Salvi's Search for the Universe: Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven


Braum stirred. His crusty eyelids were glued together with sleep-sand and dried,
drunken sweat. He peeled them open and peered through blurry eyes. A shaft of
light cut him in the eye and ignited a splitting headache. He moaned, squeezing
his eyes shut and crushing his own head as if pressure could stop the sanguine
pounding in his brain. His breath tasted like death.

What happened last night? He was hungover; so that could only mean one thing. It
all came rushing back to him. He cursed himself for drinking so much and cursed
God for creating hangovers.

He forced his eyes open, and had to shove down shock and panic as his eyes
darted around the room. This wasn't his house! The room was furnished with only
base necessities. It had to be an inn of some sort. He must have checked in and
forgotten it while he was drunk.

He worked what thick saliva he could muster to moisten his dry, cottony mouth.
In that moment, he would have killed for a drink of water. He looked over, and
on the nightstand stood a pitcher of water, clean and crisp. God existed after
all. He reached over and guzzled down the half gallon in moments.

He set it down. His head still hurt, but he could live with it. From the looks
of the shadows, it was nearly noon. It was about time he got out of this place
and went to his real home. Being mostly nocturnal, it felt like early, early
morning. He still felt groggy as he raised his arms over his head and cracked
his stiff joints.

His clothes were one the floor, but... Whose clothes were those next to them?
And where had that expensive looking pendant come from? Last night was still
hazy, but something about it was dully familiar. He tried to get out of bed, but
felt an unnatural weight pulling on him. It was like trying to roll a wheel with
a board nailed into it. And now that he thought about it... What was this
feeling wrapped around his waist? It was smooth, but it wasn't the sheets...

He tried to move again, but felt the same resistance. What strange object was he
sleeping with...? He folded away the sheets, and screamed! There was a naked
kobold! A naked kobold in his bed! Its arms wrapped tightly around his waist.
He rolled and spazzed, pried it off and kicked it out of the bed.

She flew out of the bed along with the ball of tangled sheets. The sudden
gravity woke her up in an instant. She yelped moments before striking the floor
on her hind end. She rubbed her bare behind and glared at him indignantly.

"That hurt!!"

"W-what were you doing in my bed?!"

"Sleeping!!"

He didn't know how to respond to that. His headache made it hard to think and
the shock had only made it worse. They stared at each other, Salvi burning her
big, slitted eyes into him.

"How did I end up here?" He finally asked.

"Braum bad at drink! Braum fall sleep in tavern! Gav--Gawin and Korles pick up
Braum but not know where Braum live, so put Braum in bed building that cost
money!" She crossed her arms and puffed. She was still upset, but seemed quick
to forgive. "Braum throw up and say funny things when wake up!"

He had woken up before? He didn't remember that...

"And how did you end up in my bed?!" He asked, pointedly trying to avoid her
nakedness. But why did he care? It was just a kobold...!

"Salvi tired and human warm!" She said as if it were only the most natural thing
to do in that situation, "Salvi never sleep with human before! Was nice!"

His eyes bulged. Cold sweat trickled down his back. Oh God, had he really? Had
he really been that desperate? Could he have done it...? She stood up, and he
couldn't help but take in the entirety of her body. Some primal instinct stirred
in that moment, and it scared him. He could have done it...! If he was drunk
enough, he could have done it!

"D-did we really?!" He swallowed, "Did we really... Sleep together?"

"Yes?" She tilted he head, "Human still drunk? Salvi never see one so bad with
alcohol before!"

His teeth chattered. His eyes swam. He had crossed a line, and worst of all, he
didn't even remember it to know if it was worth it or not. He sighed. There was
nothing to do but accept the degenerate he had become.

"I had sex with a kobold..." The words came out as a trickle.

"Sex?" Salvi tilted her head the other way.

The universe froze, "...We didn't?"

"With human? Nope!" She spun around, then made what he assumed was supposed to
be an alluring pose, "Unless human want to..." She made a mock seductive face
and sniggered behind her hand.

"No thank you!" He said sternly. That was a relief. But... He didn't feel as
relived as he thought he ought to be. That was concerning.

"Salvi think it hard have sex with loin like that!" She pointed to his crotch
and the red, cracked skin. He flushed and covered himself with the blanket.

"Just--! Throw me my clothes!"

