Brewers

Chapter 7

// uhhhh. wow okay it has been a WHILE hasn't it????? hello. how are you. i was recently rereading this for sillies (i wouldn't touch his perspective with a 50-foot-long pole. just this one), and i thought it'd be funny to update it again for old time's sake??? i probably wont do anything more with this but i swear that i've become a better writer in the past *checks watch* 3 years. i promise

first, to clear a few things up:

1. the villain isn't a kitsune anymore. making all of my fantasy villain characters misunderstood hot glorified cat girls was something i should've left in 2019 but it stuck to me like a barnacle until mid 2020

2. i don't remember where this story was going and i couldn't find anything in my google docs (+ i probably wont be continuing this anymore) so if it takes a bit of a sharp turn, uhhh whoops! no i'm not going to say "rocks fall everyone dies" i'm better than that (one can hope)

3. i did klee a total fucking disservice with her character design and she deserves better. in fact, i did that for a lot of people in this story! the faceclaims for elodie and lucy will stay the same, as well as the outfit DESCRIPTIONS (not the pinterest photos lmao), but everything else can be defenestrated to the nine hells for all i care

4. if some of this takes inspo from d&d, i'm not sorry, its a current hyperfixation/special interest of mine rn so its bound to show up somewhere probably

5. im. not sure why the title is brewers when elodie is a spellcaster???? i think the idea was that brewers and spellcasters both have ritual subsects, but they cast in different ways (for example: brewers would be stirring a cauldron while whispering incantations, and i believe it would have to take much longer than a regular potion, while spellcasters would be writing different glyphs in a circle and reading from a grimoire/spellbook). also, the subsects of spellcasters would probably be rituals and conjurations/charms or something along those lines

and bbbelieve that's it??? anywhoo, enjoy this silly little thing :) it's shorter but i do not care that much, sue me if you must /j //

Lucy awoke to the weight of someone's hand in hers, accompanied by a feeling in her bones she could only describe as rotting. Bile rose in Lucy's throat at the realization there was a new thickness in her veins, as if her blood was trying to escape from her body, trying to get away from something dark. Something dangerous. Her back felt as if it was---or, had been---disintegrating, now hollow and charred.
Lucy forced herself to open her eyes, relieved at the sight of Elodie sleeping in a chair next to her, and tried to squeeze her lover's hand. She felt like she couldn't speak, like the action would shatter her. She felt so frail. So weak.

The dark circles under Elodie's eyes looked like they had been carrying baggage once carefully hidden. Lucy tried to press her hand again, but Elodie was deep in slumber and she couldn't build up the strength. "Elodie," she choked out, voice so small it was practically brushed away by her breathing.

"Oh, good! You're finally up!" A woman's voice echoed out from behind her. Lucy froze. She didn't recognize it. The woman continued, "Augh, sorry. I forgot you can't really sit up on your own. I'm Klee, by the way," she said, walking over to the two of them. She was tall and lanky with concerningly pale skin, a mass of frizzy white hair tied back with a thick string sitting on her head. Lucy was immediately tipped off by the fact she was wearing Elodie's clothes, confusion and a little bit of anger bubbling up inside of her. Klee held a mug of tea in her hands and took a long sip of it before sitting down on the coffee table.

"Why the hell are you in my house?" Lucy said, her strength slowly coming back to her.

Klee chuckled. "Elodie and I met at the spellcaster's convention. We've been taking care of you since we got here, but..." The lightheartedness died on Klee's face. "...There was an attack on the convention. We don't know the name of the person who caused it, and we don't know the reason why it happened. We got out of there in time. Elodie wanted your help in casting a protective cover over the house, but when we got here, you were on the ground and looked bad. The whole nine yards. Bleeding, sweating, black veins---"

"Black veins?"

Klee nodded. "They're still there, but they've faded."

"How long was I---"

"Four and a half days."

Lucy was speechless. The last thing she remembered was a bolt of pain through her back. She had no nightmares, no dreams. No recollection of the past four and a half days.
Elodie's hand shifted in hers as she began to wake up. When she did, her gaze immediately bolted to Lucy, and relief washed over her face. "You're awake. I thought you..." Elodie cut herself off to hug Lucy, deflating in her arms. "Let's get you sitting up. I take it you and Klee have already met?" Elodie's voice was tired, heavy with what Lucy could only assume was the burden of taking care of her.

Lucy didn't see her marking between her shoulder blades when she was able to check. Replacing it was a rolling wave of blackened skin that encompassed most of her upper back, tendrils streaming out of it and wrapping around her neck and arms. The veins crawling up her face were less opaque than they were, but they remained noticeable, dark lines that made it look like she was corrupted by something. Hell, at this point, she was.
Her concoction kit sat dirty and empty in the kitchen. She had been too afraid to touch it, or even get near it even since she had first woken up. Klee had risked going out on her horse, Edelweiss, a few times to grab healing elixirs. Elodie had tried her best to make a ritual that might reverse whatever was happening, but all these things only kept it at bay. It wasn't just disappearing like Lucy hoped it might.

Every time they failed, the childish thought that she would just have to hope a little harder came back around again.

She'd been having that thought a lot lately.