The Eating Woods, #2
Eldritch
by Keri Lake
Contents
Chapter 47
Overview
Weak from lack of vivicantem, Zevander rejects Theron’s manipulative offer to feed on a prisoner and instead incapacitates him with rust and locks him in a vault. Haunted by flashes of a cursed griefcoffer, Zevander hears screams, finds the prisoner gone, consumes stored meat and blood to stave delirium, and pursues the cries.
The encounter deepens mistrust with Theron, hints at dangerous enchantments in Zevander’s past, and pushes Zevander to compromise his revulsion to survive.
Summary
In the present, Zevander reels from vivicantem depletion as Theron lowers his sword and urges him to consume blood or flesh, even pointing Zevander to an older prisoner as “sustenance.” Theron claims he wants to help and asks for freedom from General Loyce and forgiveness, trying to leverage Zevander’s fear of harming Maevyth.
Suspicious, Zevander spots a rusted nail, draws his blade on Theron, and stabs the nail into Theron’s abdomen to dull his magic. Forcing Theron deeper into the corridors, Zevander ignores Theron’s pleas and guilt-laced words. Instead of Maevyth’s former wooden-doored cell, Zevander shoves Theron into a massive iron vault and locks him inside, despite Theron’s terror of the dark.
Theron’s muffled screams trigger Zevander’s memory of a stone griefcoffer etched with enchantments, with Dolion warning it is a cursed vessel of grief and guilt while King Sagaerin counsels leaving it closed. The vision snaps, and Zevander, aching from gripping his sword, hears new, familiar screams.
Returning to the prisoner’s cell, Zevander finds the door open, the scribbled walls intact, but the older man missing. Seeing Maevyth and Aleysia’s names scratched on the floor jolts him to action, and he races through the tunnels after the cries, doubting his senses as delirium blurs reality.
At an open doorway marked by a heap of ash, Zevander discovers a pantry strewn with broken jars and pooled blood. Driven by hunger, he forces down raw meat soaked in blood, then washes it with liquor to cut the taste. Rehearing the screams, he discards the bottle and stalks toward the sound.
Who Appears
- Zevander (Zev)Protagonist; weakened by lack of vivicantem, rejects Theron’s trap, locks him in a vault, recalls a griefcoffer, eats to survive, pursues screams.
- TheronRival who feigns help, urges Zev to consume a prisoner; is stabbed with a rusted nail and locked in an iron vault, terrified of darkness.
- Older prisonerEmaciated man in a tattered red robe; cell walls covered in chalked scribbles; vanishes before Zev returns.
- MaevythZev’s mate; her name scratched in the prisoner’s cell and her scream seemingly heard, spurring Zev onward.
- AleysiaName etched beside Maevyth’s in the cell, tying the prisoner to them and alarming Zev.
- DolionIn Zev’s memory, warns that the etched stone coffer is a griefcoffer, a cursed vessel of guilt and pain.
- King SagaerinIn Zev’s memory, advises leaving the griefcoffer closed.