Halloween Special Part 2 – What If… [67] Lost To Emotion

What If? – Part 2

This is the second installment of this alternate story exploring what might have happened if Tanisha had chosen to become a Herne Hunter instead of a Cernunnos.

If you haven't read Part 1 yet, I recommend starting there before continuing!

And if you want to see how this story concludes, Part 3 is available exclusively on Patreon! Consider becoming a patron to read the rest and explore more What If scenarios from The Chronicles of a Scalebound Sage.

PART 2 LOSS

When the pain finally subsided, she stood, trembling yet exuding an aura of unbridled power. A smile lingered on her bloodied face, her new teeth gleaming in the dim light. She was no longer Tanisha. She was the Herne Hunter—a predator born from agony and forged in the infernal depths.

“Loki…” she whispered, her voice reverberating with an unnatural resonance. “I’m coming for you.”

The maya corressed her mind and bleached her thoughts clean of the painful emotions that would have broken her. She could not feel sad, even as she saw Helena’s decapitated form, or as she saw Owen grieving for the loss of his wife. No, in that moment what she saw was meat, power that was going to waste since she could not harness it. 

Bjorn had wrapped himself around her to keep her in place his emotions felt foreign to her now, but he was necessary. He was hers. He provided her power so she would not hurt him. She opened her menus to see what changes were made to her now that she had evolved.

Status Menu

Name: Tanisha Scalebound

Species: Herne Hunter

Level: 22

Vitality: 26 + 25 = 51

Restoration: 20 + 50 = 70

Constitution: 46 + 50 = 96

Willpower: 20 + 10 = 30

Strength: 20 + 35 = 55

Dexterity: 35 + 20 = 55

Stamina: 20 + 15 = 35

Maya: 16 + 660 = 676

Maya Regeneration: (+100 from bond)

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Skills Analysis

Delta Familiar Contract

You are bonded with a Delta-class familiar. You gain +100 to maya regeneration. Your bond has grown, allowing you to convey emotions through your bond. Your bond is resilient against outside influences and can not be forcibly severed by outside parties. Your familiar’s life expectancy is extended by five years.

Arcanist Sage Core < Hunter’s Core

Maya cost: Variable

You are a being of maya. The Infernal Planes beckons to a new demonic daughter. Exerting your will over maya allows you to manipulate that which is around you. You can use tools that require maya to function. Your will can dominate, maya outside your body for a short distance and use ambient energies for your infernal machinations.

Mana Armor < Abyssal Blood Armor

Maya Cost: Variable

(I) Low maya cost per minute, abyssal blood coats your body, enhancing physical strength and reducing damage from physical attacks by hardening on impact. (II) Medium maya cost per minute, the blood forms a spiked shell, dealing minor damage to attackers and absorbing the target's blood to sustain itself. (III) High maya cost per minute, the blood solidifies into near-impenetrable armor, corrupting enemies on contact by disrupting and potentially destroying their core if not cleansed.

Flesh of Kin

Your cursed nature drives an insatiable hunger for your own kind. For every member of your species you consume, you permanently gain increased physical strength, resilience, and magical potency. The strength of the enhancement scales with the consumed individual's power.

Maya Corruption

Maya Cost: Variable

(I) Low maya cost, coat your body or a weapon in blood maya, causing attacks to infect and corrupt those they touch. The corruption destabilizes their magic and weakens their defenses. (II) Medium maya cost, you can manipulate blood maya up to a short range, using it as a ranged weapon to slash or pierce enemies with tendrils of corrupted energy. (III) High maya cost, control blood maya over long distances, spreading it across the battlefield to corrupt multiple enemies or create devastating ranged attacks.

Demonic Predation

Maya Cost: Variable

Consume the flesh of any creature you kill, bypassing toxicity and magical protections. The act restores vitality and grants a temporary strength boost. Gains are amplified when consuming stronger foes, particularly those killed by your own hand.

Dimensional Shift

Maya Cost: Variable

(I) Low maya cost, teleport to a location within a short range that you can physically see. (II) Medium maya cost, increase the range of teleportation, allowing for more strategic positioning. (III) High maya cost, teleport vast distances to any location you can see, but with an extended cooldown proportional to the distance traveled.

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As Tanisha studied her new status, her gaze was clinically detached. The loss of mana didn’t concern her; maya had replaced it, guiding her in ways mana never could. Everything was sharper now, her thoughts honed to a predatory edge. Her attention lingered on two skills: Flesh of Kin and Demonic Predation. The truth behind her instincts clicked into place. Of course, she saw everyone as meat. They were stepping stones, food, nothing more.

