Drake held Zuri’s visibly surprised and now somewhat curious gaze. They might finally be done with whatever game she was playing. So now, he just had to make sure she was on board with the role he needed her to play.
“I’m Lord Gloomwood, so what we do will continue to remain my call,” he assured her. “But I can’t make a good call unless I have all the information available and all the advice of people I can trust. I want you to be an advisor I can trust.”
Zuri was now watching him with a cool, cautious gaze that was nothing like the warm facade she had presented before. “I have never served Lord Gloomwood as an advisor.”
“So would you like to change that?”
“How so, lord?”
“Impress me with your knowledge, foresight, and advice. Anticipate what I need before I need it. Do that enough times and I’ll promote you to my advisor in an official capacity. An announcement in the manor, a bump in pay, and we can negotiate whatever else you might want. Maybe we can even recruit you some staff so you can organize this place before—”
“I know where every book in this library rests.”
“—before it catches on fire and burns to the ground.”
She nodded thoughtfully. “You would give me my own staff?”
“If getting other people to actually shelve your books and update these records gives you more time to work on my problems, then yes. So do we have a deal?”
Zuri crossed her hands at her waist. “This... promotion... is voluntary?”
“Of course it is. I don’t compel anything from anyone.”
“Then I agree to this arrangement, lord. I will redouble my efforts, and I will bring you all information I can acquire that I feel will serve your interests. In short, I will impress you.”
“And that’s all I needed to hear.” Drake relaxed in relief. “So while we’re on the topic of impressing me, what do you know about rarities that allow people to shapeshift?”
“I know they are rare and unpredictable, lord. Does one in particular concern you?”
“Yes. Mine.”
She gasped. “When did you learn of your rarity?”
After he’d shared his wererat experience with his battle maids and Sachi, Lydia had suggested he should keep his rarity secret from the rest of the manor staff until they learned more about it. However, Drake wasn’t going to learn more on his own. Zuri could help.
“After I was teleported out of here, I was captured by some jack offs I believe were Redbow mercenaries. When they started to torture me, I shifted forms into a powerful beast and ripped through a whole squad of them like paper. Moreover, I wasn’t myself.”
“That’s very common with shapeshifting rarities, lord.” Zuri’s eyes went distant as if already mentally parsing through a dozen mental records. “It is why they are considered dangerous and unpredictable. When shifted, a human may not remember who they are.”
“I remembered who I was. I just... didn’t feel like me.”
“How so, lord?”
“I really wanted to eat human flesh, for one. I also wanted to kill everyone, whether they’d hurt me or not.”
“And your actions? Could you direct them, or were you compelled?”
“A little of both. I made conscious decisions to kill and eat people, who to hunt next, but those decisions were driven by instincts and desires that weren’t me. Not just rage, but hunger. It was like I could smell their fear and it...” He hesitated. “It excited me.”
“This is... well, quite remarkable.”
“How so?”
“The last Lord Gloomwood also had a shapeshifting rarity.”
Drake snorted. “So old Dickcheese was a shapeshifter.” He’d suspected that was the case since the man started growing fur just before Drake stabbed him to death, but Lydia had never been able to confirm it. Over time, he’d almost come to doubt his own recollections.
Zuri nodded. “When he was wounded and frightened, he could shift into a dire rat.”
Drake remembered how Anna had described his shifted form. “Holy shit.”
“Is that a curse, lord?”
“Yes.” Drake moved past his shock. “Do rarities get inherited with blood pacts?”
“That is not how rarities work,” Zuri assured him patiently. “One’s rarity is imbued at birth and does not change. Each new lord has their own rarity, even after taking the title.”
“Are you sure, Zuri? Because...” He grimaced. “I shift into a big rat too.”
Her eyes widened noticeably. “You are certain of this?”
“Anna is. She described me as a huge rat with big front teeth.”
“And when did she see you shift, lord?”
“At the Redbow camp. I straight up tried to eat her, so she got a real good look. Fortunately for us both, she was in a cage with metal bars I couldn’t chew through.”
