of a single person’s skin. It will wither if you feed it anything else, including another person’s skin. It needs to eat at least once a week. I feed mine once every five days, just to make sure it remains healthy. The mask comes undone if the graft withers for any reason. If you feed it every day for two weeks, it will sprout a pod with four seeds. I will explain everything in more detail, but are you certain about this?”
Thorn held the bit of skin between his fingers, offering it to Spring, yet tense and ready to snatch it back at any moment. “You have no idea what kind of risk you’re taking. Living with humans is dangerous and very unpleasant. It’s hell, really. They smell bad, they are loud, and constantly on the move. They are dynamic and difficult to get along with.”
Oh, Thorn, you’re so sweet. “I will do this for the greater good of the folk. You needn’t worry about me. Even if they catch me, I won’t reveal your existence. Your secrets will remain safe.”
“Huh?” Realization slowly dawned in Thorn’s blank eyes, and Spring seized the piece of skin from him.
He really was foolish in his youth. He didn’t even consider I might betray them, nor what would happen should the enemy discover me. But, why didn’t he explain I can sustain myself on animal blood? Does he not know yet?
Spring had no time to pursue that thought. Thorn stared at her with wide eyes, his mouth opening and closing without a voice before he found his words.
“It’s too dangerous for you. Maybe someone more experienced—” But Spring shook her head.
“I insist. You saved me, I will do everything I can to help you.” She placed the pale skin on the second-face’s pistil, and the graft closed its mouth.
Spring felt a prick from her chest as second-face drew mana from her body.
Uneducated human hunters once described the sensation as the graft growing ice cold, chilling their bodies, and consuming their heat. However, they were wrong. The graft extracted the host’s energy, channeling it to perform magic.
I need to refine and expand my mana. Simple grafts like second-face have a high initial expenditure, but later they draw so little it’s barely noticeable. However, to use activated grafts and symbionts, I will need a large mana pool.
Second-eyes, second-voice, and second-ears don’t consume mana, they draw the host’s blood to sustain themselves and they rarely wither. Second-face, however, will wither if I can’t supply it with mana for a day or two.
The petals on Spring’s chest rustled. The blank faces took several seconds to transform into Jasmine’s features, then they stretched, crawling over Spring’s wrinkled brown flesh. The petals clung to her and transformed her into a jade-skinned beauty.
“You will need to adjust your body to match the skin.” Thorn said when he saw empty sacks hanging from Spring’s chest. “You are lucky your body is supple, we had a hard time with Bough. We had to carve his body.”
Spring nodded and molded herself with skill, which surpassed Thorn and the rest. By the time the nails and hairs of her body grew, she was already a shapely, nude young woman.
“You are great at this! I didn’t know snowdrops were so adaptable.” Thorn complimented, but also reminded Spring that she had overdone things.
I’ve shown too much competence. Will they suspect me? But even if they do, what could I do? Even if I could overpower Thorn, I can’t kill him. He’s the future of the folk, our savior and liberator. If his shiny light disappeared, the future of bloom-folk would grow even grimmer.
