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valdemart · 4 years

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The Hunger (ValdemarxCannibal! Apprentice)

Asra brought you back, but half his heart wasn’t the only condition.

TW Cannibalism, blood, Valdemar being a sexy creep

It came on as it always did, suddenly and without warning. But you knew, once it was there, it wouldn’t go away until you dealt with it. The celebratory dinner in Nadia’s private dining room, which had been so wonderful and well earned, suddenly felt like Hell on earth. You needed to get away as far away from here as possible. Now.

“My dear, are you feeling alright?”

You couldn’t meet Nadia’s eyes. Currently, you were genuinely scared that doing so would make you cry or laugh or scream.

No! I’m not feeling alright! How kind of you to notice!

“I’m a bit nauseous.”

Even without looking at her, you knew Nadia was frowning.

“You did have a very stressful day. What with the trial and all…”

“Thanks for that, again!” Julian chimed in, completely unable to read the room. Portia elbowed him to shut him up and you tipped back the rest of your Golden Goose. You knew from experience that alcohol wouldn’t help, but you were desperate for even the slightest bit or relief.

Just until I can take care of this.

“I think…I need to go lie down, Countess, if that’s alright with you.”

“Of course, but please, ‘Nadia’ is fine.”

You were already leaving the room before she was finished speaking. Julian started to call after you, offering you some bloodletting, but his voice was silenced once the door closed behind you.

Damn Asra for leaving you alone! He knew! He knew this could happen! There was usually more time in between, but it never followed a pattern. It had nothing to do with the cycles of the moon or the weather or any other antecedent you could figure out.

Still, being away from everyone, being in a cool, silent hallway helped ground you enough to think logically for a minute. You wouldn’t be able to walk back to the shop in your condition, and asking for a ride would only bring suspicion, so where else could you get what you needed?

The dungeon.

The answer rang as clear as a bell, but unlike before, the thought of going down there didn’t fill you with dread. The dungeon held your salvation.

The key was keeping it all together until you got there.

The servants didn’t pay you any mind as you entered the library; you had been in there several times since you had come to the castle and they were under orders from Nadia not to interfere with your investigation. Sure, Julian had already been hanged, but that didn’t mean your work was over. They didn’t know what you were up to anymore than they knew that Julian was alive and well. Now, alone in the locked library, nothing could stop you. You were three little books and a lift ride away from salvation.

Red

Leather

Black with gold

The bookcase slid open and you stepped inside.

Bloody hands may turn the key. Know the weight of your sins, and enter.

Even if the plaque was supposedly fake, you felt mocked as you turned the key. Your hands were bloody alright, as were your lips and stomach. The ride down was tortuously slow.

You had no fear being alone in the dungeon, too filled with desperate hunger to think about anything else. You weren’t sure why there were still jars of preserved organs sitting around a room that was no longer being used, but they would suit your need.

As you started for the jar of non-plague-ridden eyeballs you had spotted during your earlier tour, you froze in front of the raised operating stage in the middle of the room. There was something on the metal tabled.

It was a corpse.

You approached cautiously. This wasn’t here just yesterday. Weren’t the dungeons abandoned after the plague? How did it get here?

As you approached, you heard a faint dribbling noise, like a small brook running through the room. Once you were standing on the stage, looking down at the body, you realized it wasn’t water dripping, but blood. Blood was leaking out of the body and flowing down to the hole at the bottom of the table and dripping into a bucket.

You should have been scared. You should have been terrified that someone was draining the blood out of a very freshly dead human body in what should have been an abandoned dungeon.

Should

But you weren’t. Nice, fresh meat was so much more appealing that body parts filled with preserving chemicals. You leaned down, wrapped your mouth around the soft, cool skin on the chest of the deceased, and bit down.

“My, My, My…”

You knew that voice well now and you weren’t the least surprised to hear it. You stood and turned to look at the Quaestor, not bothering to pause your chewing. You still felt no fear. You were going to eat your fill. If Valdemar wanted you dead, there wasn’t really anything you could do about it now.

“Have you been here this whole time?”

“I was standing right here when you entered. Silly Little Magician was so hungry they didn’t even see me.”

“I thought you said you didn’t work down here anymore.”

“I usually don’t; my estate facilities are so much nicer. However, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to observe such a fascinating display. I do hope it is to your liking.”

They knew? Somehow, you weren’t surprised. You were even less surprised that they had set this whole thing up.

“How did you know?”

They grinned widely, showing off those predator teeth.

“You have your secrets, and I have my own. I’ve no doubt you’ll figure it out in time, Little Piranha.”

Your stomach lurked and you had to take another bite. There was still blood and it flooded your mouth and it satisfied you so, so much. You watched Valdemar the whole time, but they didn’t move. Maybe they weren’t trying to trap you. Maybe they really did just want to watch. It was bizarre, but not anymore bizarre than the whole ‘needing to eat human flesh’ thing.

“I take it this started after your master brought you back?”

What did it matter if you told them the truth or not? They already caught you red handed.

“Not right away. I was fine at first. I just ate normal food. Then Asra cut himself on an athame. I started to clean up the blood while he was healing himself and…the blood just…called to me.”

You didn’t go into detail on how you had lowered your head to the table and had licked the blood clean. You didn’t mention the look of horrified acceptance on Asra’s face as he watched you silently.

“Ever since then, sometimes this hunger just takes over. I can’t think about anything else until I eat. It’s disgusting, but I’ve never killed anyone for it, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

You weren’t sure where Asra got the human flesh he fed you, but he never explained and you never asked. He acted like this was something he had always done for you, that you had always had this little problem and that it had always been easy for him to handle. He only said that it was a ‘medical condition’ you had and not to ever speak of it to anyone else. It wasn’t until you learned you had died and he had brought you back that you had put two and two together.

You had thought of ending it all, ending this cursed new life of yours, but after all Asra had gone through to bring you back you couldn’t. Besides, what would stop him from bringing you back again, more deformed and monstrous than before? What if you came back needing to feed every day?

“How very interesting, Little Magician.”

You already know the answer, but you feel you have to ask.

“Are you going to tell?”

“Tell who? The Countess? Doctor 069? I wouldn’t gain anything from it and it’s doubtful that they would want to believe me.”

“So why help me?”

Valdemar cocked their head to the side.

“So many questions. So unsure. Why not just eat?”

You took another bite, letting the cooling blood dribble down your chin, but you maintained eye contact. You needed to know what you were possibly going to have to pay back. Valdemar relented with a smile.

“So distrusting. Does it not make sense that I would want to keep such a fascinating specimen alive? I would lose so much science if you starved.”

Valdemar approached quickly and silently, grabbing your jaw firmly with their cold hand. You flinched. With your hunger fading, you were starting to come back to your senses, and that meant fear.

“In all my millennia of existence, I have never had a subject quite like you.”

You started to protest, to say that you were not their subject, but then they leaned forward and licked away the dribble of blood from your chin to the corner of your mouth with the tip of their tongue.

“Think of all the science we could do together.”

#quaestor valdemar #valdemar x apprentice #the arcana valdemar

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