Second Skin: Fractures

by M Damon Baker

  The inn was packed as I walked inside. It was late in the day, and the caravan I had followed into town was also staying overnight, so this was no big surprise. I tried to flag down a barmaid, but she was already busy attending other patrons, so she simply motioned for me to take up one of the few unoccupied tables. I took a seat and waited my turn, but since the place was quite busy, it took more than a few moments before she was able to get to me.

  “What can I get you?” She asked in a huff. Her manner was not a rude one, she just seemed a bit harried.

  “Sorry, I see that you’re busy. I only need a room for the night, and when things calm down, I was hoping a meal could be brought up to me.”

  “We’ve only got a couple of rooms left. This lot—,” she said, pointing a thumb over her shoulder, “—took most of them when they rode into town. I have a moment right now if you’d like me to show you to one.”

  “Thank you, that would be perfect.”

  I followed her as she quickly led me upstairs. After we passed several doors, she brought me to a room towards the back of the building and unlocked it for me. When the young barmaid passed me the key, I handed her two silver Marks.

  “This should cover my room and meal.”

  “Yes, it will, and then some. Thank you, miss,” she replied gratefully.

  “You’re quite welcome. I know you’re very busy, so just bring me some food when you can.”

  “I certainly will,” she replied with a smile.

  I closed the door as she left, and I dropped the small bar in place across the door.

  After being alone in the woods for so long, I would have enjoyed some company. But being hunted by the Bloody Hearts made spending any time among the crowd of the busy inn far too dangerous. Perhaps, had it been less crowded, or only occupied by a few locals, I might have chanced taking my dinner downstairs. Even if I kept my hood up and spoke to no one, it would have been nice to listen to the conversations and just spend a little time around other people. I doubted that any of the locals in this small village were associated with the Bloody Hearts, but I could not be so sure of the members of the caravan. So, despite my desire to be in the company of others, I had to spend another night alone. I might have been overly paranoid, but I just wasn’t willing to take the risk—I had invested too much in laying my false trail to potentially ruin it by acting carelessly.

  I relaxed and took off most of my armor and gear, but kept my belt and daggers, and of course my cloak. My hood would stay up until after the barmaid had brought my food. I couldn’t let her, or anyone else for that matter, see my face. In my exhaustion, I fell down heavily on the bed and waited for her to return.

  As the time slowly passed, I considered my future plans. I had a general outline for what I thought would happen, but no specifics—it was really all I could come up with at the time. There were simply too many variables and unknowns involved for me to develop anything more precise than a rough outline.

  I tried to draw on the memories from the dead man’s life for information. I could recall gaming strategies for leveling-up and even something called power-leveling, but none of them could be applied to my circumstances. Then I noticed something strange about the way those memories felt. They completely lacked the vivid intensity they once had—the clarity that had led me to believe that the fragmented thoughts were my own was… gone. Instead, the recollections seemed more like stories to me, but even more detached somehow; not even like stories I might have read myself, but more like second-hand tales that had been told to me.

  When I’d first come to this world, I had been certain that I was the dead man. I considered the discordant thoughts in my head to be some error, an intrusion on my mind created by the anomaly. The sudden realization that I wasn’t the dead man had come as a shock to me at first and changed my entire perception of myself. I had accepted that his was merely a past life, a part of me perhaps, but relegated to history.

  Now, looking back, a new realization came to me. Since the moment I discovered that I was not the dead man, his memories had begun fading from my mind. They were still there, and I could still recall them, but they had become less clear, slowly diminishing in their intensity over time.

  A new thought came to me then—was I ever really the dead man? I knew that the Dreya he had created was the template from which my physical body had been formed. Had his mind served the same function? A mere model from which something completely new and different had been created? Had the anomaly actually given me life, using what it was given to form a totally new person?

  I had already freed myself from the shackles of the dead man’s mind, but to know that those chains had never even existed was wholly liberating. The knowledge that I had always been me and had never truly been a divided soul was like a balm upon my spirit, soothing a wound I didn’t even know was there. I thought I had come to terms with myself before—I thought I was whole. But that moment was when I finally became myself.

  I had only a short while to ponder my sudden revelation before my musings were interrupted by a sharp knock on the door.

  “I’ve brought your supper, miss,” the barmaid called through the door.

  She had brought me a simple meal—a hearty stew, some crusty bread, and a small hunk of cheese. She had also been kind enough to bring a small glass of wine and some water for me to wash it down, and I thoroughly enjoyed every last bite of food and each sip of wine.

  I had been up the entire previous night and then traveled through the forest all day, and with a suddenly full belly, I was overcome with an irresistible sleepiness. I quickly changed into my nightdress and climbed into bed to nestle myself amongst the blankets.

  I could hear the raucous sounds from the crowd below as I lay there, but they were no match for the soft bed and warmth of the blankets, and I fell asleep quickly, drifting off into a peaceful slumber for the first time in days.

  23

  I slept well and awoke refreshed the next morning. As I got ready, I paused to look myself over—most of my stats had increased by several points since the last time I had access to a mirror, and I wanted to see if there were any noticeable differences.

