Blood, that was the only thing he could taste.
fwoosh.
The wind outside was strong today.
What was it again? Why was he here?
~haaa
The emaciated body did not rise from the bed.
Whatever mind had inhabited that body had long been drowned by despair.
ts ts*
The shuffling of feet came from outside the room.
"This is the young master's meal, I'll be leaving now."
Servants, right, he had servants.
"I'm coming in now."
Now, he could smell something. An instinctual primal urge began to rise from the body.
"Young master, your meal."
The servant knelt before the bed, waiting as she had done for the past few days.
Silence returned to the room, it was doubtful if the body was even breathing.
"Young master, would it be easier if I fed you instead?"
Then, for the first time in six days, a conscious and physically significant movement came from the body.
The body, no, Alta, raised his arm, grabbing at the tray of food.
The servant, ever professional, moved the tray to let her young master grab his food.
As he grabbed the food his body began to twitch, bloodlust beginning to consume his mind.
Alas, for Alta, nothing could be compared to his despair. The rising hunger and aggression was drowned in front of his nihilism.
He threw the food towards the door.
"Young master!"
The servant quickly caught the food.
"Young master, I understand your unwillingness to leave your bed, but isn't this too much? We've prepared your food with great care and love."
Alza turned his head, his breath coming out in naught but a whisper.
"Contact the head, I have words to speak to him."
The servant stayed.
"Not until you have your meal sir."
Alta shook his head.
"Call the head, call, my father."
The servant scrutinized Alta. Though he had changed so much she could still read his face.
His stubbornness was the same as ever.
She left the tray on the bedside table, "Be sure to eat when you can, you need to take care of yourself better."
She left the room, leaving Alta staring at the ceiling.
He waited, and waited.
ts ts*
Waited more.
ts ts* fff–tt
The sliding door to his room opened again, this time to a new face.
"Tch! Didn't eat yet? Do I need to shove it down your throat?"
It was but a mutter and yet, Alta heard it.
He didn't need to know much, only that the strange stimulating smell from the food likely came from this servant.
He let the servant do as she pleased.
She approached the food, her mutterings being more and more vulgar.
'This one, is clearly either under extreme pressure, or incredibly incompetent.'
Alta silently judged this woman, even he, after six days in this wretched body knew that anyone with a modicum of energy sensitivity would hear such mutterings.
"What are they thinking moving the attack up, they should've kept him better hidden so that they could do more before he returned."
She checked the food, uneaten.
"They said two doses but that's not gonna do shit he needs at least six."
She took out seven.
"Good thing I knew where to get more, seriously we can easily just wait before acting. Why are they so damn rushed."
'This lady is muttering quite quickly.'
She mixed the food and raised her voice.
"Young master! You must eat this before it goes cold. Would you like me to feed you today as well?"
Alta, curious about what the doses would do, did not reply.
"I'll take that as a yes young master."
She grabbed a thin spoon and began feeding him.
Frankly there wasn't much to feed him. It was only porridge and some softened jerky.
The porridge at least had soy sauce and green onions.
Alta could spit the food out, but really, why bother. Hell he could kill this lady here and now but again, why bother?
He simply ate, his blank stare making the lady confident he wasn't conscious.
Or was it something else?
"Tch, how do you botch a ghoul ritual?"
The lady quickly finished shoving the porridge down his gullet, she didn't even bother with the jerky.
'This stuff feels funny.'
Just as before, a rising aggression was quelled by nihility.
She put the bowl and spoon down then walked towards the door.
FFF–FT
"Son I have-You are not one of the servants assigned to my son."
A tall mountain of a man emerged from the door, his piercing eyes scrutinizing the lady.
"Why have you approached him?"
Alta observed the woman switch from angst to scared girl in half a second.
"O-oo-o-h my lord! I-ii- was just in the area d-doing my cleaning and -u-uh-u um I saw that t-this door was open and-"
She was selling the act quite well with her body language and stuttering.
Alta couldn't see the lady's eyes but he was pretty sure they would've been just as convincing.
Unfortunately for her, since Alta could see her switch her act, so could his father.
"Who do you work for?"
He leaned in, his eyes unblinking and focused.
The lady, in her acted incompetence, bit her tongue.
However, just as she did so.
*krk
Alta's father, Juorg, crushed her jaw.
With his other hand he picked out a false tooth.
"Is this what you called me here for?"
Alta nodded his head, he was prompted to do something so he did.
"Do you know of more?"
Alta shrugged, he knew that the lady could have been the one to hand the food off to the other servant, but it could've been someone else too.
Jourg sighed, the spy still in his hands.
"Laura, take this one to the cells, make sure you aren't seen."
The same servant who Alta sent to find his father bowed at Jourg.
"Yes lord Hvond."
She grabbed the spy and disappeared.
Jourg waved his arm, making the room suddenly take on a different pressure.
"Alta, I've set up a barrier to stop eavesdropping, what words do you have?"
Alta opened his mouth, "The spy, spoke of an attack, one rushed, one soon."
"One attack?"
Jourg stood, arms crossed.
"Yes."
Alta answered, his voice even.
"How did you know?"
Jourg directed his full attention to Alta.
"Smell, the food and the spy smelled different."
Jourg tensed.
"She fed you the food, what did she-no, what did it do?"
Jourg seemed to have only a glimmer of hope in his eyes.
"I felt aggression, she gave me nine doses, two in the food earlier, seven when she came around to feed."
Despair began to reach his face.
"And now?"
"Now? nothing."
A huge weight released itself from Jourg's shoulders.
"Good, Alta, son. I will prepare the family, we will be ready for this attack."
Now, he just stood there.
Alta had more to say, Jourg could feel it.
"I am not your son."
The barrier went down.
Jourg stayed silent letting Alta continue.
"I have lived another life, filled with endless peaks, endless cliffs, war, despair."
Alta's voice, nary a whisper continued.
"I hold no recollection of how I got into this body, all I know is that my final rest was interrupted."
Alta finished, he stared at Jourg, waiting to be sent to rest once more.
Jourg sighed.
"Doctor, come in."
A man walked in, his hair a subtle light green, his face adorned with rectangular spectacles and his clothing typical of a pharmacist.
"Do the thing."
The man rubbed his eyes, "Right, give me a moment sir."
He approached Alta and set a strangely shaped object onto the bedside table.
"This was the shape of your soul before the incident, it's quite standard."
He pointed at the base, where some engravings were.
"This was the general signature of your soul, of course it gets more nuanced but for the most part if your soul matches this general snippet there is no way you're a different person. Do you understand?"
Alta nodded.
"Lord Hvond did you want me to do a body check up as well?"
"No."
The man's face was unreadable to the doctor.
"Just a soul checkup then, Alta this may feel uncomfortable, but do try not to pass out."
Then, he placed his hand above Alta's head. Immediately it began glowing, releasing some luminescent gas that condensed into a liquid, falling down upon Alta's face.
There was no splash, the substance only entered Alta's head.
fffhh The doctor inhaled.
"Well, he certainly wouldn't be lying about another life, and something has happened to his memories, I'm finding damage all throughout, healing, but it might scar."
Jourg opened his mouth. "And the signature?"
"Perfect match Lord Hvond."
Jourg uncrossed his arms and approached the other side of the bed.
"Good, send me a model of the shape later, proportional to the last one."
He turned his head to Alta.
"Another life will not relinquish you from the family of this one. You are Alta, you are my son."
His face was stoic to all but Alta.
"I will go now, Laura arrange extra guard shifts."
The doctor left with the man, allowing silence to return to the room once more.
And Alta? Alta went to sleep.