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Sam walked down the hall with his head held high and his chest puffed out. He wore a wide-brimmed hat, one perfect for an eagle to make a nest out of, which Birdbrained had done. The eagle was gleaming like a piece of white gold thanks to the lighting within the building. A black ferret was hanging out of Sam’s collar, using his shirt like guardrails with its little paws.
Wendy walked alongside Sam. She wore a black suit, and held in her left arm, there was a clipboard with a stack of papers attached to it. The half-reptilian turned to look at Sam; he had changed during his time in Et Serpentium. However, Queen Annabeth wasn’t a pushover. Sam still had to treat her with respect even if he could control the graylings now. “Remember,” Wendy said. “You’re strong, but Queen Annabeth is stronger.”
“Even without Raindu?” Sam asked. Wendy had said the queen could become the god of a domain with the help of her scepter, but since her scepter had been converted into a ferret, he wasn’t sure what Queen Annabeth could do.
“Even without Raindu,” Wendy said. “I’m not telling you to grovel before her, but it’d be better for you if you treated her with plenty of respect.”
“Of course,” Sam said. Queen Annabeth lost a precious weapon—an understatement—to invest in him. He wasn’t an ungrateful individual. “Queen Annabeth helped change my life for the better. I’ll definitely treat her well.” The eagle atop Sam’s hat readjusted itself, its feathers rustling. As promised, Wendy had secured him a cap capable of enduring the eagle’s knife-like talons. Unfortunately, the creature Birdbrained had its sights on….
“Squishy!” Wendy said and crouched down. The queen’s most adored pet, Squishy the Pomeranian, ran towards Wendy with its fluffy tail wagging, its stumpy legs pattering against the ground. “It’s been so”—
Whump!
A piercing cry echoed through the hall.
—“long…!?” Wendy’s eyes widened. The tiny dog that had been running towards her was now shrieking in the air, carried in the talons of a scruffy-yet-gleaming white eagle. The eagle’s razor-sharp beak dipped downwards, blood spurted across the walls, and Squishy’s cries ceased. Wendy stared at the sight with wide eyes. “…Squishy?”
Sam’s jaw dropped open, and he wasn’t quite sure what to do. The queen’s favorite pet was obviously no longer alive, and all the queen’s healers and all the queen’s wealth wouldn’t bring Squishy back from across the rainbow bridge.
“What did your pet do!?” Wendy asked, shouting at Sam while keeping her voice down to prevent other people in the building from hearing. She thought she had gotten over the days of Sam’s pets ruining everything. Shouldn’t they have grown and matured in the time spent in Et Serpentium? Then again, it was Birdbrained, the newly created animal that was causing issues. “Make it stop!”
“Birdbrained!” Sam said and slapped his thigh with his palm. “Hey! Stop!”
The white eagle turned towards Sam. The region around its beak gleamed red, and Birdbrained tilted its head before squawking. It waddled towards Sam, leaving a trail of blood droplets from its beak.
“Stop,” Sam said. “You can’t eat Squishy.” He took in a deep breath and turned towards one of the graylings trailing behind him and Wendy. “Can you reverse time to bring Squishy back to life?”
“No,” the grayling said and raised its hand. “At most, I can do this.”
Whump!
A piercing cry echoed through the hall.
“Stop!” Sam shouted as the previous event looped.
A strangled gasp came from down the hall, causing Sam and Wendy to turn their heads towards the sound. Queen Annabeth was holding her hand up to her mouth, her wide eyes staring at the eagle perched atop her beloved pet and the puddle of blood pooling beneath the two entangled animals. “Squishy?” Queen Annabeth asked as she staggered past Sam and Wendy. “Is that you?”
Birdbrained awkwardly climbed off of the fallen Pomeranian before half-hopping, half-walking to hide behind the group of graylings before circling around to Sam. Sam looked at Wendy, and the half-reptilian shook her head, indicating she had no idea what to do; they were stepping into uncharted territory.