  After a good, long look, I didn’t notice anything different about myself. My body was still lean and athletic, but even with the points I had added to both Strength and Constitution, I saw no changes or obvious increase in my muscle mass, and as far as I could tell, I still looked exactly the same.

  Even my face appeared unchanged, despite the fact that my Charisma had increased by three points, the most of any of my stats. Still, even with that increase, as far as I could tell there was no difference, so I could only assume that the effects were subtler than I could observe. Once my little review was complete, I finished getting my gear together and raised my hood before heading downstairs for a quick breakfast.

  The inn was significantly less crowded that morning; in fact, it was nearly empty. The caravan had apparently gotten off to an early start, and since I had no schedule to keep, I decided to take my time and enjoy my meal.

  The barmaid from the night before was working again, and she quickly brought me a wonderful assortment of fruit, cheeses, and a bowl of some sort of porridge. Everything was quite tasty, as all the food had been, and I washed it down with the steaming cup of tea that had been served alongside.

  I was feeling lonely, and I considered striking up a conversation with the barmaid. The inn was fairly empty, and the barmaid seemed friendly, but I decided against it—I would have appreciated some company, even for a brief while, but my paranoia had gotten the better of me once more.

  Instead, I finished my breakfast and ordered some additional rations for the road. I still had most of my original supply, plus the meat from my hunts, and my backpack was apparently keeping any of it from spoiling. However, I wanted to keep a good supply of food on hand, and once I paid for my meal and extra rations, plus a small gratuity, I left the inn.

  I deliberately kept my hood up as I made my way a
cross town. My plan was to travel to the next town down the road towards Sota, and I hoped to settle in that village or the one that lay slightly farther down the road. However, instead of leaving town by the road heading in that direction, I took the one that led back the way I had come—it was just one more false trail I left for curious eyes to follow.

  I kept to the road until I was out of sight of town, and then I cut into the forest. After I traveled a short distance into the woods, I hunkered down to watch the road. I was a bit paranoid still, and had decided that if anyone had followed me, I would end them right there. Fortunately, after waiting almost half an hour, no one else had walked up the road, much to my relief.

  Once my fears had been put to rest, I stayed in the trees and circled widely around Dunnell until I reached the road leading towards Sota, then I shadowed the path and kept myself hidden in the cover of the forest as I worked on my proficiencies. I had barely traveled alongside the road for an hour or so when something in my mind told me to stop—I couldn’t articulate precisely what was wrong, but I knew something just didn’t seem right. I took heed of this sense of danger and froze in place, crouching lower into the undergrowth while I slowly looked around me.

  I soon realized what was wrong... The forest had become far too quiet. I no longer heard the constant background noise of the various birds and animals. The woods around me had become almost eerily silent, and all sounds of life had vanished, which obviously meant that I was not alone. Something else was out there, and very close. While I knew that I wasn’t alone; the real question was, was my unknown foe aware of me as well?

  A sharp cough off to my side broke the silence, and I couldn’t quite locate the exact spot it had come from until a pair of voices followed.

  “Quiet, idiot!” A rough bark reprimanded.

  “I can’t help it!”

  “Well, you better. We ain’t gonna surprise no one with you hackin’ away like that.”

  “Ain’t nobody comin’ up this road anyways. Just that stupid caravan.”

  “Well, we ain’t got much choice, now do we? With big Earl gone, it’s just the two of us now. We can’t very well expect to find any easy marks on the busier roads like we used to, so just get used to waitin’.”

  “Maybe we shouldn’ta killed him.”

  “That stinking bastard killed our halfling girl, dammit! That sweet little tart had been keepin’ us all nice and happy for weeks till he went and got too rough with her.”

  “Yeah, you’re right. She was awful good company. Too bad she wouldn’t stop fightin’ back. We’d still have her keepin’ our beds warm at night if she woulda just gave up.”

  Their disgusting banter continued on, but I had heard enough—these bastards weren’t just mere bandits, they were rapists too. My blood boiled with rage as thoughts of Nedd and poor Ella ran wild through my mind. My body shook as my mind roiled with anger, and I had to take a moment to calm myself. These dirtbags needed to die, and I needed a clear head if I was going to kill them. When I finally reined in my fury, I began to formulate my plan for their destruction.

  Once I knew where they were, the two vermin were easy to spot. While they were well-concealed from the road, they hadn’t chosen their hiding spot with any consideration of its visibility from behind.

  My position was actually not too bad, so I didn’t need to move in order to launch my attack. I slowly nocked an arrow and drew it back as I took aim at the piece of shit closest to me. Once I imbued it with Swarm, I released the shaft and quickly reached for another, not even bothering to watch the flight of my first arrow as I did so.

  As I drew a bead on the second scumbag, I saw my first arrow slam into the other thug. The two shafts of the Swarm shot buried deep in his back, and he fell over with a pained grunt. I fired a quick Stun arrow, and then drew again rapidly and fired an Ignore Armor enhanced shaft at scumbag number two.

  Both arrows hit him—the first lodged forcefully in his shoulder, and he might have had a chance to jump out of the way of my second shot, but the Stun effect held him rooted in place. He was simply unable to move, and the second arrow plunged into the center of his chest mercilessly and knocked him to the ground.

