I watched this rat, abnormally large, waiting for it to continue. Alas, it seemed to have lost all intelligence, merely wagging its tail like a stupid dog waiting for a bone from its master. Well then, what could a rat possibly be thinking about? I couldn't decipher its facial expressions—if it even had any.
It stopped wagging its tail, lifted its snout to sniff the air, and that's when Victor's voice rang out.
"Hey, do you have any cheese?"
Squeak-squeak. That was the only sound echoing in the room as I sat there, facing a rat enjoying an old piece of cheese. I waited for it to finish its meal, hoping its attention would finally return to me.
"So, can you explain why I have to talk to a rat? Couldn't you take the form of a more graceful animal? A cat would do."
Victor's tail twitched slightly, as if in disgust. His snout lifted for a brief moment before he let out a small grunt.
"For the umpteenth time, I am not a rat. In fact, I'm not even here. The only reason we can talk is that I have a deal with this rat. I provide it with the food it wants, and in return, it does some errands for me. Like what it's doing right now."
That at least explained why it was so huge. Poor rat… it must have gone through hell to earn its meals.
"Hmm, where was I?"
Victor's tail twitched again, this time as if he were trying to focus before continuing.
"Ah, yes. Among the trenty thousand inhabitants of Astoria, only ten thousand remain today. Of those, about 7,500 have awakened and become Initiates. The rest are too young to undergo the Awakening."
"You're already aware of the parasite's existence and how it manipulates the Enforcers."
I stared at him intently, a shiver running down my spine.
"Yeah, but how do you know that?"
Victor made an imperceptible motion with his tail, a slight quiver that could have been a shrug if he were human. He simply shook his snout.
"Oh, I have a deal with a vulture that often prowls around cemeteries."
I blinked, trying to process that information, but Victor continued without waiting.
"Know that that's not all. Among those who survived the Awakening, many had a parasite implanted. The only ones who escaped this were me, Lucy, and Brenda—our bodies were hidden. And you, because they thought you were dead. You were spared."
My heart tightened.
"What do you mean by that? What happened to Iris?"
Victor straightened slightly, his snout stretching as if he were trying to catch the scent of my emotions. A faint tremor ran through his tail.
"Calm down. She's fine. Her resonance grants her some immunity against the parasite's manipulation. She's the one who buried your body, in fact."
I suddenly felt drained of all energy. My chair crumbled under the weight of my thoughts before I even realized it.
She buried me… The thought pierced through me like a dagger.
I took a deep breath to pull myself together. Victor didn't stop.
"We've tried finding weaknesses in the parasite's control over people, but with no success. Although this parasite can't directly alter a person's thoughts, it manipulates their five senses with such perfection that they never even realize they're being controlled. When we talk to someone who's infected, they behave normally at first, as if nothing is wrong. They still have their own reasons, their own behaviors. But the moment we try to tell them they're being controlled, their reactions immediately become abnormal."
I looked at him, puzzled.
"What do you mean by that?"
Victor let out a small hiss, shaking his head before baring his teeth in a chilling grin.
"The first thing we noticed is that any words the parasite deems harmful are censored. They never reach the person's mind. Instead, it replaces them with an image of us—as if we were Calamities."
My thoughts blurred. My heart pounded harder.
"And… then what?"
"At first, people were waking up one by one, behaving as they normally would. But over time, their behavior changed.
And this morning, each and every one of them started marching toward the city walls without a single word being spoken… as if a voice was whispering directly into their minds."