"Okay!" Salvi obliged, and threw the pile at him. He had severely overestimated
his hungover and sleep-addled dexterity and was hit in the face by his own pair
of trousers.

He dressed underneath the sheets out of a strange sense of modesty. What was he
getting so worked up about? It was just a kobold...

Salvi took the time to don her clothes as well. She didn't seem to be very good
at it, and the concept of clothes you had to /wear/ rather than throw on seemed
to be entirely foreign to her, but she still managed it somehow. She finished it
off with the pendant and smiled.

"So... What's a kobold like you doing in this city anyway?" He felt an odd need
to strike up polite conversation. He /had/ shared a bed with the creature after
all.

"Salvi look for Itty!"

"Itty, huh..." He didn't pry any further; it was probably one of her kobold
friends or something.

He stood, his head still throbbing. Blessedly, it was his day off--he wouldn't
have gone out drinking otherwise. The water had washed down some of his bad
breath, and he realized something stank that wasn't him. He tested the air
around the room and followed the scent all the way to Salvi. He leaned in and
sniffed her for confirmation, and wished he hadn't.

"Lords above! You smell like you've been swimming in a sewer!" He hadn't noticed
it over the smell of booze and sour man sweat that filled the tavern last night,
but she absolutely /reeked/.

Salvi stuck her nose into her armpit--perhaps the most unfeminine gesture she
could have chosen--and came out wearing a face that seemed to agree with Braum's
assessment.

"Do you know where the bathhouses are?"

Salvi shook her head. He started to explain the directions, but after looking at
her overloaded expression decided it was a waste of breath. Fortunately, he
always kept some crude paper and a charcoal pencil in his uniform for certain
guardly situations, so he drew her a quick map to a cheap bathhouse.

"...Bath cost money?" She asked suspiciously. It looked like she wouldn't be
surprised if he had told him there was a fee for breathing air.

"It's free if you're a citizen, but visitors need to use the private baths. The
cost depends on where you go." He shrugged. Salvi flopped over backwards and
swung her arms and legs in a miniature tantrum. It was honestly... Kind of cute.

"Salvi have no money!"

"What's that then?" He pointed towards the bag at her waist that looked and
sounded suspiciously like a coin-purse. Salvi threw it at him.

"Stupid metal rectangles!"

He opened it, and was shocked to see enough imperial coinage to live for several
months in comfort and years if you were frugal. He slipped it shut, his guardly
instincts tingling.

"...Where did you get these?"

"Traded with big scary man!"

Trade? He scratched his chin. She honestly did not seem to know it was money, so
he doubted she stole it, but what situation led to some scary man giving a
kobold most people's yearly wage in a foreign currency he could only imagine.

Lesser guards would have confiscated it, claiming that it was too suspicious,
but he liked to think of himself as better than that. She was still laying on
her back, so he set it beside her.

"This /is/ money. It's just from another country--the Shale Empire from the
South. These silver tokens are worth much more than the silver coins here
because they use much more precious metal." /'Weren't kobolds supposed to know
this stuff already?'/ He thought to himself.

She shot up, "Metal rectangles money too?!"

"Yeah... Take it to a money trader and exchange it for Ternams. Though you could
probably find plenty of people who would take them as is."

Salvi wasn't really paying attention. She rolled around in regret, then grabbed
the coin purse and held onto it like some long lost child. Chances are it had
once been much fatter, he thought dryly. Abruptly, she sprung onto her feet,
jumped up, and hugged his torso.

"Thanks you, Braum!" She said, and just as quickly fell away, bolting to the
door before he could even react.

"...You're welcome?" Was all he could say as she slipped through the door and
out of sight.

She was gone. He felt an inexplicable tinge of loss at that. The whole situation
had left him with some complicated feelings that would take many late nights and
early mornings atop the city walls to puzzle out. He wondered if he would ever
see that kobold again. Salvi... Wasn't that her name?

* * *

Salvi stared at her map. Was she going the right way? She turned it upside down.
It still didn't make any sense. It didn't help that she had dropped it in a
muddy puddle about an hour ago. Did that human give her the right directions?
She tried her best to follow it, but it had only sent her down several derelict
alleys and strange streets.

