When Nay came out of her fugue, driven into shock by killing Piero, she was wrapped in his wool blanket, her arms wrapped around her knees which were pulled up to her chest, and she was rocking back and forth.

The tentacle had its beak deep into the pot of zuppa and was making slurping noises and moans of pleasure. Piero’s belongings were untouched and she saw his feet poking out behind the boulder where they had left him, his body now growing cold. His blood had dried on her fingers, hand and forearm. It was still sticky to the touch and she shuddered at feeling the congealed blood clinging to her skin.

Her mind kept going to the moment the dagger had entered him. At how the writhing of his muscles quivered down into the blade and into her palm. Was there any other option she had? Was there any outcome where his death could have been avoided after he made his decision to attack her?

Then she realized, if it wasn’t for what the tentacle did, some kind of mind or psychic attack, it would probably be her body growing cold on that floor.

She rose to her feet, walked over to Piero’s belongings, and grabbed his water skin. She poured water onto her hand and tried to scrub the blood off. It did little except remove some of the top layer of dried blood. Mostly it spread it around. She could feel her tears well up in frustration.

“It’s not coming off!” she cried, violently scrubbing, but just smearing the red onto her clean hand.

The tentacle poked its head out of the pot, its top half covered in the zuppa and dripping off its beak. “You’re back! This zuppa is better than I thought it would be! Kind of reminds me of the birthing fluid and formula baths from back home when I was just a tendril. Yes, such creaminess and heartiness. A fine broth for a young flayling to fatten up!”

Then it realized Nay was in some distress. It spoke in a calming tone, “We can go back to the hot springs. You need hot water to wash that off. In the meantime, we should loot.”

“Loot?” Nay said.

“Yeah, see if he has anything we can use,” the tentacle said.

“Isn’t that the same thing as robbing him?”

“Does it look like he still needs any of this stuff? He’s shuffled off to the nether life. This stuff will be useless to him.”

Nay was taken with a dark thought. “We’ve turned into murderers…and thieves.”

“He was going to do the same thing to us. He forced our hands. Well, your hands, but my Mind Shiv.”

“Mind Shiv?”

“It’s one of my spells. It’s what I used on him before he was going to cut you.”

“You…have spells?”

Nay felt overwhelmed. First with this new reality she found herself in. Second, with taking Piero’s life. And now third, this idea that the tentacle had spells which meant he was using magic. “Magic is real?”

“You don’t have magic where you come from?” the tentacle asked. A long, green tongue emerged from his beak and licked the zuppa off its body. “Oy, your world really is a basic one.”

Nay couldn’t tell if he was washing himself or merely eating the soup off its body. But after a moment she realized, apparently, it was both. He was multi-tasking.

“We have science and math,” she said. “We don’t have spells, we have knowledge and algorithms. Not…incantations and, what did you call it? Mind Shivs?”

“Mind Shiv,” the tentacle said. “If you think about it, magic is just another form of knowledge. Maybe your world just hasn’t come across that particular knowledge, yet.”

Nay exhaled and said to herself, “One reality-shattering revelation at a time, Nay. One at a time.”

She moved to Piero’s pile of stuff. His belongings included his rolled out bedroll, his cooking kit which was next to the fire and his leather pack. She began taking items out of the pack. Smaller rolled up bags and kits and also what appeared to be dried meat and biscuits wrapped in cloth.

But no extra pair of clothes.

She looked over at his corpse, knowing she was going to have to strip him.

“What’s wrong?” the tentacle asked.

“I’m not exactly excited at the prospect of wearing a dead man’s clothes.”

“Would you rather be naked and cold?”

“That’s the fucking problem.”

The tentacle started to rifle through the various kits, inspecting Piero’s stuff. “Let’s see if there’s anything good in this loot.”

Nay walked back to Piero’s corpse and began the unpleasant task of stripping him of his clothes. The human body was weird when it was lifeless. The man had died with his eyes open, so the first thing she did was close his eyes. She shuddered as her fingertips touched his eyelids. But, all in all, in principle, it wasn’t that much different from a handling the carcass of a large animal.

She was a trained butcher. Her grandfather had made sure of that, and she had learned how to harvest the meat off poultry, pork, beef and wild game in his shop before she had even gained a large knowledge of cooking.