Her fingers traced her face, feeling the grotesque remnants of her transformation. She inhaled deeply, pulling the maya she had been exhaling back into herself. It responded instinctively, mending her form. The monstrous smile of jagged teeth retracted, her mouth reshaping into something normal. She appeared as a grey skinned version of her wendigo self. She glanced at Bjorn, still holding her steady. Through their bond, she pushed an approximation of reassurance, it  was an act she knew felt hollow but necessary. The pretense worked. Bjorn released her and she petted his scaly hide.

Around her, the Isi who had witnessed her transformation stared with awe and fear. They had just seen the evolution of a Greater Wendigo, a being thought lost to history for millennia. It was clear they did not know what they had witness however. Many of them thinking that she merely used the maya to alter her appearance as Joha could. Tanisha’s new form radiated power and something far darker.

“Tanisha? Is that you?” Tyr’s voice broke through the murmurs. He stepped from the crowd, his expression a mix of shock and concern. “What happened to you?”

Her mind went blank for a moment, instincts to kill and eat him warring with reason. She needed enough power to reach Loki, but she wasn’t there yet. Her gaze flicked to Tyr. All she saw was meat. Power waiting to be claimed. If she killed him now… If she consumed him… No. Not yet.

She collapsed to her knees, feigning fear and confusion. “I-I don’t… I don’t know, Tyr,” she stammered.

Tyr rushed to her side, lifting her to her feet.

“Bjorn, secure the area, please,” Tanisha said softly. “And someone get that wagon off him.”

“Good idea,” Tyr agreed. “Svan, take some men and make sure we’re not about to get company.”

Tyr guided her to a fallen log and ensured she was seated before returning to his men. Gentlemanly. Predictable. He and the Isi turned their focus to the dozens of survivors, organizing them and clearing the tunnel. A crowd formed quickly, a chaotic scene of noise and movement. Perfect.

Tanisha scanned the group, her predatory mind calculating. The Isi wouldn’t be able to monitor everyone, and she only needed one to test her skills. Her eyes locked onto a swordsman who had wandered too far from his partner. Rising from the log, she moved subtly, keeping to the periphery before vanishing in a flash of maya-infused teleportation. Her Dimensional Shift worked as instinctually as breathing.

She reappeared two hundred yards from where she started and was directly behind the unsuspecting man. Before he could react, her jaw unhinged, flesh peeling back to reveal rows of gleaming, jagged teeth. She struck, biting down on his neck with monstrous force. Bone cracked. Flesh tore. His spine severed as they fell to the ground. Swiftly, she grabbed the body and teleported deeper into the forest, far from prying eyes. There, she fed.

Each bite was primal and she saw it as merely a transaction of power. When the corpse was stripped clean, she activated Abyssal Blood Armor, the crimson energy washing over her and cleansing her form. She reappeared at the camp moments later, teleporting in measured intervals, her expression calm and controlled.

Her strength, dexterity, and stamina had each risen by one. She suppressed a smile, keeping her thoughts hidden. The notifications confirmed what she already knew: this was the path. The Isi survivors were tempting targets, but behind her lay an entire city of prey waiting to be consumed.

Her thoughts turned to Bjorn. Once, her connection to him had been a lifeline, a source of comfort and necessity. Now, it felt… obsolete. Did she still need him? Would he try to stop her from doing what had to be done? She needed to find him. To decide.

***

Bjorn walked through the forest looking out for any Salstar recon teams. It still baffled him how Lavi, a city teeming with life, concealed such an expansive, untamed wilderness within its bounds. But the curious contradiction wasn’t on his mind. His thoughts were fixated on Tanisha and the hollow, numbing absence he felt through their bond.

It wasn’t just the void that troubled him. The transformation he’d witnessed earlier still clawed at his mind. It was a grotesque display of power and horror when the maya spiraled out of control around her. The image of her shifting, monstrous form was seared into his memory. Was that the price of her delving into maya? Or was it something darker, something worse?

“What’s wrong with her?” he muttered to himself, his three heads swiveling cautiously to scan the surroundings. “I can’t sense her emotions—can’t even taste her mana. It’s like she’s not even... her anymore. And Helina... she didn’t even look sad when we lost her. Is she in shock?”

