Had Lucius not been reminded on a regular basis that his soul was damned and sentenced to suffer for eternity he would have been certain he'd just reached The Unity. Not because of the dream-like state he was currently in, but because of the hymn humming in his ears. One of those dreadful hymns he'd been forced to learn as a child.

"Garden of fucking virtue," he whispered, nose scrunching up in contempt by uttering its name.

"Oh, you know it?" a voice asked, not of an ethereal kind but rather a deep, somewhat familiar tone. "It's one of my favourites."

Lucius' eyes flickered open, squinting to get used to what would otherwise be a dim light, but in his state it was like staring into a fire.

"Captain Vandelay?" he croaked, gaze finally landing on the yellow-eyed man sitting next to him. "What are—"

His eyes widened, and he sat up quickly enough to almost fall out of the hammock had Abram not caught him in time.

"Where— What—" Lucius didn't register his near collision with the ship's floor, fully occupied with trying to look at his chest. "I'm... Alive? Did it work?"

Abram chuckled, handing him a glass of water before turning his head towards the door.

"He's awake!"

It took seconds for what turned out to be the captain's cabin to fill up with a loud group consisting of Eliza, Tom, and Richard talking over each other.

"Will you be quiet?" Lucius's voice was still hoarse after downing the water, and he slapped Tom's hand away before he could reach his shirt. "And could someone get me a mirror while this one tells me what happened?"

Tom looked sheepish, and he sent Eliza a pleading look as if hoping she'd do the explanation in his stead, but for once it seemed like Eliza was not in the mood for talking either.

"Well... I think it might be better to work our way backwards instead." He forced a nervous smile before lifting a large, basket from the corner of the cabin to place it next to Lucius' hammock. "So... Here."

Lucius stared down at the tucked-in infants in silence, only blinking once before turning his eyes back to Tom with a look of utter confusion.

"What's with the babies?"

"They're... The veins." Tom gestured with both his hands, as if presenting them as a happy surprise. "Except they're not... But also they are, but different."

Lucius didn't tear his sceptical gaze away from Tom until he was handed a mirror, and he squinted into it to inspect where he'd been cut. On one hand he was relieved by the lack of black goo underneath his skin and the wound seemed to be healing well, but on the other Tom's poor attempt at explaining the situation unnerved him.

"You're saying the veins turned into... That?" He pointed with his free hand at the two bundled up creatures, suddenly stifling a retch. "That you cut that scourgefucking spiderweb out of me and it became human children?"

"Well, ye—"

"Do you hear yourself?"

"We were there," Eliza finally joined in. "We saw it happen. It was just a big nest-thing at first, and it grew into more goo before splitting, and then Aldrik began to seal them and... They became that."

Lucius drew a deep breath, still unable to look away from the spawn.

"... Tom did say something about blights taking on the form of something they'd been in contact with..." he mumbled, holding out his empty glass for someone to fill it again. "... So I guess that would explain it."

"That would be the logical— or, as logical as it can be— conclusion," Tom agreed, receiving the glass before handing it to Eliza, who in turn handed it to Richard, who placed it down on the desk beside him. "Aldrik was about to seal them, so they had to—"

"So why are they alive?"

Silence fell over the cabin, and everyone stared at Lucius with shocked expressions he couldn't understand.

"If they're the unholy blights, why hasn't someone gotten rid of them?" he clarified, looking around for someone to explain. "They're human now, and small, so it should be easy."

"Could you do it?" Tom asked, looking like he'd rather not hear the reply as he pointed down at their current form, and Lucius relented enough to give it some thought.

"I..." He stared at the babies, begrudgingly acknowledging the difficulty, especially with his pre-existing inability to not hurt children. If he couldn't even manage to hurt Frey who was arguably worse than a blight, how could he hurt literal babies? Despite their origins?

He looked away again.

"Well... Can't someone else do it?"

"You're just gonna go up to someone and ask them to do something like that?" Abram arched an eyebrow, and Lucius pressed his lips together. He supposed it would be a strange, not so pleasant request.

"But it's not just their appearance." Tom had lowered his voice into a murmur. "We— As in Eliza and I— aren't so sure their death would be a good thing, because what happens when— or if, they do?"

Lucius knitted his eyebrows.

"What do you mean?"

"We don't know if they would die from a human death." Eliza finally found her voice. "What if their human appearance dies but their blight forms survive? From what we saw, that's the last thing we want. At least in this human form they're harmless."

"Well I doubt that," Lucius said dryly, in disbelief the scourge would spawn something that couldn't wreak havoc no matter what it was wrapped in. "But if Aldrik was able to seal at least part of them, couldn't he do it again if they were in their actual forms?"

Eliza sucked air through his teeth.

"First of all, that brings us back to the issue of our inability to harm them..."

