The Exorcist Doctor

Chapter 143 - No Bride // No Groom

“... So he just left you on the day of?” Evelyn said, half-drawling, half-shouting as she slammed her bowl on the table. “What a piece of shit!”

Maeve had lost track of how many bottles of alcohol they’d emptied between the four of them.

It started innocently enough—one drink to warm their throats, another to loosen their shoulders, a third because Evelyn dared Cara to drink faster—but somewhere between their second cup and fourth, the balcony table had turned into a battlefield of sloshing noodle bowls, clinking bottle, and wildly gesturing arms.

They were drunk. Properly drunk. Maeve leaned back in her chair, one boot hooked around the balcony rung. Her cheeks felt warm, her head felt pleasantly light, and her thoughts were loose in a way she rarely allowed herself to be. It was even rarer to see Cara with her hair unbraided and loosened, looking so animated with her emotions alongside Evelyn—that emotion being ‘anger’, of course.

And Vivi—Vivi was unrecognizable as well. The timid posture was gone. She only drank her first bottle because she looked like she needed the courage to talk about her past, but now her shoulders were squared, her voice was sharp and heated, and her cheeks were flushed with a fury that’d been corked up for far too long. She gripped her bottle like it’d personally offended her, chugged another round, and then slammed it down on the table.

“And I never found out why,” Vivi growled, slurring just enough to be honest. “I asked around. Saintess above, I asked. I asked my parents, I asked my servants, and I—hiccup—I asked the merchants who supplied his household, and I even swallowed my pride and asked his five elder brothers directly.”

“And, and?” Evelyn asked. “What’d they say?”

“They were evasive!” Vivi snapped. “All of them! Polite and smiling, saying nothing, giving me everything but the truth! ‘The timing was unfortunate’, they said! ‘He had pressing matters to handle’, they said! As if that meant anything when I was the one standing on the dais in silk and gold, waiting to be… to be humiliated!”

“Scum!”

“Criminal,” Cara slurred.

“I think I’ll kill Gael if he’s late to our wedding,” Maeve mumbled.

“And then… and then the rumors started,” Vivi continued, quieter now, but all the sharper for it. “That I wasn’t… alluring enough. That I wasn’t clever enough. That a lady from a branch household of the Thornebeds should be grateful anyone even considered her. They said I couldn’t keep a man’s interest even before he’d seen my face. Can you believe that? Four years he’d strung me along with the invitation, and I’d never even seen his face. Always pushed it off, his servants saying it wasn’t necessary until the day of the ceremony. All that did was make me look like… like he never wanted me in the first place.”

Evelyn let out a loud, furious noise. “Kill him!”

“I concur,” Cara slurred.

“It’s not fair for you,” Maeve mumbled, rubbing her forehead tiredly. Just thinking about the same rumors that’d swirl around her if Gael were to ever leave her on the day of the ceremony pained her—not that she’d ever let that happen. “None of that is fair.”

Vivi took a long drink, wiped her mouth with the back of her hand—so much for etiquette—and laughed softly, brokenly.

“And you know what? My elder sisters told me not to worry,” she whispered. “They told me there were plenty of men who’d still want me. After all, I was still a Thornebed, and there were many men who’d love the opportunity to get into our good graces. I should just smile, forget about that sculpting household, and move on, but…”

She paused.

Her eyes hardened.

For a second, Maeve thought she saw murder in Vivi’s eyes.

“... But my ego couldn’t take it,” Vivi said quietly. “I couldn’t accept being discarded by a man who’d never even looked me in the eye. I wouldn’t

let my reputation be decided by someone who couldn’t even be bothered to reject me properly. So, I looked for him. I ran away from home, tracked him down, and eventually discovered where he’d gone.”Cara blinked. “You did?”

Evelyn leaned so far forward her chair legs screeched. “Where was he?”

Vivi hesitated, frowning slightly. “Strangely, he—”

“I ditched the lady on the day of the ceremony and ran off to join the Symbiote Exorcists,” Jin said, tipping his bottle back and drinking deeply. Gael cheered him on the entire way. “It was—burp—the only way I could investigate. I needed to know more about Myrmurs and Myrmur Hosts, but knowledge of bioarcanic parasites is heavily guarded by the Grand Medicus Rhaenwald Odris, the Plague Maester of the Church of Severin. If I wanted to know more about artificial Myrmur Hosts, I knew I had to join the Exorcists.”

“Damn,” Fergal slurred, tossing his own bottle away as he laid back and rubbed his six arms over his face. “Must’ve sucked for your bride-to-be.”

“I never met her anyways. I bet she’s forgotten all about me and moved on to some wealthier man.”

“Bharnish girls are prettier!” Liorin chirped.

“So true,” Gael chimed in. “Excetpt for my dearest wife. She’s the only exception. Don’t tell on me when she asks, you six-armed fuck.”