Queen Annabeth fell to her knees beside Squishy, her dress soaking up the blood on the ground. The queen slid her hands underneath the dog’s body and lifted the limp Pomeranian up to her chest level. “Oh, Squishy,” she said, her lips quivering, her vision blurring as tears built up in her eyes. “What happened to you? Mama’s here, Squishy; don’t worry.”
Sam’s face cramped, and he looked at Wendy with an expression uglier than a bloated corpse’s face. “What do I do?” he whispered.
Wendy narrowed her eyes at the queen. After reading the queen’s mind for a bit, the half-reptilian turned towards Sam. She raised a finger to her lips, and Sam nodded. He got the message loud and clear. The queen was traumatized, and he should remain silent.
Squawking sounds filled the air as Birdbrained flew atop Sam’s head. The bird’s cries were deafening compared to the mournful sound coming from the queen. Sam thought fiercely at the bird for it to shut up, but all Birdbrained did was open its fat beak and squawk again to ask Sam what he meant.
Queen Annabeth stroked Squishy’s matted fur, her fingers smoothing out the bloody strands. She turned towards the squawking sound and narrowed her eyes at the eagle. Birdbrained noticed the queen’s bloodshot gaze, and instead of squawking at her, the eagle let itself fall from Sam’s head, hiding from the queen’s view. Queen Annabeth lifted Squishy to her chest as she stood up, and she turned her body around to face Sam. “You’re back.”
Sam swallowed upon seeing the queen’s deadpan face. “Greetings, Your Majesty,” Sam said, bowing his head to stare at the floor. It was much more comfortable staring at the ground than meeting the queen’s gaze; her thousand-yard stare made his gut churn with horror and guilt but mostly horror.
Wendy took a step to the side rather than greeting the queen. She stared up at the ceiling as if what happened next wasn’t going to involve her.
Queen Annabeth narrowed her eyes at Sam. “I came out to see what the commotion was about,” she said. “Follow me.”
Sam turned to look at Wendy, and the half-reptilian gestured for Sam to go ahead with her chin. Sam swallowed again and followed behind the queen, going down the hall and into a room with a throne on an elevated platform. The old woman took a seat on the throne and picked up a scepter that was propped against the throne’s armrest. She placed one hand on it, letting the butt of the weapon rest on the ground. Her eyes narrowed at Sam. “Wendy tells me you’ve come to negotiate with Monarch.”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” Sam said, his expression stiff. He did his best to avoid looking at Squishy’s still-bleeding corpse; luckily, there was a red carpet he could stare at. “I stole the GMC, but like how my natural talent converted your scepter into a ferret, my talent converted the GMC into an eagle.”
“I’ve seen the eagle,” Queen Annabeth said. “I don’t like it.”
Birdbrained squawked and made its way out from the crowd of graylings that had followed Sam into the room along with Wendy. The eagle did its awkward hop and waddle to stand beside Sam. It squawked and dipped its head downwards before raising it back up.
“Birdbrained apologizes for attacking your pet,” Sam said. “It said it acted on instinct because Squishy sounded like prey.”
“Squishy,” Queen Annabeth said, her lips quivering as she looked down at her beloved pet. The Pomeranian’s eyes were still open, but they seemed to be made of glass, still, unmoving, and soulless.
Birdbrained squawked, causing the queen to raise her head. Her eyes narrowed at Sam.
“Birdbrained said it’s sorry,” Sam said, “and it’ll compensate you for your loss.”
“Compensate me?” Queen Annabeth asked in a monotonous voice.
Chills ran down Sam’s spine, but his face didn’t betray his emotions. If he answered incorrectly here, he had a feeling the queen would personally attack him. Sam looked at Birdbrained, wondering how the eagle was planning on filling the gaping wound in the queen’s heart from her loss of her beloved Squishy.
Birdbrained squawked, and before Sam could translate, a grayling walked forward and bowed at the queen. “Greetings, Your Majesty,” the grayling said. “I will be your servant. Feel free to use me as a replacement for Squishy; whatever commands you have for me, I shall fulfill. If you’d like, I can bark or crawl.”
