“Big Gus?” Vivian asked in amusement, his eyes raking over the large guard. “Big babysitter. You must be a mage then, given you’ve got someone ready to butcher you if you misbehave.” He relaxed a little as he shook Hakon’s hand, making sure to leave a considerable amount of slime on his palm.
He was pleasantly surprised that Hakon called him out on his lies, and laughed. “Expert then.” He snickered. “Good little mage sniffing dog then aren’t you?” It amused him that Hakon thought he wanted to ascend in the ranks at all. No. Killing other mages was the last thing he wanted. He would protect another mage sooner than he’d kill it, given all the savagery surrounding Malformists. Vivian moved to sit back on the bed with a squish, swathing himself again and dispelling the additional limbs. They either squirmed back into the mark, or melted in along his arms and dissolved into his skin.
“A wagon will do fine, just be kind to Bara. He can pull it. He’s the large flaxen mule in the stable. Scratch that animal and you’ll live to regret it…he and I have ways of knowing whether you’ve mistreated him.” Vivian warned.
He waited patiently for his two jailers to make their plans. There were ways to escape. He studied the disciplines of insects and worms, so his first move would be to make friends with the locals. Spiders, cockroaches, worms in the garden. Anything nastier if they had it. He would need to give birth safely, and these men didn’t seem to be the empathetic type that would be swayed by tears. That left deception. Second order of business would be making a cocoon that would feed the poor thing milk and keep it warm. Gods, it would be expensive to craft and he would have to rely on a very low knowledge of necromancy to pull it off…but it would let him keep his baby.
Vivian looked tiredly at the two. Why couldn’t they leave well enough alone?