“Well, I don’t know,” Failsafe replied, his tone tinged with thoughtfulness. “You remember when you got corrupted by maya? Your appearance changed too. But you’re a hydra, Bjorn. We molt; she can’t just shed off changes done to her physical body. Still, she seems lucid, unlike you when the maya nearly corrupted us so maybe she’s suppressing her emotions with maya.” Failsafe’s voice grew quieter. “When Joha comes back, maybe he’ll know what to do.”

Bjorn grunted. “I hope you’re right.”

He paused, every muscle tensing as he sensed Tanisha’s presence nearby. She emerged silently from behind a tree, her movement unnervingly smooth. Instinctively, Bjorn tasted the air, testing to ensure this wasn’t some shadow construct. No, this was Tanisha. The bond was still there, a faint thread connecting them, but it felt... wrong. Her gaze met his, and it chilled him. Gone was the warmth, the familiarity. Her eyes were hollow, soulless. She looked at him not as her familiar but as a stranger or worse, prey.

“Bjorn, my sweet baby,” she whispered, her voice unnaturally soft, almost serpentine. “There’s something I need to tell you.” She paused, letting the words settle. “I’ve become a Greater Wendigo. Somehow, I evolved.”

Bjorn instinctively activated Identify.

Identify

Name: Tanisha Scalebound

Species: Herne Hunter

Level: 22

Vocation: Consumer of Kin

“Consumer of Kin?” Bjorn thought, dread pooling in his chest.

“Yeah, that doesn’t sound good,” Failsafe muttered grimly.

 “Is that fear I just felt in the bond?” Tanisha’s expression shifted, a flicker of hurt crossing her face. “Are you... afraid of me, Bjorn?”

Bjorn shook his heads slowly, but his body betrayed him, his posture stiff with unease.

Her tone turned fervent, almost desperate. “I have a new way to gain power, Bjorn. One that could make us unstoppable. But I need to know you’re with me, like you’ve always been.” Her voice wavered as a manic edge crept into her words. “We can leave the Isi behind—they don’t matter. Survival is all that matters. I need to kill Loki. Not just him. Ingrid, Thyra, Eira, Ragnar, Ulfar... they all need to pay for what they did to us.”

Blood maya began dripping from her lips like saliva, her breath labored as her voice rose. “All I need to do is consume them. All of them!”

She tried to compose herself, but the effort shattered. Her lips stretched grotesquely, splitting into a ghastly smile as the skin peeled back, revealing jagged teeth beneath. She looked lost in the thought of devouring her family, her face a canvas of disturbing hunger.

Through their bond, Bjorn felt a fleeting echo of her emotions. They were not that of the girl he knew. They weren’t even that of a normal being. They were alien and predatory, a mash of thoughts so dark it made him wretch. He stepped back.

“Bjorn she is not right in the head.” Failsafe said with urgency. “We need to break the bond now and run.”

“Wait what? Break the bond? Why?” Bjorn asked.

“Her magic is pure maya now and not regular maya either.” Failsafe explained. “It is trying to influence your core in a way I don’t think you can handle. If we let that into us, say goodbye to your sanity forever.”

“Bjorn, baby,” Tanisha said sweetly. “Let me in. Bjorn.”

It was at that moment Bjorn felt the bond clearly, its infernal touch drilling into him violently.

“Bjorn, please listen to me. We have to go right now. She is doing this on purpose; she is trying to corrupt our core. If she does, I will die. If you let her in, your sanity will be the first thing you lose. Then me. Then everything else. That is if you survive at all. Break the fucking bond and run!”

Bjorn’s voice cracked. “There has to be a way to save her. Something—anything. Maybe we can turn her back into a wendigo.”

“Not if we’re dead!” Failsafe barked. “Break the bond, or she’ll drag us both into her abyss. Do it!”

Bjorn hesitated, his heart breaking as he looked at Tanisha. Her face was alien, her gaze dead. This wasn’t the girl he had come to know. This thing in front of him was a hollow shell.  With a heavy push of mana, he grasped the bond connecting them, the tether that had anchored him to her since the moment she first summoned him. It felt like ripping a part of himself away, but he had no choice. He severed it.

The bond snapped, and the invasive maya she had been pushing into him dissolved. Tanisha tilted her head, her unsettling smile fading into a mask of indifference.

“What a shame,” she said softly.

Without another word, she turned and vanished into the shadows. Bjorn stood frozen, staring at the spot where she’d stood. The emptiness in his core where the bond had been felt unbearable. Bjorn failed her, they lost Helina and Tanisha that day.