“Kill yourself,” Queen Annabeth said.
“If that is your desire,” the grayling said. A second later, its eyes, which were black and glossy, lost their light. The grayling fell over, causing Birdbrained to tilt its head. The eagle squawked. When Sam remained silent, the eagle squawked again even louder.
“It wants to know why you did that, Your Majesty,” Sam said before the eagle could whine a third time. “It thinks it would’ve made you much happier than Squishy ever could. It’ll give you another one to try again.” Sam turned his head towards the graylings. “Any volunteers?”
All the graylings stepped forward at once, causing Sam’s expression to darken. It was a dangerous job, one that might force them to kill themselves, but they all jumped at the chance. They did say, in a roundabout way, their purpose was to die to transfer knowledge to their lord. “Alright,” Sam said and pointed randomly at the crowd. “You.”
The grayling selected by Sam nodded. “Thank you, sundak,” it said before making its way to the queen, bowing at the old woman once it was an appropriate distance away. “Your Majesty, I will obey your every order.”
“Get that thing out of my sight,” Queen Annabeth said, pointing at the dead grayling by the live grayling’s feet.
The grayling clapped its hands, and the grayling corpse was shifted through space, appearing in front of Birdbrained. The eagle stood up straight and puffed up its chest before widening its beak. It engulfed the grayling corpse and swallowed it whole. Birdbrained’s body expanded to accommodate the meal, and the eagle let out a loud belch that caused the walls of the room to shake. Sam was mortified.
Queen Annabeth stared at the grayling. “Sit,” she said, and the grayling sat. Her eyes narrowed. “My pet was brutally slaughtered by that eagle over there. Catch it and bring it over to me.”
The grayling disappeared and reappeared by Birdbrained’s side. It grabbed the eagle, and Birdbrained squawked as it struggled to free itself. Birdbrained pecked at the grayling’s face, and before the grayling could succeed in its mission to bring the eagle to the queen, it succumbed to its beak-related injuries.
“Great,” Queen Annabeth said. “Kill another one of my pets, why don’t you?”
Birdbrained squawked, and Sam’s expression darkened. “I’m not translating that,” he said to the eagle. The queen was asking rhetorically, but Birdbrained had answered, “Sure, who’s next?”
“Forget about the compensation for now,” Queen Annabeth said. “My personal matters should be taken care of outside of business hours. Your eagle was transformed from the GMC, so now, you control the graylings, is that correct?”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” Sam said, relieved to have gone off the topic of the dead dog still in the queen’s lap.
“How many graylings do you have under you?” Queen Annabeth asked. “And how many are you willing to sell to Monarch?”
Sam scratched his head. Technically, every grayling in Oterra would follow his orders, but he hadn’t met them all yet, and he wasn’t sure of their exact population; however, most of the graylings he could command were already stationed in Et Serpentium. “I’m not sure how many graylings are working under me, but for now, there are three thousand graylings ready to be rented out.”
“Rented?” Queen Annabeth asked.
“Yes,” Sam said. “I’m not a trafficker; I don’t sell graylings. I’m just someone who coordinates companies and graylings. Graylings are easily taken advantage of, so I have to guide them to the right places where they’ll be treated with respect and care.”
“In other words,” Queen Annabeth said, her voice still monotonous, “you’re a pimp.”
A wry smile appeared on Sam’s face. “If that’s how you want to describe it,” he said.
“Of those three thousand graylings, how many were you going to rent to Monarch?” Queen Annabeth asked.
“Five hundred,” Sam said.
The queen lowered her gaze, staring at the cold Pomeranian in her lap. Tears welled up in her eyes, and she let out a deep sigh.
Birdbrained squawked at Sam and pointed at the queen with the tip of its wing. Sam cleared his throat. “Actually, Your Majesty, I can rent Monarch twenty-five hundred graylings,” he said. “I had originally planned on keeping it equal between the six big companies, but Birdbrained feels terrible for what happened to Squishy, and it wants to make up for its mistake.”
