Chapter 92: Missing Critical Data

Jess opened his eyes. It was still night outside.

What time was it? Had he slept through an entire day, or only an hour?

He reached around beside him and felt a sudden, terrible emptiness.

Of course. He didn't have a phone anymore.

"Saeno... Saeno?"

After calling twice through his sleepy haze, Jess suddenly realized the imp wasn't in the barn.

That woke him up at once. Every muscle in his body went tight.

And it wasn't just the imp. His bag was gone, too. The naga scales, the pearl bracelet he'd been wearing...

What had happened?

Jess felt around his body. His pants were still on. His shirt was under him. All his arms and legs were there, and so was his hair. He wasn't hurt. He searched around his sleeping spot and finally found his battered knife, but there was one big problem: his stick was missing.

What was going on? Had someone come in? Or had the imp betrayed him and stolen everything valuable he owned?

He immediately recited the strangling incantation he'd memorized so well. If that creature had run off without an order, there was no reason to let it exist.

But even after he finished the spell, nothing happened.

Was the imp dead already?

No, something was wrong. Jess hadn't felt any shadow energy respond to his words, the way it did when he summoned the imp or cast Fear.

Was the incantation a fake?

Impossible. He'd watched Gakin use it in the basement to kill a demon he'd just summoned.

What had happened? Had one of the naga's companions come for revenge?

He tightened his grip on the knife, crept toward the door, and peeked outside.

The night was terrifyingly dark. Even the two moons were gone. Was it about to rain?

He couldn't smell a trace of moisture in the air. He couldn't feel the earth, or any of the fresh, living scents of nature. This place felt dead.

Then someone called his name.

Jess turned toward the sound. Beyond the farm, among the tangled weeds, he could just make out a blurry human figure.

Wait. That wasn't even the name he'd been given in this life!

Something was terribly wrong. This wasn't reality.

It had to be the naga's magic. He must have been struck by Fear without realizing it, and now he was suffering its lingering effects.

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Gritting his teeth, he cut one of his fingers with the knife, hoping the pain would wake him. Instead, after a sharp burst of pain, he watched blood run down his finger into his palm.

It did nothing!

He bared his teeth against the pain. Now what?

When he looked back, a familiar face was suddenly inches from his own. He jerked so hard he almost fell.

It was a girl's face. He couldn't say who she was, but he was sure he'd seen her somewhere.

Yet her eyes were closed, her face lifeless. Dark purple-red blood ran from the corners of her eyes, and her lips trembled nonstop. The distortion made it impossible to connect her to anyone he'd ever known.

Behind her face stretched the body of a giant snake. Unlike the dead face, the snake's body kept twisting and coiling. Its scales rubbed together in a warning that sounded like death itself. Its tail tip shook wildly, as though mocking Jess's fear.

Jess shouted and slashed the knife across that strange cheek. The huge snake let out a hissing scream and shot into the weeds.

"Come on! Come back! Let's see what else shadow magic can do! What other freaks can you throw at me?"

"And what are you hoping for?"

Jess turned toward the voice behind him. The girl lay there. Her lower half was still a snake, but her upper body had changed into a human woman's, completely bare.

Jess swallowed to wet his dry throat. He had to admit, that was quite a sight.

While he stood frozen, the muscles in the naga-like creature's lower body suddenly flexed. She sprang right in front of him and caught him by the neck, lifting him off the ground before he could react.

Her slick skin pressed against his arms, chest, and cheeks. It felt less like being lifted than being embraced.

The snake woman's long tongue slid from his neck down across his chest and belly. Strangely, Jess didn't feel threatened at all. His mind was already filling with other thoughts.

This was a dream. He could do whatever he wanted.

His heart gave a sudden thump. The fierce will to resist he'd felt moments earlier seemed to dissolve in acid. As his mind grew cloudy, he slowly lost the ability to think for himself.

He was thinking only that there was no price to pay. If he waited a little longer, wouldn't her lower half turn human too?

Wait. Was there really no price?

This was a shadow dream. Deep down, he knew he couldn't give in to... couldn't give in to things like this. But desire seemed to swallow his whole body. Every sensation became a hollow, unreal current, pulsing steadily against his brain.

Absolutely not...

He struggled and seized the huge snake wrapped around him, trying to pull it away. Suddenly, the girl's face split in two along the cut he'd made! Like a watermelon cracking open, her flesh and bones were laid bare. Her eyes, now far apart from each other, both turned to stare at him.

A furious shriek pierced his skull.

Jess screamed and sat bolt upright.

It was morning.

"Master?" Saeno was still sitting over by the grain barn, looking at him. "Why are you shouting so loud?"

Jess wiped the sweat from his neck. "Just a dream."

Thinking back on it, he actually felt a little sorry it hadn't gone on longer.

Was it because he'd never done anything like that before, so the dream was missing critical data and crashed? Though doing it with a snake would be pretty weird.

Then again, maybe not that weird.

Feeling strangely empty, he found himself humming the tune of "A Thousand Years of Waiting" as he packed his things. He ate a little dry bread and prepared to leave the abandoned farm.

The autumn air was clear and cool. From slightly higher ground, Jess could see scattered ruined houses beyond a distant hollow.

It was an abandoned town. If the soldiers at Westbrook Garrison were right, it wasn't the place people called Westshire. It was probably the mining settlement outside the Jangolode Mine.

The same place where Furlbrow said he and his wife had hidden during the war.

Jess looked over the endless hills and fields and let out a deep sigh.

Mageroyal... How was he supposed to find any?

He hadn't even found a single bunch of Silverleaf on the whole trip. Westfall had so many farms that it looked unusually fertile, yet he could walk all day without seeing any useful herbs.

Was there no ley-network node here, leaving too little magical energy for plants with magical properties to grow?

But Ursula Deline had sworn that these hills were full of Mageroyal. And Furlbrow said hardly anyone came here anymore. There shouldn't be anybody competing with Jess for herbs.

He hadn't seen any sign of gnolls on the journey, either—not a camp, not a living gnoll. So there shouldn't be any gnoll herbalists gathering the plants ahead of him.