"Also... Aldrik is dead," Tom added, continuing before an aghast Lucius could interrupt him. "He was injured by one of the blights and died while they changed into humans."

Lucius made a face. He hadn't been fond of the man. He'd found him sketchy and for good reasons, it seemed, but in the end he'd helped them out and his death felt unnecessary.

"But we could find someone else, I'm sure," he still tried, clearing his dry throat. The others weren't aware, but he knew the blights were worse news than they appeared. They were spawn of a literal scourge, and would with all likelihood grow into that role sooner or later. "If the sword is still around we could put away the rest of them."

"We're not going near it." Tom and Eliza shared a glance. "We tried, because we thought something like that could be possible as well, but... No."

Lucius raised his eyebrows.

"No?"

"Just getting close to it was horrible enough." Eliza curled up where she sat. "There were whispers, like the ones the possessed monks were chanting."

"Possessed—?" Lucius began, but Eliza didn't pay attention.

"And there was this feeling... They were trying to break free. Or at least something was trying to, and who's to say what would happen if we removed the sword? Or simply touched it?"

"We told the abbot what Aldrik had been up to, and young Lord Clausson phrased it well enough to not place blame on us," Tom filled in. "With your state, it was easy to claim you'd died in the process and we could get you out of there while they sealed off that chamber with who knows how many protective words. If someone was to go down there, there's no telling what could happen."

It was an alarmingly valid reason to not try it, and Lucius was running out of ideas if they could neither harm the creatures nor seal them away.

"So we're just supposed to keep them around, then?" He didn't want to believe it, but seeing how the others had already discussed it between themselves he reckoned it was the conclusion they'd all reached. "As humans?"

"For now," Tom tried to smooth it over, failing miserably as the non smooth person he was. "We don't know what will happen in the future, but we could take precautions. Maybe stay in touch with a sanctuary or the like in case something would happen."

Lucius snorted.

"You're just gonna walk up to them and say 'hey here are some blights in human form, could you help us keep an eye on them while we raise them as humans?'"

"We don't have to tell them that part." Eliza picked up one of the babies who'd opened its eyes. "I think there's reason enough to worry about them, in a nicer way."

"How so?" Lucius wrinkled his nose as Eliza tried to hand it over to him, rejecting the gesture with a shake of his head.

"That one is bad news, mostly to herself at the moment." Richard pointed to the one in Eliza's arms, and Lucius blinked, partly because he hadn't expected unholy veins to suddenly have genders and partly because Richard was joining the conversation all of a sudden.

"Apparently, according to Richard, this one might be the reason everyone attacked you on the journey here." Tom pointed to the baby as well. "Both Ethan and him have noticed the scent that's now disappeared from you has been... Transferred, I suppose, to this one. Or it was her all along, so if we can make it sound like they're victims rather than a source of unholiness, perhaps the sanctuaries will—"

"Ethan!" Lucius sat up properly to look around, trying to ignore the room spinning before him. Where was Ethan? In the midst of everything he'd forgotten about the state he'd left him in. "Where is he? How is he? What about—"

"He's recovering," Abram assured him with a calming voice, placing a hand on Lucius' shoulder to lay him down again. "There are plenty of people on here to supply him with blood, so he'll be better before you know it."

"I'm—" With what had happened in mind, Lucius was surprised Abram hadn't wrung his neck already. "Abram, I'm sorry—"

"Don't be." Abram's voice sure had a knack for being soothing. "Ethan told me, and it's not your fault. How were you supposed to know they would do something like that to him?"

"... They...?" Lucius' eyes flickered in the others' direction, finding confirmation in their grimaces that Ethan may not have been entirely truthful when explaining what had happened to his arm. "... Oh."

Regardless, Ethan's safety allowed him to breathe out in relief, so he turned his focus back to the babies.

"Well, since you've apparently discussed everything else already, where are we storing them? I'm assuming vampires and werewolves won't be an option if they reek."

The others exchanged looks.

"That's... Another thing..." Eliza put the baby down next to its sibling and picked up the entire basket instead to carry it out of the cabin.

"Well, that's abrupt—" Lucius began, but failed to continue his sentence as a duet of blood curdling shrieks reached through the walls, causing everyone to wince.

"Tom?" Eliza entered with the basket again, letting the area fall into silence again while handing it over to Tom, who in turn ventured outside with an equally ear torturing result, which led them to placing the basket next to Lucius before turning to Abram.

"Captain Vandelay, if you'd be so kind," Eliza suggested, and Abram sighed before scooping up Lucius to carry him outside instead.

"Well I'm not gonna start crying," Lucius protested, offended to be carried despite being aware enough to know he couldn't walk in his state, but Abram hushed him just as another repeat of the wailing ensued, and Lucius began piecing things together.

"No," he said through a groan. "That can't be right. That's just cruel."

