Jackal Among Snakes

Chapter 642: Hopeful Man Smiles Pleasantly at House Guests

After Argrave gave his somewhat insistent request that the Hopeful should speak, the unceasing tide of darkness coming from all portions of the man’s body waned somewhat. In particular, the writhing shadows near his face started to lessen, revealing a teeth-revealing smile. Argrave thought the pressure might lessen in intensity once his features were revealed, but the strain upon his fighting locusts of blood felt all the denser as the shadows pressed them harder.

Argrave opened his mouth to speak and said something. Yet… every word that left his mouth was lost to him. When the Hopeful responded, he was only confused.

“You say that, yet you come here fighting so desperately against this realm that I have carved out to spare our kind the endless hunger.” His voice was the same affectless drone that all others possessed, yet that only made it seem all the more frightening. His lips never met, and he never ceased smiling. “Why should you be allowed to persist?”

Argrave’s eyes felt like they were bulging out of his head. What had he said? Why couldn’t he remember saying it? He certainly remembered talking, but the words that were spoken had been lost to him. He couldn’t even remember the question as it had been formed inside his head.

“Argrave.” Anneliese placed her hand on his shoulder, and he spared a glance even as he worked constantly to fight against the Hopeful’s suppression. “I saw it all—he consumed the thought you voiced, prying it free of your mind. I don’t think he can control it. You said that you and he made natural allies, and that you should collaborate.”

Even amidst the dull ache of pain brought about by the locusts, Argrave felt a terrible chill assail him. The Hopeful had done more than hear his thought—it had taken it within itself, stealing it from Argrave and responding. If that were true, this being’s hunger was so deep it possessed a power equal to Gerechtigkeit or the gods.

“I’ll repeat your questions back to you,” Anneliese said, trying to keep her breathing steady. “But you need to tell me to repeat them back, because I’ve said it aloud and I’ll forget it.”

Argrave’s lips moved and air flowed out, forming words that were lost to his mind like a river flowing into the sea. Anneliese nodded insistently but said nothing, and he was able to rethink what he said—he told her just as she’d instructed him.

Argrave looked back to the smiling Hopeful, with new recognition he was dealing with a monstrous opposition. That didn’t necessarily mean it was an enemy. He spoke again, then…

“Your word of neutrality alone is not enough. Something more is required to assuage my fears enough to allow you free passage.” The Hopeful leaned closer. “You must allow me to eat a memory sufficient enough to prove your intent.”

He didn’t quite know what he’d said, but Argrave felt a sheer terror at the notion of giving this thing free access to his mind.

“You said we didn’t come here to antagonize the Shadowlanders, only to bypass them seeking out Traugott. Just like the so-called Manumitter disrupts the Shadowlands, he intends to use the Shadowlands to disrupt our realm,” Anneliese repeated, then wiped sweat from her brow.

Argrave spoke again.

to touch you with my bare flesh,” responded

that process entailed,”

if one doesn’t eat big, and this man was hungry enough that he ate the thoughts directly from Argrave’s head. If he’d known the final chapters of this journey of his would have so much mind-interfering stuff—be it Erlebnis, the Alchemist, or Lindon—he might’ve put more focus on it at the

doused in these shadows of his own making, and they ate everything around with such a fervor that the whole realm that Anneliese and Argrave

wasn’t entirely eager to offer them up on a silver platter. As his hands spawned locust after locust to eat away the impending darkness, he did wonder if he shouldn’t just turn the bloody firehoses toward the Hopeful. This was the Big Bad. But the Big Bad seldom travelled alone, and Argrave expected that, if he did, they would be beset upon by his lieutenants. And there wasn’t any guarantee of winning the fight

Argrave’s blood magic was proving similarly effective against the shadows that the Hopeful created. With the Fruit of Being empowering him, there had to be some way he could guide the crude instrument that the

something extremely brutal—using blood magic on his brain. He moderated that idea by considering using simple healing magic that had been infused with blood. But time and experience had demonstrated that physical prevention wasn’t the solution. Memories were something deeper than the mind alone, at least on this side of reality. There was an aspect of the soul alongside the mind in what made memories and existence. The two examples of mind-melding he’d dealt with came to mind—Lindon

obtained from Royal Road. If you

was a little projection of himself inside his own head. Nevertheless, he’d been capable of doing very real things to both of them. He’d ejected Lindon from his psyche, and he’d conjured a gun and shot Raven. The latter was very strange to think

could do the same thing here. But before allowing the glutton into the buffet, he ought to give him some food samples. To that

made sure to ask something that was

doesn’t matter

risk your life to come here if you weren’t seeking Traugott, considering that

and Anneliese another recitation of his question. Again and again he tried, seeking out that sensation of retreating within the mind that had been so familiar with Lindon and

he could feel, as clear as day, a black hound lunging out at his mind. The image was so vivid he paused mid-word, but then he recovered. In his mind’s eye, he conjured forth a sword of blood

the hound of hunger seeking to pry his thoughts away. “No—don’t answer that.” Anneliese was about to repeat his question, but Argrave interrupted her. “No need to repeat. I heard what

in surprise, that smile on his face not diminishing in the slightest.

war—one of conversation, one of the encroaching shadows, and one in his mind, versus

But my answer remains unchanged. I must eat a memory you

came charging to rip the thoughts out of his head. He could feel his vitality drain away as he did so, and knew he was genuinely using the power

Hopeful watched on with that eerie