Chapter 96: Journey To The Marrow! [FIXED!]

Tauriel lay naked on her bed, her red hair fanned across the silk pillows, her pale skin glowing in the dim candlelight. The chamber was quiet—too quiet. The usual bustle of servants and guards had been replaced by a tense, waiting silence that pressed against her eardrums like water pressure.

The Queen had returned and Tauriel was bothered.

She had no idea why the Queen had left. No idea where she had gone or what she had done during those twenty years of absence. The Queen offered no explanations, no greetings, no warmth. Just cold, absolute orders.

Tauriel had complied. She had no choice. But every fiber of her being screamed against it. Decades of work. Decades of breeding programs, experiments, and torture—all of it erased in a single night.

She felt everything she had worked for slipping away.

And she couldn’t question the Queen.

That was the worst part. She was expected to obey without understanding, to serve without knowing. Tauriel was fine with this before but now that she had a taste of actual authority, there was no way this would be enough for her anymore.

"What happened to you?" Tauriel thought, staring at the canopy above her bed. "Where were you for twenty years?"

She would never ask, she knew that. But the question gnawed at her like a parasite.

Tauriel shifted onto her side, her hand drifting to her stomach.

The skin there was flat, smooth, unblemished. But something felt different. Something had changed.

Ever since her night with Jason, there was something going on inside her.

She had pushed the thought out of her mind at first. Dismissed it as exhaustion, stress, the chaos of the Queen’s return. But now, alone in the darkness, she could no longer ignore it.

A stirring, a warmth, a presence.

"No," she told herself. "It’s impossible."

Tauriel knew she was incapable of reproduction unless she received semen of the highest quality and even that was a longshot. Her body rejected anything below a certain threshold—it had been that way for centuries. It was why she had captured male elves, why she had tortured them and why she had spent decades searching for the perfect mage.

Only the highest quality could fertilize her womb.

And Jason’s sperm quality had exceeded her expectations.

Tauriel closed her eyes, she remembered his body pressing against hers. The way he had moved, the way he had filled her. The way her body had responded—not with the clinical detachment she usually felt, but with hunger, like it had found something it could finally ingest.

"No," she thought again. "I’m not pregnant. I can’t be."

But she could feel something.

She had no idea what it was. She had never paid much attention to the possibility of pregnancy—it was something she had never entertained. Her focus had always been on breeding others, not herself.

But now...

"Stop it," she commanded herself. "Focus."

Tauriel sat up, swinging her legs over the side of the bed. The cool air raised goosebumps on her bare skin. She pressed her fingers to her temples and concentrated.

"Thalion."

She tried to look through his eyes again—the mark on his neck, the piece of her soul embedded in his. She had used it to monitor Jason, to watch the tunnel, to witness the birth of the ant king.

But more importantly, she was growing fond of how brave Jason was. If once could call that bravery/

But now, she couldn’t see nothing.

"This is impossible," Tauriel muttered under her breath.

She reached deeper, pushing her consciousness toward the connection. Something was interfering. A presence, a power that dwarfed her own. It wasn’t blocking her—it was eating the connection, interfering with the piece of her soul she had left inside him.

Tauriel’s hands trembled.

"Who is he?" The powerful magic felt like death had erected a wall and if she pushed past it, she wouldn’t make it out alive.

She had thought Thalion was a normal elf. Broken, yes. maybe traumatized but an ordinary elf. A male elf like any other—useful for breeding, useful for experiments, useful for watching Jason.

She had no idea he was something bigger than she could have ever anticipated.

If she had known, she would have never branded him or even taken him captive. Never placed a piece of her soul inside his flesh.

"I’ve made a terrible mistake."

She pulled her consciousness back, retreating from the void before it could reach further. Her heart pounded. Her breath came in short, sharp gasps.

"Where are you, Thalion?"

She had seen enough through his eyes before the interference. The tunnel. The spiders. The birth of the ant king—that red, six-armed creature that had killed the spider queen in a single blow, of course she hadn’t seen this part.

But Jason, standing in the middle of it all, somehow controlling the monster.

Things just seemed to go out of the natural order with him around.

Tauriel stood and walked to the window. The moon was full, casting silver light across the castle courtyard. Guards patrolled below. Servants scurried between buildings. Everything appeared normal.

But nothing was normal.

The Queen had returned. Her breeding program was destroyed. Thalion was lost. And Jason—that strange, pink-skinned creature with impossible sperm—was somewhere out there, growing stronger.

Tauriel kissed her teeth in irritation.

She had to do it herself, she had to retrieve Jason.

"Hopefully," she thought, "I can present him to the Queen. Show her the quality of his semen. Prove that my work wasn’t for nothing."

She would offer Jason as a gift. A breeding stud, a living testament to her research. She could lie to the queen that he was a creation of her experiments.

The Queen would understand. The Queen would see the value but more importantly, she would believe thanks to Jason’s biological make-up being identical to that of an elf.

And maybe—just maybe—Tauriel could salvage something from the ruins of her empire.

She turned from the window and began to dress.

There was no time to waste. Jason had to be found.

-

Jason and his group had been traveling for hours, following the ant king’s lead. The creature moved with purpose, his small red body weaving between rocks and withered trees, his black and gold eyes never blinking. Ylva walked behind him, her ears swiveling, her nose testing the air. Mae brought up the rear, her hooves clicking against the grey soil.

They were trying to follow a path of least resistance. Or at least, that was what they thought.

The Bleak Marrow had other plans or at least, the road that led to that wretched place.

The ambush came without warning, even Ylva’s nose couldn’t pick up on it.