It took her some time to figure out how to remove the man’s leather tunic and how to do undo and unbuckle his scabbard. She set those and his dagger to the side. She removed his cloth shirt and saw the silver chain around his neck. There was a small key on the end of it. She removed it and stared at the chain and key in her hand.

Then she slipped it around her own neck. Could be useful if they find the corresponding lock.

She removed his boots, then wrestled his pants off his legs. She stopped the line at his undergarments. She’d rather go commando then wear someone else’s dirty underwear, especially his.

She wished she could at least wash the shirt and pants before having to wear them, but then decided she’d take care of that back at the hot springs. She shimmied into his pants, which were made out of a sturdy material that wasn’t quite leather. She had to roll up the legs as they were too long for her. She used the dagger to cut away the part of the shirt where the stab wound was, cutting away the bloody cloth. She slipped it on and it hung off her, loose and baggy. Then she put on his boots. A little big, but they would do.

She picked up the scabbard and dagger and carried them back to the campfire.

“Well,” the tentacle said, making an appraisal of the loot, “we didn’t come out rich but I think there’s some useful stuff here.”

It had nudged the items so they were spread out across the floor. “There’s enough dried meat and cheese here to last us a while. He’s got some seasoning mixes and salt in these containers. Basic upkeep for his gear, oils and sharpening stones. There’s a journal or notebook here, but I’ll let you take a look at that.”

It tapped an item with one of its spiky green protuberances. “This is a badge of some sort, looks to be made from bronze or something similar to it. Could be worth something. Not sure what the symbol signifies.”

“Then there’s this.” It was a wooden chest with metal locks, about a foot long. “You didn’t happen to find a key on him, did you?”

Nay’s hand went to the key dangling on the chain at her neck. She pulled it out of the shirt to show the tentacle.

“Bingo!” the tentacle said. “Now we can find out if this loot isn’t a total bust. Well, other than some basic necessities we found. But it would be nice if there’s something more exciting than salt and seasoning in this chest!”

Nay took the chest and sat in front of the campfire. She ran her hands across the wood grain. Then there was a ding and a text prompt appeared in her vision.

---

[Delicacy Detected]

---

“What is it?” the tentacle asked.

“You don’t see those words?” Nay replied.

“What words?”

“I get this text I can see hovering in the air.” She pointed in front of her. “You don’t see that?”

The tentacle shook its top half. “Nope. What does it say?”

“It says ‘Delicacy Detected’.”

“Curious,” the tentacle said. “Very curious.”

Nay removed the chain from around her and fit the tiny key into the lock. She turned it and there was a click. The top cracked open and glowing yellow motes drifted into the air like fireflies floating through an open window during a violet summer night. She pushed the lid up revealing an object nestled in a velvet case like it was fine jewelry.

At first, Nay had no idea what she was looking at. There was something plump and grayish-pink emitting a yellow glow. Motes swirled in the air within the aura. The object was about half the size of a cucumber. It conjured up images of cow tongue before Nay transformed it into lengua tacos.

“What in the Endless Nether Hell fuck is that?” the tentacle said.

There was a crescendoing series of notes that reminded Nay of opening loot-boxes in videogames. Or like when Link finds a good item in Zelda. A victorious tone that hit right in the dopamine center of the brain. And another text prompt appeared, but this time with a lightshow visual flair.

---

[Delicacy Discovered!]

[Delicacy: Tongue of the Hierophant]

[Delicacies Unlocked 0/3]

[Would you like to Consume Delicacy Y/N?]

---

It looked like a tongue severed at the base and ripped out of someone or something’s mouth.

“It says it’s a Delicacy called Tongue of the Hierophant,” Nay said.

“That’s what your magic words say?” the tentacle said.

Nay nodded. “I mean, I don’t know if they’re magic, per se…”

“What else would they be? You’re seeing words floating in the air that are providing you with information I’m not privy to. And probably no one else is privy to, either. Look at you, evolving. You can do magic, too! Whether you know it or not.”

“Well, then it’s more of a passive ability. It’s like…seeing realities’ underlying Menu Screen if life were a video-game.”

“What’s a video game?”

“You don’t have video games where you’re from?”

“The only games I’m familiar with involve death and eternal enslavement.”

“That sounds…awful.”

“Depends which side you’re on.”