Some scary humans with pointy weapons tried to mug her, but fortunately they
didn't seem to have much experience catching things half their size and she ran
right under their legs and out of the alley, but that had only made her even
more lost than before!

It was around then that she had dropped it in the puddle, and later forgotten
that she had dropped it then mistook one of the brown splotches as the water in
the port. After narrowly avoiding being crushed by swinging crates and burly men
in the midday rush, she made her way across a bridge and through some weird part
of the city with red-tinted lamps lit even though it was the day.

There were human women standing all over the place and human men would show up
occasionally to take the women away. It was all very strange. After that she was
chased by a pack of feral dogs, distracted by a meat shoppe, and then chased by
a pack of feral children.

Overall, it wasn't going very well. And for some reason, she couldn't shake the
feeling that she was being watched.

Maybe this gap on the map was talking about this alley... She went down the
interstice and was greeted by a high wall at the end. Well that was just great,
but she wasn't one to give up; if the map said to go down this alley, that just
what she was going to do!

She dug her claws into the stone wall's mortar and made her way up, stone by
stone. She got to the top and straddled the wall, swung her leg over, and
managed to make it to the bottom without breaking anything. She puffed her
chest, feeling accomplished.

The buildings on this side were all stone and sparkled white with carved
decorations all over. Carefully sculpted greenery followed the paths and the
streets were clean enough to eat off. It was nothing like the rest of the city.
They were a lot like that big house she had come from--though not quite as
grand, but still plenty impressive. She looked down the street. Several guards
were stationed at some kind of gate far in the distance.

...Was that how she was supposed to get inside? Oh well--climbing the walls was
probably easier than dealing with a bunch of humans anyway.

Humans were walking around, wearing the same kind of frilly, impractical
clothing she had purposefully ignored in that closet. They looked and curdled at
the sight of her like she was some kind of kitchen cockroach. If not for her
appearance as the expensive pet of some eccentric rich family they would have
called the guards immediately, but instead settled for walking around her in
wide arcs.

The buildings really were impressive. There were all sorts of--

Wait... That human... It had wet hair! Where did he come from?! She tried to
trace his steps and saw another with wet hair, and another! They were coming out
of that building!

Steam and smoke curled into the sky above the great structure fed by several
aqueducts. It wasn't so much a building as it was an entire compound. The front
pavilion was linked to the street by wide, stone steps. Carved stone columns
lined its width and a red carpet urged the visitors towards the arched, wooden
doors.

Salvi scampered up the steps, burst through the doors, and ran up to the man
behind the counter. It was warm in here! It all looked so clean and fresh too.

"This bathhouse?" She asked excitedly.

The prim and proper man at first looked at her like deigning her with a reply
would be far beneath his dignity, but eventually replied in a voice as slimy as
an eel, "Mmmm-Yes."

Salvi pumped her arms in victory. The directions that human Braum had given her
were right after all! She was sorry she ever doubted him.

"How much?" She was savvy to the human world now.

"For you...?" He sneered, "Isn't the wooden tub at your master's estate enough
for your kind?"

Salvi frowned at him. She knew he was being incredibly rude, but didn't entirely
understand in what way, "How much?" She repeated, more sternly this time.

The man behind the counter rolled his eyes, "Such decedent times are these that
one would think to send his pet to bathe with men. Who is your master anyhow?"
When she didn't reply, he simply shook his head, "Two silvers."

She slammed her coin purse on the counter. If he had been drinking anything, he
would have spit it out at the sight of its contents. He couldn't help but wonder
what kind of person would trust his kobold with this amount of money. It was
like trusting a pack of hyenas to babysit your infant son.

She handed him two silver imperials, and surprisingly, he was professional
enough to give one back--likely in fear of incurring the wrath of whatever
crazed plutocrat owned this creature rather than any sense of propriety.

He directed her down the hall at the end of the antechamber and she passed under
the arch, entering the complex proper. She looked around, and couldn't get
enough of it. Open air whistled through the rows of arches. Humans stretched in
the sun in the central courtyard to the left. She hadn't been this excited since
she first entered the city!

She followed the heat and steam along the marble floors and passed by dozens of
finely carved statues of famous humans she definitely would have known if she
knew the first thing about human history and made her way between two buildings.
Lots of humans were around and they gave her that same look everyone seemed to.

