"C-contract?" I stumbled. "I thought I was just one of the Blessed of Melphinoe, that I wouldn't have to become one of her servants." I picked at the skewer in my hand with my thumb, regretting not having had the chance to eat it yet. Just who was this man anyways? It seemed hard to believe that anyone who didn't serve Melphinoe could be this far into the dungeon, but asking me suddenly to sign a contract out of nowhere felt inherently suspicious.
"This kind of fealty isn't what you think it is." The man responded calmly, turning the bird skewers on the fire. "Though…" he looked searchingly into my eyes. "Perhaps for your kind it's different."
"My… kind?" I shuddered involuntarily, unsure of where the conversation was heading.
"The contract binds the signee to a restriction that forms the core of their new species identity. Each species bears different restrictions. The Possessed may never bear flesh. Phantoms may never stray from the home they root themselves to. Wraiths may never rest. Liches may never walk among the living. Vampires may never feel the sun's touch. Night Mistresses…bind themselves to a master."
I stared at him, suddenly frozen, but he continued. "In many ways they are like Phantoms, only their home is a mobile one, and their will is bound to them. They may turn against their master, but never harm them, betray them, but never leave them. They are chained to stay by their master's side or else forsake the powers the contract has granted them. But it is not an inescapable fate either—a dead master holds no leash, though the Night Mistress's powers will forsake her soon thereafter if she does not find someone else to hold it. And a dead Night Mistress returns to the dungeon, her contract forgotten until the mantle of power surges within her once more."
"Do I have," my voice came out as a hoarse whisper even in the forgiving language of Undeath. "any other options?"
The man looked up from his grilling not unkindly, and said, "It is possible to swap over to the path of the Lich, though some of your power, and a great deal of your potential would be lost in the transition. But the Lich carries its own restrictions. In the lands of the dead, they hold free reign, but the touch of life is poison to them—sapping the strength from their contracts until they are hardly more than skeletons. If you wish to return to the lands above, it would not be an easy choice. Bound to wastelands and wildernesses, you would wander alone, incapable of sharing the warmth of the living without your own diminishment…
"Of course," he said after some hesitation. "It is also possible for you to remain as you are, honing your skills, and contenting yourself with the maximum amount of power and life your form allows you."
I stood up abruptly. "I'm gonna…think about this." I said lamely and turned and started walking back into the jungle, holding the skewers limply in my hand. It felt like I had walked into some strange dream, and maybe if I just turned around and went back, the whole thing would just vanish.
I still hadn't wrapped my head around what was happening to me lately. A week or two ago I had been returning to school after Christmas break, still struggling to adjust to life in Japan and to make some friends among my classmates. Some days ago I had been in a palace in a foreign world, in a brand new isekai story of my own, trying to wrap my head around our new powers and place in the world. And now…I couldn't even think about all the revelations that had happened in just the past few days, since I…
That's right...I'm dead now. I looked at my skeleton hands numbly. Maybe this is just some kind of purgatorial torment. Some vivid horrible dream that I had in my final moments. Some evil god's cruel joke. I stumbled over a hidden root, staggering against a tree trunk.
Rufi mewled sadly behind me, following reluctantly despite her game roasting on the man's fire. I knew rationally that it didn't make sense to break now, that this wasn't all that huge a leap from what I'd already been told since I came back to life, but for whatever reason the news seemed to break on me like the last straw on a camel's back. Floor after floor I'd had revelation after shocking revelation, and now it was all flooding down on me at once, and I wasn't sure what to do about it.
Breathe. Just Breathe. I tried to tell myself, my emotions fluttering and buckling strangely in my chest. I collapsed to the ground, my skin and flesh returning without me wishing it, my breaths coming fast and ragged as my newly living chest heaved with every breath. My face started tingling and my vision went slightly blurry. I sat back against a tree trunk trying to regain control of my rampaging emotions. Panic attack. I closed my eyes recognizing the symptoms I'd struggled with a couple times ever since my family's move to Japan.
I slowly started to slow my breathing, focusing on the sensations in my body as I tried to banish thoughts from my mind. Right now I just had to get through this. My vision returned and the tingling slowly faded, leaving my face still feeling a little numb. I touched my face and realized I'd been crying too. Crying. I looked at the moisture at the tip of my fingers. I suddenly felt very sad and very alone and very frightened.
Rufi mewled again, putting a paw on my leg. I looked at her with a bitter smile. I wanted to love and trust her so bad, but a bitter voice in my head reminded me that it was the goddess who gave her to me, the same goddess putting me through all these trials, lying or misleading me about all these things. "You're still here for me, right girl?" I hated the hesitancy in my voice, the uncertainty. I held out my hand, and she brushed herself against it, looking up at me with sweet, reassuring eyes as she mewled again. I smiled and petted her in return, wiping more tears from my face as I did so.
We shared one, long, sweet moment between us before we heard a series of loud crashes resounding through the jungle. Starting quiet and distant, but quickly growing louder and closer as if something was approaching us at great speed. I froze, my blood running cold as I remembered where we still were and the dangers that lurked all around us.
But before I could move or react, whatever had caused the crashes plunged into me in a blur of motion, sending me somersaulting backwards for several meters before I hit my head hard against a tree trunk.
"Ahhh! Are you ok!? You're not hurt are you?" A feminine voice asked desperately.