Jackal Among Snakes

“What would you do if Anneliese had been collaborating with Erlebnis the whole time, to entrap you?”

Argrave recognized the Keeper’s voice, but he saw nothing of the man himself. Still, left alone with his thoughts, that proposal stirred an unimaginable burden within. It was so utterly wounding that he could barely conceive of it. Of everyone, Anneliese was the sole person he would trust in any circumstance.

“Look at you… so permeable,” the Keeper mused. He heard the steps of his dress shoes behind, but could not see the man himself. “Well, Raven had an Anneliese of his own. Sonia.”

A woman appeared in Argrave’s sight. Deep black hair, short, and with green eyes… she reminded Argrave of Mina of Veden, somewhat. She had the same guarded playfulness about her.

“Sonia worked alongside Raven as the one to educate him of the teachings of Hause. In the end, it blossomed into something more than teacher and student. But she was loyal to Hause before their relationship. Raven thought the opposite, but Erlebnis knew the truth. He kept it close at hand, waiting for the perfect time…”

The Keeper stepped into view, stroking his finely trimmed gray beard. “Erlebnis developed a gambit. Perhaps it would have succeeded if not for the fickleness of others—gods and humans both.” He stepped up to Argrave. “But people are fickle, and the world is unpredictable. On the eve of when we intended to reveal Sonia was prepared to combat the Smiling Raven alongside all of the other members of Hause’s court… the goddess finally relented. She told Raven what his potential was. She revealed everything that she’d been hiding, shattering our designs with a moment of weakness.”

The Keeper sighed deeply. He pulled up a stool and sat down before Argrave. “Had she remained stalwart, persisting in her refusal to divulge the information… everything might have gone Erlebnis’ way. Raven would have turned traitor, helped undermine Hause’s court, and when the time is right… Erlebnis and his emissaries would’ve helped Raven find the answers he was looking for. As a side bonus, Hause would’ve been enslaved. Instead, a single crack in the glass broke the whole window.”

Argrave’s head whirled somewhat. The Alchemist still had his blessing, ostensibly—didn’t that mean Hause lived?

“You’re rushing to the end of the story,” the Keeper scolded. “Here. Watch,” he commanded with a snap.

Argrave once again viewed the perspective of an emissary. Raven stood there, but he was far different. He was taller, paler, stronger, and more deadly. What had once been a cloak of raven was now the unsightly mass of hair that the Alchemist currently displayed, if less organized than it was in the present. As his mind was changing, his self-image… so too was his appearance.

“Even… Sonia?” Raven questioned, his voice starting to take on the harsher aspects of cracking ice that Argrave so fondly remembered. He wore no more rings, sported no more jewelry, and his clothes were ripped and stained.

“We’re afraid so, Raven.”

the pier, she said…” Raven mumbled, looking up. His skin bubbled, and Argrave thought he might grow nauseous if he were in his

so at a distance, and with gloves on,” the emissary continued. “You are a dog that they have tamed. A monster that they fear. An evil within their midst, that they handle with care only because there is no alternative.” It held its

rough cackle, and it said far more than any words would have. Knowing what Argrave knew—that Hause had told

about it,” the emissary urged. “And when we return… perhaps we can aid in helping you find

to black, and Argrave was once against cast into a dark oblivion. He heard

Hause had relented to Raven’s pleas, we had already cast the die. Hause had told him the truth—what that truth is, only he knows. But whatever it was, it changed Hause’s actions in his mind from a suspicious tyrant to a concerned and benevolent mother. Perhaps he could have handled that knowledge on his own—resisted his inner nature. But after Erlebnis had spun the tale, it only made Raven think he was a monster that needed to be watched and monitored, lest he do irrevocable damage. The Smiling Raven was actualized, in

great shambling figure walking through the streets, his body twisting and writhing in impossible ways.

described the Smiling Raven’s ability. His body isn’t merely

hands, calling upon the Blessing of Supersession to rain down countless spells upon the Smiling Raven. There were hundreds of others alongside it. The Smiling Raven took the spells effortlessly, body morphing and twisting to cast spells in defense. When

of its body, seizing all living things with reckless abandon. Upon realizing defeat was inevitable, the emissary calmly relayed this information back to Erlebnis… and accepted absorption into the great

what his goal was, or even if he was truly capable of thought in that state. But the Smiling Raven was capable of subsuming everything vaguely alive into its body. Mortals, divine servants, or even the gods themselves… it didn’t matter.

consumed by a swarm of black ravens born of magic, swirling about the sky over a thousand dead

magic-born summons. Some say that the

came upon the center of a metropolis. Sitting on the belltower was the Smiling Raven—and now, its namesake meant sense. It now took the form of a fat raven, and

was a brutal thing, devastating the lifeless continent utterly.

joined this battle. Only seven left

about them, but the Keeper restrained his sight to the Smiling Raven alone. At the end of the battle, its gargantuan corpse lay there battered and broken. Erlebnis subtly took away the purple orb that the

precious love Sonia

the orb, to access the goddess trapped within. None of it had even marked the globe. Their

Alchemist, it would seem. A new identity, to spare the world the dangers of his mind, and his potentiation.” The Keeper rose. “I can see your questions. Where is this orb, containing Hause’s very essence? Is it in the vault? Is the Alchemist in danger of becoming the Smiling Raven

book, after all. She’s a prisoner. As for all

the Keeper stepped closer. “I’m in the vault, you know. And I do wonder if we’ll meet. Survive both Mozzahr, and your friend Raven… and we’ll see, won’t we? And maybe you’ll learn what I am. Perhaps you’ll understand why the Alchemist told you… that you will

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