Excited, she scampered up and down the paths, first finding the latrine and
storeroom before the entrance to the bath. She skipped inside and drank in the
incredible sight. The great pool was at least a hundred feet long. Blue and gold
tiles glowed beneath the water in the sunlight like colored glass trapped in
crystal. Statues sat in their recesses, surrounded by patterned frescoes that
continued all the way to the ceiling. Dozens of humans soaked leisurely while
servant attended them.

Salvi had never seen water look this beautiful! She leapt to the water's side,
stuck her foot in, and the cold water sent a shock up her spine. Where was the
steam coming from then?!

She looked all around, and found humans going in and out of a smaller room to
the side. Steam curled out from the doorway. That must be it!

She bounded for the door, slipped on the wet stone and fell flat on her face,
but got up undaunted, and promptly slipped again.

She compromised to walk /half/ as fast and ran into the room. The heat radiated
all around. It warmed her cold blood to the marrow. It was just as beautiful as
the previous room, but much smaller.

The water was warm, but the steam told her it should have been warmer. She was
confused at first, until she saw /another/ doorway and ran through it, half as
fast of course, then stepped into a wall of steam and heat.

Now this is what she was looking for! She only barely managed to stop herself
from jumping in head first, remembering that she was still wearing her nice
human clothes. She stripped them off and was about to drop them on the floor
before she saw one of the humans throw their clothes into some kind of slot in
the wall, so she did as well. They fell into the darkness. She poked her head
down the hole.

...How was she supposed to get them back?

She decided it was something she could worry about later and stepped up to the
water. The heat was already licking at her toes. There were humans already in
the water, mostly women. She had seen a naked man earlier, but it was the first
time seeing a naked woman. How did they even live with those big blobs of fat on
their chest? It seemed terribly inconvenient.

Though, she heard milk was supposed to come from them. She thought about it.
Having milk whenever you wanted it seemed awfully convenient for travelling, but
she still couldn't imagine carrying those things around all day.

She continued to leer at the women, and for some reason they covered their
chests and started to leave the room in disgust. Eventually, she was the only
one left, which she thought was great!

She stepped into the water, sank down to her neck, and oh. Oh gods. Was she
melting? Her eyes rolled into her skull, her tongue lolled. The near-scalding
water warmed her cold blood to boiling until her whole bloodstream seemed to
fizz with warm energy. It unkinked her muscles and soothed away sores and pains
she didn't even know she had. The water smelled faintly of roses. It felt like
her soul was floating in her skull.

/'Humans built this...?'/ She thought with the few braincells she could manage
that were not wholly focused on this world of nigh indescribable pleasure
pounding her body from every direction.

Did she even need to go to Panesse? Did she even need to find Itty? She had
already found Heaven; it was right here.

She soaked for several minutes, eyes to the ceiling. It took several more before
she remembered herself enough to float around and explore the other parts of the
pool. She swam up and down, feeling the new sensation of the water rushing and
rolling around her limbs as she moved.

Fresh hot water poured from the jug of an ornate statue built at the back of the
pool. She sat under it and let it splash all over her body, completely content.

Paradise. Absolute paradise. She could soak here forever, and so she did for
another several minutes. Her head felt light and the world started to swirl, but
that was probably because she felt so go--

* * *

Chain rattled. Raw screams echoed through the cold and uncaring walls. The dim
light from the burning furnace cast demonic shadows across the torturer's face
in his personal chamber of pain. Countless tools of terror and anguish lined the
walls, each so cruel and terrible in their own way. Their time would come.

Today, he stood stooped over the burned and bloody body of a man. His face had
once looked so cocky and strong, but now it was broken, twisted into a rictus of
pain and terror. His body twitched and tremored.

His arms and legs were bound, one loop of rope for each limb, stretched over the
thick wooden frame of the rack. His limbs were taut. There wasn't even room left
to struggle. Lord Fairisles watched from the bench. Abram sat not far away.

The torturer cranked the wheel. The man screamed and begged. The rack groaned
and creaked. His bloody screams fell on deaf ears.

The cranking stopped. He was an expert in his craft. His craft was pain. The
joints were at their limit. Any more and they would crack, and it was far too
soon for that.

"Please!!" He screamed, voice deathly hoarse and dry, "You need to believe me!
Please oh God oh God!! I'm telling you everything! Everything!! Oh God!" Fresh
tears trickled down his already tear-stained face.