Fergal scowled at him. “I wasn’t going to anyways. Who even gives a shit about your ‘marriage’ anymore anyways—”

“I joined the Exorcists a year ago, went through the full Hunter training, and passed the final induction exam two months ago,” Jin said, ignoring all of them. “That was when I was assigned my Host—Vivienne—and I requested Ironwych as my assignment. I figured since my father was operated on down here, it’s down here that I’ll find out who killed him. As for what we’ve been doing the past two months… you already know the rest of the story.”

Gael did know the rest of the story, but Liorin—and everyone else in the clinic, for that matter—had never heard that name before.

“And who’s Vivienne?” Fergal asked.

Vivi’s anger slowly burned itself out the way a candle did when it ran out of wax. By the time Miss Alba brought in their second round of noodles and slapped a pitcher of water down on the balcony table, Vivi had slumped back into her chair with both hands on her head, eyes squeezed shut, cheeks still flushed from drink and fury.

Maeve watched her blink hard, then blink again, trying to reassemble the neat little lady she’d always been around the clinic.

“... So I did it,” she said hoarsely. “My pride and my… ego. They made me run away and join the Exorcists myself.”

Stolen story; please report.

Evelyn made a loud sound of approval. “Aye, that’s what I’m talkin’ about! You went and got yourself a badge just to spite the man!”

“It wasn’t only spite,” she said, flustered enough that her cheeks reddened again. She clutched her cup like it was a shield. “It was… Saintess, it was a plan. I thought… I thought if I could be assigned to him, if I could meet him properly, then… maybe he would recognize me. Maybe he would realize I was meant to be his wife. Maybe he would realize I was the one he left on the dais that day to be laughed and snickered out of the hall.”

Her mouth opened. Then closed. She looked miserable at how foolish it sounded out loud.

“I know it’s stupid, but I’d thought… meeting him in person would change something. That he would see me and….” She forced herself to continue, voice small. “And deep in my heart, I’d wished maybe he’d be smitten with me. I don’t know why he ran away to join the Exorcists to begin with, but I‘d wished he’d drop the whole thing and we could just have the marriage we were supposed to have. I wished we could… have our normal lives back.”

Maeve felt something twist in her chest. Not pity exactly, but a kind of aching recognition. Wanting to be chosen. Wanting to be seen. Wanting the world to stop treating you like a decorative object that could be moved from shelf to shelf.

She knew the feeling well.

“And?” Evelyn demanded, leaning forward so hard her chair squealed. “When you met him, what happened? Did he go pale? Did he go ‘Oh, my Saintess, it’s my bride’?”

Vivi gave a weak, mortified laugh. “No. When we formally met two months ago at the end of our respective training, he didn’t realize. He didn’t recognize me. He didn’t even… flinch.” She stared out at the Fogspire Forest, eyes glossy but stubborn. “So… I never told him. I kept my identity hidden from him. I still do.”

“... Why?” Cara asked, resting her cheek on one hand as she swirled her glass of water with a finger. “Why not just tell him?”

“Because then I’d have to admit I chased him. That I joined the Exorcists because I couldn’t bear being left behind. That I’m only trying to charm him and impress him for real so I’ll be taken seriously again by everyone back up in Vharnveil.” She exhaled shakily. “But the truth is… I’m not suited for this job.”

Maeve saw Vivi’s shoulders curl inward, the old, timid posture returning like a habit of survival.

“I’ve never had to fight,” she confessed. “I’ve never been down in Bharncair before. I’m like a fish out of water here, always uncomfortable and scared and…” Her voice cracked in irritation at herself. “So much for making him fall for me, right?”

And when she looked back at them, her eyes were clear with sober, watery shame.

“It really is prideful and vain, isn’t it?” she asked quietly. “I’m only here because I want to impress a man who rejected me once. I’m only helping him because it’s his mission, not mine. I’m not like the rest of you, who do what you do for the greater good. Do I… really deserve to be here with you all?”

For a heartbeat, the balcony went strangely still. Even Evelyn’s hellhounds stopped snarling beneath them.

Then Cara blinked, and she let out a laugh that was half-choke, half-snort.

“Uh, no,” Cara said plainly. “We still charge people for our medicine, and I regularly swat away troublemakers trying to crash in the clinic.”

“Aye!” Evelyn slammed her palm on the table, delighted. “And I still beat the shit outta anyone who tries to run with my deliveries without payin’ me! I must’ve killed three guys in the past week!”

“And I’d like more furniture to decorate my bedroom with, which I can’t do without loads of money,” Maeve said, looking at Vivi with a soft smile. “I’ve been told there are no saints in Bharncair. You can ask Gael why he’s running a clinic. I bet he’ll give you a hundred and one reasons before the words ‘greater good’ come out of his lips.”

Vivi’s mouth parted in stunned silence.