Zuri visibly marveled at this new reveal. “I will need to speak with Anna to get as many details as I can. But if you are correct, this is... well, unprecedented.”
“You said powerful rarities are rarely repeated. Which is why they’re called rarities. So the chances of both Dickcheese and me both getting the wererat rarity is... well, rare?”
“I would say it was impossible had you not just proven to me it is not.” She shook her head. “Do people on Earth have rarities?”
“Not as far as I know, but I do have divine blood. Somehow.” He paused. “Lydia told me something a while back about blood pacts. She said that if a manor lord and his thralls mixed any fluids after the fact, that person could gain temporary control of the blood pact.”
“That is correct,” Zuri agreed with a raised eyebrow. “Though... I am curious. Why did Lydia feel inclined to inform you of this fact?”
“It came up when I complained about how you kept trying to seduce me.”
“Oh.” Zuri took a moment, then cleared her throat. “I see.”
“So when I fought Dickcheese, his blood got all over me, and his nails cut me a number of times on my chest and arms. I’m certain our blood mixed. So could I have inherited his rarity along the same sort of principle? I stole his ability to turn into a dire rat?
“I don’t believe that’s likely, lord. In past battles between manor lords, blood has certainly been mixed. Some were quite brutal. Never has the victorious lord inherited the rarity of his defeated opponent, even when both were wounded in close contact.”
“Yet I still have the same rarity as Dickcheese. That can’t be coincidence.”
“No,” Zuri agreed. “Your suggestion does seem plausible, but it also flies in the face of all we know about blood pacts. There are many recorded instances of blood pacts changing hands, both through ritual and through combat. In no case has the rarity of the individual who inherited the blood pact changed to the rarity of the individual who surrendered it.”
“No recorded case,” Drake said.
“Correct. Yet it would be very difficult to hide such an occurrence. Once one inherits a blood pact, one is required to report to the noble court in person and share the circumstances under which the change in ownership occurred. All sorts of questions are asked, and the circumstances are well documented. Hiding anything is difficult.”
Since people here couldn’t lie. “So wait, Zuri. Do I need to do that? Travel to the capital and tell your noble court I’m the new Lord Gloomwood?”
“Under normal circumstances, you should have already set out to do so. All new manor lords are required to present themselves to the noble court as soon as they acquire the title. There they must swear to serve the court’s interests and obey its decrees.”
That was a good reminder that he wasn’t all-powerful in this world, just his manor. He was the... state governor... but still had to swear loyalty to the feds. Even so, Drake didn’t have time right now to appease a bunch of bureaucrats in some far off capital when he had his own manor to protect and an unknown number of people gunning for his head. The noble court could wait their turn.
He focused on this strange case of duplicated rarities. “So to sum up, we’re saying while it is possible that someone may inherit the rarity of the manor lord they kill when they inherit the blood pact, it’s either really unlikely... or it’s never happened before.”
“That is a fair summary, lord.”
“So maybe it’s me,” Drake said quietly. “Maybe it’s because I’m from Earth.”
Zuri nodded thoughtfully. “You said Earth lacks blood pacts.”
“Exactly. So maybe what happened was a bug.”
Zuri frowned. “How would an insect be involved?”
Drake chuckled lightly. “No, it’s a term from...” His brain froze over at the thought of trying to explain computers and programming languages to someone unfamiliar with either. “It’s where something happens that no one knows how to deal with, because they couldn’t have anticipated it would ever happen. When rules interact in a way that no one expected.”
“I see,” Zuri agreed. “That is an intriguing possibility. It is quite plausible that no person from your realm has ever inherited a manor lord’s blood pact. You are certain you were born on Earth?”
“That’s right,” Drake said. “I’m one hundred percent Earth man.”
“So it is possible that when you defeated Lord Gloomwood, the rules of the blood pact and the requirements of the Eidolons encountered a case for which there was no clear precedent. That could mean that you do not have divine blood!”
Drake frowned. “How does that follow? I can use the blood pact, and I clearly have Dickcheese’s rarity.”
