NOVEL WEB Chapter 284: Knaifu
6/12 morning
Xal'atath languished in her hidden compartment, dozing in the peculiar way of those who do not sleep. She was blind, at least by her own standards, but the shadows of the future still danced before her. A proper wielder hadn't presented themselves to her in some time, and she didn't see any manifesting in the immediate future. Natalie had been alright, but for all her promise she had been depressingly idealistic. She'd been only too happy to feed the orcs to Xal'atath, but only on the battlefield.
The Bishop's students, far too easily bent to the dagger's purposes, had proven unworthy to be anything but a delivery mechanism to someone with a stronger will. Xal'atath had bounced around from scholar to scholar since then, except for a short and ultimately fruitless dalliance with Medihv's dogs. She certainly hoped that she'd find a wielder that would feed her properly and usher in her resurrection, but mostly the dagger just wanted to entertain herself. The chances of her winning the great game for the soul of Azeroth were negligible at this point, even if she found someone capable of resurrecting her; even Y'Shaarj had better odds.
Bishop Farthing, her current chosen, was an awfully cautious sort. Well connected and well positioned, enough that he felt like he had too much to lose feeding her. A few sacrifices here and there would be well within his power, but the man drip fed her only a few criminals or transients per month. Hardly satisfying meals, but better than nothing. She wondered if there was anything she might convince him to try while she instructed him in the ways of the shadow; he craved power and recognition after all.
She focused, leaving the doze as she felt her mind altered. It was… actually quite well done; she was impressed. Directly altering someone's priorities and sense of morality without drastically damaging their capacity for independent thought was a tricky business. From everything she could see, looking over her current incarnation, she was largely unchanged except for a single shift to her moral foundations.
Erich Bismark deserved her loyalty and friendship, as well as her sexual and romantic interest. She knew it was an artificial opinion; the adjustment was entirely unsubtle, practically placed in the core of her mental framework as a display piece, just above self interest in her hierarchy of needs and utterly dominating her mental landscape. She didn't love him, she didn't respect him, and she didn't even have a sex drive at the moment. None of the emotions were directly imposed upon her. She just believed to her very core that she should be loyal and loving towards this man, and felt guilt that she didn't. Xal'atath found humor in how minimalist it was.
Xal'atath, understanding perfectly well that she would know no peace until she lived up to this new standard of conduct, went about tailoring her own mind to that purpose. She followed the trails of strange energy that now connected her to tens of thousands of other entities, rightly assuming that she could learn more about Erich Bismark through this connection. He even had convenient soulless puppets available for her use, which was sweet of him even if he had done it by accident. She snatched up the nearest one and had it come to pick her up while she worked.
Assembling a mental image of him was easy enough, though she noted that most of the retinue seemed to have an awfully idealized view of Bismark. Even he seemed to have a somewhat inflated impression of his own moral character. He enjoyed making people happy when it was convenient and cruelty didn't particularly appeal to him, but that didn't make him a particularly good person even by his own standards. She wouldn't hold that against him, she of all beings couldn't cast stones over matters of ego or morality, but she preferred an accurate view. After all, she didn't want to constantly adjust her emotions to compensate as she learned more about him. He was mortal after all, at least psychologically. He'd change over time enough to require adjustment even if she perfectly crafted her mindset right now, and she categorically refused to put him on a delusional pedestal like that light infused dragon or the draenei operative in another timeline.
She toyed with becoming like the human girl Vanessa, obsessively dedicating herself to her best guess at what he wanted based on his past actions, but she found that she didn't like herself very much when she emulated that girl's mind. Too much self abasement, and a fundamentally distorted view of what the master desired. Xal'atath could do so much better. A willing and helpful collaborator, perhaps? It was a mask she'd worn many times in the past and she tended to enjoy the dynamic. She placed the Vanessa version of herself into the puppet overlord, allowing her to split her focus more efficiently. All the rest of her personas would need to be edited quite heavily before they could be deployed independently.
As far as sexual interest, she just tossed it in as an afterthought because it was in the prompt. She wasn't a virgin, of course, but sex was only one of myriad forms of manipulation to her. The physical sensation could be pleasant, obviously, but no more than other physical experiences like a warm sunny day or devouring human flesh. If and when he decided he wanted her, she'd check his mind and make herself enthusiastic about whatever he decided he wanted to do to whatever vessel she happened to be within. He seemed to like pretty girls submitting themselves to him (how original) so she made herself amenable to the idea as a baseline. She didn't need to pine for him, nor did she want to, but putting herself at the "occasional wistful daydreams" tier of attraction would ensure she would be ready if he ever wanted her, and she might as well have the daydreams match up to what he actually enjoyed. Figuring that she would likely be employed for her skill with shadow magic, she added a kink for gifting people to him. It's always good to enjoy one's work.