“Very well,” the queen said, raising her head and blinking back her tears. “Since you’re offering, I won’t refuse. Monarch does wish to establish a good relationship with you, and I would like to as well on a personal level, but for now, I have to grieve. You can take Wendy with you to the other companies when you give them their graylings.”
Sam blinked as Queen Annabeth lowered her head and stared at the corpse in her lap. For some reason, it felt like the queen was using the death of her pet as a bargaining chip to get a better deal. It was clear the queen was dismissing him from the way she waved her hand at him and Wendy. As Sam turned to leave, he looked at Wendy, but the half-reptilian was looking up instead of at him, reinforcing his idea the queen used Squishy’s death to negotiate with him. There was nothing wrong with making the best out of a bad situation; it wasn’t like the queen purposely made Squishy an appealing meal to eagles. …Right?
Wendy refused to look at Sam.
Sam shook his head. Even if it were true—that the queen was a heartless monster—it didn’t matter. If letting Monarch have more graylings than the five rivaling companies could alleviate Sam’s guilt, then he’d gladly loan the queen all the graylings she needed. In the end, they were being used to gather information for him.
Sam followed Wendy as she led him out of Monarch’s headquarters. After living in Et Serpentium for so long, he found himself missing the warmer tones of light produced by the ceiling of the underground country. The black and white interior of the building felt so sterile and cold. It was even more disappointing when Sam used his psychic vision to examine the walls but found there to be nothing adorning them.
“I never thought you’d feel homesick,” Wendy said, turning her head to look at Sam. “Do you miss Ellie that much?”
Sam snorted. “Even though things worked out well, I’m still upset at how easily you sold me off,” he said. “If Ellie hadn’t been such a good owner, I could’ve had a much worse experience, and we might not have even gotten the GMC.”
“You could just say yes,” Wendy said. She reached into her pocket and took out a device. She pressed on it, producing the same clicking sound as Ellie’s bracelet. Sam instinctively held out his hand in Wendy’s direction, waiting for a treat.
It took Sam a second to realize what had happened, and he retracted his hand. “Fine,” he said. “I miss Ellie. Even though Et Serpentium was filled with reptilians who wouldn’t mind having me for a snack, Ellie’s presence kept me safe. Now, I only have Raindu and Birdbrained to rely on.”
“And that makes you nervous,” Wendy said.
“Yes,” Sam said. “It feels like they’re more than I can handle sometimes.”
Wendy turned towards the grayling that Birdbrained and Raindu had repositioned themselves on to move independently of Sam. They were verbally communicating with one another through squawks and chatters, and Wendy was sure a fight would break out if they continued for much longer. “You have it rough,” she said. “If they make you nervous, then work on yourself. You’ve already mastered two chakras, something that’d normally take decades to do. Once you utilize your Muladhara and Sahasrara to their full potentials, you’ll find you’re not as weak as you think.”
“Even if I use my chakras to their full potentials,” Sam said, turning towards the ferret that could kill anything with a simple touch, “I don’t think that’ll matter.”
“Yes, but if they ever leave you,” Wendy said, “you’ll be able to protect yourself.”
“It seems like you’re trying to sell me on something,” Sam said. “Am I right?”
“There’s a military academy that trains special forces,” Wendy said. “It’s for combat-oriented awakeners; I think you’d do well if you went there.”
“I’m not going to join the military,” Sam said.
“Not as a recruit,” Wendy said. “You’ve gone through Ellie’s training. You’re good enough to be a combat instructor.”
Sam shook his head. All he wanted to do was finish establishing connections with the five other companies, go to his new home, spend money to buy everything he couldn’t have when he was a talentless, and live a life of debauchery. Didn’t he deserve at least that much after going through everything he had? Once he ran out of money, he’d think about becoming a combat instructor, but he didn’t think he was going broke anytime soon.