“But if we begin with the belief that you inherited the rarity of the lord you defeated, something that does not happen in any other recorded case of blood pact transfer, it then follows that you gained that rarity because the blood pact itself encountered a situation for which it had no clear directive. You neither had nor did not have divine blood.”
“Right!” Drake was getting more excited as they spoke. “So without any clear way to figure out what it should do, the blood pact passed to me by default. And since I didn’t have a rarity, because I was from Earth, and it expected me to have a rarity, it gave me his.”
Zuri’s face calmed. “Sadly, it is but a supposition. We have no real data to rely upon other than your statement and Anna’s. While similar rarities have been seen hundreds of years apart, I know of no documented cases where two so close in age received the same rarity.”
Drake couldn’t hide his excitement. If he could somehow steal the rarities of those he defeated in battle, he could end up with an ungodly amount of power... provided he was willing to murder to get it. Still, if someone tried to murder him, he could murder them right back.
But was this right? He’d defeated Captain Ro, torn his chest right open, and they had absolutely mixed blood given he’d eaten the guy’s heart. Yet he couldn’t track people, which had been Captain Ro’s rarity according to Anna. So something else must be going on.
Drake looked to Zuri again. “Here’s your new focus. Look into every source you have, no matter how obscure, and see if anyone has ever had rarity that was... rarity stealing.”
“I will do so at once, lord.”
“Also, if you could tell me how to actually shift into a wererat, that would be great too.”
“I only know how Lord Dickcheese activated his rarity, lord. If yours behaves like his, then it is a reactive rarity. Those are rare even by the standards of rarities.”
“How does reactive differ from...whatever it normally is?”
“Active, lord. With an active rarity, you choose to use it, and multiple uses exhaust you. By comparison, reactive rarities activate in response to outside stimuli and may continue indefinitely without exhaustion. Samuel’s rarity is like that. He cannot choose to heal himself, but when he is injured, his rarity activates and begins to repair his body.”
“So the only way I can rat out is to get injured enough I freak out and eat everyone?”
“It would seem likely.”
“Damn,” Drake said. “Now I wish I’d killed a manor lord with a rarity that blows shit up.”
Drake held Zuri’s visibly surprised and now somewhat curious gaze. They might finally be done with whatever game she was playing. So now, he just had to make sure she was on board with the role he needed her to play.
“I’m Lord Gloomwood, so what we do will continue to remain my call,” he assured her. “But I can’t make a good call unless I have all the information available and all the advice of people I can trust. I want you to be an advisor I can trust.”
Zuri was now watching him with a cool, cautious gaze that was nothing like the warm facade she had presented before. “I have never served Lord Gloomwood as an advisor.”
“So would you like to change that?”
“How so, lord?”
“Impress me with your knowledge, foresight, and advice. Anticipate what I need before I need it. Do that enough times and I’ll promote you to my advisor in an official capacity. An announcement in the manor, a bump in pay, and we can negotiate whatever else you might want. Maybe we can even recruit you some staff so you can organize this place before—”
“I know where every book in this library rests.”
“—before it catches on fire and burns to the ground.”
She nodded thoughtfully. “You would give me my own staff?”
“If getting other people to actually shelve your books and update these records gives you more time to work on my problems, then yes. So do we have a deal?”
Zuri crossed her hands at her waist. “This... promotion... is voluntary?”
“Of course it is. I don’t compel anything from anyone.”
“Then I agree to this arrangement, lord. I will redouble my efforts, and I will bring you all information I can acquire that I feel will serve your interests. In short, I will impress you.”
“And that’s all I needed to hear.” Drake relaxed in relief. “So while we’re on the topic of impressing me, what do you know about rarities that allow people to shapeshift?”
“I know they are rare and unpredictable, lord. Does one in particular concern you?”
“Yes. Mine.”
She gasped. “When did you learn of your rarity?”
After he’d shared his wererat experience with his battle maids and Sachi, Lydia had suggested he should keep his rarity secret from the rest of the manor staff until they learned more about it. However, Drake wasn’t going to learn more on his own. Zuri could help.