Nay continued to stare at the tongue. She didn’t know if she would consider tongue a delicacy, not cow tongue at least. Maybe an organ from another, more exotic creature. But lengua was a pretty common food in Los Angeles. Especially in street taco culture. Was it the Hierophant part that made it rare?

“What’s a Hierophant?” she said.

“A hierophant?” the tentacle said. “Do you know what a priest is?”

“Of course I know what a priest is.”

“How am I supposed to know what your world has and doesn’t have? We’re all just trying to survive here.”

Nay rolled her eyes.

“A hierophant is like a priest, someone who deals with mysteries and esoteric rituals,” the tentacle said.

“Cult shit.”

“I mean, or religion. In my world, Dread One worship is the main religion and it’s not considered cultish at all. But now, the All-Seeing Omnipotent and Loving God Worshippers?” Its eyeball rolled around in its socket. “You want to see a crazy person? Deal with one of those guys.”

“So, we have the tongue of some kind of priest or shaman, here,” the tentacle continued to say. “What else are your magic words saying?”

“It’s asking if I want to consume it.”

“What? The tongue?”

“I think so.”

“Gross.”

“Probably,” Nay said. “Wait, you never use tongue in dishes in your world?”

“I’ve heard of it but it personally grosses me out.”

Nay just stared at the tentacle, perplexed. What an odd creature it was.

“I’m also seeing information that I have zero Delicacies unlocked. And there’s three total Delicacy slots.”

The tentacle thought about this puzzle for a moment. “It sounds like more magic of some kind. Maybe you can only consume three Delicacies? It’s hard to know. Maybe you should just consume it so we can explore this further. But I have to admit, the fact that you can see this magic and I can’t is starting to make me jealous. I wonder how I can see these magic words, too?”

Nay sniffed the Tongue of the Hierophant. Despite its unappealing appearance, there was a fragrant smell to it that made her think of beef jerky. Even though Covid had ruined her sense of taste, she was thankful her smell was mostly intact or at least trustworthy.

“I mean, if you consume it,” the tentacle said, “what’s the worst that could happen? It tastes terrible? That’s assuming that’s what consume means. Although I do have a cousin who consumes his food through his skin. But he’s special.”

“My sense of taste has been destroyed, mostly.”

“Destroyed? How?”

“There was a sickness going around in my world. A flu of sorts. It was new and many people’s bodies didn’t know how to deal with it. I recovered, but it did something to my taste buds and my tongue. I haven’t really been able to taste anything since. It sucks but I’m glad I was one of the ones who survived.”

“You have no sense of taste and you’re a cook?”

Nay nodded. “I still have my memory and my instincts. You’d be surprised by how much knowledge, routine and technique can get me by.”

“Still, that’s quite the handicap for a chef.”

“I manage.”

She pulled up the Tongue Delicacy menu again and stared at the text. “Well, I think you’re right about this. There’s only one way to find out.” She mentally selected Yes to consume the Delicacy. Another text box appeared:

Congratulations on your Delicacy, Tongue of the Hierophant! There’s some Hierophant out there who has been rendered mute (or dead!), either a willing or an unwilling sacrifice so that you may unlock a Delicacy, the first prerequisite in acquiring Marrow Abilities.

Either way, for best results, you’ll want to give the Epicurist of your choice these instructions for proper preparation. The ingredients you will need are:

Oil.

Water.

Salt.

Garlic.

Onion.

Bay leaves.

Peppercorns.

Note: It is not recommended to consume the tongue raw, but if you’re a savage with no time to savor your Delicacy, at least make sure the Epicurist seasons the tongue with salt to meet proper ritual cooking requirements.

But if you’re a Marrow Eater with taste and sophistication, let your Epicurist boil and simmer the tongue in the water with onion, bay leaves, peppercorn and garlic for three hours. Once done, make sure they remove the skin-like covering before slicing into strips and sautéing. Enjoy it wrapped in a tortilla of flour or mais with a nice pico or salsa with condiments of your choice. We recommend pickled red onions and crumbled goat cheese.

If you’re not a fan of tortillas, it is also acceptable to prepare a pita, flatbread or bing. In these instances of preparation, a purple cabbage slaw or some chopped scallions would work well as condiments.

Or, feel free to let the Epicurist surprise you! All sanctioned Epicurists are trained in the proper ritual cooking techniques to activate the Delicacies!

Enjoy!