And, slowly, she began to smile. It was small, but it was real, and it made her look her age.

“Also, that man’s a fool.” Evelyn leaned over and jabbed a finger at Vivi like she’d just decided something important. “A proper fool. You’re pretty. You’re fancy. You’re got big noble eyes when you’re angry. What man wouldn’t want you as a wife?”

Vivi’s face turned crimson. “Evelyn—”

“She’s right. You are a pretty lady.” Cara grinned wider, propping her chin on her fist and squinting at Vivi like she was appraising a weapon. “Jin certainly seems like a fool.”

“Oh, but please don’t tell—”

“We won’t, but that’s it,” Cara announced. “From now on, we’ll form an alliance. We’ll get you to show off your charms so you can bag Jin.”

Vivi made a strangled noise. “Bag…?”

As Cara laughed and Evelyn started teaching Vivi ‘Bharnish seduction techniques’, Maeve laughed softly, letting the noise of the shop and the forest and the girls wash over her. For a moment, she finally felt like she understood a little bit about the one half of the Exorcist pair they’d picked up in Ironwych.

And maybe that was enough to start.

The fire crackled softly as Jin’s words settled, the oven breathing out its last waves of heat while grease popped on stone.

For a long moment, none of them spoke.

But Fergal was the one who eventually broke it, rolling over sideways and snapping his fingers at Gael.

“Oi. Pass me the salt. That fancy one you nicked from a funeral kitchen.”

Gael snorted and dug into his coat. “Saintess forbid a man improves his wolf meat.” He tossed the salt pouch over. “Don’t use it all. That thing’s worth more than one of your arms.”

Liorin leaned forward immediately, hopeful. “Can I have some too? Just little.”

Fergal slid the pouch halfway back. “Don’t drown it.”

As the three of them resumed eating their strips of wolf meat, slow and unhurried, Jin stared into the oven’s glow. His jaw was tight. He swallowed, and then he spoke without looking at any of them.

“... Do you think I’m foolish?”

Gael chewed. Fergal chewed. Liorin also chewed.

“I left everything behind,” Jin continued. “My household. My inheritance. My future in Vharnveil. I cut myself off from my elders brothers and my name to chase Myrmurs. To chase a dead man. I abandoned a life you people would kill for. That makes me a fool, doesn’t it?”

Gael wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

“I once robbed a rotten lung from a cemetery because the corpse smiled at me funny,” he said. “It cost me three weeks of vomiting blood and a lifetime ban from the cemetery, so no. You don’t even make my top ten.”

“And I wouldn’t kill for a life in Vharnveil,” Fergal chimed in, sprinkling more salt onto his strip of meat. “I’d kill for many things, but not that. Not anymore.”

“I like Bharncair!” Liorin tilted his mask and grinned at Jin. “Don’t wanna live in the sky!”

Jin looked at the boy sternly. “But there’s clean air up there.”

“We have clean air in clinic!”

“There’s all the food you’d like to eat up there.”

“I like Miss Alba’s noodles!”

“... Then you’re a fool as well,” Jin muttered.

Gael shrugged. “Anyways, does Vivi know about all this? About your… mission?”

“I never told her.”

“Well, she’d have to be blind, deaf, and drunker than me to not know after following you for two months. Come on now.” Gael leaned closer then, elbowing Jin in the ribs. “Be honest with me. You like her? Do Hunter and Host always end up tangled, or is that just clinic gossip my dearest wife feeds me from time to time?”

Jin frowned immediately. “Not usually. Romance is discouraged amongst the Exorcists, actually.”

“Uh-huh.”

“Vivienne is my partner,” Jin continued flatly. “Nothing more.”

“So no love in the air?” Gael grinned. “No tragic romance blooming in the plague fog? I’m just saying, man, it seems to me like she’s trying to hit on you all the time by cowering behind you. You don’t like that at all?”

“I prefer stronger women.”

“Oh, you say that now, but you’ll regret it the second one actually decides you’re worth the effort.” Gael laughed so hard he nearly choked. “Maeve tosses me around like a sack of grain. Built like a bear wearing a dress, my dearest wife. Hey, speaking of bears—anyone fancy some bear meat?”

Liorin’s hand shot up immediately. “Me!”

“Well, aren’t you gonna visit your family back in the village first? You can always come back once we’ve found a bear or two to slaughter.”

Liorin looked at him blankly. “I already with family, though?”

Words couldn’t describe how proud Gael felt. And as Fergal did the rewarding for him—rubbing Liorin’s hair as they all stood up and got ready to go hunting again—he couldn’t help but notice Jin watching the three of them steadily, eyes distant, like he was seeing something else layered over the moment.

Gael said nothing about it.

… But we’ve spent enough time lounging around Blightmarch, haven’t we?

A few more weeks of mass-producing symbiote elixir for the southern and eastern ward, and then…

It’s Bleakhearth time.