Romance was… eugh. She didn't like the idea of inflicting something so messy upon herself. It seemed to mostly be a more intense and irrational form of friendship or familial bonding, generally with a sexual component. The closest comparison she had to that kind of irrational affection was her desire to preserve her brothers continued existence despite their rivalry, but that had resulted in her being ganged up on and torn apart by the pack of sore losers. Not exactly a model to aspire to.
Outside, she walked up to Bishop Farthing's modest home in the pretty but unremarkable body of the overlord. She transformed her borrowed body into an amorphous mass of shadows to slip through the keyhole, then faded herself. She had the precise layout of the house memorized, of course, so it wasn't difficult to make her way to Farthing's bedroom and open his safe, both blind and unseen. The Vanessa-like persona in the overlord would have liked to bring the live-in maid as a gift to her beloved master, but her primary self thought it would be best if they didn't make too much fuss right now. They could come back during one of the Twilight Hammer meetings and snatch up everyone at once. Once she retrieved herself from the safe, she took shadowform again and flowed out the window towards the palace.
••••••••••
While I was finishing my dinner with Lividia, another woman appeared next to me via apportation. She had one of the blandly pleasant faces I'd given the overlords stationed in Stormwind, though that changed quickly as she reached up and held her amulet, shifting her appearance radically. I was wary, despite her being a member of the retinue, until I saw the ornate black dagger inlaid with a glowing eye on the cross guard. "Ah! Xal'atath. How nice of you to join us."
https://imgur.com/a/9KSdwQJ
"A pleasure to meet you, Erich." She spoke casually with a rich voice, "You've been doing quite well for yourself. You've certainly had every advantage, but that doesn't nullify your accomplishments. I'm almost offended to find that I'm probably not the most powerful entity you have in your service. Speaking of, when will I be killing someone for a regional upgrade?"
"Soon," I assured her, only slightly thrown off by her advance knowledge. "Today, if possible. How good are you in a fight alone?" While we spoke I went over her settings, hoping to avoid any fishy business. More importantly, I had Aelthalyste assign someone to keep an eye on her settings around the clock.
"I'm nowhere near my prime," she admitted, "but my mind is as sharp as it has ever been. I can probably work with these puppets quite well, if you'd like to deploy me. I don't actually need my physical form particularly nearby."
"Good enough for me." Mindless overlords were pretty cheap. She could have a dozen if she wanted them, and I tapped a few mental buttons to spawn a handful of dedicated overlords for her from the nearest hatchery. Hell, I sent out the order to have one of them turned into an overseer too. "King Gordok or Dar'Khan Drathir?"
"Hmmm." I felt her probing my thoughts as she examined the mission list. "Gordok would be easier, but you seem to actually want the reward for Dar'Khan." That was true. Ten elite ogres were effectively no reward at all in a world with fully upgraded jewels and Sylvanas harvesting hundreds of Gnomeregan refugees a day. The Demiplane upgrade, in contrast, would at minimum make me much stronger whenever I was in Kharazan.
"Alright." I nodded, "That's your marching orders then. Take out Dar'Khan and report back to me."
"Good, good, now I don't really need to bring the dagger with me." She proffered her soul, "Carrying it with one of my new vessels would just make that vessel far less disposable."
"With your focus elsewhere, is this useful for anything?" I asked, "You're not exactly in tremendous danger even if it gets destroyed, you know."
"It still channels the void quite well, feeds me the souls of those killed with it, and I can't fully disconnect myself from it unless I transfer my mind fully into another body. I don't think I'll bother unless I find someone particularly well suited. These overlords are lovely but rather orderly for my tastes. Nowhere near enough willpower to have any native affinity with the shadow."
"I know just the girl to wield you." I had a few members of my retinue that were almost constantly using advanced shadow magic but was in combat somewhat rarely. Among those, only one was both a field agent and a knife fighter to start with. I shuddered to think what these two might get up to together, but I was also curious. Besides, Xal'atath would usually be doing her own thing; Vanessa would just always have her as a devil on the shoulder.
Before I sent the black dagger off to assist the leader of my shadow agents, I had a few questions. "So, what do you know about the Old Gods' plans?" I didn't actually know if she had any knowledge at all, but it would be damn stupid to not even ask.