  Both of them had gone down, with two arrows in each of their bodies. No icons popped up letting me know I had received XP for the kills, but I knew they were both grievously wounded, at the very least, so I stowed my bow as I cautiously advanced on them and drew my blades in its place. I fully intended to finish these bastards up close.

  When I reached the two highwaymen, they were both still alive, but it was clear that neither would be long for this world. I placed the point of my sword against the throat of one of the helpless thugs as I spoke to him.

  “The halfling you were speaking of, what was her name?” My tone left no doubt that this was not a question, but a demand.

  “Ah… uh…” he hesitated.

  When he failed to respond, I pressed my blade forward and drew a thin line of blood.

  “Seera! Her name was Seera!” He cried out in pain.

  “Well then, I want you to know that this is for Seera!”

  As I spoke, I pulled my sword away from his throat and then whipped it around to slam it viciously into his crotch. The blade tore into him, rending the parts of him that he had used to inflict so much pain and anguish on Seera, and even though his tortured screams of anguish echoed loudly through the forest, I didn’t care in the least.

  His fellow scumbag, having seen the fate in store for him, began to vainly struggle to crawl away. I stepped over to him and slammed my boot into the middle of his back and pinned him to the ground.

  “Please,” he begged. “Please, I—I didn’t want to, they m-made me do it. Please!”

  His pleading only stoked my rage.

  “I’m willing to bet Seera begged for your mercy too. Tell me, did she get it?” I asked him as I raised my sword again.

  I didn’t wait for his answer before I drove the blade through his genitals, twisting it cruelly as I ripped it back out. I let them both scream and cry in torment as they slowly bled out on the forest floor, letting their pain and suffering linger for as long as possible, as they had undoubtedly done to so many others. When I received the XP notifications alerting me that they had finally died, I looted their mutilated bodies, deciding that whatever they had stolen I would try to put to good use, but it didn’t amount to much.

  Between them, they had a decent amount of coin, totaling ten Marks, thirty-five Silver Bits, and fifty-three Coppers—it wasn’t exactly a fortune, but it was definitely a boost to my depleted coin pouch. They also had a decent assortment of weapons on them. One carried a long sword, and the other a short sword while each had a pair of daggers. None of it was better than what I had, but it was definitely good enough to sell. One of them also had a bow and a half-full quiver of arrows. If I hadn’t just bought a new bow, it would have sufficed as a back-up, but at least it would still serve as loot to sell. I decided to keep the quiver and dumped out the shoddy arrows it held, then filled the spare quiver with most of the good arrows from my Never Ending Quiver, and stored it in my backpack, adding to my ammunition reserve.

  By far the most valuable thing they had was a backpack just like the one I was wearing—it had a few miscellaneous goods in it, but nothing of value, so I dumped out the worthless contents over their bodies.

  Marli had told me that various enchanted bags and pouches were somewhat... volatile, so placing one inside another could be catastrophic. The only safe way put one inside another was if it were completely empty. Apparently, if the enchantments weren’t actively working on any contents, the two competing magics could coexist. I carefully ensured that the bag was indeed empty and then rolled it up, and gingerly put it inside my pack. When no explosive events ensued, I breathed a sigh of relief and moved on. With my revenge against the disgusting criminals complete, I wanted nothing more than to get as far away from their corpses as possible.

  As I resumed working on my
various proficiencies, I focused not only on my awareness of the forest, but I also remained alert for the possibility of more hidden highwaymen. In hindsight, I really should have considered the danger before—the risk of an ambush was the reason I had taken to the woods in the first place, but I had dismissed the threat entirely since I wasn’t traveling on the road itself. I was lucky that the two bandits hadn’t spotted me first. Fortunately, the rest of my trek through the forest that day was uneventful.

  When it began to grow dark, I pulled up my map and checked out my location. Unfortunately, not only was I still a long way from town, but I had also managed to wander a bit farther from the road than I had planned. If I wanted to keep traveling alongside the road, I would have to travel a good way to get back there. At this point, it would actually make more sense for me to abandon the road completely and continue cross-country towards the next town. But that would have to wait for tomorrow—at that point, I only needed to find a safe place to camp.

  I soon found a tiny hollow nestled in a mound of earth. It would offer decent shelter, but still left me exposed on one side. Since there was ample brush around, I decided to camouflage the open end, and my efforts provided a small measure of cover from any passing threats.

  Once I had disguised the entrance to my satisfaction, I placed both my trip wire and arrow traps across the opening as well, adding a second layer of protection. They had saved me once before, and if I was going to be camping alone in the wild, I needed to take every precaution available to make sure that I slept safely. Once everything was in place, I lay down on my bedroll and settled in to get the most rest I could under the conditions.

  I managed to fall asleep, but sometime during the night, I was awakened by the sound of something shuffling around just outside my makeshift camouflage barrier. At first, I couldn’t see anything in the dark. Then I remembered to cast Enhanced Sight, and my vision cleared, revealing a dark, shadowy form awkwardly stumbling around the front of my small shelter.