One moment, the path was empty. The next, figures dropped from the twisted trees above—reptile-like creatures covered in scales that shimmered with a dull green iridescence. Their bodies were long and sinuous, with features that bore striking resemblance to snakes: slit-pupiled eyes, forked tongues, and necks that could twist at unnatural angles. They carried crude weapons—rusted swords, chipped spears—but their most dangerous assets were their speed and their venom.

Six of them. Maybe seven. They formed a loose semicircle around the group.

Jason raised his hand.

The ant king, who had been leading the way, stopped. His mandibles clicked. His six arms twitched. He looked at Jason.

Jason gave him a nonverbal command—a slight tilt of his head, a narrowing of his eyes. "Stand down."

The ant king’s arms relaxed. He stepped back and stood motionless, watching but not attacking.

Ylva’s claws extended. Her tail went rigid. "Jason—"

"Wait," Jason said. "I want to test something."

Mae’s brown eyes widened. "Test what?"

The largest of the snake creatures stepped forward. He was taller than the others, his scales darker, his eyes colder. A rusted sword hung from his hip, but his hands were empty.

"Travelers," he hissed, his forked tongue flickering. "You are on our road. Our territory. You will hand over everything you have. Food, water, weapons, coin." He paused. "And no one has to get hurt."

Jason studied him.

There was something off about these bandits. Their weapons were old and poorly maintained. Their clothes were patched and threadbare. Their bodies were lean—not with the leanness of trained fighters, but with the leanness of hunger.

And the way they spoke... they said the words like they were reading from a script. Like they didn’t mean them.

"No," Jason said simply.

The snake’s eyes flickered. His forked tongue darted in and out. "No?"

"We’re not handing anything over."

The bandits exchanged glances. Nervous glances. The kind of glances that said "we know what we have to do, but we don’t want to do it."

Then Jason heard it.

A child crying. Somewhere behind the bandits, hidden among the trees. A small, muffled sob.

Before Jason could speak, the lead snake lunged. His fist connected with Jason’s chest—a solid blow that should have sent a normal man stumbling backward.

Jason barely moved but his system registered the impact.

[Ding!]

[Blunt force trauma detected.]

[Adaptation at 40%.]

The force dissipated across his torso, absorbed by whatever changes his body had undergone in the past few days. It stung, but it didn’t hurt. It definitely didn’t throw him off balance.

The snake’s eyes widened. His fist trembled.

Jason looked down at where he had been hit, then back up at the snake.

"That all you got?"

The snake recovered quickly. He threw another punch—this one aimed at Jason’s jaw. Jason tilted his head. The fist sailed past his ear. Another punch. Another dodge. A series of rapid strikes—left, right, left again—and Jason sidestepped each one effortlessly, his feet moving on their own, his eyes tracking every movement.

He had fought spiders. He had survived a collapsing cave. He had watched the ant king move faster than thought. These snakes were slow by comparison.

The snake creature stepped back, breathing hard. His companions watched in stunned silence.

"Why not just use your poison?" Jason asked.

The snake hesitated. His forked tongue flickered. His eyes darted toward the trees where the crying had come from.

"It is because you do not wish to kill me," Jason said. "That is why my buddy over there is relaxed. He can’t sense any ill intent from you."

He gestured toward the ant king, who stood motionless, his black and gold eyes fixed on the snakes but his claws retracted.

The bandits became more guarded, their bodies tensed. Their hands drifted toward their weapons. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

Jason looked over his shoulder at Ylva and Mae. "Hand them some food. Whatever we can spare."

Ylva’s ears twitched. She didn’t protest. She pulled out a leather pouch from her pack—dried meat, hard bread, a few pieces of fruit—and tossed it to the ground in front of the lead snake.

The snake stared at the pouch. His companions stared at the pouch.

"Why?" the leader asked, his voice barely a whisper.

"Because you need it more than we do." Jason shrugged. "And because you didn’t actually want to rob us."

The snake’s jaw tightened. He looked at the pouch, then at Jason, then at the trees where the child was crying.

"You are... kind," he said slowly, like he was testing the word. "Kindness does not exist here. Not in the Marrow."

Jason shook his head. "Marrow? I’m not from here."

The snake’s eyes narrowed. "Are you from the... no. You don’t have the look. The empty eyes."

"From where?"

The snake hesitated. "The Keep. The one who rules this land. No one goes there and returns the same. If they return at all."

Jason’s heart quickened. "I have a friend who went that way. Silver hair, pale skin, looks like an elf."

The snakes exchanged glances. The leader nodded slowly. "We saw someone like that. A day ago. Walked alone and didn’t look back. He also didn’t flinch when we called out." He paused. "We let him pass. Something about him felt... wrong. Like he wasn’t really there."

Jason’s eyes lit up. "Yes! That’s him!"

The snake’s expression darkened. "You should not follow him. The Marrow eats kind people alive. You will not survive."

"I have to." Jason’s voice was firm. "He’s my friend."

The snake stared at him for a long moment. Then he bent down and picked up the pouch of food. His companions relaxed. Their weapons lowered.

"Thank you," the snake said quietly. "For the food. And for not fighting."

"Thank you for not using your venom." Jason smiled. "Now get out of here. Feed your kids."

The snake nodded. He gestured to his companions, and they melted back into the trees, disappearing as silently as they had arrived. The child’s crying faded into the distance.

Ylva stepped up beside Jason. "That was stupid."

"Which part?"

"All of it." But her tail curled slightly. "Good job."

Jason looked ahead, toward the path that led deeper into the Bleak Marrow. His chest was heavy. Thalion was out there, alone, heading toward something called the Keep. And something about the snake’s words gnawed at him.

"Something about him felt wrong. Like he wasn’t really there."

"We keep moving," Jason said.

The ant king turned and continued down the path.