Dread Lord who wants their marauding servants to think of this evil horde not as a job but as a family.
“Nope, I’m out.”
“But Karva…”
“Hahak, shut up and listen. This is your first Dread Lord. I’ve been in the henching business for years. I survived working for the dread lord Dor’Shabbot because I knew when to run. In that case it was when he started cackling in the tower. I survived serving Husk Lord Quilpoth because when he said he wanted to have his minions come to the castle for dinner, I ran. And dread lord Nilthak is now talking about this evil horde as a family? I’m out.”
“What’s wrong with family? You apes are always going on about it, I thought it was a good thing.”
Karva sighed. She was elbow deep in the hidden recess behind her bed, where she hid her Fuck This Sack, perpetually stocked with a week’s supplies, several magical scrolls, and a personal keepsake from the last person she trusted.
She reached in and pulled that last one out. A necklace, ended in a stylized skull. “You know who this belonged to?”
Hahak shook his head. The Crocodiloid had impesssive fins instead of hair that wobbled with the motion. He stood at her door inside the Citadel of Despair. No, that was Dark Lady Caria. She’d started asking mirrors for advice, and Karva had ran. This was the Bastion of Sorrow, which was rebuilt on the ruins of the Citadle of Despair.
“It belonged to Shana. She was a henchwoman with me. She called me family. My original family were the kind of people that stabbed you in the back because you forgot to wear armor, yeah? Well, Shana saw the writing on the wall too with Quilpoth. But she didn’t run. She turned. Did a whole redemption arc. Dated a Chosen One for a bit.” Karva thrust the chain in Hahak’s face. “She’s my nemesis now.”
Hahak’s eyes widened. “Gleaming Sentinel Shana? She was a henchwoman?”
“Yeah, she was.” Karva threw the jewelry back into her bag. She didn’t know why she kept it. “Family fucks you, and not in the fun ways. So when someone says they want you to be family, what they mean is they want to make your life hell and guilt you for whining. They want you to trust them so they don’t notice the dagger. They want to—”
“See who is truly loyal.”
“Yeah, exactly. Some kind of bullshit loyalty test that...” Karva froze. Hahak had frozen already. He hadn’t spoken.
Dread Lord Nilthak leaned against the doorway. He took a bite out of an apple, and it rotted where his lips touched it.
“Well. The Darkbeasts were hungry. Shame about this, Karva. I was considering you for Lieutenant. Fast track you to Trusted Lieutenant, promote you to quirky mini boss within a year if all went well.” He sighed. Like an asshole. Such a dickish sigh. “Such a pity. That thing you’re bonded with…I’ll find it a new host.”
The tentacles on Karva’s back stirred, but it was too late. Nilthak was a rank 50 Dread Lord. He crossed the space between them and straight armed Karva into the stone wall behind her with semi divine strength. Karva’s bonded familiar took most of the blow on its tentacles. Karva took the rest on her back, and at rank 30 her bones didn’t break.
The stone wall did.
Clutching her Fuck This Bag, Karva shouted the first word of that as she plummeted 300 feet to the rocks below and Nilthak called for his legion to find and kill the traitor.
The next day passed in a blur. Karva and her other fought off some of Nilthak’s legion. They hid from stronger ones. She took a thousand cuts and a thousand injuries that would have killed her if not for the bound thing on her back, feeding her its life force to keep her going. Its reserves weren’t infinite. Neither were Karva’s.
She didn’t plan to run here. It had just been the only place she could think of. A quaint cottage, reinforced with powerful runes, and smoke curling from the chimney.
Karva knocked on the door, and Gleaming Sentinel Shana opened it. Her face contorted in a thousand emotions, then she saw the scrapes and marks on Karva’s face and it settled into a single expression: rage.
“Who did this to you?” Shana said, stepping side so Karva could enter. Except it wasn’t a question. It sounded like a demand.
“Terribly sorry for the inconvenience,” Karva said, swaying drunkenly. “I didn’t…I didn’t know where else to go.”
Then the last twenty four hours caught up with her and Karva collapsed onto Shana’s floor. She was unconscious before she landed.
