Chapter 38 – The Forbidden Manuscript
"Gods are easy to piss off," Uzo muttered, downing the champagne in one gulp. "The hard part is surviving the smiting."
Vane chuckled. "True. But Nero won't kill you. Not yet. He is obsessed with 'Narrative Flow.' Killing a main character too early creates plot holes."
"Main character?" Uzo scoffed. "I'm a goddamn fucking glitch."
"A semantic difference," Vane said. "Come. There is someone you must meet. Someone whose obsessed with glitches."
Vane led Uzo away from the ballroom, down a spiral staircase that seemed to twist into the bedrock beneath the House of Mystery.
The air grew colder. The smell of lavender and perfume faded, replaced by the sharp, chemical scent of formaldehyde and mint.
"Stealing a pen?" a slippery, raspy voice hissed from the shadows. "Such a crude ambition, My Lord. I assumed we were aiming for the whole library."
Uzo spun around, his hand dropping to his dagger.
Leaning against a damp stone pillar, peeling a green apple with a surgical scalpel, was a man who looked like he had been buried for a week and dug up an hour ago.
He was tall and skeletal, wearing robes that were a deep, toxic purple. His skin was the color of parchment, and his hair hung in long, greasy black strands over his face.
But it was his tongue that caught Uzo's attention. It flicked out, unnervingly long, to catch a drop of apple juice before it hit his chin.
Valerius, the Master of the House of Flesh.
"Valerius," Vane sighed, not looking surprised. "You're scaring the new recruit."
"Fear is a biological response," Valerius rasped. He looked at Uzo with yellow, reptilian eyes. He didn't look at Uzo's face; he looked at his veins, tracing the flow of the Null-Ink under his skin.
"Fascinating," Valerius whispered, stepping closer. "The boy is a walking contradiction. His biology rejects the Narrative, yet he exists. A living typo."
Valerius reached out a long, pale finger. He touched the soot on Uzo's coat—the residue of the fight with Nero.
He brought the soot to his mouth and tasted it.
"Carbon... Void... and a frequency of 40 hertz," Valerius analyzed, his eyes rolling back in pleasure. "Deliciously chaotic."
Uzo stepped back, repulsed. "Who is this freak?"
"Our specialist," Vane said dryly. "Valerius used to be the King's Head Doctor. He was the one who designed the bodies for the Eclipse shadows."
Uzo froze. "You made the monsters?"
"I drafted them," Valerius corrected with a terrifying smile. "But the King... he lacks vision. He wanted soldiers. I wanted Evolution. I tried to splice Null-Ink into human subjects to see if they could survive the Void."
"And?" Uzo asked.
"And the King called it 'unethical'," Valerius hissed. "He tried to redact me. He burned my lab. He locked my research in the Royal Archives—specifically, in the Forbidden Section."
Valerius pointed the scalpel at Uzo.
"You are dying, boy."
Uzo blinked. "What?"
"The Null-Ink," Valerius said, pointing to Uzo's deaf ear. "It is eating you. You lost your hearing in the pass. Next, you will lose your sight. Then your mind. You are a vessel made of paper trying to hold acid."
Uzo felt a chill run down his spine. He had felt the deterioration, but he had ignored it.
"I can stabilize you," Valerius said, his voice dropping to a whisper. "But I need my notes. I need the Flesh Codex that Lazarus stole from me!!." Scratches his head in frustration
Vane stepped forward.
"And that," the Lazy Lord said, "is why we are going to the Archives. Not for money. Not for fame."
Vane looked at Uzo.
"We are going to steal the cure for your condition. And in doing so... we might just find out where the King gets his Ink."
Uzo looked at the snake-like doctor. He hated him. He feared him.
But he needed him.
"If we get your book," Uzo said, "you fix my ear."
Valerius smiled. It stretched too wide across his face.
"I will do more than fix it, little Glitch. I will upgrade it."