“After I was teleported out of here, I was captured by some jack offs I believe were Redbow mercenaries. When they started to torture me, I shifted forms into a powerful beast and ripped through a whole squad of them like paper. Moreover, I wasn’t myself.”
“That’s very common with shapeshifting rarities, lord.” Zuri’s eyes went distant as if already mentally parsing through a dozen mental records. “It is why they are considered dangerous and unpredictable. When shifted, a human may not remember who they are.”
“I remembered who I was. I just... didn’t feel like me.”
“How so, lord?”
“I really wanted to eat human flesh, for one. I also wanted to kill everyone, whether they’d hurt me or not.”
“And your actions? Could you direct them, or were you compelled?”
“A little of both. I made conscious decisions to kill and eat people, who to hunt next, but those decisions were driven by instincts and desires that weren’t me. Not just rage, but hunger. It was like I could smell their fear and it...” He hesitated. “It excited me.”
“This is... well, quite remarkable.”
“How so?”
“The last Lord Gloomwood also had a shapeshifting rarity.”
Drake snorted. “So old Dickcheese was a shapeshifter.” He’d suspected that was the case since the man started growing fur just before Drake stabbed him to death, but Lydia had never been able to confirm it. Over time, he’d almost come to doubt his own recollections.
Zuri nodded. “When he was wounded and frightened, he could shift into a dire rat.”
Drake remembered how Anna had described his shifted form. “Holy shit.”
“Is that a curse, lord?”
“Yes.” Drake moved past his shock. “Do rarities get inherited with blood pacts?”
“That is not how rarities work,” Zuri assured him patiently. “One’s rarity is imbued at birth and does not change. Each new lord has their own rarity, even after taking the title.”
“Are you sure, Zuri? Because...” He grimaced. “I shift into a big rat too.”
Her eyes widened noticeably. “You are certain of this?”
“Anna is. She described me as a huge rat with big front teeth.”
“And when did she see you shift, lord?”
“At the Redbow camp. I straight up tried to eat her, so she got a real good look. Fortunately for us both, she was in a cage with metal bars I couldn’t chew through.”
Zuri visibly marveled at this new reveal. “I will need to speak with Anna to get as many details as I can. But if you are correct, this is... well, unprecedented.”
“You said powerful rarities are rarely repeated. Which is why they’re called rarities. So the chances of both Dickcheese and me both getting the wererat rarity is... well, rare?”
“I would say it was impossible had you not just proven to me it is not.” She shook her head. “Do people on Earth have rarities?”
“Not as far as I know, but I do have divine blood. Somehow.” He paused. “Lydia told me something a while back about blood pacts. She said that if a manor lord and his thralls mixed any fluids after the fact, that person could gain temporary control of the blood pact.”
“That is correct,” Zuri agreed with a raised eyebrow. “Though... I am curious. Why did Lydia feel inclined to inform you of this fact?”
“It came up when I complained about how you kept trying to seduce me.”
“Oh.” Zuri took a moment, then cleared her throat. “I see.”
“So when I fought Dickcheese, his blood got all over me, and his nails cut me a number of times on my chest and arms. I’m certain our blood mixed. So could I have inherited his rarity along the same sort of principle? I stole his ability to turn into a dire rat?
“I don’t believe that’s likely, lord. In past battles between manor lords, blood has certainly been mixed. Some were quite brutal. Never has the victorious lord inherited the rarity of his defeated opponent, even when both were wounded in close contact.”
“Yet I still have the same rarity as Dickcheese. That can’t be coincidence.”
“No,” Zuri agreed. “Your suggestion does seem plausible, but it also flies in the face of all we know about blood pacts. There are many recorded instances of blood pacts changing hands, both through ritual and through combat. In no case has the rarity of the individual who inherited the blood pact changed to the rarity of the individual who surrendered it.”
“No recorded case,” Drake said.
“Correct. Yet it would be very difficult to hide such an occurrence. Once one inherits a blood pact, one is required to report to the noble court in person and share the circumstances under which the change in ownership occurred. All sorts of questions are asked, and the circumstances are well documented. Hiding anything is difficult.”