/'Funny,'/ The torturer thought, /'how such lawless and profane men always cry
for God in times such as these'/

"He came to me eight days ago!! He paid me five gold imperials to smuggle in
some cargo!! How was I supposed to turn that down?! Oh God, how?! Why?! Oh God!
No! Please!! Aaaiiiee--!!"

He screamed as the glowing metal bubbled and boiled his skin. He couldn't
thrash. He couldn't struggle. All he could do was curl his toes and fingers.

"Please!! I'm telling you! I never saw him after that!! He never even showed me
his face!! Please believe me!! I didn't know what they were!! I didn't know what
he was going to use them for!!"

The torturer looked at the Lord, who sliced the air with a palm. He nodded, and
grabbed the spokes of the wheel. Slowly, so slowly. Making a show of it was part
of the torture; give them time to imagine the pain in its entirety before you
gave it to them. He shook his head and screamed, pleading and begging with every
inch of his soul.

The wheel turned, the rope pulled and pulled. His knees and shoulders ripped
from their joints with four sickening cracks. The ear-piercing shriek was
swallowed by the dungeon. No one but the three in the room heard his cries.

The torturer leaned in, whispering. "We can keep going until it rips your arms
clean off. Tell us the truth, and you might still walk again one day."

His eyes were lost in a faraway place. Perhaps that had been too much too fast.
It was troubling if they began to wish for death too early.

"I'm telling you..." He no longer had the strength to scream, "I've told you
everything... Everything..." He wept bitterly.

Lord Fairisles stood up, "That's enough."

The torturer released the tension. The broken limbs fell free and limp. He did
not move. Truthfully, after the first burn, his experience had told him the man
was telling the truth, but with circumstances such as they were, it didn't hurt
to be certain. It didn't hurt him at least, the stone-faced torturer giggled
internally.

Abram sat pensive, then stood and walked to the broken man. He grimaced. He had
never cared much for torture, but you couldn't argue with results.

"Tell me... /'Mad Devin'/, you say that he had an accomplice and that that man
was who brought the actual goods you were to smuggle. He was swarthy, had black
hair and green eyes, but never spoke with you, correct?" That part of his
testimony was corroborated by the guards at the gate.

"...Yes..."

"Tell me everything you remember about his wagon."

* * *

Bandar barked orders at his soldiers. They jogged across the paving stones as a
unit. His heart was pounding. His life depended on this. How had that creature
evaded him so easily?

They had been chasing it since they had spotted it at least thirty minutes ago,
but every step, every turn, it had evaded them. Every time they attempted to
surround and capture it, it would turn down some forgotten alley and slip past
them effortlessly. And this happened every time. Every time!

It was unthinkable. How could they have known they were being chased? They had
been so careful, but those movements had left no room for doubt. They knew they
were coming before they even showed themselves.

His heart had leapt with joy when it ran down a dead-end alley. At least half a
dozen soldiers had given chase--only to find it empty and lifeless. It had taken
him a moment to realize that the creature had somehow climbed over the sheer
sixteen-foot wall and jumped to the other side. The scratch marks left in the
mortar left no doubt.

It had completely outsmarted them, and now it was running around somewhere in
the aristocratic district. Over two dozen guards were jogging up and down the
pristine streets. The residents looked at the armed men with spears at the ready
in shock. The women clutched their chests with dainty hands, gasping, wondering
what plebeian crisis could have invaded their sacred oasis.

After it had climbed the wall, it vanished. They wasted minute upon agonizing
minute searching the streets until his men had tracked down some aristocratic
blowhards that claimed to have seen it run inside the bathhouse. No one yet had
seen it leave. That creature was still in there.

He didn't know what they were planning, but he couldn't afford to pass up this
chance. He and his men rushed up the steps and burst into reception, spears at
the ready. The man behind the counter let out a girly scream as thirty something
guards rushed in.

The men and women screamed in shock at the sight of them and fled in fear of
whatever terror was lurking inside the bathhouse that required an entire platoon
of soldiers to dispatch.

"Fan out! Search every inch of this place! Cover all the exits! No one is to
leave until we find the damned beast!"

He surged ahead. Where was it hiding? Where was it?! He felt at his neck,
imagined the lick of the guillotine should be fail.