"It's... A result of being their host, I imagine," Abram said as he carried him inside again, strengthening the theory as the infants fell into immediate silence. "They don't belong to this place. Perhaps they haven't been able to adapt yet since their only source of existence here so far is you, so they must be clinging to that."

"Doesn't that go for normal babies too? They don't know anything else but their parents, but they don't cry all the time." Lucius shook his head in horrified disbelief, though once again he could understand the implications more than the others. It wasn't just that they'd ended up on the human plane, but they were latching onto the closest thing to their home; another blighted soul. Unholier than Ethan, and their nearest source to their actual creator.

But he was not ready to tell the others that, and what difference would it make? No one wanted the screaming abominations anyway, and they couldn't kill them either.

"Well..." He sighed. "... This is going to be quite the scandal for Lucia, then."

"It could be," a voice causing instant exhaustion as far as Lucius was concerned, said. "But I think it's possible to turn it around as well."

Lucius made a face as he turned towards the door.

"Young Lord Clausson, I don't know why I expected you to be above eavesdropping."

"I don't know why you expected that either." Frey shrugged where he stood in the doorway before entering the room, placing himself close enough to Tom to suggest he should give him his chair, and the other obliged without a hint of objection. "Passing up opportunities to dig up dirt on others is idiotic, though as I say it I suppose it explains your confusion."

"I just became the reluctant caretaker of literal Waste spawn." Lucius gestured to the basket of nightmares. "You're gonna have to do better than that if you want to bother me."

"And despite my disdain for you, you do have my condolences." Frey gave the subject in question a similarly repulsed look after sitting down. "But as I said, I believe we can use it to our advantage."

Regrettable as it was, Lucius had to admit the slight relief he felt when Frey had an idea. On a personal level he was an ungrateful thorn in the side, but he'd also proven himself capable of supporting Lucia's role as a town chief.

"I had already planned on blaming Lucia's absence on a pregnancy anyway," Frey continued, and Lucius' mouth fell open.

"You were what?"

"Suddenly leaving for vague reasons after a failed engagement and the only other potential suitor having left right before?" Frey had the gall to look amused. "Needless to say, it screams pregnancy outside of marriage, don't you think? And either you'd blame Lord Hargreaves who's already been revealed to have mistreated you physically, what with that shoulder of yours, or you blame the younger one who could have caused it and then abandoned you when it came to light."

Lucius could only stare for a good while. He couldn't even be angry about Anthony's absence being brought up so casually. Frey's plan had worked so well it was infuriating even from the beginning, and now there was no question about it being their best option.

"Since Lucia is already a source of sob stories with said abusive behaviour on Lord Hargreaves' part, any option will do nicely to emphasise this for the townspeople," Frey continued, hands opening and closing to accompany his increasing excitement around his strategic success. "Not only that, it will make Lord Hargreaves look even worse."

"Whoah, no." A mortified Lucius held up his hands, nausea returning by the mere suggestion. "I'm not pretending they're Damien's. If anything I'd tell everyone they're Anthony's."

Frey rolled his eyes in resignation.

"It would be easier to manipulate people if they were the older Hargreaves' children though, but... I suppose people will spread conflicting ideas and rumours anyway, especially if I fuel them."

"Hurray," Lucius mumbled through gritted teeth, only for his eyes to widen a second later, and he sat up again. "But wait... If we claim they're Anthony's, couldn't my sob story force Damien to bring him back? We'll tell everyone that Damien forced him away because Lucia having children and consequently marrying Anthony would disrupt his plans to take over the town, but if we sway them, Damien would have no choice but to bring back the father of poor Lucia's children."

"Listen, I know they're blights, but perhaps we should treat these children as what they currently are?" Eliza suggested, looking far from pleased with where the conversation had ended up. "Not pieces in some deranged chess match."

Neither Frey nor Lucius were interested in such a thing though.

"Fortunately it will also give you an advantage when dealing with my parents and the kidnapping of me," Frey moved on without acknowledging the words previously spoken. "Especially my father who has a weakness for children, and parents."

Lucius nodded in thought.

"And your mother will with all likelihood sympathise with Lucia's misfortune regarding the surely unwanted pregnancy." He failed to hide a smile. "She thinks Lucia is into women after all."

Frey, though putting on a curious smile, couldn't help but form a wrinkle between his eyebrows as he tilted his head.

"Why?"

"I've only met her once, and I was staring at her breasts most of the time."

Impressive as always, Frey's face did not change emotion, but he slowly rose from his chair at that.

"Well, I think we're done now," he said before walking out of the cabin while the others gave Lucius' triumphant grin a look of disapproval, to which the latter raised his hands in defence.

"You can't blame me for that. She's so attractive."

He still had to endure another moment of reproachful silence, but then Eliza, being the only one who'd seen Lady Magnusdóttir in person, released a sigh.

"He's right," she conceded. "She is."