Since people here couldn’t lie. “So wait, Zuri. Do I need to do that? Travel to the capital and tell your noble court I’m the new Lord Gloomwood?”
“Under normal circumstances, you should have already set out to do so. All new manor lords are required to present themselves to the noble court as soon as they acquire the title. There they must swear to serve the court’s interests and obey its decrees.”
That was a good reminder that he wasn’t all-powerful in this world, just his manor. He was the... state governor... but still had to swear loyalty to the feds. Even so, Drake didn’t have time right now to appease a bunch of bureaucrats in some far off capital when he had his own manor to protect and an unknown number of people gunning for his head. The noble court could wait their turn.
He focused on this strange case of duplicated rarities. “So to sum up, we’re saying while it is possible that someone may inherit the rarity of the manor lord they kill when they inherit the blood pact, it’s either really unlikely... or it’s never happened before.”
“That is a fair summary, lord.”
“So maybe it’s me,” Drake said quietly. “Maybe it’s because I’m from Earth.”
Zuri nodded thoughtfully. “You said Earth lacks blood pacts.”
“Exactly. So maybe what happened was a bug.”
Zuri frowned. “How would an insect be involved?”
Drake chuckled lightly. “No, it’s a term from...” His brain froze over at the thought of trying to explain computers and programming languages to someone unfamiliar with either. “It’s where something happens that no one knows how to deal with, because they couldn’t have anticipated it would ever happen. When rules interact in a way that no one expected.”
“I see,” Zuri agreed. “That is an intriguing possibility. It is quite plausible that no person from your realm has ever inherited a manor lord’s blood pact. You are certain you were born on Earth?”
“That’s right,” Drake said. “I’m one hundred percent Earth man.”
“So it is possible that when you defeated Lord Gloomwood, the rules of the blood pact and the requirements of the Eidolons encountered a case for which there was no clear precedent. That could mean that you do not have divine blood!”
Drake frowned. “How does that follow? I can use the blood pact, and I clearly have Dickcheese’s rarity.”
“But if we begin with the belief that you inherited the rarity of the lord you defeated, something that does not happen in any other recorded case of blood pact transfer, it then follows that you gained that rarity because the blood pact itself encountered a situation for which it had no clear directive. You neither had nor did not have divine blood.”
“Right!” Drake was getting more excited as they spoke. “So without any clear way to figure out what it should do, the blood pact passed to me by default. And since I didn’t have a rarity, because I was from Earth, and it expected me to have a rarity, it gave me his.”
Zuri’s face calmed. “Sadly, it is but a supposition. We have no real data to rely upon other than your statement and Anna’s. While similar rarities have been seen hundreds of years apart, I know of no documented cases where two so close in age received the same rarity.”
Drake couldn’t hide his excitement. If he could somehow steal the rarities of those he defeated in battle, he could end up with an ungodly amount of power... provided he was willing to murder to get it. Still, if someone tried to murder him, he could murder them right back.
But was this right? He’d defeated Captain Ro, torn his chest right open, and they had absolutely mixed blood given he’d eaten the guy’s heart. Yet he couldn’t track people, which had been Captain Ro’s rarity according to Anna. So something else must be going on.
Drake looked to Zuri again. “Here’s your new focus. Look into every source you have, no matter how obscure, and see if anyone has ever had rarity that was... rarity stealing.”
“I will do so at once, lord.”
“Also, if you could tell me how to actually shift into a wererat, that would be great too.”
“I only know how Lord Dickcheese activated his rarity, lord. If yours behaves like his, then it is a reactive rarity. Those are rare even by the standards of rarities.”
“How does reactive differ from...whatever it normally is?”
“Active, lord. With an active rarity, you choose to use it, and multiple uses exhaust you. By comparison, reactive rarities activate in response to outside stimuli and may continue indefinitely without exhaustion. Samuel’s rarity is like that. He cannot choose to heal himself, but when he is injured, his rarity activates and begins to repair his body.”
“So the only way I can rat out is to get injured enough I freak out and eat everyone?”
“It would seem likely.”
“Damn,” Drake said. “Now I wish I’d killed a manor lord with a rarity that blows shit up.”
