Chương 52: Sacrifices

As I swallowed the last piece of rabbit I noticed Kasia was staring at me and suddenly became self-conscious. I touched my cheek.

"Is there something on my face?" She blushed and shook her head.

"Oh no! I was just wondering about your necklace." I looked down and grabbed the little piece of cow horn Perry had left me.

"This?" She nodded. I hesitated. Part of me wanted to keep it close, not talk about it, not hand it over. But Perry had asked me to keep the story alive. And it wasn't like Kasia was going to damage it or anything. So I slipped it off and placed it in her hands.

"Now this is something really special. This is a piece of minotaur horn." She held it carefully, and turned it around in her hand.

"What's a minotaur?" I spread my hands wide.

"They're enormous monsters. Big muscular human-like bodies, but with the head and tail of a bull. Strong enough to tear a man in half with their bare hands." I pointed at the necklace.

"And that right there, is part of one of their horns." Kasia gasped.

"And you fought one?"

"No… no, I didn't. This one was slain by the mighty Perikles of Asteria." My throat tightened for a moment, but I pushed through it.

"He killed it. Saved a lot of people doing it." She stared at it with amazement.

"Woah. He must be very strong." That hurt too, but I managed to keep myself together.

"Yeah. He was."

"Was?" I tried to smile, but it came out sad.

"For all his strength, he eventually ran into the one monster he couldn't beat."

"Did you kill it?" I shook my head.

"Not yet." I took the charm back and closed my fist around it.

"But I will." Kasia opened her mouth like she wanted to say something, but I cut her off.

"We should go find Skelly. I have an important assignment for him." We left the kitchen and started down the corridor, following the echo of a faint humming sound. For whatever reason Skelly was always in as good mood, and almost always humming different chipper-sounding tunes. He was so aggressively cheerful it was almost infectious. We found him in the large western chapel near the dormitory. He was dancing with his back to the entrance, shaking his bony behind, fists pumping up and down.

"Skelly?" I asked. He froze, one fist still in the air. Slowly he turned his head 180 degrees until he was facing me and looked at me, jaw hanging open.

"What were you doing?" I asked.

"Dancing!" he replied with a fist pump. I gave a slow nod.

"Alright, well, I didn't mean to interrupt, but I was wondering if you could help me with something when you are done dancing?"

"Yeah!" he replied with another enthusiastic fist pump.

"Does that mean you're done dancing?"

"No!" Fist pump.

"But I can tell you what I want?"

"Yeah!" Yet another fist pump. The way he was pumping his fists kind of made me feel like he was expecting me to respond in kind, but I wasn't sure.

"So," I said, "I need you to check the library. See if anything survived. Books, scrolls, maps, loose pages, literally anything. Even scraps." You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. Skelly didn't respond. He just stared at me, unmoving, one fist still cocked like he was waiting for something. I hesitated. Then, very slowly, I raised my own fist and gave an uncertain fist pump.

"... Yeah?"

"YEAH!" He fist pumped enthusiastically, then immediately started dancing—booty wiggling, fists pumping, humming—toward the exit, heading in the direction of the library. I turned to Kasia, who was looking at me with an uncertain expression. Then a mischievous grin spread across her face and she slowly put a fist in the air.

"Yeah," she whispered, nowhere near confident enough to commit. My mouth fell open. I had no idea how to respond. Was I being mocked, or did she genuinely think this was what we were supposed to be doing? Was this what we were supposed to be doing? For a second I almost raised my fist again. Just to reestablish dominance. Or solidarity. Or whatever this was. But no. Too risky. What if it was weird? Or would it be weirder not to? Kasia was still standing there with her fist in the air, looking at me expectantly. …

Okay, now I'd definitely waited too long. If I raised my fist now it would look weird. Like I was trying to join in late. Or like I was intimidated by Kasia, which I absolutely was not. If I did it now it would look forced. Like I'd spent the last five seconds thinking about whether to fist pump, which I had, but she didn't need to know that. Maybe I could just... move on? Pretend it didn't happen? Start walking? But her fist was still up there. Still waiting. It was getting worse by the second.

The longer I stood there the more awkward it got, which meant I needed to make a decision immediately, but making a decision under pressure was how people made bad decisions, so maybe I should think about it for another second… No. That was the problem. I'd already thought about it for too many seconds. I should have just fist pumped immediately. That was the correct social response. Everyone knew that. Except apparently me, who was now standing there like an idiot while Kasia's arm was probably getting tired.

Now it was awkward. And it was going to stay awkward forever because there was no clean way out of this.

"Yeah," I finally mumbled, giving the world's most pathetic fist pump about twelve seconds too late. Kasia lowered her fist with a small chuckle. I wanted to die. Well… obviously not actually die. I had plenty of things left to do, and dying over a badly timed fist pump would've been an embarrassing way to go. If I ever died (and I did not plan on it), it should at least be for something dignified. But now that I was thinking about it dying was never really dignified, was it?

It was probably better to just not die at all. Ever. Look, what I was trying to say was, I meant dying metaphorically. I paused. How did I even get to this point? All I wanted to do was ask Skelly to check if there were any surviving books in the library, yet somehow I ended up contemplating the nature of death. This was ridiculous. A distant "YOOOHOOOOOO!" echoed through the cathedral. Thank the gods, or in this case Moryana, for the interruption.

"Come on," I said to Kasia, already heading toward the sound. We found them near the main entrance. Kuba was standing there, grinning next to an enormous—apparently freshly built—wooden cart. He didn't look drowned. He didn't even look wet. Knew it. No reason to worry. Moryana was bouncing beside him.

"Look what my beloved made!" she announced, gesturing proudly at the cart. I looked inside. A large chest, an axe, a sword, various armor pieces. Vasil hadn't lied about what was down there, and Moryana had dragged the entire hoard up by herself. Color me impressed. Kasia leaned over to look, letting out a small "oh." I gave them an appreciative smile.

"Well d—""He's so strong!" Moryana interrupted, clutching his arm.

"And so skilled! I love him so much I could just—" She made a strangling motion, added a wet gurgling noise, then switched to a drowning gesture, pushing down imaginary shoulders.

"Hehehe." Kuba's smile faltered slightly. I wasn't sure how to respond to that, but I figured maybe I should be keeping an eye on her after all. Apparently the drowning people impulse hadn't quite worked itself out yet.

"Look," I said.

"As I was trying to say, you both did a good job. Let's take this stuff inside, call Vasil, and then I will start identifying what's in here. Starting with your axe, Kuba." They both nodded and started pushing the cart forward. Moryana kept staring at Kuba with that crazy look in her creepy pupilless eyes. At one point she whispered something to him that sounded suspiciously like "forever," followed by another drowning gesture, more gurgling and a giggle. I pretended not to notice.

If I acknowledged it, I'd probably have to act responsible and say—or even worse, do —something about it, and I wasn't in that kind of mood. I was in a sorting-through-a-pile-of-treasure kind of mood. I had worked too damn hard to get that hoard back here. I deserved to bask in this hard-won treasure I'd personally liberated from the depths, and if Kuba had to die so I could enjoy this moment, that was a sacrifice I was willing to make.

I figured the main hall was a good a place as any, so I told them to just put it there and start unloading. Kasia went over to help them. Vasil had apparently heard the commotion and was staring at the cart. I took a step back and took in the scene. Vasil examining the contents. Kasia and Kuba sorting the pieces of armor. Moryana humming cheerfully (probably thinking about drowning someone). Several months ago I'd been exiled with nothing.

Now I had a cathedral, friends, power, and a pile of treasure waiting to be identified. It felt like the beginning of something good. It finally felt like things were turning my way.